NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Flag Football Extravaganza!

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue are joined by DB Mike Daniels and DC Rudy Fernandez of USA Football's Men's National Team ahead of the IFAF World Championships in Germany. Gregg and Jourdan talk to Mike and Rudy about getting into flag football as a novice fan, the differences between flag and tackle football and some of the skillsets that separate the two, how the game has evolved and more! Mike and Rudy also talk about flag football becoming an Olympic sport and possibly becoming the first team to win an Olympic Gold Medal in flag football. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we've got a flag football extravaganz. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio next to Flag Football Expert. I don't know if she's going by that these days. Navist trying to become an expert by the Olympics. More of an expert than me. Jordan Roderick, who has helped to put together this program and our esteemed guests on this program.

And we're starting the show with them. We've got Rudy Fernandez. Candace, defensive coordinator, assistant coach of the USA football men's national team. We also have Mike Daniels defensive back that does it all on the field. We're going to get into what both of these men do on the field and obviously as a coach. But just to introduce for the listeners, this is a long gestating idea from Jordan here and from like a growing sport that we are trying to cover and wrap our minds around. here at NFL media, and I'm excited. Are you ready, Jordan?

Yeah, understatement, me being fired up. I've been so excited about this, you guys. I went to see some of the summer series last year. I've written about this, a sport at theathletic.com. I'm so excited about the potential here. And then also about you guys representing us in the LA Olympics. I know we got a long way to go between now and then when flag football makes its debut in the Olympics. But I know I speak for a lot of people, like, millions of people internationally who are such big fans of this sport. And our listeners and our viewers really love getting in the weeds on stuff. I knew I could trust our listeners on being interested in this topic

because we like to get granular. We like to understand things. We like to explain things. Greg really likes to explain things. And so we're so stoked to have you guys here today to help us understand flag football a little bit more. I'll start with you, Rudy, because like, you're a coach. And I'm looking at flag football right now. you can just assume, like, I'm a novice.

And a lot of the listeners, I think, in general, are going to be relative novices. And so for those of us, and I've started to get more familiar, I've obviously read it, I watched, you know, you guys destroy the pros a little while back. We can get into that. But, like, for novices, it's a big picture question, but what do you think, like, the not, like, new fans to the sport or people that don't know much about it, should know about it, like the first time they're kind of getting introduced to it. Oh, entertaining and fast-paced.

That's the big thing is how fast-paced it is, how entertaining it is. And it's a game to just show off your skills, right? You're receiving, you're throwing, you know, the way you cover. It's a lot of fun. It takes a lot of skill to be able to play the flag football at a high level. The thing that I find so interesting about, like, the better you get at this is, we know flag football is an offensive sport. Like, they love points.

Mike, you're a defensive player, man. So I think for you, I know it's a point of pride that at this level, some of the nuances of defense and the skill players on defense are just as strong as some of the things that you guys see in the passing game. Yeah. So like you said, the biggest thing, the game is revolved around offense, you know, being excited and scoring a lot of points and doing everything like that. That's why as defensive players, we take a lot of pride and throwing those guys down and stopping them. And our offense is really, really good. So if we can get one or two stops a game, nine times out of ten, like we're probably going to win that game.

But we take so much pride in our craft and everything that we do and the schematics and everything, preparing for a team. Like, we don't want a team to score, right? So if a team scores on us, like, it's like, oh, like we get really, really upset, even when we're not really supposed to. Like, coach does a good job at, you know, keeping us calm. Like, it's okay, fellas, they're going to score, they're going to do this. And I hate when he says that because I'm so complacent.

competitive. I'm like, no, they're not. Like, they're not supposed to score. Like, I don't care what the game is supposed to be for, whatever. I don't want them to score. Like, if we can leave the game 100 to zero, I'm happy. I love that. I'm curious for novices watching for the first time, what are a couple of things that people who are going to be watching your games, first of all, internationally here coming up, Worlds is in Germany coming up. You guys will be playing in that. But what people can watch when they're trying to know what they're looking at. Like, what are some basics on both sides of the ball. Rudy will start with you.

What do people need to see to understand this sport? So one thing, one thing people do understand when they watch it for the first time is it's not 10 yards to the first down, right? You start five yards from the end zone, then you have 20 yards to get to midfield. And you have four plays to do it, and then four plays to score after that. And then right before the end zone, there's a no run zone where you have to throw the ball. And that's always, you know, something that people that watch tackle football always ask, you're in the red zone, why aren't you running the ball?

Well, you can't. Right? It becomes too simple to score from the one yard lane with a run. The DBs probably love this role. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, I think, for adults who have kids, there's going to be a generation of people like

myself because it's such a growing sport. You know, there's 20 million people playing flag all over the world now. And they're making it like a varsity sport, especially for girls. in a lot of states and everything. And a lot of our kids are now growing up playing flag. And so we're starting to actually understanding, like, those sorts of rules. But I do think if you're just like an NFL fan who hasn't had much exposure to it as a player, Mike, like, and you're watching it for the first time,

and we can get into, you know, what happened when you played the NFL players. But what are some of, like, the skill sets you think just from a first place watching, Because I realize pretty quickly, like how little I understand about what's going to make teams better, players better compared to tackle football. Yeah, so the biggest thing about, you know, skill set-wise, is there's a lot more not taking anything away from, like, traditional football. But there's a little bit more finesse that goes into flag football because the rules and intricacies are a little bit different. So you have to be, you have to learn how to be elite within the system. of the flag football so there's uh one the the biggest rule of the mall there's a lot less contact than there isn't uh traditional football so you're telling me as a defender i have to cover

in a very fast very elite route runner with really good hands and a really wide range to catch a football how am i going to stop that guy with within planning the rules of the game so there's a lot of finesse that comes into it so there's a lot of like things you have to do in your craft to learn how to mirror somebody and be able to cover them, you know, to the point where they're not making its meaning catches or they're not as open as they should be. It's tough. That's why I said earlier, like, we take a lot of pride in stopping and slowing down these really, really good offices. Yeah, you can't bump when you press, like when you press, you can't really press. Right. Rudy, how does that change how you call a game as a defensive coordinator?

Well, you know, going in, we do a lot of practice so we know there's not a lot of contact. Yeah. So we just, we work a lot on defending with our feet, right? Just true fundamentals of football as a defensive back. You do a lot of coverage with your feet staying in front, you know, on a man turn, how you open your hips, on a zone turn. It's a lot of those things. And these, you know, these athletes, they put so much more, excuse me, so much work into getting better at flag football. Because a lot of them like Mike were so skilled at tackle.

And, I mean, Mike's a killer, right? he loves contact. So he had to train himself and kind of almost learn to play defensive back in a different style to fit flag football. Yeah, it reminds me a little. Like I very, very briefly covered Arena

League football. And Arena League football was similar in the way that like if you can get one or two stops a game, it weirdly made defense more important than offense in a way. Do you describe to that as a defensive coordinator? Oh, yeah. Defense wins championships, right?

I mean, it kind of did feel that way, though, too. If you add a defense and get two stops a week as you're saying or whatever it's going to be, then that can be the difference. Everyone has a good offense. I have to say, too, watching the tournament games against the pros, some of the most fun plays to watch. I know you guys are such a powerhouse on offense, but there are some high-profile interceptions in that game, for example,

and just really great plays on the ball and great reads. And I can't wait for the listeners. We're going to break down some tape a little bit later. and really excited for you guys to lead the way with us on that. When you are thinking about what Rudy just said, translating certain skills, you were a tackle football player. You played at collegiate level at West Virginia, Mike.

And so translating those skills, first, what that was like for you, retraining certain elements of your game, not just on the field, but away from the field, some of your off-season training, those types of things, what skills you had to develop and follow-up as well,

Rudy, like, how do you continue to coach that all, the way through this professional level. Okay, so within traditional football, there's a plethora of ways that you can cover a guy, right? There's a million ways you can skin a cat. So within playing man-to-man versus someone, there's a technique called off-man coverage, right? Which is what you see 98 or 99.9% of the time in flag football because there's no contact so you don't see a lot of guys crowd in the line of scrimmage, right? So you're playing off

for the most part. So it's still off man technique, but there's no, like you said, at the top of the route, there's no bump anymore. So how do I slow this guy down when he's, his momentum is already probably at 80 to 80 to 85% speed by the time he gets to me. Like, what am I supposed to do? Like Coach Rudy said, your feet have to be, you have to have really, really good feet, really, really good hips, really, really good eyes. And you have to, you have to train them to respond a lot quicker than that of traditional football because flag football, the throws are shorter and quicker, right? Like in traditional football, you may, someone may run a dig at 15 to 20 yards. And flag football, that dig is being ran at about 8 to 10 now.

Because the field is so much smaller. It's so much smaller. So those routes are shorter and faster. And you don't have as many steps to make up in flag football than that of traditional football because one step can cost you. In traditional football, you may get a step, or two, ball has to travel maybe 20 to 25 yards depending on the route that's ran. You may have a couple steps to get back in the phase with the receiver, and you can create

a little bit of contact and, you know, get a pass breakup. And flag football is completely different. Like, how am I going to get a pass breakup without creating contact? And then another thing is, even if the receiver catches a ball and he's extending away from his body, I'm not allowed to come through and break up the ball anymore. No punches. You can't do any of that. Once that ball touches his hand, is it. either up to him to drop it for the incomplete pass or I just have to, you know, rely on putting a

flag at that point. So it's just, it's a lot quicker. It's a little bit tougher. But that's why, like I said, I always go back to we take so much pride in it. And we, we hold ourselves to like a super high standard that, you know, we continue to thrive and we continue to get these stops and things like that. A lot of, we make it look easy, but people, people don't understand what goes on behind closed doors to get things like that done. Yeah, we should take it back. I love that we just dove right into like the schematics and we're going to.

But just for some context, why are you here in Southern California, by the way? So we're here in Southern California. Besides for our show. Yeah. Other than that, we're here. We have training camp this weekend, Tula Vista. So we'll be in Chula Vista until Friday.

And then we have our summer series on Friday afternoon. We play Canada. Okay. So it should be a lot of fun. So it's, yeah, some exhibitions in the summer out here. And then you're prepping for the IF-AF World Championships. That is in Germany later this summer. Of course, the LA Olympics, 2028.

Everyone's seen, you know, the Jalen Hertz ad of him, you know, throwing the ball into the Coliseum. And like that, it's happening. It's, it is two years away as an Olympic sport. Like, when you, like, when you first started in Flagg, Could you have imagined that, like, you would be doing, like, the Olympics on home soil, like, this soon? No. No.

So I've been involved in Flagg since 2003. I've been involved for a long time. And I never saw it get into this level. It's, I mean, I think I can speak for me and Mike. I mean, we're living our dream in Flag Football, something that the opportunities we're getting, you can only dream of. we're going to Germany to play in the world championship against many other countries' best flag football teams. I mean, it doesn't get better than that.

And are you the favorites? Like, do you consider yourselves the favorites? Yes. Do you feel a little extra weight with the USA football shirt on? Just that, like, okay, that's our sport. We better represent. I'm a little bit different. The way I wire myself, I go in as an underdog.

mainly because it keeps me hungry you know I'm going out there to hunt that's just my mentality I just want to hunt I don't care what the naysayers are saying I don't care we are the favorites I'm going to play as an underdog that's just me personally we can just talk trash and say you're not the favorites and just feel like watch out for that German team

like they don't mess around I love it because though we saw this a little bit last year at the summer series like some of the teams are still very much figuring out how the sport works and some of the teams are watching you guys, watching your plays, watching your concepts. And so you're sort of outrunning innovation of your own creation here. At the same time, I'm curious, how much better have all

these other teams also gotten as the sport has continued to grow? They've gotten a lot better. Yeah. A lot better. And, you know, the gap is closed. It was a big gap and the gap's closed because other countries are investing time, effort, and money into the programs. So they've definitely gotten better. And, you know, like Mike said, we stay hungry. We try doing new things every year because the truth is, everyone's watching us and we get mimicked, right? So we're just trying to stay one step ahead. You know, it's hard, it's hard to be a dynasty. That's why it's not very, does it happen very often? I love that word for you guys, because it is true. It's very true. And I think the world is going to get to see it on a global stage here very soon right down the street. We hope you guys are playing at

SoFi Stadium down the street. So do we. You know, it's, I don't want to shade this team. Okay, so I won't say, but one of the teams I watched last year competing against you guys in an exhibition was converted rugby players for the most part. So they take the field and maybe minus you might, because you played DB and you're what, six foot 200? Yes.

Right. So that's what your roster page said. So that's what we're going with. And, and, and, but you're tall and, you know, you're very tall and, and, and, you know, you're very tall and not as slight as some of your teammates, right? So I would say you're on more, maybe on more on the bigger side of flag players, at least for Team USA. These guys were converted rugby players. They took the field against you guys and it was like, looked like it was shaping up to David versus Glythe, at least on paper. And then you guys just started running

circles around them. And it was very clear that maybe some of the rugby qualities weren't quite converting over. So I'm curious, what traits do convert over the best? You've obviously found a way to apply your tackle skills and your abilities at the highest level in flag. But what are the traits that best carry over to the way you guys want to play flag football? So in my opinion, there's like to be an elite flag football player, there is a very unique set of skills that you have to possess. Like offensively, there's a, there's different, it differs from defensively. so I'll speak more so on the defensive side of the ball. Like, I think one of the biggest things that,

two of the biggest things that helped me transition over the flag football, a little bit faster than maybe some other traditional football players. Like I said earlier, the off man, like being able to cover someone playing off the ball compared to putting hands on them and pressing them, it helped me a little bit better because it's like, okay, I can't touch you, fine, I'm used to it.

Like, I've done it plenty of times before, so I'm used to it. And also hand-knock coordination. when it comes to like stopping the offensive players, you know, for progression to be able to snatch a flag at full speed, that is a very unique skill. Like it's not, it's not something that can be taken lightly because in traditional football,

how do you get a tackle? Like, tackles aren't easy to make. That's a required skill to be an elite defender. So in flag football, playing at the highest level against all these very talented guys, no matter what country it is, you have to possess a certain unique set of skills. Like you can't any, I don't care who it is.

It can be U.S. players, international players. If you're just going to try to just walk into the sporting, like, oh, well, I've done good. And let's just say rugby, I'm pretty fast. And I can carry a ball and I can make some people miss and do that and that and so forth. You're going to struggle and fly it because you have to be elite within these set of rules, not rugby. So it's a little bit different.

Not to shade the NFL guys at all, but I think they had their wake-up call. So like, oh, this is a little bit different. Yeah, we saw. Like, those guys were telling us like, yeah, it's not what we thought it was. And that's like, that's all, that's the only message we want to get across. It's not what everyone thinks it is. I think a lot of people are just like, it's football at the end of the day.

Yeah, it's the same, it's a spheroid. A sphereoid or object that we use. But the rules and little intricacies and skill sets. are a little bit different. Like, that's what separates the game from NFL pros and pro-flag football players. Like, that's the only thing that we wanted to get across. So, yeah, that, that is, it requires a very unique skill set. Yeah, Rudy, you're on some of the talent ID stuff, too.

I mean, I know you, you're on the circuit. Like, you're looking for the next, the next guys and women who are coming up and playing the sport at the highest level. I saw a move, I think it was Isaiah Calhoun did it at the summer series. and it was my first time in person ever seeing a hip drop. Okay. It blew my mind. I mean, I remember the first time I saw like Matthew Stafford throw a no look pass.

I said some curse words, right? Right. But that, I don't understand how the human body can do that, frankly, at full speed. To explain to the, to the listener, at full speed in order to avoid getting his flag pulled at one of the summer series exhibition games last year, Isaiah Calhoun was the ball carrier after a catch or an interception. Interception, yeah. And basically at full speed dipped his hips. I compared it to like when motorcycle racers

go around a curve. Yes. Like all the way to the ground. But like his feet were just da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- still going and avoided the flagpole. How do you ID that? Like how do you find that?

I don't understand. Yeah. So we're looking for quickness, fast-fast Twitch. Like it's really hard for like a rugby player to transition, right? But if you got maybe, you know, like a striker and soccer or a forward in lacrosse, they already kind of have that fast switch,

you know, going, so that's really what we're looking for, is that fast switch and that flexibility. Because what these guys do, you know, quick, funny story when we were playing the pro guys, Lou Kinkley came off the field and he was like, do you guys even have kneecaps? Because the way they were doing the hip drop,

and I was laughing on the sideline, because he's like, if I did that, but, you know, it's what they do, right? They practice it. And yeah, definitely. If you do a hip drop and tackle football, you're going to get your head taken off. Yeah, and then you hear a lot of popping

because the kneecaps just burst into flames in that moment. That's amazing. In that game, do you think it was more, from your perspective, in those games against the NFL players, do you think it was more the offensive players or the defensive players that were, like, struggling more to adjust to match up with your guys? I think the biggest adjustment,

what they had the most hard time with, was with flagpolling. I think that was the hardest part. Yeah. We got, you know, we got Pablo and Vell and Hoosh. They're only about 5, 7, 5, 8.

They're running full speed and they hip drop and their knees are like half an inch off the ground. And I just think they weren't like, they weren't ready for that. Immediately everyone's going to kind of think too because, you know, now I think people understand

how talented you guys are with USA people. And we'll see, like obviously, the tryouts for the Olympics team that hasn't happened yet. That's in the future. But it seems like the best players are going to be flag.

And yet you can imagine the idea that you would want to have some pro player potentially make the team or if they can earn their spot. Is there any players that stand out to you that have a skill set from the NFL? It's the type of skill set

that translates the flag at all. I got one. Yeah. Brashard Smith from the Kansas Okay. So he actually played flag football my program in Miami when he was 10 to 14 years old and like he's unbelievable in flag, right? Like that kind of skill set, kind of like a scat back. Like Christian McCaffrey.

Yeah. Maybe like a power back. He's a running back that played wide receiver literally. So he's already kind of a little lower to the ground and stuff in the quickness. I'm a purist though because I like the guys they got. Right. I have a feel like that might not happen at all. It just crossed my mind if anyone.

stuck out to you. But I feel like this is the part, this is the time where, I mean, explain this to us. You guys are narrowing this down. This is two years from now. And so this upcoming World's Tournament, this is one of those tournaments that does qualify other international teams for the Olympics, although you all have already secured your birth in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. So like, what is the training? Like a lot of people don't know that you guys balance a day job, for example, with all of this training and what the timeline is. Can you kind of let the listener in on what they should be looking for, tent poll events and things like that coming up?

Yeah, so in terms of training, just to get a little bit off topic, I want to say this before I forget. We love that on our show, by the way, go for it. Before I forget. So a lot of people, I think take for granted is our preparation that we put into competing. We, I think the hardest thing for me, and not just for my perspective, perspective, and I'm sure my teammates can attest of this as well. But we really go at each other in practice. Like, we really compete. And I think that, like, when you have iron shopping

and iron, like, no one's ever content. Like, we may go out there and yeah, we may be, you know, we play with a lot of confidence because we prepare. We, like, we really go hard. And I've, like, I've played traditional football on a few teams. I had the pleasant trees of, you know, making it to the NFL level and, you know, practicing with those guys as well. But when I tell you, I've been around elite preparation and this is like the way we prepare is like top, top notch. Like when we compete, like you have a team full of competitors. No one wants to lose.

And like I told you before, I don't want to give up a touchdown. I don't care regardless of what the game says that the offense is supposed to do. I don't want these guys to score. And then being that the joggernaut that our offense is, like I feel like it. we can stop them consistently, we can stop anybody in the country. So it's like when we, like that preparation right there, I love it because I'm very, very competitive. So I know that if I can, if I can dial in on this and just really go at it with my offense

and, you know, get some stops here and there and make those guys struggle, when we go into competition, it's going to be that much easier. Not saying that the other teams don't be prepared, but man, we're just give us your best. We're ready. It's all I'm saying. It's like the NBA dream team when they were practicing up against each other. Like it wasn't going to get any harder than it was in practice leading up to those Olympics. Happy Pride Month, Toronto.

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Thinking about like the schematics of it all, this is something where I know you guys are going to get into it. And Jordan alluded to it, but for our audio audience who's listening to the podcast, everyone go check out the videos that we're going to be putting out. They'll be on our YouTube channel. We'll get them out on socials and everything too, but especially on YouTube. where Jordan's going to go through some plays with you guys and you can help explain how flag football really works. So we like on this show to kind of understand the game, you know, intellectually as well as just like enjoying it.

But for our audience that's listening to this show here, I am curious as a coach, like how the schematics of the sport have evolved and what are the what are some of the things that like a new fan can kind of look for in terms of like the schematic approach of where flag football is now and how it's different. Yeah. So it's a big question. Yeah, it is. The game has completely changed the last few years, especially defensively.

You know, three or four years ago, everybody was playing really just two, maybe three different defenses, a variation of a cover two, cover one, and then a cover zero. Man, right? Now it's changed. Like, we're at the point with USA that we almost call our defense like an offense. We're changing each play. Right. The concepts are very similar, but if we're playing the cover two, who's dropping?

Sometimes we don't, you know, we don't do a traditional drop. Maybe we'll bring the safety down into the box, right? Kind of go invert. So it's just really changing because our whole goal is take the quarterback's first readaway. Right? Our rusher is, his name is Flash, right? Obviously he's fast. Good name for a rusher.

Yeah. I always tell them, right, we want Flash, not Barry Allen, right? Right? So we always say if our defensive backs take away the other quarterbacks first read, then our rusher gets to get to work. Because in flag football, the rush is seven yards away, and he can't be impeded. He has a straight line to that court. So that's really what we do, you know, schematically is what we try to do is give the quarterback different looks, take away their first read, and then let our rusher, let Flash do what Flash does. I think what a lot of people will be surprised by two when they watch and pleasantly surprised,

I would say, for novices learning about the game, is you guys do a lot of at-snap rotations of your coverages. And there's so much spatial manipulation on both sides because obviously when you change mathematically, they have outlets for it. They have rules for what they want to do, just like in tackle football, offense, defense, colliding. But it has gotten so much more complex to your point where you, you know, you know, you. you're able to move guys around at and post snap in ways guys are passing coverages off.

Guys are doing all kinds of things that really dictate the space of what an offense can do. And I love that because flag football is happening so fast. That's what I love about this is I like to call it a game of speed, math, and space. Because you're basically designing equations against each other, just like how you would in traditional, in a lot of sports, really. But it's happening so, so, so much faster. And the processing has to be so much faster for that reason. Yeah.

So what we like to do, and I love it. Like when Coach Rudy came aboard and we kind of had to talk about, you know, the things that he wanted to do, he was like, man, we think a lot of like. And I'm just like, yeah, man, I love it. I can't wait to like, you know, put this, put this start implementing this stuff. And we can start doing it because my biggest thing is, like I said before, I don't want the offensive score. The more they struggle...

If we're going to remember one thing about Mike Daniels on this show. Offense is not supposed to score. That's my rule, right? But I like to disguise a lot of stuff. Like, we may play, like, the same traditional calls as every other team is fun, but we may disguise it a little bit different.

I want to play chess with the quarterback. Like, I don't want him coming to the line of scrimmings. Like, oh, I know they're in 3-1. I know they're in 2-2. I know they're in 2-1 because this is what everyone does when we line up like this, everyone does the same thing. We may still be playing that same coverage, but we may disguise it a little bit.

So now he's thinking like, okay, HUD, is this really? Oh, no, it's not that. Oh, it is that. It's too late. Like, he said, like, Flash is one of the fastest guys on our team, if not the fastest guy. Like, he can run a 20-yard sprint and under three seconds, well under three seconds.

So it's like, if I'm a DB, I love that because if you're telling me, I only got a couple for like three seconds, max? Like, oh, man, that's, you relax me. a little bit and now I'm more eager and more the percentages of me making a play a lot that much higher you know that's just a little the little stuff that I you know the little things I do in my head pre-snap but I'm just like if we like coach Rudy said we can take that first read away the offense is in trouble because our rusher is right up on you now and now you have to make a

decision are you going to take a sack you're going to try to evade which isn't all that easy right not saying it's impossible but it's not it's pretty difficult to evade when you got a pretty good rush into flag puller. And now what if your guys aren't open? You know, because on the back end, we're giving them pretty tight coverage. Like, what do you do in that case? That's where we excel at the game of flag football. Yeah, and NFL Daily listeners know we love defense on this show.

Like, we geek out over it consistently. And it's a safe space to talk about defense on like a lot of places. But I'm curious from an offensive schematic perspective, Like what is different that you're seeing now? For people who don't know, obviously, a lot of the skill guys play both sides of the line of scrimmage, offense and defense. But I'm curious, what's different now? What are you seeing now as teams maybe improve or what do you guys do that works in your offensive schemes? So that's a great question.

So what we've seen the game changing is you've got to plan for two or three quarterbacks in the field at the same time, which is something. It's a nightmare. You really don't see it. You really don't see in traditional football, right? So we got to identify who the quarterbacks are. Like, for example, Mexico always has two quarterbacks on the field, right? First one receives a snap. The second one drops back where they can, you know, receive a throwback,

and then they become the quarterback. So you have to be prepared for all of it. That's what the offenses are doing. Even us, we have two quarterbacks a lot with Pablo, excuse me. We have Pablo, Nico, and Hoosh that all play quarterback. and sometimes all three are in the field at the same time. So other countries are doing that.

So we have to, on a defensive side, we come up with rules on what happens when another quarterback drops back. And actually in those videos you'll see where I made a horrible defensive play call and Jane and Daniels threw a touchdown on us. This is the kind of humility that we don't often have on this show is that you guys are showing us what went right and what went wrong and how you're fixing it, which we love that. It's a great guest move.

It's like a very, it's like we love the humility there. You don't have to have it. This is a dynasty we're talking about you. I've got an idea for you. If everyone's going three quarterbacks, let's go four. Let's go. You know, I don't know if you guys ever saw that Onion article. And then we do.

Adding the razors on. It's like if they're going. Four quarterbacks and twoverts. Right. That is insane because you have to just in your nightmares think about, well, you get there at the Olympics. Hopefully, you know, you guys are, you're there. You're really.

realizing this dream in the Olympics. And there's a world where some country out there comes up with just some kind of crazy schematic advantage early in that tournament that you guys have to adjust to that you maybe have never seen before. And that, to me, is what's really cool about the sport. It's such a new sport where you guys are learning. And you're also, do you have a day job right now? Yes, I do. You do. And so it's a lot, and that's typical of a lot. of Olympians. It's not, it's not rare for Olympians, but it sort of harkens back to like when, you know, traditional football was just starting out. Merlin Olson, L.A. Ram was an actor and worked at a car wash. Right. All the Packers are, you know,

everyone's got like offseason jobs and everything. So have you allowed yourself to dream, you know, about a world where maybe y'all didn't even need to have day jobs, but also have you let yourself dream about what that's going to be like in a couple years? to try to get to that Olympic stage. I think about it a lot. I think about it a lot. I'm like, okay, my biggest thing is, what do I have to do to make show them there, first and four?

Like, that's a goal of mine now that ever since that came into conversation, I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool. Like, you know, my son, who looks up to me, he's my best friend, and he's always, like, rooting and cheering me on. So I think it would be pretty cool for him to see his dad, you know, host up a gold medal. So that's extra motivation. Like, I really, really want to do it now.

But I think about it quite often. I'm like, I know personally, like, what it's going to take to prepare. Like, I can't, I know what it's going to take to prepare. And having a job, can that get in a way? Yes. But as an adult, we have to be really good at time management. We have to manage our time. We have 24 hours to make, to do the best we can, right?

We can only do so much. My biggest thing is you can have an excuse or you can get it done. I'm a very black and white person. My fiance hates this about me, but I just, I don't know how it's to see the world, right? Because you can either get something done or you don't. At the end of the day, did you get something done? Did you get it done?

Right? So I try to get in where I can fit in. Like I try to train as much as I can. But like you said, in a couple years, if there's an opportunity that rises for the sport that allows us a little bit more leisure time to get some more training and preparation and stuff, I would love that.

I have one question. I'm sure that you guys have thought about a lot. You guys are ambassadors for this sport globally, really. But there's only going to be one first time gold winner, gold medal winner of this first time Olympics, right? How do you balance that ambassadorship? Like, how do you carry that? And you guys have kids.

Both of you guys have kids that look up to you and are going to be old enough to remember this like you mentioned and what does it like to walk in that space when what's in front of you is such an uncharted territory still yeah so we are ambassador to the game right all of us we're trying to help grow the game in different countries right so we're pretty much helping our competition get better um because we want we do want the game to grow we wanted to get bigger and then yeah obviously we're all looking towards that gold medal and it's it's tough because we all get opportunities to go to other countries and help start programs while thinking about, well, we're helping these guys out.

It's going to be our competition in 2020. So, yeah, that's really, you know, it's a lot of fun. I'm really excited to see once some of the smaller countries, now that it's an Olympic sport and they get funding from their Olympic body and their sport, on how they're going to grow and just keep getting better. You know, and you talked about, you know, plays and cool plays, I mean, every type of, you we play Japan, they bring out something cool I've never seen before.

He's actually about to take a trip there so maybe he can do some advanced scouting for you. Yeah, tell me where they're practicing and I'll like put my iPhone out of it. He's also a Patriots fan, so you don't want to be too serious about sending him off to, you know, take a look at other teams. I could see them getting

very into flag. I could see it. Oh, I mean, China's invested a lot right now, but Japan, to me, has the most creative playbook that I've had to go. against. Wow. It's Japan.

And it's, you know, all of their athletes are smaller and very quick. So they've designed an offense exactly to their skill sets. It's like a ball movement heavy or? A lot of ball movement. Yeah. Okay. With a side snap. So you don't have to snap it directly to the quarterback.

You can snap it to the receiver in the slot on either side. Right. So they'll snap it. They'll do like a side snap to a receiver in the slot. The quarterback comes around, gets a pitch. The original center is now running. a wheel. It's just, it's a lot of fun.

Oh, that's fun. It's a lot of fun. That must be fun for you to think about, yeah. Japan's one of my favorite teams. Why is that? Just, it's like, I love challenges. I don't know, maybe I'm, I don't know, just a defensive mindset, but I do not like saying the same things over and over and over again.

I like, I like, I don't know what word I'm looking for. Problem solving against it. Right. Like, I'm, I like to, you know, dig into my brain, like, okay, how can we get this figured out, you know? And they do a really good job at, you know, just always keep you guessing. I think that makes the game a little bit more fun. And they are trying to beat us.

Like, I love getting the best of a team. I love that. Like, that's one of the things I love about playing with USA. You're going to get the best of every team that plays you because they really, really want to beat you. And Japan just always brings it. And it's always something new and exciting like Coach says. And I think me just as a defensive player, I just love that.

Like a lot of people are like, man, I don't know if I want to play those guys. They get nervous, but I get excited. I don't know. It's just a competitor in me, I guess. I mean, that's what makes, to me, watching the sport great. And sometimes it's been a weakness with the NFL is when you get a little too copycat. If you can get as much schematic diversity, and you're seeing it right now in the World Cup being played in just a few hours here across the street that, like, that's what makes it exciting to see all the different styles. So, yeah, I can imagine, man, if they ever made that, like a high school sport or something in Japan, I've seen.

I've seen my buddy was a basketball coach there. And his whole team's just doing the practice without the coaches even saying anything. I was like, this is a high school team. This is the most insane thing I've ever seen. I hope that our listeners, I know you guys are going to tape these video segments, which everyone should really check out because I think they're going to be really interesting. The X's it knows. But I hope our listeners feel a little more connected now to USA football.

I do too, that now we're rooting on Mike Daniels. We're going to be celebrating when you make the team. And then hopefully when we're covering the Olympics, I want to be covering. Yeah, can you guys put in a good word. We'll have to ask our bosses to go cover it. That that would be, you know, someone so that they have sort of a point of contact, a connection of be like, we're rooting for him and we're also rooting for Rudy Fernandez, defensive coordinator, coach here of the USA national team.

Appreciate you guys joining the show. And yeah, I'll let you guys do the hard work here with Jordan getting in front of the videos. Appreciate you all. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks, guys. All right.

For NFL Daily, like I said, keep an eye out on those videos. This was a special show. Thank you, Jordan, for everything you did to get it going. I love it. And it won't be the last time we ever talk about Flag. That's for sure. But this was kind of our intro to Flagg. More in this space coming.

And, yeah, more NFL Daily show is coming later this week. Patrick Claibon and I will be covering the end of mini-camp season on Tuesday. We'll see you then. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.