Sebastian Vollmer promotes flag football in Düsseldorf, Germany; Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028

Two-time Super Bowl champion Sebastian Vollmer heralds rise of flag football: “Kids who were ’left behind’ now found something”

Would Sebastian Vollmer have achieved even more during his NFL career if he picked up the sport earlier than age 16? The German legend has no regrets, but he is also determined to help others never ask themselves the “what if” question by making flag football an accessible and enticing option.

There is one rule at Sebastian Vollmer ’s training camp: No tackles.

The two-time Super Bowl champion who rose to transatlantic fame through his impeccable tackling skill is now teaching others how to reach similar heights doing almost anything but forcing a rival player to the ground.

One of the most decorated German players in the history of the National Football League (NFL), Vollmer is helping to grow flag football – a version of American football where tackling is replaced with ripping flags off the players’ flag belts.

The sport will make its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028 , and if Vollmer could turn back the clock, he would definitely be bidding to take the German team to the Games.

“Any time you can put your flag on your jersey and represent a nation, I think that’s really special. Having one of those medals, that’s really cool ,” the former New England Patriots offensive tackle, who retired from the NFL nine years ago, told Olympics.com.

“There’s a pride factor. I played for the national team in Germany when I was still living here and that was really cool. You just feel a sense of pride. You want to represent the entire nation… so I would have loved to.”

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Youth camps, free equipment and a national hero at the helm

While playing flag football at the Olympic Games is no longer a possibility for the German sports icon, Vollmer is keen to find and foster those who could live out this dream.

He uses his spotlight to promote the sport as a Global Flag Football Ambassador and runs flag football camps for youth players , sometimes at the flag football field in Düsseldorf that his hometown has named after him.

The field is located in the Garath district, at the same sports complex that is hosting the 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championships , the first-ever Olympic qualifier in the sport.

This facility also has a field named after the New England Patriots, which the six-time Super Bowl champions funded and opened in April 2025. There is a glass case filled with footballs and flag belts near its entrance that youth players can borrow for free.

Heading over to a public flag football field with free equipment had not been an option for Vollmer when he was starting out himself. Even tackle football, which he took up in 2000, was not an obvious choice at the time.

Vollmer was a swimmer and football player growing up, but neither of those sports had the same hold on him as American football.

“I didn’t feel picked up by soccer. I needed something else . When I was 16, I probably looked like this,” Vollmer said, pointing to his 2-metre (6ft 8in) frame. “I was a bit bigger and I didn’t know what football was and a friend of mine introduced me to it. And then I really fell in love. But maybe if an introduction happened five years earlier, who knows?”

Would one of the most accomplished offensive tackles got initiated into the sport earlier and achieved even more during his career? This is a hypothetical question that can never be answered and Vollmer, for one, says he has no regrets.

What he does have, however, is the drive to make sure others don’t ask “What if?” once a competitive career in tackle or flag football is no longer an option.

For Vollmer, flag football is the perfect solution to avoid those haunting questions later in life. Not only is it less daunting than tackle football, which has more physical plays, but the novelty of the sport means that everyone starts out on a similar level.

“I always thought it was so fascinating that some kids that maybe got left behind, in quotation marks, that didn’t want to play soccer, and now they’ve found something,” Vollmer said. “A lot of times we talk to the teachers afterwards. They’re like, ‘Well, I can’t get this kid to do anything, sport-wise, but he loves it’, because there’s no embarrassment . Nobody knows it yet. They’re all learning together and then growing up with it, so I think it’s a great opportunity.”

Kaja Bins and Nora Cermak are among the players representing Germany at the home 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championships.

From hobby sport to Olympics-ready “beasts”

The growing popularity of American football in Germany, which already hosted six international NFL games going back to 2022, is helping to bring more people into flag football as well.

And as an extra incentive, there is the dazzling lure of the first Olympic medals in the sport.

“Twenty years ago when you played flag, it was hobby-ish, but now you can come to the Olympic Games,” Vollmer said. “There’s a real goal we can achieve and if you come home with one of those medals , that’s pretty neat.”

Vollmer has already fostered a handful of athletes who could be vying for that Olympic medal, especially if the sport remains in the Olympic programme after Los Angeles 2028. The first kids he taught have now grown into young adults who, on the eve of the 2026 Worlds, were dashing across the New England Patriots field fast enough to challenge the most seasoned pros.

“It was probably 10 years ago and it was a bunch of 12-year-olds running around, having fun, and now these 12-years-olds are looking like beasts out there,” Vollmer reminisced.

“I think we’re not there where we need to be or want to be. But we’re pretty darn close and it’s just really cool to see.”

Picture by Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Flag Football | World Championships | Düsseldorf | Germany