Why NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes could be competing against Australia for Olympic gold
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A $45-million-a-year Super Bowl-winning quarterback, or the Miami Dolphin who challenged Usain Bolt to 100-metre sprints?
The NFL says it will do all it can to ensure its best and brightest athletes can compete for Olympic gold at the Los Angeles 2028 games in the newly-minted flag football event.
“You’re talking about a Dream Team now aren’t you, you’re probably lining up against [Kansas City Chiefs] Patrick Mahomes at quarterback,” Gridiron Australia CEO Wade Kelly says.
“Or if you’re playing cornerback for Australia, you’re marking up against Tyreek Hill, they don’t call him ‘The Cheetah’ for nothing.”
Hill can cover 100 metres in 9.98 seconds, earns $30 million a season as a Dolphins wide receiver and has gone back and forth with Bolt for years about settling claims he could dust the retired world record-holder.
He’s also a lifelong proponent of flag football – similar to American football but without tackling – and is putting himself forward to represent the US in five years time, a prospect NFL bosses are embracing when the sport joins T20 cricket, lacrosse, squash, baseball and softball as new Olympic events.
Patrick Mahomes throws a pass during last season’s Super Bowl.Credit: Getty Images
“The Olympic Games – it’s the pinnacle of global sport… and the player interest is real and palpable,” NFL executive vice president Peter O’Reilly said after an NFL owners meeting in New York on Tuesday.
“That opportunity for athletes to represent their countries, we understand the desire, what they have spoken out about and what we will continue to do is work with the players, [NFL] Players Association and the clubs in the time ahead to determine the process and then work with USA Football and IFAF [International Federation of American Football] on that.”
The NFL has long seen flag football as a vehicle to further its expansion goals, with Australia front and centre given local enthusiasm for the game and a growing talent pool.
NFL data claims the sport already has an estimated 20 million participants in more than 100 countries, and Kelly concedes Australia is a late arrival to flag football.
‘We’ll be the ones that challenge the USA at those Olympics.’
Australia’s senior men’s side travels to Malaysia next week for its first international tournament, the Intercontinental Cup, where it will compete against the likes of New Zealand, Japan and other Pacific nations.
Like the US and its NFL megastars, a crack at an Olympic gold will be used to target some of Australia’s most dynamic athletes.
Kelly highlighted Broncos livewire Reece Walsh, AFLW gun and professional boxer Tayla Harris, and Wallabies flyer Marika Koroibete as potential Olympic converts.
“And we’ll be the ones that challenge the USA at those Olympics,” Kelly says.
“We fully expect the gold medal matches to be the USA versus Australia in both the men’s and the women’s [events]. Our athletes are just perfect for it.
“The sport is basically a cross between AFL, netball and OzTag. So you give these athletes the field, it’s turn around, jump high and catch the ball, or stop someone from doing that. That’s the skill set and that’s what our AFL guys, our netballers and our basketballers do.
“Add in the fact you’re trying to take someone’s tags off in defence, that’s suited to our rugby league and union boys and girls and so many of them come from playing touch and OzTag that it’s a natural fit.
“We’ve got the opportunity to come up with our own dream team and we’ll be flying up the world rankings as soon as we do that, so we fully expect to be playing for those gold medals.”
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