{"id":576466,"date":"2026-04-02T02:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T02:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576466\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T02:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T02:39:09","slug":"philpot-twins-rourke-among-cfl-players-chasing-olympic-flag-football-dream-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576466\/","title":{"rendered":"Philpot twins, Rourke among CFL players chasing Olympic flag football dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Twins Tyson and Jalen Philpot, receivers with the Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders, are shown left to right in this handout photo.Kevin Sousa\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The L.A. Summer Games offer twins Tyson and Jalen Philpot a chance to return to their football roots.<\/p>\n

Flag football will make its Olympic debut in 2028, with Canada chasing a spot in the inaugural event. The receivers from Delta, B.C., are entering their fifth CFL seasons \u2013 Tyson with the Montreal Alouettes, Jalen with the Calgary Stampeders \u2013 but their first taste of football came in flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be the player I am without flag football,\u201d Jalen Philpot said Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s where I was really exposed to real coaching and critiques.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyson and I would definitely love to get back out there and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

CFL and NFL players will be allowed to play in Los Angeles. Canada hasn\u2019t qualified yet, but can punch its ticket at this summer\u2019s world championships in Germany.<\/p>\n

The top two teams at the women\u2019s and men\u2019s events will garner Olympic berths. If the U.S. reaches either final, the top-three squads will advance, as the Americans already have spots as the host.<\/p>\n

Flag football differs from the tackle version, with five players per side on a 70-yard by 25-yard field, no blocking or contact, and action stopping when the ball carrier\u2019s flag is pulled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the conversation started about CFL players potentially playing in Los Angeles, the first thing was, \u2019What rules are they playing?\u2019\u201d Jalen Philpot said. \u201cWhen I saw it was the same rules we played growing up, I was kind of giddy because it\u2019s something we\u2019d played since we were eight years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyson Philpot didn\u2019t just play flag football \u2013 he also officiated it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I know the ins and outs, what you can and cannot do,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I got that opportunity, it\u2019s something I\u2019d love, but you\u2019ve got to give all the credit to the guys who are qualifying the team and making sure we even get a chance at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d want to ensure it\u2019s a fair competition, and I\u2019d love to compete with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Nathan Rourke has been playing flag football through this CFL off-season to learn the game and strengthen his chances of landing a spot on Team Canada for the 2028 Summer Olymics in L.A.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

National flag coach Paul LaPolice, a veteran CFL coach, is open to professionals playing in Los Angeles but said last week they will have to earn their roster spots.<\/p>\n

An advantage the Philpots see is that they played both offence and defence when they played flag football.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way Tyson and I made our money when we played flag is we were pretty good flag-pullers,\u201d Jalen Philpot said. \u201cYour hand-eye co-ordination must be really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyson Philpot said the brothers could make the transition from offence to defence seamlessly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve never played defence or moved in a backwards position, it\u2019s definitely hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another CFL player interested in representing Canada in Los Angeles is Nathan Rourke of the B.C. Lions. Last season\u2019s top Canadian and most outstanding player, the Victoria-born quarterback is playing in a B.C. recreational league to get fully acclimated to flag football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely is different,\u201d Rourke said. \u201cThe snap, sometimes you\u2019re 10 yards back, and in flag the ball is in the air much longer, and your eyes are off the defence, so that was something I had to get used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

In flag football, a defensive player rushes the quarterback each snap and is untouched.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou definitely have to use arm angles,\u201d Rourke said. \u201cYour eyes have to navigate that person because if you have a tall, long and fast rusher, he\u2019s going to be a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in the recreational league, I played against a guy who was pretty good, and he tipped a couple of balls on me. I\u2019d expect on the Olympic stage they\u2019re going to have somebody that\u2019s pretty freaking good at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rourke also grew up playing flag football, but it was with seven players aside on a regular field. When the possibility of playing Olympic football became real, Rourke understood he had to work to prepare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I wasn\u2019t going to be able to just show up,\u201d he said. \u201cI was going to need to put the work in to not only earn the spot but get to a place where I felt like I could give it the best shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a kid, I never really grew up thinking about playing on the Olympic stage. Now that it\u2019s a possibility, I think I owe it to myself to try to see it through.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Philpots were teammates in flag football and at the University of Calgary before being drafted by their respective CFL teams in 2022. Reuniting on an Olympic stage is something they\u2019d cherish.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh man, that would be a bucket list dream come true,\u201d Tyson Philpot said. \u201cTo win an Olympic medal, in general, with my twin, I don\u2019t know of many people who could say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Jalen: \u201cThat would be so cool. I\u2019d love to give Canada the respect it deserves in football.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Twins Tyson and Jalen Philpot, receivers with the Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,521,875,522,520,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-576466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadian-news","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}