Tom Brady, considered the best player in the history of the NFL, announced Tuesday that American soccer will be transformed into ‘flag football’ (tochito bandera), a sport that has just been accepted as part of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2028.
“There are people who want there to be less and less physical contact in soccer, that is something closer to ‘flag football’ that will be in the Olympic Games in 2028. I think soccer maybe will become flag football in the future,” said the winner of seven Super Bowl rings.
Brady, who retired in February after a 23-year career, referred to the constant changes in NFL rules that increasingly limit hits on quarterbacks and punishments for tackles that a couple of decades ago were not grounds for penalties, something he disagrees with.
“Football is a physical sport, there is always a physical element in all of this from the very beginning; today you get a penalty that costs you 15 yards for a play that 20 years ago would not have deserved to be penalized. That greatly affects the game,” said the future Hall of Famer.
Flag football is a reduced format of American soccer with five players per team in which, to stop the opponent, one of the flags or ribbons that each player carries on the sides of the hip must be removed without using physical contact.Since 2022, this sport has been the NFL bet to expand its fan base around the world.
He even created an alliance with the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) called Vision28 to make the sport part of the Olympic program, something the International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepted last Monday.
Tom Brady noted that this path of increasingly less physical soccer is something that is not pleasing to NFL fans.
“It’s not, it’s a shame because it allows you to see the reason why regular fans of the sport are angry,” concluded the 15-time Pro Bowl selection.