Steelers Now
ORLANDO, Fla. — Members of the Pittsburgh Steelers defense will hit the field on Sunday at the 2025 NFL Pro Bowl, and while linebacker Patrick Queen and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick will be aligned in their usual positions, their jobs will be quite different.
For the third straight season, the Pro Bowl has become the Pro Bowl Games, with a series of skills contests surrounding a 7-on-7 flag football game.
The skills are random collection of football and non-football events, from a passing accuracy contest to dodgeball to trivia, all of which happened on Thursday night. More skill events will take place on Sunday: a ski ball-like punting competition, a race and a tug of war.
But the centerpiece of the event is the flag football, and while the rest of the events are mostly fluff, flag football is something that is starting to be taken a little bit more seriously.
Since 2002, the International Federation of American Football has been putting on world championships in the sport, for both men and women. Originally something that was more of an international event, the United States has won five straight gold medals on the men’s side and three straight on the women’s side.
In 2024, the United States defeated Austria, 53-21, for the men’s gold medal, and they did it without the benefit of NFL or even high-level college players. The quarterback for Team USA was Darrell “Housh” Doucette, a 5-foot-7, 35-year-old that never even played college football.
In 2028, the stakes will be raised, as flag football will be included in the Olympic program for the first time. The idea of representing their country, for the vast majority of them for the first time, has resonated with a lot of NFL players. Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow have both previously expressed their desire to play for Team USA at the Olympics.
The Steelers players in Orlando see the same future opportunity as a possibility.
“I mean, yeah, I would love to,” Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said before AFC practice on Saturday.
The NFL has not yet decided if it will allow players under contract to participate, but Fitzpatrick said he thinks they will.
“It’d be good for the brand,” he said. “I would love to do it if I could.”
The reason flag football is going to the Olympics instead of a contact version of the sport, be it 7-on-7 or 11-on-11, is the hope that it won’t simply be gift-wrapping a gold medal for the Americans. The best of the best U.S. players grow up playing tackle from a young age, and it won’t be the same for them playing flag.
“It’s a transition going to pulling a flag,” safety and special teamer Miles Killebrew said. “Because obviously, that is not a mechanic of the game. You know, holding is not usually something you’re trying to do or mimic.”
The reason the NFL has jumped into the idea full force is not just the fact that some of its star...
