BroBible
The NFL is the biggest sports league on the planet in terms of financial success, and it’s the biggest pop culture item in the United States by far. Its influence helped get Flag Football into the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
That’s not the end of the NFL’s involvment with flag football. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made it known that the league is considering starting pro flag football leagues for both men and women at his media availability in New Orleans, home of Super Bowl LIX, on Monday.
The NFL is pretty invested in flag football. Recently, they’ve turned turned youth recreational program NFL Flag into a powerhouse with over 600,000 players nationwide, and they’ve invested into making girls’ flag football a varsity sport at various high schools and college areoun the country. The Pro Bowl is flag football now as well.
The NFL understands that many parents are reticent to see their kids play tackle football at a young age and would rather them play flag. That fact, plus the fact that tackle girls football never really caught on in the USA, meant there is a lot of room for growth in flag football, and the NFL knows that.
Now, the league is looking into forming professional leagues with the Olympics looming in 2028. Here’s Sports Business Journal with more
Asked about Louisiana moving closer to sanctioning high school girls flag football, Goodell said he’s encouraged to see such strong participation from girls and women in what has historically been a one-gender sport.
“That’ll be a big part of the Olympics in a few years,” Goodell said. “But it’s also something that we want to look at all levels, the youth level all the way up, and we’re exploring very aggressively now an opportunity to create a professional-type league for both men and women.”
The conversations are preliminary and could still go in several directions, a league source said. The NFL could be the lead organizer of these pro flag leagues, or it be more of a collaborator. The interest from investors includes entities not involved with the NFL, the source said.
“This is something that we’ve been working on for several months,” Goodell said. “And there’s a tremendous amount of interest from players, from investors, to people who recognize, particularly, that women sports are in a place where it’s real and it’s something we all want to be part of.”
It seems like a pro flag football league run by the NFL is something that could absolutely be happening in the near future.
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