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Flag Football

NFL to Launch Women’s Professional Flag Football League Ahead of 2028 LA Olympics

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Dee Lab | Just Women’s Sports

The NFL is putting women on the gridiron, with commissioner Roger Goodell announcing plans to launch both a men’s and women’s professional flag football league at Thursday’s Leaders in Sport conference in London.

Looking to have both new ventures up and running in “the next couple of years,” the NFL’s goal is to introduce the leagues prior to the 2028 Summer Games in LA, where flag football will make its Olympic debut.

“The demand is there. We’re seeing colleges in the States and universities internationally also that want to make it a part of their program,” Goodell said. “If you set that structure up where there’s youth leagues, going into high school, into college, and then professional, I think you can develop a system of scale. That’s an important infrastructure that we need to create.”

Building that infrastructure also feeds the ongoing NFL goal of growing flag football in order to construct a young fanbase for the gridiron sport at-large, with the league investing in a fan pipeline to support the NFL’s future.

In part due to past NFL investments, women’s flag football has seen significant growth across the US over the last 25 years, with over 30 states now offering competitive opportunities for high school girls — and at least half of those states fielding it as a full-fledged varsity championship sport.

Even the NCAA is getting in on the action, taking initial steps earlier this year to introduce flag football across all three of the governing body’s divisions in the near future.

Though the LA Olympics are three years away, flag football is already charging ahead on the international stage, featuring in the 2022 and 2025 World Games — where the same US talent that the NFL is eyeing for its new league snagged a pair of silver medals.

Women’s flag football takes center stage at World Games, with Olympics on the horizon: ‘Representation matters’

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Maggie Hendricks | Yahoo Sports

When Italian flag football player Nausicaa Dell’Orto first took up the game as a teenager, her father would throw her equipment in the trash. He told her women shouldn’t play the game, and he would sometimes emphasize his words by hitting her. But she kept playing, and the sport helped her find the strength to get away from her abusive home.

“You know, my dad used to tell me, football won’t get you anywhere,” Dell’Orto said. “You will just get hurt. It’s a waste of time. Leave it. Well, now nobody can say that to their daughter anymore, because [the sport is in the] Olympics. Their dreams are bigger than us. This is bigger than us.”

Dell’Orto and some of the world’s best flag football players are in Chengdu, China, this week for the World Games, a wide-ranging sports festival with an array of events that may not yet be at the Olympic level, like cheerleading or jiu-jitsu, and some that you may not realize exist, like korfball or tug of war.

Flag football might have started as a game you played in P.E. class, but it’s becoming a sport you won’t be able to — or want to — ignore. In 2023, flag football was added to the Olympic program for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. It’s already been growing at an exponential rate, with the NFL helping spread it worldwide and allowing its players to compete. Now, with the backing of the IOC, countries that had not previously played the sport, like China, will get the chance to face off at the World Games.

For the women gathered to play flag football in Chengdu, finding the sport changed the trajectory of their lives. It’s a sport that gave Dell’Orto strength and the ability to get away from an awful situation. She’s played on the Italian national team, is an NFL global flag football ambassador and a Jordan Brand athlete. Her father still doesn’t know what she’s accomplished in the sport.

“At some point, I started not telling him the truth and just really not having a relationship with him,” she said. “And at first I had to hide my stuff at my teammate’s house because I was 16. But then when I grew older, I was just thinking, like, hey, like, sometimes the support from your parents, it just comes naturally. Sometimes it doesn’t, and you just have to accept that the person is like that.

“You have to find your passion and your people in your passion. That’s what I found. I found my world in football. It doesn’t matter if my dad watches me or not. Doesn’t matter if he knows if I’m playing or not. The right people know I’m playing, the right people I meet at the tournaments, the people around me. When you find your passion, you find your people.”

That passion will be on display in Chengdu as eight teams vie for the championship. Mexico won the last World Games in 2022, but the U.S. won the world championship in 2024. Those two teams are expected to contend for the title, but Japan, the 2024 bronze medalists, and Austria, the best of the European teams, are also expected to have a good showing. China, Canada, Great Britain and Italy round out the field of eight.

Vanita Krouch, the quarterback of Team USA, is looking forward to not just showing how the sport has grown in popularity, but also how it has grown in technical skill. It’s not a watered-down version of tackle football. Flag is its own sport with its own strategy.

“Our dance is very different from the tackle dance. So the scheme of how we play has evolved a lot more,” Krouch said. “So over my time of playing, I just think the teams are getting so much more advanced in their scheme and creativity on the fundamental levels.”

Each team has five players on the field at a time, and the field is 70 yards by 25. Removing a player’s flag stops the movement of the ball. The game is fast, and the quarterback has to make decisions quickly as there isn’t an offensive line protecting her. Agility and the ability to make quick cuts to avoid defenders reaching for a flag are prized qualities on the flag football field.

While the sport has grown in scope and sophistication, and women like Mexico’s Diana Flores have starred in commercials for the NFL, its players aren’t quite at the level where they can quit their full-time jobs. Krouch is a physical education teacher in Texas, and is also the school’s daycare director. She routinely works 11-hour days, works out, eats, then goes back to sleep to repeat the cycle again.

“It’s our passion, and when you love something so much and it gives you the sisterhood, your lifelong friends, you’re going to sacrifice everything that you need to. The balance is really, really hard. I’m not going to lie,” Krouch said. “There’s some times where I am not wanting to hit the weight room. I’m not wanting to get my throws out there, but being that we all live remotely across the country, we’re not training together 24/7, what you do in your hometown makes a difference and it affects your teammates in your org and how you represent each other.”

Her school district in the Dallas area started classes this week. Krouch said they will have to wait to see “Coach V” in class, but she is also eager to tell her students about her experiences with the U.S. team. She wants to inspire the next generation to find their passion.

“You see it, you believe it, you want to be it,” Krouch said. “So I’ve always lived on the motto of representation matters, and to be able to represent that for my little girls, it’s amazing to be on that spot. Let them know, like you can do this, it’s happening. It’s not going anywhere, and it’s across the world. And so coming back and being that light for them. As much as they feel I’m inspiring them? The funny part is they inspire me. They’re my why to continue doing what I’m doing.”

The World Games flag football tournament starts on Wednesday evening with the U.S. playing Canada at 9 p.m. ET. You can watch on the World Games site.

Girls Flag Football on Path to be IHSAA Sanctioned Sport

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Kyle Neddenriep Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS — Since the age of 7, Ava Cousin always considered herself a basketball player. She probably always will. But last fall, at the urging of teammate Wilma Gardner and assistant coach Destiny Starks, she decided to try a new sport last fall:

Flag football.

“I didn’t think I would be very good,” Cousin said.

She was wrong. She learned the wide receiver routes and football lingo, mostly from her father, Patrick, and Lawrence North girls flag football coach Donny Mimms. Almost instantly, Cousin recognized the similarities from her familiar confines on the basketball court to the football field.

“I was actually a really good defensive player in basketball, so I was used to reading what the offensive player was doing coming down the court,” Cousin said. “I think that translated for me to be able to read the defense (as a receiver) in football.”NFL DRAFT GRADES: Recap all NFL Draft picks, grades and analysis for all 32 teams.

Lawrence North, in its inaugural flag football season, went 5-1 and won the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference championship. It was a life-changing experience in multiple ways for Cousin, who attended a talent camp at the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne and was offered a scholarship. St. Francis is the first Indiana college to offer women’s flag football and will begin play in the spring of 2026.

“We’ve been preaching about (flag football) opening doors for girls and them taking a chance on themselves,” Mimms said. “Now we have three girls signed to go to St. Francis to play flag football. Two of the girls were on the bench on the basketball team and weren’t sure what they were going to do next. To me, it’s just about having confidence in your school, your school climate and getting this opportunity to your girls. You don’t know what that opportunity is going to be.”

Girls flag football is up for vote on Monday at the Indiana High School Athletic Association board of directors meeting to officially become an “emerging” sport, as girls wrestling and boys volleyball were recently before becoming recognized IHSAA sports in 2024-25. Girls lacrosse, a spring sport, was voted through as an emerging sport in August, starting in 2025-2026.

There is a lot of momentum, support and financial backing behind girls flag football nationwide, particularly in NFL markets. Locally, the Colts made a $1 million investment from the Irsay family to help support and sustain a goal of 100 teams playing girls flag football in the fall of 2025. In its “Road to 100” initiative, the Colts will invest up to $10,000 per school to help offset the costs associated with starting a program, including jerseys and a USA Football equipment kit.

The current number of schools participating is 59 … and climbing. The standard to become a sanctioned sport is 100 schools. The sport appears to be on a track to get there after eight schools participated in an initial pilot league in 2023, followed by 27 schools participating last fall.

“The ultimate goal is to be sanctioned as a varsity sport,” said Andy Matis, the senior manager of football development for the Colts. “We’re still continuing to recruit every single day and we’ve seen a lot of growth in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend and the northwest part of the state.”

Indiana’s growth in girls flag football follows a nationwide trend. According to numbers provided by the National Federation of State High School Associations from August, participation doubled (20,875 to 42,955) in the sport from 2022-23 to 2023-24. There are already 15 states that have fully sanctioned girls flag football, including Washington just last week. The International Olympic Committee announced in 2023 women’s and men’s flag football would debut as part of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

At schools like Ben Davis and Warren Central, interest level is high. The maximum roster size is 25 players, but both schools could support junior varsity teams if there were enough opponents to play.

“You have to keep in mind what is best for the kids,” Ben Davis athletic director Heather McGowan said. “For us, there are a lot of kids who have never played a sport before. Whether they got cut in middle school for soccer or volleyball or basketball. Now there are new opportunities for kids who want to play and maybe just not talented enough to make another sport. Now, here is a brand-new opportunity for them to come in and learn together at the same pace.”

Growing the sport

Of the 32 Class 6A football programs in the state, 14 are committed to having girls flag football programs. There are another seven in 5A and 18 in 4A. There are just nine, so far, in Class 3A and lower. But 11 schools have committed that don’t even have a football program.

Laschelle Hatcher, the girls flag football coach at Ben Davis, said the opportunity to come in on the ground floor of something new and unique has been appealing for her players.

“I’ve had some girls come in and say they like coming into this because it gives them a chance to be part of a sport but also aren’t intimidated because the sport has been around for so long,” Hatcher said. “It gives them an even platform to start out at the same time and then grow with it.”

Among the larger schools in Central Indiana to start teams are Ben Davis, Cathedral, Lawernce Central, Lawrence North, North Central, Pike, Tech and Warren Central. The advantage for larger schools is more available practice space. But Mimms said it does not even take a full football field — or even half a football field — to get in a practice.

“I notice and recognize the fears, but I think you can work to overcome those barriers,” said Mimms, who added eight of the 25 players on his roster had never played another sport. “I think once (Lawrence North coach Pat Mallory) saw the momentum we had he’d say, ‘We’re going to watch film for an hour if you want the field first.’ But we’d practice on the softball field. That was our normal spot. I think any school worried about facilities, you just have get along and be creative. Every program should want another program at their school to be successful. If you want to do it, you figure out a way.”

In addition to facilities, some athletic directors have voiced concerns about taking away athletes from another sport. The fall sports slate for girls already includes golf, cross-country, soccer, volleyball and Unified flag football.

“A lot of the concerns we’ve heard are either facilities or the timing in the fall, especially from smaller schools not wanting to pull girls from other sports,” Matis said. “Especially with the absence of a state title. Our biggest growth is the bigger cities in the state. Where we’re hitting our biggest roadblock is in the rural parts of the state because of the travel for them to find seven games.”

For the upcoming fall, there is a postseason tournament planned. Teams will be required to play a seven-game regular season to be eligible for the tournament, though they can still participate in the season even if they do not meet that minimum. Teams in the MIC plan to play the same opponent in tackle and flag within the same week. There are also opportunities in flag football for multi-game events in the same day.

Ben Davis, one of the original programs to participate in a jamboree the Colts hosted in December of 2022 and part of the first eight-team league in 2023, was the first opponent for the start-up Lawrence North program last fall. Mimms had his team ready. Ben Davis scored in the final minute, winning 20-16.

“I told my girls, ‘All that stuff that makes you mad during the day, bring that out here,’” Mimms said. “I don’t think (Ben Davis) thought we’d be prepared like we were. But it was a great game all the way through. They were begging me to play them again.”

Ben Davis got upset in the MIC tournament and that rematch did not happen. But Hatcher said she has learned a lot from watching Mimms infuse the Lawrence North program with a competitive edge. He was aggressive about adding other games and finding extra practice time. There are no requirements for the number of practices, though the Colts are recommending between one and four times a week.

“He’s done a phenomenal job,” Hatcher said of Mimms. “His competitiveness is bringing it out in other coaches as well, not just the girls. I would like to learn from him and plan to take it and use it against him.”

‘I learned something new every day’

Abrielle Alexander, like Cousin, was a basketball player first. She also played goalkeeper in soccer. The Lawrence North junior had no experience with football other than watching games on NFL Sundays with the family.

Coming out for the team opened a new world for Alexander, who also played receiver for the Wildcats.

“I always thought receivers ran long routes,” Alexander said. “Then I learned you can take short routes and run. It was like, ‘Nice, I might be tired but I can still run a short route and get long yards off of that.’ I learned something new every day. We learned from each other, learn from our mistakes and more about each other.”

Mimms believes as the sport continues to grow and trickles down into the younger age groups, schools that offer girls flag football will have an advantage in attracting multi-sport athletes.

“If a girl has been playing flag football growing up or has an interest and your school doesn’t offer flag football and another school does, you are going to lose out,” Mimms said. “Some of these schools aren’t looking at the entire picture or planning for the future.”

IHSAA commissioner Paul Neidig said at the athletic directors meeting last week at Plainfield there are no emerging sports on the horizon after girls lacrosse and flag football. He said he understands the concerns over finances, facilities and administrative oversight to take on new sports. But he believes the worry over spreading athletes too thin is unfounded.

“The concern is a student may drop playing soccer to go play girls flag football,” Neidig said. “(The schools’) experience is that has not been the case. I think the whole thing with boys volleyball is we’ve seen a whole new group of kids participate and we’ve certainly seen that in (girls) wrestling. It just opens up additional opportunities.”

For Cousin, Alexander and others, doors opened that they did not even know existed before last fall.

“It is only going to get better the more teams there are,” Alexander said. “The whole experience is really fun. Our team is like a family and we’re like sisters.

NFL Considers Backers for Pro Flag Football Leagues Ahead of LA28

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Flag football was already a significant priority for the NFL. Now, the sport is about to get another boost in that accelerating development.

By Eric Fisher | Front Office Sports

ALM BEACH, Fla. — The National Football League is actively fielding inbound interest from multiple potential business partners that would be involved in a professional flag football league, sources said. The most probable structure at this point would be an entity that would be heavily supported by, but not operated by, the NFL.

NFL-supported professional flag football leagues, for both men and women, are unquestionably forthcoming. It’s just a matter of when, with soon after the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles becoming an increasingly likely timetable. 

The league has made no secret of its intense interest in promoting flag football, both in a youth participation context and a professional one—particularly in the wake of the inclusion of the sport in the 2028 Games and the potential involvement of NFL players there. Now, further steps are beginning to take shape. 

“Flag is real. All levels of flag are real. I’m really, personally, bullish on this,” said Chiefs president Mark Donovan. “When you add in all the pieces that are coming, including the things happening around women’s sports, the investment going into that, I think flag is poised to be enormous.”

Donovan continued in his view that the 2028 Olympics will be a watershed moment for the development of flag football, with “rumblings and the creation” of the pro leagues likely preceding that event, and the actual entities following. 

“I think the Olympics piece is a compelling point for any [NFL team] owner,” Donovan said. “You’re going to see us get aggressive in establishing the organizing bodies, the accreditations. … There are plenty of people who would want to invest in [this].”

Flag football is a prominent part of the NFL annual meeting being held here this week, with the three-day session kicked off in part by a session focused on women’s sports and flag football that included WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, women’s tennis icon Serena Williams, and former Giants quarterback Eli Manning. 

“It was interesting to hear Caitlin say, ‘If flag football was around when I was growing up, I might not be a basketball player,’” said Chiefs owner Clark Hunt. 

NFL EVP of club business Peter O’Reilly similarly reiterated on Monday the importance of flag football to the league. 

“It’s an entry point and the way we can scale our game. It’s girls and boys in schools,” O’Reilly said. “Since that Olympic announcement a couple of years ago, investment around the world in flag programs is huge. That obviously has a participation impact, but it also has a fandom impact in a very real way.” 

The establishment of professional flag football leagues will also very likely be joined by media contracts fetching interest from multiple bidders. 

IOC Session approves LA28’s proposal for five additional sports

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By: International Olympic Committee

Baseball/softball, cricket (T20), flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash have been officially included as additional sports on the programme for the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 (LA28). The decision has been taken by the 141st Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The five sports were proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee as a package for their edition of the Games only, and were reviewed and supported by the IOC’s Olympic Programme Commission (OPC) and Executive Board (EB).

For baseball and softball, cricket and lacrosse it will be a return to the Olympic Games, while flag football and squash will be making their Olympic debut in LA.

  • Baseball and softball have been part of the programme at several editions of the Olympic Games, most recently at Tokyo 2020.
  • Cricket was on the programme for the Olympic Games Paris 1900.
  • Lacrosse was included on the programme at St Louis 1904 and London 1908.
  • Flag football and squash will make their Olympic debut at LA28.

“The choice of these five new sports is in line with the American sports culture and will showcase iconic American sports to the world, while bringing international sports to the United States. These sports will make the Olympic Games LA28 unique,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “Their inclusion will allow the Olympic Movement to engage with new athlete and fan communities in the US and globally.”

“I have long believed that we have an incredible opportunity in Los Angeles to create the most compelling Games, not just for us, but for the world. Our Olympic sport programme, in its entirety, reflects this belief,” said LA28 Chairperson Casey Wasserman. “We are excited to embark on game-changing collaborations with major professional leagues that will unlock massive opportunities to amplify the Olympic and Paralympic story and captivate new audiences.” 

This selection of sports is the result of a thorough process and analysis based on evaluation criteria set out before the process began, including gender equality. It considered the utilisation of existing facilities, involving a wide range of sports communities both in the United States and globally, and incorporating some of the most popular sports in the United States and across the globe.

Modern pentathlon and weightlifting

The IOC Session also supported the recommendations made by the IOC EB concerning the status of modern pentathlon and weightlifting, which were not part of the initial sports programme for LA28.

  • Modern pentathlon: The IOC Session endorsed the recommendation from the IOC EB to include modern pentathlon on the LA28 sports programme, acknowledging the replacement of horse riding with obstacle racing and the optimisation work conducted by the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) to reduce costs and complexity. As noted by the IOC EB, it is essential for the UIPM to continue to implement the necessary changes in governance and modernise as an organisation. Without the replacement of horse riding with obstacle racing, the sport would not have been included in the programme.
  • Weightlifting: The IOC Session accepted the IOC EB’s recommendation to include weightlifting on the LA28 sports programme following the decision of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) to delegate its anti-doping management to the International Testing Agency (ITA), and its sanctioning to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) at least until the end of 2028. The effectiveness of the anti-doping programmes for the Paris 2024 Olympic qualification and Olympic competition will continue to be closely monitored by the IOC, as will the implementation of the governance and cultural changes adopted by the IWF.

Following the IOC Session decision to withdraw recognition of the International Boxing Association (IBA), the IOC has not recognised another governing body for Olympic boxing. Therefore, the IOC EB decided that any decision regarding the inclusion of boxing on the LA28 sports programme is put on hold, so there was no discussion of this by the IOC Session.

The other 28 sports that are part of the LA28 Olympic programme were approved by the IOC Session in February 2022.

The discipline programme was approved by the IOC EB on 13 October 2023, while the programme of events and athlete quotas will be finalised after Paris 2024. The OPC will now work on ensuring that the final athlete quota numbers for the Olympic Games LA28 remain reasonable and below the overall quota for Tokyo 2020.

Southern California high school girls’ flag football teams make official debut as popularity continues to rise

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By:  Will Conybeare, Patrick O’Connor | KTLA5

Thousand Oaks and Agoura High Schools have been battling on the gridiron since the 1960s in boys football, but a new group of players took to the field on Thursday.

Girls flag football was recently sanctioned as a high school sport in California after a unanimous vote from the California Interscholastic Federation last spring.

According to Thousand Oaks High School girls football head coach Mike Leibin, the program was popular from the start. 

“The second day we got out here, we had 51 girls,” he said. “Obviously there’s a big interest…it’s popped up at virtually every school.” 

Coaches aren’t the only ones going all in on the gridiron; the girls are having a blast too. 

“It’s nice to have another opportunity and learn new skills,” said Morgan Humphrey, who plays running back and strong safety for Thousand Oaks. 

Unlike the boys, there is no blocking, tackling or kicking in the girls’ game. Teams play seven-on-seven on an 80-yard field, and when a touchdown is scored, the girls can either attempt a one-point conversion play from the three yard line or a two-point conversion play from 10 yards out.

Other than that, it’s just football, trash talk included. 

“You can definitely hear a little bit of trash talking here and there,” said Humphrey, who now holds the school record with three interceptions in one game. “But I think that’s fun.” 

Southern California girls flag football teams make official debut
Thousand Oaks High School girls flag football coach Mike Leibin addresses his team in Thousand Oaks, California on Sept. 15, 2023. (KTLA)

The playbooks traditionally used by high school boys football teams translate well to the girls, evidenced by a well-executed hook-and-ladder by Thousand Oaks that resulted in a 40-yard gain.

“On offense, we’re running four verticals, tosses and sweeps,” Leibin said. “On defense, we play a true cover two…all stuff that translates to the boys’ game.”

Leibin, who spent 10 of his 25 years as a head coach in Ventura County with the Thousand Oaks High School’s boys team, says that he loves his new role as head of the girls team, and he credits that to being the father of two daughters.

Despite stepping down as Thousand Oaks’ head coach in 2018 so he could spend time with his daughters, Leibin knew he had to jump at the opportunity to coach the girls. 

“Somebody came out to practice [and said] ‘I can tell instantly that when you’re coaching those girls, you’re talking to your daughters’,” he said. “So, that’s definitely helped.” 

There were some struggles at the beginning; Leibin and assistant coach Jason Brown recall having to teach the girls — many of whom are experienced athletes in other sports — some of the basic fundamentals of football.

“We had to teach them how to catch,” Leibin said. “I have a ton of great soccer players on my team who have never used their hands in their life!”

And while the boys’ side of high school football has grown into a multi-million-dollar industry, these girls just want to have fun. 

“They aren’t out here trying to get a scholarship,” Leibin said. “They’re out here in the purest form…they want to come out and compete and learn a sport and play together, and as a coach, that’s the dream.” 

get a scholarship,” Leibin said. “They’re out here in the purest form…they want to come out and compete and learn a sport and play together, and as a coach, that’s the dream.” 

These Girls Are Ready For Some Football

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Oxford preparing for its first season of girls flag football, open its season at home Tuesday night

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

Girls flag football got underway in Alabama this week. Oxford plays its historic first games next Tuesday in a three-team date at Lamar Field.

All of the Lady Jackets’ games will be three-team affairs. They play at home twice this 12-game season – Tuesday and the final week of the regular season Oct. 28. A statewide, one-classification championship game will be played the Wednesday of the Super 7.

“It’s been fun,” Oxford coach Wes Brooks said of the run-up to the season opener. “You think about a girl her whole lifetime thinking what it’s like to play football and now they’re getting that opportunity.”

Nearly 60 schools around the state have declared to play the sport in this first year it’s being offered by the AHSAA. Oxford and Anniston are the only teams in Calhoun County on that list, but they will not be playing each other.

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