What is flag football?: The newest Olympic sport
Headlines were made and eyes were raised when flag football was among the five sports added to the program for the 2028 Olympic games in Los Angeles.
Commonly known as ‘flag’, it is a non-contact faster-paced version of American football played by smaller teams, on a smaller field. Think tag rugby, or five-a-side football, but with American football rules.
Flag has been around for decades, but as the NFL looks to expand globally, it has become a terrific marketing tool for the league. It is now one of the fastest growing sports not just across the pond, but the entire planet.
The Pro Bowl is the league’s end of season all-star event, and since 2022 the flagship game has switched to a flag contest. It has been a huge hit.
An often dull game full of players trying to avoid an injury, has shifted to a high scoring, faster, shorter, and safer spectacle.
In Britain, flag football is booming too. As part of their growing commitment to the UK market, the Jacksonville Jaguars launched Jag Tag in 2015.
87,000 children are currently playing flag football through the initiative in UK schools, with many progressing on to teams run by the British American Football Association, who also have their own in-school program.
Seeing flag on the world’s stage at the Olympics will only encourage more children and schools to take part in initiatives like these, especially if Great Britain win medals.
Britain’s women are the reigning European champions, after beating 2019 winners Spain in Limerick last August, and as with England’s Lionesses, their recent success is having a big impact.
April sees the NFL Girls Flag Football League begin its second season. It is a Nike sponsored all-girls league in London, supported by the New York Jets and Chicago Bears, which has more than doubled in participants for its second year.
There is no WNBA or WSL in American football. Flag helps bridge a gap for a sport that has often failed to be inclusive. There are men’s, women’s, and mixed teams at every level of flag football, and at youth level, international teams are entirely mixed until under-16’s.
Nausicaa Dell’Orto, captain of the Italian women’s national team, and an NFL global flag ambassador, believes that mixed teams can develop better characters.
“With mixed teams, boys learn to respect women at a young age”, she says. “They get tackled by girls, and may get embarrassed by them. Because of that they learn to respect women in sports.”
Dell’Orto says it allows teammates to “become like brothers and sisters on the field”, and helps young boys grow into better men.
“Once you understand that women deserve respect on the field, you will respect them outside of a sporting context as well,” says Dell’Orto.
Flag is proving a popular choice in schools, and BAFA head of youth flag Kenny Bello attributes the recent rise in popularity to it offering a “level playing ground for so many people.”
“It's such a rare team sport, because you can’t rely on really good individuals or athletes at all. It means that they all must find ways to involve each other,” he says.
“We've also found that, especially in their early teens, girls are often better than the boys because they've done more team and hand based sports.
“We're in a bit of a perfect storm right now, with the Olympics to look forward to, the NFL taking a real interest, and when you couple in the accessibility, everything is just working together,” Bello says.
Unlike other sports, American football is difficult to play at grassroots, or amateur level because a large amount of expensive equipment is required. Flag solves that problem too.
There is no need for helmets and pads, and gloves aren’t essential, the only requirement would be some type of cleats, or football boots.
The current crop of NFL superstars are the first to have grown up properly playing the non-contact version of the game, and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy is a perfect example of the benefits.
Purdy grew up playing flag before starting tackle football aged 12, and Bello believes that has helped him become an All-pro quarterback.
“He was able to focus more on learning the game, than worrying about being hit,” he says, “You can see that in the way he plays and reads the field now.
“I might eat my hat on this one in about three or four years, but I think it starts to rival the likes of tag rugby,” says Bello.
“Rugby is a staple in the UK, but I don't believe that it has the marketing power of the NFL.
“Compared to tackle football, flag is incredibly safe, is cheap to set up, and you could fit three or four games on one football pitch,” he says.
“There's so much you can do with it, and we’re only getting started, I think it gets really big in the UK.”