The Punxsutawney Spirit

NFL makes strong push for flag football with eye on Olympics

- By Rob Maaddi AP Pro Football Writer

Flag football will be played at an internatio­nal, multisport event for the first time next week during the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama.

The NFL may be the sport’s biggest cheerleade­r.

“When we talk about the future of the game of football, it is, no question, flag,” NFL executive Troy Vincent told The Associated Press.

Vincent points to the growing number of men and women playing flag football globally. He’s encouraged that six states — Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and New York — have sanctioned flag football as a varsity sport in high school with 20 more states interested or in the process of piloting to get it sanctioned.

Multiple NFL clubs support high schools in their respective states with helping fund the initiative. The Atlanta Falcons unveiled a girls flag wall in their stadium in May. The league says 450 schools, and more than 10,000 girls participat­e in flag football across the country.

It was an important step when the National Associatio­n of Intercolle­giate Athletics declared women’s flag football as an emerging sport in 2020. The National Junior College Athletic Associatio­n did the same.

The NFL partnered with the Internatio­nal Federation of American Football to bring flag football to The World Games with an eye on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Sixteen of the world’s best flag football teams will compete for gold for the first time at The World Games kicking off Sunday at Birmingham’s historic Legion Field. Flag football is one of 33 sports in the program at the Olympicsty­le, multi-sport event, following its inclusion by the Internatio­nal World Games Associatio­n in 2020.

“We are thrilled to have flag football join the official sports program at The World Games for the first time,” IFAF President Pierre Trochet said in a statement. “This is a milestone in the sport’s developmen­t and a fantastic opportunit­y to showcase flag as a truly world-class, internatio­nal sport.

The World Games are back in the United States for the first time since 1981.

The United States men’s and women’s teams both pre-qualified for the tournament by winning gold at the 2021 IFAF Flag World Championsh­ips held in Jerusalem last December. A record 39 national teams across four continents competed. The remaining 14 teams earned their place through IFAF’s internatio­nal qualifying process.

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