NFL Girls Flag Football

The NFL Girls Flag Football Leadership Program:

The NFL Girls Flag Football Leadership Program identifies the growing demand for girls’ flag football to be legitimized and played as a high school sport, and is the first program of its kind to recognize the desire of girls to be more involved in the sport of flag football. Girls’ flag football is already a state sanctioned sport in Florida and Alaska and both programs boast staggering participation numbers. Girls love to play football, and the NFL Girls Flag Football Leadership Program will strive to give girls a place to play the sport they love. It’s Time for Our First Down!

The NFL has identified the 10 most concentrated cities of recreational girls’ flag football participation and it has selected one girl in each city to pursue the establishment of girls’ flag football as a legitimate high school sport. Our ten girls are extremely passionate about flag football, have been involved with our NFL FLAG football program, and will champion this initiative with the assistance of local high schools. Empowered by the NFL, these pioneers of female flag football will request that their high schools pilot a girls’ flag football program.

The NFL’s contribution:

The NFL will help subsidize this program for every high school that agrees to pilot a girls’ flag football program in Year 1 (2008/09 school year) by providing free flag football equipment to each school as well as flag football coaching and officiating manuals.

Girls & High School Flag Football:

In 1998, interscholastic girls flag football in the state Florida started in 17 schools with 860 participants. In 2007 the sport was played in 161 schools with over 4,800 participants. A 458% participation increase in 10 years!

In 2005, the Anchorage, Alaska School District asked all female high school students which new sport they would like to see implemented and girls flag football was later introduced. In its first year, the Anchorage girls’ flag football program had 343 participants from 8 high schools.

Florida and Alaska have set an impressive standard, and now the 10 pioneers of The NFL Girls’ Flag Football Program will strive to get the rest of the country to meet and exceed that standard! It’s Time for Our First Down!

Click here for Miami Dolphins Florida Girls Flag Football Clinic Video