IOC To Consider Adding Football To 2020 Tokyo Games

As if the United States needed any more help winning gold medals in the Summer Olympics, it has recently been announced that the International Olympic Committee may consider adding what is globally known as “American football” to the list of sports featured at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

With the June 8 deadline for application having already passed, attention will turn to the shortlist of candidates disclosed by the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee on June 22. From there, successful applicants will make a formal presentation to the Olympic body in August of this year with final decisions to be made in August 2016, shortly before the start of the Rio de Janeiro Games.

But if you’re expecting to see America’s world-class NFL players wear their nation’s colors, think again. There is virtually no chance the league would authorise the selection of its biggest stars, in turn risking injury for a gold medal victory that wouldn’t even trouble college athletes.

So instead of seeing Aaron Rodgers pitch it out to Le’Veon Bell, who then throws a touchdown to J.J. Watt out of a goal line set, be prepared for a far less thrilling mixture of Division III prospects and Arena Football League nobodies.

Of course, anyone expecting anything close to a fair contest will be sadly mistaken. At the most recent worldwide football event, the 2011 IFAF World Cup in Australia, the US obliterated its four opponents by an average margin of almost 40 points, culminating in a 50-7 demolition of Canada in the gold medal game.

Even so, organisers for the upcoming games released a list of 26 total sports to be considered, which included billiards and tug of war. Far be it from the common person to judge the skill and effort involved in those sports, but it seems that if sports played at local bars and middle school gymnasiums can qualify, then maybe it’s high time football got its shot too.