Winning a Super Bowl isn’t the only major football goal that Bills quarterback Josh Allen hopes to achieve in the coming years. The 2028 Summer Olympics will take place in Los Angeles and will feature something new for many football fans.
The Olympics will host flag football, allowing all NFL players to compete. Allen could be one of them. He told NBC’s Chris Lillis that winning an Olympic gold medal has always been his dream.
“Being a U.S. Olympic gold medalist is a dream that I’ve always had,” Allen said on Tuesday, via 4 New York’s Seth Rubinroit. “And I’ve never had the chance to accomplish it.”
Allen Could Have a Chance to Make His Dream Come True
The only way Allen would have had a chance to win an Olympic gold medal would have been if he had picked up another sport other than football. He tried doing it when he was a kid.
Allen said he used to snowboard but was injured in middle school. He had to put the snowboard down if he wanted to continue playing football.
“I went snowboarding in seventh grade and I was going down a box-jump type situation and I slipped and fell and landed on my left wrist and I broke my left wrist,” Allen added. “And then I looked at my dad and he said, ‘Son, if you want to continue to play football and baseball and basketball, you can’t do this anymore.’ So I kind of cut it out cold turkey after that. But I do miss it. I really do miss it.”
A lot of kids growing up envision themselves winning an Olympic medal. Allen grew up in an era when he could watch Michael Phelps win 28 Olympic medals from 2000 to 2016. Phelps had a big impact on many people who wanted to become Olympic athletes. Allen could have watched him and wanted to follow the same path, or he might have been inspired by someone else who was winning Olympic medals while he was growing up.
The USA Might Not Pick Allen
The only issue for Allen is whether the USA Olympic flag football team wants him. It’s a crazy question to ask whether a football team would want one of the best quarterbacks playing for it, but flag football is very different from tackle football.
“I don’t know if they’d want me,” Allen said. “I don’t know the ins-and-outs really of flag football. I watched that deal, maybe a couple months ago, and it was a much different game than I thought it would be. But I do think that if there is a potential space, I would love to do it.”
Even if the USA flag football team is considering adding NFL quarterbacks, Allen might not be selected. The NFL has many talented quarterbacks, such as Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Drake Maye, who could also be in the running to play for the team.
There are still two full NFL seasons before the 2028 Summer Olympics, and a lot could change in Allen’s career before that date.
Bills’ Josh Allen Names Unexpected Career Goal Other Than Winning Super Bowl