Brown\u2019s dazzling array of moves finally ended at the 7-yard line, where his right knee touched the ground. But the viral highlight on Saturday \u2014 on top of Team USA\u2019s dominance of current and former NFL stars throughout the day \u2014 encapsulated the message that the flag players hoped to send.<\/p>\n
Team USA went 3-0 to win Saturday\u2019s round-robin tournament in Los Angeles, scoring on every possession except a kneel-down at the end of one victory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think truly that guys understand that flag football is its own sport,” Darrell “Housh” Doucette, a Team USA flag national team member since 2021 and MVP of Saturday\u2019s tournament, told me. “We are in our own lane.”<\/p>\n
The flag players were noticeably smaller and quicker than their NFL counterparts. Their shiftiness often made their opponents look silly. But the biggest takeaway was the flag players\u2019 mastery of their sport, prompting discussion about what it would take for NFL players to challenge for spots on the U.S. flag team that will compete in the 2028 Olympics, when flag football will make its Olympic debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[4 Takeaways From Fanatics Flag Football Classic<\/a>]<\/p>\n As a discipline of football, the flag game\u2019s similarities to tackle football are clear. The ball looks the same. The ability to throw, catch and cover translates. Speed, athleticism and versatility matter, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n But flag football is a faster game than tackle football. It\u2019s played on a much smaller field (50 yards long between the end zones, 25 yards wide). Receivers have to run routes differently in a smaller space. For quarterbacks, the clock in their head is sped up because the rush gets to them a lot faster than what they\u2019re accustomed to.\u00a0<\/p>\n Team USA’s Darrell “Housh” Doucette fakes a pass in front of Kyle Juszczyk of Wildcats FFC during the Fanatics Flag Football Classic last weekend. (Photo by Harry How\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n The non-contact component of flag is “obviously a glaring one” for NFL players, according to former NFL assistant coach Callie Brownson, USA Football\u2019s senior director of high performance and national team operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I think when we say non-contact, everybody just automatically goes to tackling, which obviously is very true. You can\u2019t tackle in a 5-on-5 game. But what also falls under that category of non-contact that people don\u2019t give enough credit to is, for example, you can\u2019t hold somebody up while you\u2019re trying to pull their flag,” Brownson told me. “You can\u2019t initiate any sort of contact with a player at the top of the route. You can\u2019t run through a player in order to make a play on the ball. You can\u2019t shield or block or post anybody up. Non-contact is actually a little more complex than just the tackling component.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Then the other piece is flag-pulling,” she added. “It\u2019s a super, super unique skill that I don\u2019t think enough people appreciate until they go through that process. You\u2019re not just pulling a stationary flag. As you saw on Saturday, these are unique, dynamic movements that these ball carriers are making. The plane and the level of the flag is changing. The axis of the flag is changing on a dime. Flag-pulling is a super unique skill that\u2019s particular to our sport. It [requires] a certain type of hand-eye coordination that has to be trained over time.”<\/p>\n Brown, the cousin of Detroit Lions<\/a> star safety Kerby Joseph<\/a>, played high school and semi-pro football before getting involved with flag football. He says there was an acclimation process to learning the nuances of flag.\u00a0<\/p>\n “A lot of people are used to the blocks,” Brown told me. “A lot of people are used to the heavy hits and things like that, but flag consists of more finesse, more IQ to where it\u2019s a smaller field.\u00a0<\/p>\n “You don\u2019t necessarily get to read a hole like a running back. It\u2019s a totally different game,” he added. “Maybe a guy is trying to pull your flag and you may stiff-arm just because that’s the natural instinct of what you\u2019re used to. That was kind of the adjustment for me, learning how to keep my hands up and not to necessarily want to jam somebody or slap the ball out of their hands, things like that.”<\/p>\n Team USA’s Velton Brown Jr. gets skinny during the Fanatics Flag Football Classic at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jevone Moore\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) <\/p>\n Team USA member Isaiah Calhoun, who had a pick-six off Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> quarterback Joe Burrow<\/a>, places a higher emphasis on smarts than athleticism in flag football.\u00a0<\/p>\n “If you just athletic and not smart, you\u2019re not going to know what to do. But if you\u2019re smart\u00a0and add your athleticism to the game, then you\u2019re going to be one of the best players in the world or one of the most known players in the world,” Calhoun told me. “You have to learn from various people that have been playing for a long time before you get on the field. If you just get on the field and not know what to do, you\u2019re going to be embarrassed out there.”<\/p>\n While it\u2019s clear that there will be a learning curve for them to master flag football, NFL players remain on track to participate in the sport at the 2028 Olympics. Last May, NFL owners approved a resolution permitting it, though specifics of their participation must still be finalized with the NFL Players Association and relevant Olympic authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Doucette, Brown and Calhoun don\u2019t see a problem with NFL players challenging for roster spots on the flag team. They view their involvement as part of their sport\u2019s growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n “When [NFL players] step on the flag football field and they\u2019re competing with us, they\u2019re not NFL guys in my eyes,” Doucette told me. “We all feel that we are one, we are equal and we are all flag football players at that time. And if they study the game and they\u2019re willing to take the time out of their busy schedule and to come out and learn it, hey, man, hats off to them. Come out and be great, because now you\u2019re a part of our community and we accept you with open arms, the same way they accepted us as peers over the past weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We are the USA national team, but the USA national team also gives open invites to guys to come out and make the team better,” Doucette added. “And if you say, OK, 10 [NFL] guys would be better suited for the game, and they go out there and win gold, you can\u2019t blame them for putting out the 10 best guys. And I think that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.”<\/p>\n Brownson said that “time on task” is the biggest thing that NFL players need with flag football. Athletes in basketball, soccer and track & field have also found success in the sport due to transferable skills, she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “What you see sometimes in the tackle [football] world, a player has a predominant position in college and they get drafted and have to do something else at the NFL level. It\u2019s no different than that in the sense that it takes reps and it takes time [to master flag football],” Brownson told me. “It\u2019s specific to each player on how quickly they pick things up or how much practice they need.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s no really true, \u2018Hey, here\u2019s how much time it takes for you to be a great flag-puller.\u2019 It\u2019s unique to the player. But I\u2019d say, holistically speaking, it\u2019s time on task just like anything else to be able to build instincts that are applicable to flag.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Team USA came out of the Fanatics event feeling like the NFL and celebrity players acknowledged the time they have put into their sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It was just like, \u2018We understand why y\u2019all do this,\u2019” Doucette said of the conversations that transpired. “\u2018People look at y\u2019all size, but they don\u2019t understand how twitchy you guys are, how fast and how quick y\u2019all can break down, whether it\u2019s stopping on the dime or dropping low to dip through defenders.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n “Those guys really had the utmost respect for us,” he added. “A big salute to those guys for accepting us.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A minute before halftime of the inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic last weekend, Team USA\u2019s Velton Brown Jr.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,113,7,1577,3220,122,6],"class_list":["post-835323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-bengals","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-detroit-lions","tag-football","tag-joe-burrow","tag-kerby-joseph","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116296912204807184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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