In a few years, the Broncos will be allowed to ship one roster member out west for flag football tryouts for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Safe to say cornerback Pat Surtain II, who’s locked up with Denver through 2029 on his current deal, might want that mantle.
“It’s definitely high interest,” Surtain said Monday night in Parker, speaking before an event hosted by his Patrick Surtain II Foundation.
“You know, ’cause Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So, I don’t know. We’ll see how my body feel at 28.”
In late May, owners voted unanimously to allow NFL players to participate in the Summer Games in Los Angeles, which will introduce flag football as an Olympic sport for the first time in history. In the two weeks since, players from Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson to Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson have chimed in with interest in representing the United States. It’ll set up a potentially fascinating scenario, where 32 of the NFL’s best will jockey in tryouts to make an ultimate 10-player roster.
It’d be hard to weed out Surtain, who capped off a career-best 2024 season with a Defensive Player of the Year nod. One curveball, though — Surtain vowed back in 2023 he was “only playing offense” on a hypothetical flag football Olympic team.
“I want to play receiver,” Surtain said then. “I can play receiver, I know it. I’ve had some reps. I want to score touchdowns.”
If he did relent and choose to play defense, though, he’d give Team USA a premier two-way option in an Olympic clash. And it’d be another feather in a rapidly-expanding cap, as the 25-year-old Surtain still has three long seasons before the Summer Games in Los Angeles to build his legacy in Denver.
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