Flag football will debut as a sport in the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympic Games and CFL quarterback Nathan Rourke wants to represent Canada.
“It certainly is an opportunity that I’d not want to pass up if it ever comes across. There’s no spot that is reserved for me in any type of way, just like for any other player,” Rourke told Dave Thomas on the SportsCage.
“I would love to be considered and I think that’s what I’ve made clear by trying to make an effort to learn a little bit more about the game, trying to understand it a little bit better and connect with those people who are the decision-makers.”
The CFL announced on November 10, 2025 that the league will allow their athletes to participate.
“It’s not necessarily a one-to-one ratio in terms of tackle football and flag football, going in with that type of mindset is a positive thing. We’re a couple years away still and there’s a lot of things that have happened, but I think this is a situation where you don’t necessarily want to pass it up. I think it deserves some further probing, looking into and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Rourke was asked what differences there are in flag football compared to tackle.
“I think that the biggest one is how small the field is because it’s so small, things happen a lot faster and the windows are a lot smaller,” Rourke explained. “It’s a bit like playing arena league dimensions, the rusher comes in really quick, he’s only seven yards.”
As for his position as a quarterback, Rourke shares the differences he sees between flag and tackle.
“The biggest thing as a quarterback that I’ve noticed is that the snap difference, the shotgun distance is quite deep sometimes,” Rourke said. “You’re at 11 yards and in tackle, you’re never further back than five, so the ball’s in the air for a long time. You’ve got to find the ball, get ready to get rid of it really quick or that rusher’s going to be on top of you. That’s been the main difference so far.”
Rourke shared what his team, the Lions, thought about him participating in flag football for the Olympics.
“It wasn’t that dramatic or formal. It was them saying, ‘Hey, this is something that was brought up at the league meetings back in January this year. We want you to know that if you go ahead and you try to pursue this, that we are behind you 100 percent.’ It’s a huge gift to have from your organization, but I think they also realize how cool and special it would be in the Olympics, how it only comes every four years and playing football may or may not be in the Olympics in 2032,” Rourke said.
“I think everyone understands that and so I would never worry. They gave me the green light and there’s some things that we have to work out from an injury perspective and a liability kind of thing. But for me, now I owe it to myself to do my due diligence.”
Last year with the B.C. Lions, the team finished with an 11-7 record and were eliminated by the Saskatchewan Roughriders 24-21 in the West Final. Rourke suited up in all 18 regular season games for the Lions, he completed 70 percent of his passes for 5,290 yards, 31 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. For his efforts, the 27-year-old was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian.
“We’ve got a great group of guys who are living here locally in the Vancouver area with Americans and Canadians,” Rourke shared about his offseason. “We’ve got a real college feel around here with the guys training every day together. It’s getting better and we’ve got a lot of hungry guys waiting for the season to get going — May can’t come soon enough for us.”
Shifting focus to his younger brother Kurtis, Riders fans want to know how he’s doing after playing the entire 2024 NCAA season with the Indiana Hoosiers despite a torn ACL. He was selected by Saskatchewan in the third round, 25th overall during the 2025 CFL Draft and picked in the seventh round, 227th overall by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2025 NFL Draft.
“His first year in the NFL was really more of a redshirt year. They didn’t really allow him to do too much after he was coming off the ACL injury in college. They want to give him a shot, which is great. He’ll have an opportunity to compete and hopefully be on the roster this year. I think as a draft pick, they’re invested in him. They see a future with him,” Rourke said.
“I think he’s in a really good spot in an organization that doesn’t have a lot of turnover with their coaches, which is always difficult in pro sports. He’s having a really good time down there. I think it’s going to be good. I think it’s always good to have a plan B to be able to have something to fall back on. But I think for all of our sakes, we hope that he doesn’t end up donning the Green and White anytime soon.”