{"id":840532,"date":"2026-03-29T07:37:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T07:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/840532\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T07:37:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T07:37:40","slug":"derwin-james-jr-says-active-nfl-players-should-skip-olympics-over-injury-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/840532\/","title":{"rendered":"Derwin James Jr. Says Active NFL Players Should Skip Olympics Over Injury Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                          Chargers&#8217; Derwin James<br \/>\n                          Retired NFL Players Should Do Olympics<br \/>\n                          We Don&#8217;t Wanna Get Hurt!<\/p>\n<p>\n                                                                        Published<br \/>\n                              March 29, 2026<br \/>\n                            12:30 AM PDT\n                                                                            <\/p>\n<p>            Play video content<\/p>\n<p>                    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/7daa5a85301d4b1095e3ba20e6c6cb9d_md.png\" alt=\"032526 derwin james jr kal\" width=\"728\" height=\"410\" class=\"img-fluid\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    TMZSports.com<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/people\/derwin-james\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Derwin James Jr.<\/a> says it&#8217;s cool that NFL players have the opportunity to compete in the 2028 Olympics, but he&#8217;s suggesting they skip the Summer Games, telling TMZ Sports the injury risk in the sport is too high.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s what the Los Angeles Chargers star told us at LAX this week, after the Fanatics Flag Football Classic went down, where his fellow NFL players competed with the U.S. men&#8217;s national flag football team and celebrities.<\/p>\n<p>James Jr. &#8212; who didn&#8217;t participate in the FFC due to injury &#8212; gave kudos to the flag football players, saying their skill set gives them an edge in Olympic competition &#8230; and the active NFL players should consider sitting out the upcoming Games.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260326_89d6813c44514fc29d23892d329dfaa2\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:687461c0-e601-4d26-ba31-ae4752b4992c\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/89d6813c44514fc29d23892d329dfaa2_md.jpg\" alt=\"tom brady flag football getty 2\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I say the next Olympics,&#8221; James Jr. said, &#8220;give them boys this one &#8217;cause I feel they&#8217;re more prepared, they&#8217;re more skilled. I mean, you seen the formations they was running out there, it was crazy!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Give the NFL players, you know, that&#8217;s kinda retired, already done playing, kind of on the backend, because I feel like a lot of those movements is a lot of risk on your joints, too.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_png_20260326_81608fb1b1b34fcbbda1648ac4955437\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:687461c0-e601-4d26-ba31-ae4752b4992c\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/81608fb1b1b34fcbbda1648ac4955437_md.png\" alt=\"derwin james sub getty 1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I mean, do you want your receiver one out there or your number one corner?!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>James Jr. &#8212; who recorded three interceptions and one fumble last season &#8212; also said that practice squad players should miss the Olympics as well, noting their goal is to earn a spot on the active roster.<\/p>\n<p>            Play video content<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/03ef99614d2e4c45bfe3a45c9552c369_md.jpg\" alt=\"joe-burrow-tom-brady-jalen-hurts-kal-03-20-2026\" width=\"728\" height=\"410\" class=\"img-fluid\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    TMZSports.com<\/p>\n<p>We know <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/people\/joe-burrow\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Burrow<\/a> might not take James Jr.&#8217;s advice &#8230; he told us at the FFC&#8217;s press conference that this has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2026\/03\/20\/joe-burrow-gold-medal-flag-football-gold-medal-olympics-larry-fitzgerald\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his dream since he was a kid<\/a>, and having a shot at winning a gold medal is &#8220;something very special.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Welp, we&#8217;ll see what happens in two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chargers&#8217; Derwin James Retired NFL Players Should Do Olympics We Don&#8217;t Wanna Get Hurt! Published March 29, 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,7,1014,262,2444,2443,88,6,9,266,4429],"class_list":{"0":"post-840532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-chargers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-los-angeles","11":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-losangeleschargers","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-sports-news","18":"tag-tmz-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116311323958687581","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840532","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=840532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}