Lions’ St.Brown hoping for an NFL Olympic ‘dream team’

MIAMI: Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St.Brown is hoping Sunday’s Pro Bowl Flag Football game could be the start of a journey to the Olympic Games as the NFL looks for its own ‘Dream Team’ moment.

The Pro Bowl game has switched its traditional AFC v NFC showdown into a contest of Flag Football, the short-form, nocontact, helmet-less version of American football.

That move is seen as a major boost to the bid to get flag football included in the Olympic Games for Los Angeles 2028.

American football has never featured in the Olympic Games as a medal event although was included on a ‘demonstration’ basis in 1904 and 1932, when the Olympics were held in St. Louis and Los Angeles respectively.

The International Federation of American Football (IFAF), the sport’s global governing body, backed by the NFL, has succeeded in getting Flag Football on the shortlist of nine sports which will present their case for inclusion to LA 2028 organisers later this year.

St.Brown, who is among the players in Las Vegas this week for the Pro Bowl events, says the prospect of competing for a gold medal, for the United States or his mother’s homeland Germany, would be a thrill.

“It would be amazing, as a kid growing up watching the Olympics, I watched the track and field and obviously basketball as they were the only sports I could really relate to. To be part of an Olympics, whether for the US or Germany, to play the sport that I love the most and the sport that I make a living from and grew up on would be a dream come true,” he said.

While the National Hockey League (NHL) has had issues over releasing players to feature in the Winter Olympics, the NFL is backing their players’ involvement.

“The league would be supportive of NFL players participating in an LA 2028 games,” said Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president, Club Business, Major Events and International.

“The timing works in July, prior to the start of training camp so that opportunity could exist, it would be fun to see the St.Brown brothers either on a U.S. squad or Germany squad,” he added.