WATCH: Former NFL WR Joe Horn thinks fans would pay to see flag football

Would you pay to watch elite athletes play flag football? Former NFL wide receiver Joe Horn thinks so, and he wants the league to make massive changes in an effort to protect players.

In an interview USA Today Sports’ Tom Schad, the four-time Pro Bowler said he hopes the NFL eventually evolves into a league much safer than the one he played in.

“I think it should be flag football,” he said. “I think the fans would still pay to see it.”

Horn spent 12 years in the NFL, including seven seasons with the New Orleans Saints, and was one of several players that settled a class-action concussion lawsuit with the NFL, which went into effect on January 2017.

“It’s hard to make it safe now,” Horn said. “It’s hard for a guy to go full speed at you and stop in the middle of him going full speed, duck his head and not hit you with the helmet that he has on.”

Horn also told USA Today Sports that he’s happy with the progress the league has taken to better protect players, but that he hopes his three sons — one of whom is chasing a roster spot with the Baltimore Ravens — end up in a safer era of the NFL.