CAPTURING THE IMAGINATION
It is early in the football season.
Semi-pro, I mean, college football is just about to start.
The NFL is finishing up its annual farcical dress rehearsal.
At least we got a taste of some the lights of Friday night this weekend with the kickoff of high school football around the state.
But there was a bonus with some big-time football in Houston on Saturday.
The Vanita Krouch Show was right down the street from where the Houston Texans play.
While I’m not going to pretend that Vanita Krouch could start at quarterback for the Texans, I assure you no Texans quarterback will match the day she had in the American Flag Football League on Saturday.
And it is even more unlikely that anyone on the Texans’ roster will become a hall of famer. Krouch, a former point guard at SMU, was inducted into the United States Flag and Touch Football League National Hall of Fame in 2016.
Krouch was spectacular in a blowout victory in the league semifinals, completing 18 of 22 passes for 280 yards with seven touchdowns. The championship game was a little more challenging, but she still connected on 17 of 22 passes for 245 yards and threw three more touchdowns to lead The Academy to a 26-0 victory.
Two games, 10 touchdowns, nine incompletions. My goodness.
Krouch couldn’t play for the Texans, but right now I’d rather watch Krouch play than the Texans.
Gotta give the AFFL credit.
This is fun.
This isn’t the “two-below” you might play with the family during holiday gatherings, or some kiddie flag ball they made you play in middle school P.E. classes.
We’re talking elite skill and athleticism.
No, it isn’t the NFL — and it isn’t trying to be — but it is entertaining.
And it is challenging. While it is not a collision sport like tackle football, it is physical. Lewis said he has heard from a number of former NFL players who want to play, but their bodies can’t handle the grind.
This isn’t play time. It’s real. Leaping catches, diving grabs, and fly patterns leaving cornerbacks in the dust, or rather the moisture as was the case following Saturday’s rain delay.
Plus, there is the bonus of women playing, and there will be a coed game Sunday morning before the men’s final at Aveva Stadium, which is next to the Dynamo training facility.
From throw-offs (no kickoffs) to the four seconds a quarterback has to either throw the ball or tuck-and-run, this is a fastpaced game that fits this generation’s attention span.
Maybe you can check Twitter between plays, but you don’t want to look away too often. Anything can happen.
Jeffery Lewis started the league four years ago and has built it into a viable product with plenty of growth opportunity.
AFFL games on the NFL Network did well enough in the ratings that the league signed a deal with CBS. The men’s championship game is 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
The Sports and Fitness Industry Association says in the last decade flag Football has been the fastest growing team sport in the United States.
Just five years ago, a million more people played tackle football than flag football. Now, flag football has a 1.5-million participant edge. And the sport is growing internationally.
“The great thing about Flag is what a guy can do, a girl can do,” Krouch said. “But, you know, we aren’t as built to do the tackle collision type of sport.”
Lewis says 2021 is banner year for women’s football.
“We have women getting college scholarships to play football. Think about that,” he said. “And this year, we’re expecting several dozen junior colleges to pick up women’s football. There’s a tremendous amount of activity happening at the high school level, the junior high school level. This is really kind of, I think, a real formative moment for female football.”
In terms of participation, flag football is bigger than hockey, lacrosse and rugby combined, and Lewis believes that passion should make a professional league a success.
“It just seemed like such a natural to create a professional league with high-level play, and to put a spotlight on all these people who love this game so much,” Lewis said.
I’ll be watching.