Everyone is crazy about flag football What has led to the emergence of this new sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games?

In Europe, the general public is used to calling it American Football because of the sport’s widespread popularity in the United States and Canada. Its original name would actually be Gridiron football — or simply Football, a definition that would create confusion on this side of the Atlantic with a much more popular sport, soccer — a name that refers to a cooking grid, whose etymology derives from the parallel lines drawn on the first playing fields both latitudinally and longitudinally, creating a grid-like pattern.

Since, in its most popular eleven-a-side version played in the NFL, it is an extremely physical and violent sport that requires specific protective equipment, it is rather difficult to practice outside of dedicated facilities and settings, an aspect that has limited its global spread until now. For this very reason, however, numerous variations have also emerged in North America. Amateur versions, such as touch and street football, the former designed to limit the violence of tackles, the latter created to overcome the lack of facilities or equipment. Professional versions, such as Arena Football, which is played indoors.

And then there is flag football, which has become so popular that it has earned a place among the disciplines featured at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, following its recognition by the International Olympic Committee.

What is flag football?

This variation can trace its roots all the way back to the Second World War, when it was developed as a recreational activity for soldiers, designed to help prevent injuries. The sport’s birthplace is in fact recognised as Fort Meade, Maryland, a strategic installation established by the United States Army between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, which became a major centre for intelligence and cybersecurity.

Its very nature is also what sets the discipline apart from Gridiron: it is a non-contact sport, where traditional tackles are replaced by defenders removing the flags attached to the belts of offensive players, or ball carriers — hence the term flag. There are two flags, one on each side and one at the back, and the attacking player is not allowed to protect them with their hands.

The rest works more or less like American Football. There is a quarterback, whose job is to throw the ball to receivers running towards a specific target. This can be the halfway line, which must be reached within four attempts, known as downs, or the goal line, or end zone, which can likewise be reached within four plays once the first boundary has been crossed. Compared to Football, the quarterback is more restricted when running with the ball: they can only operate within a limited area of a few yards rather than starting a run, and can be blitzed by a designated opposing defender, albeit within certain spatial limitations. Once possession is lost and a team fails to reach its objective, the ball is handed to the other team, switching offence and defence.

The most traditional version is played five-a-side, on a field measuring 64 metres long and 27 metres wide — 70x30 yards according to the US measurement system — with the game divided into two 20-minute halves. In the event of overtime, the team that scores wins, following the sudden-death format. As for scoring, six points are awarded when the goal line is crossed for a touchdown, giving the attacking team the chance to earn extra points — one, if an additional play is completed from the five-yard line; two, from the ten-yard line. Two points can also be earned by the defence in a situation known as a safety, when they manage to pull the ball carrier’s flags inside the end zone.

The importance of the women’s movement

The rise of flag football stems from its approach, which is designed to prevent injuries and reduce costs, but its recent boom in the United States — and consequently around the world — is the result of its enormous growth at school level as a predominantly women’s sport.

It was as far back as 2002 that the state of Florida officially recognised flag football as a women’s high school sport, a milestone that, ahead of the 2026/27 season, will have been reached by a total of 22 states, while another 19 classify the discipline as an emerging sport, incorporating it into dedicated programmes. Among high school sports, it is the fastest-growing discipline in the women’s category, with a 60% year-on-year increase recorded by official school sports bodies in 2025. According to the Times, the Los Angeles area has more girls’ flag football teams (91) than boys’ American football teams (71).

In 2020, the first steps were also taken at college level, when the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), in partnership with the NFL, became the first collegiate sports organisation to recognise the sport at a competitive level. Following several independent promotional campaigns launched by numerous programmes across American university divisions, the definitive breakthrough came in January 2026, when flag football was unanimously added to the NCAA’s Emerging Sports for Women programme.

This represents a fundamental turning point for the entire movement, since the requirements for entering the programme — whose ultimate goal is the establishment of a collegiate championship — initially call for at least forty universities to offer the sport. That will provide the foundation, while NCAA projections estimate that more than sixty schools are planning to promote flag football from this season onwards, also thanks to the incentives provided by inclusion in the programme — including scholarships and funding to hire specialised staff.

The University of Nebraska was pioneering in this respect with its announcement that flag football would be added to its collegiate programme as a women’s varsity sport. The school, which belongs to a power conference — meaning one of the most prominent and prestigious groups within the NCAA — had not added a new sport since beach volleyball in 2013, highlighting just how significant this recognition is.

The NFL’s investment

As an accessible and inclusive sport, it is obviously an investment with significant potential. The recognition of flag football at collegiate level as a competitive women’s sport is particularly significant in this respect, especially because the men’s professional counterpart is still trying to figure out how to build a league.

The creation of the American Flag Football League actually dates back to 2017, but with a semi-professional competitive role largely made up of amateur-level athletes. The development of the league towards the next level proved to be a failure, as the announcement of a four-franchise league has received no practical follow-up since 2024, with no further updates apart from logistical delays that were expected to be resolved in 2025.

A breath of fresh air came from the NFL’s multiple investments, which have provided an important financial foundation for the development of NCAA women’s programmes as well. The NFL Flag programme was established as early as 2020 to promote the sport globally at youth and amateur level, launching campaigns aimed at developing the discipline as a cornerstone of women’s sports. Then-Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson became the president and CEO of NFL Flag, lending his highly recognisable profile at the time — and potentially now a future Hall of Famer — to an initiative still in its early stages.

Five years later, following numerous announcements but little in the way of tangible results, the NFL finally made a historic decision. The league’s teams voted in favour of financing the launch of a professional flag football league, committing approximately $32 million through 32 Equity, the NFL’s collective investment vehicle. The plans call for the creation of a professional flag football league for both men and women in spring 2027, on the eve of the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

How did flag football make it to the Olympic Games?

American Football has never managed to receive the green light from the International Olympic Committee to take part in the Games, as it is considered too risky and has limited global reach. From this perspective, the inclusion of flag football among the Olympic disciplines for the first time — alongside cricket, squash, baseball / softball and lacrosse, with just two votes against out of a total of ninety — is revolutionary. It is also the result of years of joint efforts by the major American governing bodies.

In 2022, Pierre Trochet, president of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), and Troy Vincent Sr., NFL executive vice president of football operations, were appointed CEOs of Vision28, a strategic partnership with the primary goal of bringing flag football to the programme of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The NFL’s role was crucial from a promotional standpoint, focusing on targeted events organised in a timely manner to increase the sport’s popularity.

During Super Bowl LVII, also in 2022, Olympic officials present at State Farm Stadium had the opportunity to watch a flag football game between the Mexican and United States national teams. From 2023 onwards, during the NFL Pro Bowl All-Star Game, a series of three flag football games between the Conference teams was also introduced among the various events and exhibitions, played on the main Sunday of the weekend. During the 2023 and 2024 editions, the Pro Bowl event also hosted the world championships organised by the NFL Flag programme, the premier youth flag football competition, featuring hundreds of youth rosters from the United States and dozens of international teams.

In terms of genuine global visibility, however, this promotional work began with the inclusion of flag football in the 2022 World Games in Birmingham. The event brings together sports that are not recognised as Olympic disciplines and is held every four years, beginning in the year following the Olympic Games. For its first global appearance at Legion Field Stadium, flag football featured both a men’s and a women’s tournament, with eight and ten teams respectively representing ten countries across three continents. At the 2025 World Games in Chengdu, China, only the women’s tournament was held.

Tom Brady is the global ambassador for flag football

The NFL has given its players the green light to take part in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, while imposing some restrictions on the number of participants allowed for each national team and awaiting final approval from the US federation. One thing is certain: flag football has no shortage of star power. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has been named an ambassador for the sport ahead of the 2028 Olympics and appeared in an NFL promotional video in which he lit the torch at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum by throwing a flaming football.

A huge boost has also come from the man widely considered the GOAT of American Football, Tom Brady. He served as the ambassador for the Flag Football Classic, a three-team tournament held on March 21, 2026, featuring Team USA Football, the official IFAF men’s national team, alongside two teams made up of NFL stars and former stars — Founders FFC and Wildcats FFC. The former was captained by Brady and Jalen Hurts, while the latter was led by Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels. The US national team dominated the competition, benefiting from NFL players’ limited familiarity with the discipline, but the stars remained proactive throughout, although Brady used the event to dismiss the possibility of competing at the Olympics himself.

The exhibition was organised solely to bring together the biggest names in American Football and promote the new Olympic discipline. It was organised by Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics, OBB Media, Tom Brady and FOX Sports, ensuring a national broadcast and global media exposure. It also served as a last-minute test for BMO Stadium, the flag football venue for Los Angeles 2028 and the newest facility among those selected, having opened in 2018. The stadium was chosen for the event due to geopolitical tensions in the area initially designated to host it in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The VIPs of flag football

The first international flag football showcase had already taken place in October 2025, making use of another Olympic venue, this time from the London 2012 Olympic Games. At the Copper Box Arena, inside the British capital’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, an exhibition game brought together numerous celebrities, including former NFL stars Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, women’s flag football standouts such as Diana Flores and Ashlea Klam, and creators including Khaby Lame and Deestroying.

The event was organised by the NFL and YouTube, who then replicated the format at Super Bowl LX in San Francisco in February 2026 with an exhibition game between two teams, one captained by singer-songwriter J Balvin and the other by creator Druski. They respectively featured NFL legends Cam Newton and Michael Vick as quarterbacks. Considering the 2025 Super Bowl edition as well, which featured a showdown between iShowSpeed and Kai Cenat, this marked the third collaboration between the NFL and YouTube aimed at promoting flag football ahead of Los Angeles 2028.

Among the VIPs who are contributing to the sport’s virality, albeit unintentionally, is former NBA champion Rajon Rondo. Having retired from basketball in 2022 as one of the most renowned and creative point guards of the 21st century, he appeared in a series of videos playing quarterback and making spectacular plays. Shared by sports accounts looking to boost engagement, the clips were accompanied by the false claim that he was the best player in the United States at the position. Although none of this is true and the footage was clearly shot on amateur playing fields, it has nevertheless helped get the general public even more excited about flag football.

Good news for Italy

The inclusion of flag football among the Olympic disciplines is good news for the Italian national team on several fronts. From a structural standpoint, the sport’s premier international competition is the IFAF World Championship, in which Italy has been competing for some time. The country has also hosted an edition, in Grosseto in 2014, where the men’s team won a bronze medal — the second after the one claimed in 2010 — adding to an excellent fourth-place finish more recently, in 2021.

These achievements are joined by the men’s silver medal at the 2022 World Games and the gold medal at the 2025 European competition, IFAF EuroFlag, after four consecutive runner-up finishes. Above all, however, there is the final reached at the recently concluded World Championships in Düsseldorf, a historic achievement that secured Olympic qualification for Los Angeles 2028, despite the defeat to the United States in the final.

Although the women’s national team has yet to match these successes and is still searching for its first international medal, the foundations are solid in both categories. The Italian women’s Under-17 team won the previous edition of the IFAF Youth European Championships, which will be held in Italy for the third consecutive time in 2026, further demonstrating that the country is a major force in the sport at international level.

It is also worth noting that one of the stars of the women’s national team, Nausicaa Dell’Orto, was appointed a Global Ambassador for the sport by the NFL and IFAF in 2022, actively promoting flag football and American Football as a creator for DAZN and NFL Films. Her popularity reached its peak in recent months, when she was selected as one of the athletes chosen to carry the Olympic torch ahead of the Milano Cortina Winter Games.

These results and the sport’s growing popularity are also the product of investment in the discipline by the CONI, which approved the LA28 project put forward by the Italian Federation of American Football, a strategic plan designed to support both the men’s and women’s national teams on their journey towards the Olympic Games. Italy’s leading flag football athletes, in preparation for recent competitions, were hosted by the CONI Institute of Sports Medicine and Science at the ‘Giulio Onesti’ Olympic Training Centre in Rome, where they underwent pioneering testing in the field.

The programme included neuromuscular and metabolic assessments, alongside a specific preparation programme that has already delivered results at the European competition in Düsseldorf and is set to be replicated ahead of the Los Angeles Olympic Games in two years’ time. The goal is, of course, a medal — one that would be even more historic in the context of the Olympic Games, given that it would be the first ever awarded in flag football.