Today, football remains one of the most popular professional sports in the United States. American football, however, has become associated with concussions and other serious injuries over the years, discouraging an increasing number of young people from participating in full-contact football.
Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped the NFL from reinventing itself or at least instilling new hope in football fans. One method is to bring their new product, flag football, to more prestigious events.
Flag football is a sport played by two teams of five players each on a 50-yard-by-25-yard field with 10-yard end zones, with tackles made by removing a flag from their belt.
When a team crosses the midfield line, they are given a new set of four downs. Teams can go for one extra point by scoring from five yards out or two extra points by scoring from ten yards out. Games are played in 20-minute halves with rosters of 15 players.
According to the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent, the league views flag football as the future of football and will take this idea seriously.
“When we talk about the future of the game of football, it is, no question, flag,” Vincent stated to The Associated Press.
He added that the NFL considers flag football as an all-inclusive sport in which anyone should be able to participate.
“When I’ve been asked over the last 24 months, in particular, what does the next 100 years look like when you look at football, not professional football, it’s flag.
It’s the inclusion and the true motto of ‘football for all.’ There is a place in flag football for all,” he explained.
This new breed of American football is currently making its debut at the Birmingham 2022 World Games, a non-Olympic sporting event hosted by the United Nations.
According to USA Football, the 16-team World Games tournaments were the first time flag football was included in an international, multi-sport event. The flag football games have eight women’s and eight men’s teams from ten countries on three continents that compete in Alabama.
On Thursday night, the U.S. men’s flag football team made history by winning their first-ever for World Games gold medal.
Bid flag football for Olympics
The NFL is also attempting to have American flag football included in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. They announced Wednesday that Vincent would collaborate with the president of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), Pierre Trochet, as co-chairs of the “Vision28” group, to make this plan a reality.
The Vision28 group will gather key executives and ambassadors from the IFAF, NFL, and American football to demonstrate what flag football can offer Los Angeles 2028.
“This joint leadership sends a clear message about the strength of our shared belief in everything flag football can bring to the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement,” Trochet noted.
The motivation for the NFL to join the campaign to include flag football in the Olympics appears self-evident. Bringing American football, in any form, to the world’s largest sporting stage. Moreover, the NFL sees obvious commercial opportunities in flag football and is planning for the future by laying the groundwork for its survival.
Flag football is not the only sport being considered for the Los Angeles Olympics. After a brief appearance in Tokyo, baseball and softball will try to return to the Olympics. The International Cricket Council is also urging its league to bid for the 2028 Olympics. Flying disc, lacrosse, sambo, and teqball are also expected to be candidates.