Robert Griffin III is pursuing his Olympic dream in flag football, 20 years after his first attempt as a 400m hurdler. He previously reached the semifinals of the 2008 Olympic Trials but did not qualify for the Olympics.
Robert Griffin III's venture into flag football isn't his first attempt to make an Olympic team.
Back in 2008, the summer before his first football season at Baylor, Griffin was an elite 400m hurdler.
He was the joint-29th-fastest man in the world that year in one of the most arduous track and field events for its combination of a long sprint and having to clear a set of 10 barriers each three feet high.
Griffin reached the semifinals of the 2008 Olympic Trials. In the video atop this post, he's the runner in lane two in the white Baylor uniform. He placed fifth in his semi, where the top four advanced to the eight-man final that determined the three Olympians.
That was essentially the end of Griffin's track career. He went to Waco, became a Heisman Trophy winner and played in the NFL through 2020.
Then in March, Griffin announced he was suiting up again to pursue the U.S. flag football team for the LA28 Games, where the sport makes its Olympic debut.
Griffin, now 36, is making good on a declaration from a video published in 2013.
"I would definitely want to still fulfill my dream of going to the Olympics," he said then. "So, some way, somehow.
"Maybe it’s track. Maybe it’s badminton. Maybe it's ping-pong," he said, starting to laugh. "I’ll find a way to get to the Olympics."
Griffin said the sole reason he took up flag football is because of his middle two of four daughters. He helped coach Gloria, now 8, and Gameya, 6, in youth flag football in the Houston area.
"They told daddy they want to see daddy play flag football," Griffin told Yahoo! Sports. "So I said, 'All right, let's make it happen.'"
Robert Griffin III previously attempted to qualify for the Olympics in 2008 as a 400m hurdler.
He reached the semifinals of the 2008 Olympic Trials but placed fifth, missing the chance to advance to the finals.
Griffin is pursuing flag football as a new opportunity to achieve his Olympic dream, building on his athletic background.
Before his NFL career, Griffin was an elite 400m hurdler and was ranked as the joint-29th fastest man in the world in 2008.
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On March 21, Griffin told the world about his new Olympic dream on social media. That post came during a four-day national team trials event that Griffin attended in Chula Vista, California.
Then on March 26, USA Football announced that Griffin was one of 12 advanced from the trials to 24-man training camps from April 16-19 and May 21-24.
"I'm overall very impressed," Callie Brownson, the USA Football Senior Director for High Performance and National Teams Operations, said Friday. "Obviously, he's an elite athlete and accomplished a lot in the tackle sphere, both between college and NFL. His arm talent is what you'd expect from a quarterback who played at the caliber that he did. He's an amazing athlete. It was really fun from the trials process (in March), even into training camp (in April) to watch him immerse himself into the sport. Also, the off-the-field stuff, great leader, great character, really immersed himself with that group."
Robert Griffin III
After the upcoming May camp, a committee will cut the player pool to 18 athletes for a June camp. Then a 12-player roster will be chosen for this August's World Championship in Germany.
The selection process for the 2028 Olympic roster, which will be 10 players, has not been announced yet. The NFL is conditionally allowing its active players to participate, should national governing bodies such as USA Football want to consider them.
Griffin lauded national team quarterback Darrell "Housh" Doucette III as the world's best flag player. They spoke before Griffin expressed interest to USA Football.
They could play on the field at the same time in flag, a five-on-five game with no blocking or tackling.
"Everybody on the field (in flag football) is a wide receiver," Griffin told TMZ. "There's two, sometimes even three quarterbacks on the field at one time. ... It's more of using your athleticism to play quarterback, catch the ball, heck might even have to play defense at times. ... It's just a matter of being coachable and being able to play multiple spots."
At the last world championship tournament in 2024, five different Americans attempted at least one pass in the semifinals and three did so in the final.
"We emphasize position versatility across our sport, just in general," Brownson said. "Robert's done a great job understanding and learning as much as he can about the nuance of five-on-five flag and the international discipline of flag football."
Griffin stressed respect for the national team, repeating in interviews that the U.S. has won five consecutive world titles.
"They have been welcoming, and I think that's the biggest thing," he said. "If I had walked into the trials portion of this and just puffed my chest out — hey, I'm a former No. 2 pick in the draft, I'm a Heisman Trophy winner, they're just going to give this to me — I think it would have been a different reception. But when you go in and you dedicate yourself to the process, and you show these guys that, hey, not (only) do I not think that I'm better than you, I'm actually here to learn from you and allow my talent to do the talking for me. That was the approach I took."
A total of 44 Olympians have played in the NFL, mostly in track and field, according to Olympedia.org. The only athlete from that group to compete in the Olympics after their NFL career is Jahvid Best, the former Detroit Lions running back who ran the 100m for Saint Lucia at the 2016 Rio Games.
Now Griffin takes his shot, 20 years after it looked like his Olympic dream ended.
"I'll lean on the 12 (national team veterans from 2025) and the 24 that are going to this training camp to continue to show me and teach me the game of flag football and allow myself and my talents to go out and prove that I should be one of the 12," he said. "I think how you approach things in life determines how people receive you, and I've got countless feedback from the coaches and the players saying that they appreciate the way that I attack this."
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Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss the future of flag football in the United States and question how Team USA will select the Olympic roster ahead of 2028.