Plans for an NFL-supported flag football league took a major step forward Wednesday, with teams voting to invest up to $32 million in total to support the “development and launch” of a pro flag league.
The vote, held virtually during a league meeting, gives 32 Equity—the NFL’s investment arm—the ability to “enter into an agreement with a partner” to operate the planned league. Approval was unanimous, a source familiar with the matter tells Front Office Sports. There are 32 NFL teams, so the $32 million total is equivalent to each team committing $1 million.
Troy Vincent Sr., EVP of football operations for the NFL, said in Wednesday’s statement that the vote “represents a critical step in establishing flag football as a premier global sport.”
“We are developing the infrastructure to accelerate the game’s growth to new heights by creating a clear pathway for aspiring athletes to progress from youth and high school programs through college and now to the professional level,” he added.
Flag football is having a moment. The NFL has been fielding inbound interest from partners for months, and it has been expected that the most likely structure would be an entity that the league supports, but doesn’t operate. A source familiar with the league’s thinking told FOS in May that there were “more than a dozen parties” still in the mix as potential partners. By October, that had narrowed to two, according to Bloomberg: TMRW Sports, the company founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy that launched indoor golf league TGL, and a group led by former NFL running back Curtis Martin that also includes former Bucks part-owner Marc Lasry.
A representative for the NFL told FOS Wednesday the league is “not commenting on specific partners at this stage, but there has been tremendous interest in the marketplace in developing a professional flag football league.”
The NFL’s planned push into flag football comes as the sport is gearing up for its Olympic debut during the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In February, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league was looking into starting both men’s and women’s pro flag leagues. A source familiar with the matter told FOS Wednesday there will be one league that features both men’s and women’s teams. The NFL also intends to sell media rights for the planned venture.
The league didn’t say when the new flag league might launch, although the expectation is it will begin play sometime after the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Earlier this month, the Jets committed $1 million to a new women’s college flag football venture from the Eastern College Athletic Conference that will begin play in February. That $1 million commitment was made via a grant from The Betty Wold Johnson Foundation—a philanthropic organization named for the mother of Jets owner Woody Johnson.
Participation in youth flag football is booming. The International Federation of American Football—the global governing body responsible for growing American football around the world—reported earlier this year that 2.4 million kids under 17 are playing organized flag football in the U.S., with millions more worldwide.
Overall, there are 20 million flag football players worldwide, the NFL said in Wednesday’s statement. The sport is offered at the high school level in 38 states, and “hundreds of colleges and universities” offer flag football, the league said.
