Flag football is booming. The NFL is backing it, the Olympics will debut the sport in 2028, and more than 2.4 million kids in the U.S. are already playing.
Unrivaled Sports, the youth sports holding company of private-equity veterans Josh Harris and David Blitzer, has taken notice. On Tuesday, the company announced it has bought Football ‘N’ America (FNA), a flag football business cofounded by former Saints quarterback Drew Brees in 2017.
Unrivaled, launched last spring, already has more than 20 companies in its portfolio. FNA marks the fourth flag football business in the Unrivaled portfolio along with Under the Lights Flag Football, New England Flag Football, and All-American Flag Football, joining other Harris/Blitzer youth sports assets like Ripken Baseball and Cooperstown All Star Village.
This isn’t a cash-out moment for Brees. He’ll remain closely involved, and his involvement was a major appeal of the deal, according to Jim Reynolds, CEO of football and emerging sports for Unrivaled.
“The impetus for this combination was really a long-term partnership with Drew,” he tells Front Office Sports. “We think he’s one of the foremost ambassadors for the sport.”
In a statement, Brees said FNA and Unrivaled share the “same vision—creating environments where young athletes can compete, develop, and dream big.”
Reynolds declined to disclose financials of the deal, which he framed as part of a bigger vision for Unrivaled, which aims to “set the standard for what a great youth sports experience is.”
FNA currently runs 24 leagues across the country, including in California, Louisiana, and Texas. Reynolds wouldn’t reveal whether Unrivaled ultimately has plans to merge its multiple flag football businesses into one entity, saying “we’re most interested in being an operator.”
Flag football and youth sports are both hot buys right now. The NFL has been actively fielding inbound interest from business partners that would be involved in league-supported professional flag football leagues, for both men and women. Although the timeline is not certain, it looks likely the NFL-supported leagues will launch after the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which will feature the sport for the first time ever.
“There sure is an awful lot of momentum,” Reynolds tells FOS. “[Flag football] really represents the unbridled joy of sports.”
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 participating across the globe. For some of those children, flag football could be their way into more competitive, tackle football.
“We talk to college coaches, we see the path to more competitive play,” Reynolds says.
Unrivaled is trying to capture as much of the massive youth sports market as possible. U.S. families spending a total of between $30 billion and $40 billion annually on sports activities for their kids, according to research from the Aspen Institute. Other firms involved in the space include private-equity shop KKR, whose PlayOn picked up high school sports information provider MaxPreps in April, and Atwater Capital, which last year led a $100 million investment into League One Volleyball.
Unrivaled already owns companies in baseball, soccer, flag football, soccer, and more, and Reynolds says there are other sports it would like to get into, although he wouldn’t divulge specifics.
“We’re looking at a lot,” he tells FOS. “I won’t give any away today, but you’ll be hearing more from us on that in the coming months.”
