Olympic flag football and other oddities

This may not be political, and it may have little to do with liberty. Or does it?

The International Olympics Committee has decided that the 2028 Summer Olympics (to be held in Los Angeles) is to feature a number of new (to the Olympics) sports. Flag football (the child’s version of American football, not the British stuff) will be featured, together with such sports as lacrosse, squash, baseball, softball, and something called T20 cricket. (T20 is a short version of traditional British cricket.)

Flag football has always been considered a “kinder, gentler” form of traditional American “tackle” football. Apparently, unlike traditional collegiate and NFL American football, there are both male and female teams. It is played on a half-size football field – apparently with Imperial rather than metric measurements – and is supposedly known for the speed of the game. Traditionally, it has been considered to be a “wimpy” version: suitable for children under age 12 and normal women.

It is reported to be growing more popular, and the two world “powerhouses” for the activity (sport?) are the States: the United States of America and the United Mexican States. Besides the smaller field and the flags, the uniforms appear to be an abbreviated version of soccor uniforms: not as abbreviated for women as current, skimpy running and jumping outfits, but a lot more skin than American football’s armored uniforms (except for “lingerie football”). (Given the rapid decline of such old, outdated standards of modesty may be a reason for this addition.)

Why do we say it may be political?

There is a form of political correctness that constantly seeks to modify traditional sports. Modern sports should be, must be more kind, more gentle than all those horrible sports of years gone by. We aren’t just talking such things as fox hunting, horse racing, bear-beating, cock fighting, and bull fighting. It includes things like various track and field events, fencing, and (of course) American-style football. Admittedly, there are many injuries related tackle football – and people must be stopped from injuring themselves and others, however willingly they are willing to do so. New sports that feature “significant” risk (in the eye of some of the beholders) are certainly not suitable for inclusion – a political decision of the IOC.

The Olympics began in the modern era (1896) with just 14 nations participating. There were more nations in existence then – not even counting nations like Australia or the United States that were made up of soveign nations. (FYI: Australia, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, USA, and Austria. Note that Austria and Hungary, though a single nation (empire) at the time, fielded separate teams. Also notice: no Russian, Ottoman, Ethiopian, Liberian, Japanese, Chinese, etc. participation. Today, all 205 “soverign” nations participate. With greatly varying climates, economies and societies, there are many sports that are very foreign to most countries. And “social justice” demands that more and more games/sports be added to help reduce the dominance of the major nations – especially Russia, the USA, France, and the British Commonwealth old dominions. So the more politically-acceptable games that can be put on the list, the better.

(Of course, in 1896 and often in later years, many sovereign nations did not have the surplus money available to waste on training and sending a bunch of athletes halfway around the world! They had more critical things to spend money on. And there wasn’t much of a competition to demonstrate what a wonderful country you were. At least outside of war zones.)

Adding sports to the Olympics has gone to crazy lengths in recent decades. In ancient times, the sports included running, long jump, shot put, javelin, boxing, pankration (sort of the equivalent of modern mixed martial arts), and equestrian events. Today, for the summer games, we have recently seen break-dancing added, trampoline gymnastics, and a whole lot of “ball” sports. The ancient Greeks rejected ball games as not being serious enough.

No doubt, at some time in the near future, we will see dozens more “sports” added: perhaps marbles, jacks, tiddlywinks, to name a few: easy to train, little likelihood of serious injury, and obviously sure to attract millions of viewers. Readers, make suggestions on what you can think of.

But the real reasons for doing things like this? We suggest two:

Greed for money: anything to rake in the bucks (yen, rubles, euros, etc.) in the form of sponsorships, advertising, and above all, government subsidies is going to be looked at.

Which brings us to the second reason: every decision of the IOC is based on politics. Internal to each country and worldwide. The major political reason is that it is the old Roman favorite: bread and games. Keep the peons distracted by entertaining them.  So it is “Greed for Power” that really drives this sort of nonsense.

No matter what sort of propaganda they spout about whirled peace and international cooperation.

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Source: https://freedombunker.com/2025/05/31/olympic-flag-football-and-other-oddities/