The uniquely powerful combination of the NFL and the Olympics movement

When LA28 pulled off the audacious accomplishment of adding American football to the Olympic program in 2023, the commercial potential of the NFL-Olympics marriage was immediately evident. Before the final vote, I wrote: “If flag football does make the final list, it would be an extraordinary coup for the NFL.”

This week in San Francisco, we see one of the most visible examples yet of this. Nike, already a global NFL sponsor and licensee, announced it’s now sponsoring the national flag football teams of Great Britain, Mexico and the Canada through the 2028 games. As this newsletter hits inboxes, Mexico is debuting its Nike uniforms at a USA-Mexico friendly on the NFL’s flag field at the Super Bowl Experience, with Toyota along as the game’s presenting sponsor.

The Olympics are one of the few marketing platforms with more reach than the NFL, and because of its decentralized nature, marketers in the Olympics space — whether for a sport or for a brand — can work both a global awareness angle and impactful team- and market-specific grassroots campaigns.

“This moment brings two powerful forces together,” Ann Miller, EVP/global marketing at Nike, told me. “Our long partnership with the NFL has helped grow flag football across the United States, and now that work connects directly to the global stage of LA28.”

Those three country teams will benefit from Nike’s years of investment in flag growth, she said. “The overlap gives us a rare opportunity to bring these worlds together and accelerate access to the sport,” Miller said.

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