Robert Griffin Iii Invited To Usa Flag Football Training Camps After Performing At National Team Trials

Robert Griffin III hasn’t played in the NFL since the 2020 season. But the former Heisman Trophy winner and one-time Pro Bowler is making a return to the field — a much smaller one that will be on a big stage in close to two years.

That’s when flag football will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles during the 2028 Games. RGIII’s looking for the inside track on the way to L.A. by making this year’s U.S. national team.

He’s taken the first step toward achieving that goal. Team USA announced Thursday that Griffin, 36, is one of 24 athletes vying for a spot on a 12-player roster that will represent the country at the 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Germany.

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He’s one of 12 athletes to earn an invitation to the Team USA training camps after performing at the national team trials last week. That group will compete alongside the 12 players from the 2025 national team.

There are a total of three training camps. Both will be held at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in California: the first from April 16-19 and the second from May 21-24. After the second camp, a selection committee made up of coaches, scouts and Team USA personnel will choose 18 athletes who will move on to a third training camp in June.

Following that final camp, Team USA will name its final 12-player roster, plus its 2026 alternates. The women’s national team will follow the same process.

This past weekend, the sport was thrust into the spotlight at L.A.’s BMO Stadium, where the first-ever Fanatics Flag Football Classic tournament took place.

Former and current NFL stars, along with a few influencers, went head-to-head with Team USA, and the results were eye-opening. The NFL-laden teams, one coached by Kyle Shanahan and the other by Sean Payton, failed to beat Team USA, which has won six world championships, including five in a row.

It wasn’t particularly close, either. Team USA beat Tom Brady’s team 43-16 and and Joe Burrow’s team twice by a combined score of 63-28.

“Flag football and NFL football are different disciplines,” RGIII posted on X that night. “If an NFL player wants to represent the USA at the Olympics in 2028, they need to entrench themselves in the flag football world over the next two years.”

That’s what Griffin’s trying to do, anyway.

Griffin famously won the Heisman at Baylor in 2011, was drafted No. 2 overall by Washington in 2012 and earned Offensive Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl honors as a first-year starter in the league. Injuries, most notably those to his knee, derailed the dual threat’s NFL career. He’s since worked in the broadcast industry, calling games for both ESPN and Fox Sports.