Flag football in the Olympics? Team USA’s gold medal showing at the World Games had a Philly influence

Bruce Mapp says his dreams of playing wide receiver in the NFL “looked very promising” leading up to his senior year of college.

The Philadelphia product started playing football when he was 11 with the Overbrook Monarchs, a youth team, and he later helped lead West Catholic to a state title his junior year of high school. Mapp earned a football scholarship to play at Coastal Carolina, and he was named first team All-Big South his junior year with the Chanticleers. He currently ranks fourth on the South Carolina school’s list for career receiving yards (2,438).

But Mapp wasn’t drafted in 2017 following his graduation, and after he explored several other avenues — he attended his hometown Eagles’ 2017 Local Day workout and also tried to latch on with a Canadian Football League team — Mapp decided in 2018 that a pro football career was not in the cards.

“That was tough,” says Mapp, 28. “It’s a game I’d been playing since I was a kid, but I decided to give up those dreams. I was trying to figure out what was next in my life. I had a bachelor’s degree [and an MBA], but football was always the main priority.”

Mapp didn’t abandon football altogether. He briefly coached at West Catholic High School, his alma mater, and started playing flag football games around Philadelphia “just for fun” on Sundays and Wednesdays, and he was reunited with many of his high school teammates and opponents.

“I got hooked,” says Mapp.

Mapp says his flag football career really “took off” when he moved to Dallas in December 2018. While Mapp continued to play flag football recreationally in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, he also was getting started with his own food truck business — called “So Icy” — which serves Philadelphia-style water ice, soft pretzels, and, yes, cheesesteaks.

Before long, however, Mapp’s football skills caught the attention of Team USA talent evaluators.

“In April 2019, I was told, ‘You’re on the radar for Team USA,’” says Mapp. “I’m like, ‘What?’ Flag football has a national team?’”

He got an invite to Team USA in 2020, and his star has only continued to rise in the fast-growing sport — which has men’s and women’s national teams that fall under the USA Football umbrella. Last month, Mapp, along with former Imhotep football player Aamir Brown, helped Team USA beat Italy, 46-36, to win a gold medal at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. Mapp says he hopes that the next medal he can chase will be of the Olympic variety.

“It looks like (flag football) is set for 2028 (Olympics) in Los Angeles, especially after all the good feedback we just got from the World Games,” says Mapp.

The International Olympic Committee ultimately holds the final decision on which sports can be included in the Summer Games, but the NFL already has partnered with the International Federation of American Football — the sports’ international governing body — and NFL executive and former Eagles player Troy Vincent recently told the Associated Press that “the ultimate goal” is for flag football to be part of future Olympic Games.

There are only five players on both offense and defense of a flag football game, and the sport’s field dimensions — 30 yards by 70 yards — are smaller than those of tackle football fields. Mapp says that the changes mean players have to make some major adjustments on both sides of the ball.

“Receivers have to run quicker routes, and you have to be more creative in your routes, sometimes double or triple the moves because there’s not a lot of space to operate,” says Mapp. “The quarterbacks are rushed every play, and with no blockers.”

Mapp says defenders, however, have the roughest assignment, and can be quickly humbled on any play.

“Ask any former (gridiron) player who now plays flag football defense. It is harder to pull a flag off than it is to make an open-field tackle,” says Mapp.

Mapp’s on-field highlights have landed him on ESPN and NFL.com video spots, but his food truck has also received some TV shout-outs. In July, CBS Mornings interviewed Mapp about his flag football career and his “So Icy” business.

“It’s doing well,” Mapp says of his food truck. “They’ve never really had water ice down here in Texas. No Rita’s. When I moved here, my girlfriend said, ‘We have snow cones.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do these hot summers in Dallas without water ice.

“I’m glad I got to bring a taste of Philly here and start the business.”

Mapp, who is a father to nearly 2-year-old daughter Brooklynn, says he still gets “a lot of love” from his Philly roots — family, former coaches, friends and players — for both his new football path and his nascent entrepreneurial success.

“I have a lot of people telling me, ‘I didn’t know flag football was this big!’ Now other players want to get into it after having seen me,” says Mapp. “I get a lot of good feedback.”