Now the NFL is betting the Olympics will take flag football to the next level while increasing the league’s international fan base.

Flag football, according to the International Olympic Committee, is “a no-contact sport with ‘tackles’ made by removing one of three fabric ‘flags’ attached to the ball-carrier’s waist – one on each side and another at the back”.

“There’s so much that the Olympics offer for growing football and flag football,” said Stephanie Kwok, whom the NFL hired in May as its first head of flag football. The sport “is a significant way for the NFL to introduce international countries to football”.

Kwok, a former executive at FanDuel, has a mandate to keep growing flag football and predicts that the interest generated by the Olympics will help get a pro league for women off the ground. That is a prospect NFL owners have already been talking about, according to people familiar with the discussions..

Amid the growth in girls playing flag football, the NFL and USA Football – the sport’s governing body in America – are trying to make the game a sanctioned high school and collegiate sport. And there is progress with about a dozen states and a few college conferences adopting flag football.

A women’s pro league is the “natural next step”, said Scott Hallenbeck, chief executive officer and executive director of USA Football. “It helps complete the ecosystem, and there’s enough interest from the business side.”

Viewers who tune in to flag football, which started as a recreational activity for US soldiers during World War II, will see a pared-down version of the game. Teams use five players – the NFL has 11 – and at 50 yards (45.7 metres) the field is half the size of the traditional game.

The NFL partnered with the International Federation of American Football on a programme to boost the sport’s popularity that includes starting youth camps. The IFAF, which has 75 member countries spanning Panama to Japan, has been hosting world championships for tackle and flag football for two decades. Across the globe, an estimated 20 million people play flag football, according to the organisation.

Top players have already expressed interest, and it is hard to imagine NFL players not playing for Team USA, given professional athletes already compete in lots of sports, including basketball and tennis.

For the NFL’s stars, the opportunity to participate in the Olympics can provide a lot more exposure, especially since in flag football their faces will not be hidden by a helmet.

“If I can still move around then, I’m going to try to get out there and throw the football around maybe in LA,” Patrick Mahomes, who’s quarterbacked the Kansas City Chiefs to the past two Super Bowls, said last year.

Tyreek Hill, one of the league’s best wide receivers, said on his podcast that “you know how amazing it would be to assemble a super team to play in the Olympics?”.

But there are hurdles to NFL players becoming Olympians that include how it would affect contracts and insurance. The NFL Players Association said there have not been serious discussions about its union members playing at the 2028 Olympics. There are still things that need to get worked out, the NFL’s Kwok said.