The NFL is set to launch professional flag football leagues for both men and women within the next couple of years, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced at the Leaders in Sport conference in London’s Twickenham Stadium on Thursday, as first reported by the Associated Press. The new leagues aim to debut ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, where flag football will make its Olympic debut as an official sport. Goodell expressed optimism about the significant interest in establishing these leagues and highlighted the growing enthusiasm for flag football worldwide.
“We’re committed to creating a women’s professional league, and a men’s professional flag league,” Goodell said. “We’ve had a great deal of interest in that and I expect that we’ll be able to do that, launch that, in the next couple of years.”
Goodell noted the rapid growth in flag-football participation at youth and collegiate levels, underscoring efforts to create a structured pipeline starting from youth leagues through high school and college, eventually reaching professional play. “If you set that structure up where there’s youth leagues, going into high school, into college and then professional, I think you can develop a system of scale. That’s an important infrastructure that we need to create,” Goodell said.
A new future for football?
Flag football has surged in popularity as a non-contact, gender-inclusive version of American football. USA Football reports youth flag football participation has increased dramatically in recent years, with nearly 1.6 million athletes ages 6 to 17 playing the sport in the U.S. in 2023 alone. The sport is especially prominent among girls and women, according to the the National Governing Body for American Football in the U.S., contributing to calls for expanded professional opportunities.
The NFL’s efforts complement recent advances at the collegiate level, with the first NCAA conference launching a varsity women’s flag football division and the sport becoming sanctioned at the high school level in multiple states. The NFL’s promotional campaigns, including featuring flag football at the Pro Bowl and supporting women’s flag football growth, are designed to foster inclusivity and break down longstanding gender barriers in football.
Flag football will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games as part of a collaborative effort involving the NFL, USA Football, and the International Federation of American Football (IFAF). This landmark inclusion reflects the sport’s broad appeal and international growth, with approximately 20 million people participating globally across more than 100 countries, according to the NFL. The Olympic spotlight is expected to amplify flag football’s visibility and inspire millions of young athletes worldwide.
The new professional flag football leagues are also viewed as an opportunity to attract new demographics to the sport, including younger fans, families, and women. NFL officials have indicated the league will leverage the fast-paced and skillful nature of flag football to create an exciting product for broadcast and streaming platforms. Major sponsors already show strong interest in supporting the league, with companies like Nike, Visa, and Toyota involved in NFL youth flag football championships, per Morning Brew, signaling promising commercial potential for the professional league.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.