USA Football trims Rivalry Series rosters ahead of Canada showdown

USA Football cut its Rivalry Series pools from 24 athletes to 18 after the second spring training camp in Chula Vista. The June 19 meeting with Canada in Los Angeles followed, with the men’s and women’s games folded into the Summer Series at Dignity Health Sports Park, which ran June 17-21 and also included the Junior International Cup, Select Bowl and Stars & States, with more than 1,000 athletes, coaches and team personnel on site.

The final 12-player World Championship rosters and alternates will be chosen after the Summer Series. USA Football built the pool as a blend of elite talent, former college and professional players, returning world champions and crossover athletes from basketball, tackle football and track and field. Darrell Doucette remained the most recognizable anchor on the men’s side.

The U.S. men have won five straight IFAF Flag Football World Championships, including two with Doucette at quarterback, and the women have captured the last three world titles. The 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championships are set for August 13-16 in Düsseldorf, Germany, with 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams from 19 nations across five continents. The fields were finalized in October 2025, and IFAF places the event on the LA28 qualification pathway, though the IOC qualification system still awaited final approval.

In IFAF rankings before the Los Angeles meeting, the Americans were No. 2 and Canada No. 4, and Canada has won the women’s world title twice, in 2010 and 2014. The United States beat Canada 39-31 in group play at The World Games in Chengdu in 2025, and USA Football entered the cycle off the men’s team’s undefeated run to co-champion status at the 2025 IFAF Americas Flag Continental Championship and the women’s silver at that event plus bronze at The World Games.