4 Chiefs who might be included on an Olympic football team

If you’ve been watching the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, you might have wondered what might happen if American football was one of the sports that is part of the quadrennial competition.

CBS Sports writer Cody Benjamin spent enough time wondering about it to select a Team USA Olympic football team, which he published on Tuesday.

Four Kansas City Chiefs are on the team that Benjamin selected.

Myself, I would have taken Chris Jones instead of DeForest Buckner... but opinions vary.

While the sport probably doesn’t have enough worldwide interest to become part of the Olympics — at least not yet — it’s still fun to think about. Now that Olympians are permitted to be professional athletes, current NFL players would certainly be eligible to compete — although given that it might conflict with the beginning of their team training camps, the timing of their Olympic participation might be a little tricky.

It’s also likely that after the rest of the world spent decades trying to compete against American basketball teams — which have won 15 Olympic gold medals in the 18 Summer Games in which they have participated — they might be a little leery about introducing another uniquely American sport.

Still... it’s intriguing to imagine Mahomes, Kelce, Hill, Mathieu — and if I had it my way, Jones — on the center platform as the “Star-Spangled Banner” plays.