Flag football
Flag football is a variant of gridiron football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier to end a down. In flag football, contact is limited between players. The sport has a strong amateur following with several national and international competitions each year sponsored by various associations but is most popularly played in America where it was invented. The international governing body for the sport is the International Federation of American Football with the International Woman's Flag Football Association governing the women's game.
Flag football will be a discretionary event for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the first time any gridiron football code has been a full part of an Olympic programme.
History
The best available records to date point to the early 1940s during World War II as the sport's starting point. The game began as a recreational sport created for American military personnel to help them stay fit but was designed in a way that would help prevent them from becoming injured during wartime. At the time it was called "Touch and Tail football", which then became "flag football" after the war ended.The first known recorded history of flag football can be traced to Fort Meade, Maryland, USA, which is now generally accepted as the sport's birthplace. The first national flag football organization, the National Touch Football League, was formed in the 1960s in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 1971, the league has had a national championship game.
Arizona teachers Porter Wilson and Norman Adams invented flag-a-tag belts and flags which are the template for the flags used in the game today.
Following increased concerns of concussions and CTE in American football in the 2000s and 2010s alongside a decline in Youth American Football participation during the same period the NFL has spent considerable resources in promoting Flag Football as a competitive alternative to Tackle football for men and women. Efforts by the league related to this Include the creation of the NFL Flag which sponsors youth flag football leagues in the United States. Flag Football games being played at the Pro Bowl Games. The NFL has also announced and approved a future professional flag football league for men and women, sponsored the sports inclusion in the 2022 World Games, was involved in its push to be included in the 2028 Summer Olympics, and in a partnership with the NAIA helped adding flag football as a varsity sport for female student-athletes.
Basic rules
The specific rules of flag football vary widely by league, though all share in common their replication of the rules of traditional American football with tackling replaced by flag-pulling.Traditional American football rules are often eliminated or modified to reflect the more recreational nature of the game, the desire to avoid physical contact and injury, and the generally smaller number of participating players per side.
In a standard game of flag football, the match is played in two halves. Time length is determined by the league being played. The clock only stops for injuries, half-time and timeouts. Most leagues have 10 players per team, 5 on offense and 5 on defense, there is no punting team for flag football.
Variations
Chiefly, because there is no dominant sanctioning organization for the sport, the game has mutated into many variations: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4 players on each side; coed or single-gender; with kicking and punting and with point-after conversions or without; and field sizes that vary from full Canadian Football League size, National Football League size, to fields a third that size.An important distinction is whether linemen are allowed to catch passes or, as in the NFL / CFL, are not allowed to do so. Flag football may also be divided into "contact" or "non-contact", depending on whether or not blocking is allowed; if allowed, blocking is usually restricted to the chest.
The ability or inability of the quarterback to advance the ball past the line of scrimmage by running is another rule subject to variation by the league.
The sport is also played on surfaces other than a traditional grass football field, including on sand beaches; beach flag football has previously featured as a discipline at the Asian Beach Games.
International tournaments
IFAF Flag Football World Championship
The International Federation of American Football organise a biannual IFAF Flag Football World Championship.Olympics
In July 2022, the National Football League and the IFAF partnered on a bid for flag football to be included as an optional event during the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The NFL had sponsored the inclusion of flag football as an invitational event during that month's 2022 World Games. The NFL's executive VP of football operations Troy Vincent stated that the sport was "the future of American football", as it was inclusive and had fewer barriers to access. Flag football was shortlisted as one of nine sports advancing to the next phase of the bid process. In October 2023, the LA organizing committee proposed the inclusion of flag football as an event, which was officially approved at the 141st IOC Session.World Games
Flag football has been contested at the World Games—a multi-sport event featuring sports and disciplines not currently contested at the Olympics—since the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. The 2022 World Games featured men's and women's tournaments, which were won by the United States and Mexico respectively. Flag football returned for the 2025 World Games in Chengdu, China; only a women's tournament was held.International Flag Football Festival
The International Flag Football Festival organizes the World Cup of Flag Football featuring teams from the United States, Mexico and several other nations.Kelly McGillis Classic
The Kelly McGillis Classic is a women's tournament organised by the IWFFA held each February in Key West, Florida where over 90 women and girls teams participate in 8-on-8, semi-blocking contact flag football.United States
USA Football
is the governing body of American football in the United States, the sole US member of the International Federation of American Football, and a recognized sports organization of the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Its non-profit mission includes designing and delivering premier educational, development, and competitive programs for American football, including tackle and flag football. USA Football is the only organization that selects and organizes the U.S. national team in federation-sanctioned international competition.USA Flag
USA Flag currently operates the largest National Championships flag football tournament in the United States, along with a club World Championships every January in Florida that eclipsed over 980 teams this past January 2023, the largest single weekend flag football tournament ever recorded. The USA Flag has grown exponentially each year.NFL Flag
The National Football League and its teams have promoted and sponsored flag football leagues in the United States as a youth sport under the branding NFL Flag; in 2020, Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson became a chairman and co-owner of NFL Flag, as part of efforts by the NFL to expand its promotion of the sport into other territories. The program has also placed a particular focus on expanding women's flag football, due to gridiron football having predominantly been played by men.In 2023, the NFL reformatted its Pro Bowl all-star game as the Pro Bowl Games, which featured teams of AFC and NFC all-stars competing in skills challenges for points throughout the week of festivities, which then carried over into a series of three flag football games on the culminating Sunday. In 2023 and 2024, NFL Flag also hosted its world championships as part of the Pro Bowl festivities. In February 2025, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the NFL was considering launching professional flag football leagues, while a source with knowledge of the league stated to ProFootballTalk that Goodell's statement was an "understatement" and that work on the proposed league is "very much underway". In April 2025 it was reported that ten groups had submitted bids to the NFL to be investors in the new flag football leagues. In October 2025 Goodell stated that the league planned to launch women's and men's professional flag football leagues "in the next couple of years. In December 2025 the NFL teams voted in a virtual meeting to financially support the league with the league's Investment fund 32 Equity to enter into an agreement with a partner to operate a professional flag football league and invest up to $32 million in that league.
American Flag Football League
The American Flag Football League is a flag football organization that offers youth and women's competition, and in 2023, a men's professional division.Varsity flag football
By May 2020, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, in partnership with the NFL, had begun the process of adding flag football as a varsity sport for female student-athletes. The NAIA became the first collegiate governing body to sanction the sport at the varsity level. NAIA women's flag football began during the 2020–21 season as an emerging sport with at least 15 teams, and the NAIA and NFL also expected an upgrade of the sport to an invitational level sport by 2022 with at least 25 teams.In 2023, the National Junior College Athletic Association began to sponsor flag football as an emerging women's sport.
In the spring of 2025, the Atlantic East Conference of NCAA Division III began independently sponsoring women's flag football, with support from the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles. In July 2024, Conference Carolinas of NCAA Division II announced that six of its 16 member schools would sponsor women's flag football, starting in the spring of 2026. By the time CC started its first flag football season, two more full members and three associate members had also joined its flag football league. In February 2025, the NCAA's Committee on Women's Athletics recommended that the association's three divisions add flag football as a varsity sport under its Emerging Sports for Women program; at the time of the recommendation, approximately 65 NCAA member institutions had varsity- or club-level flag football teams. At the January 2026 NCAA convention, all three divisions approved this addition, with the first season under "emerging" status being held in spring 2026.
The Growth of City Intramural Flag Football Leagues
City intramural flag football leagues have become a central part of recreational sports culture in many urban areas, offering structured, community-oriented opportunities for adults to stay active and build social connections. Organizations such as the , , and operate large, well-organized leagues that draw participants from a wide range of skill levels, reflecting the growing popularity of adult recreational athletics. These leagues typically rely on modern sports-management platforms—including , , and similar scheduling and roster systems—to coordinate registration, communicate with players, manage team logistics, and streamline league operations. As a result, what began as informal city pickup games has evolved into a sophisticated ecosystem where digital platforms enhance accessibility and community building, while the leagues themselves provide a space for friendly competition, teamwork, and urban social life.