The Potential of Flag Football
It has been mentioned for a long time that the options for football to be Olympic went through Flag Football. The non-contact modality of American football is booming. And two pieces of news clearly reflect what was said: it will be a guest sport at the next World Games , a huge step to get closer to the Olympic Games, and the NAIA included this modality as a new university for girls. Here we tell you the advantages of the flag to become an Olympic ( you can expand the information here 해외축구중계:
Since 2015, Flag Football has been experiencing exponential growth in the United States
especially among young people. Apparently, more and more schools are participating and formalizing regional and state leagues and divisions. So much so that many NFL players , such as Drew Brees , have stated that the flag is saving American football. Note that the former Saints quarterback didn’t play contact until he got to college, and now he’s the coach of his son’s flag team.
Flag Football is growing around the world as an independent sport in its own right.
We come across tons of tournaments involving clubs from all over the world every year. Examples are the Big Bowl , Cancun Bowl , King Bowl , Pink Bowl , Flagging New Year , the Champions Bowl as a European club championship… And recently the AFFL in the United States, which in its last edition invited a European team and qualified Team Spain . How many international tackle tournaments do you know today?
As we all know, it is a much cheaper sport and with fewer necessary personnel .
Whether its 5v5 or 7v7, the number of people in a selection is much smaller than a tackle. We went from a roster of 50 players to one of 15. And we have already seen that rugby managed to be Olympic in Rio 2016 in its most reduced form of seven.
Also the need for fields and facilities is much less . In the same soccer field we can include up to three flag fields and it is not necessary to paint an entire grid. Heavy tackle equipment and training materials would also not need to be transported.
It does not require as much promotion to grow women’s sport
The women’s tackle is unfortunately light years away from the men’s, while in Flag Football having the mixed category, Open , has promoted inclusion and equality in its modality from the beginning. Although it is true that the number of women’s teams is unfortunately always smaller, in most of the aforementioned bowls they have both Open and women’s categories.
We have already seen that the Olympics have a serious
and real commitment to equality in sport . And if on top of that the Open category were developed in a Games, imagine the showcase that can result from the fact that boys and girls play equally on the same team. What’s more, in Paris 2024 the record for Olympic mixed disciplines will be broken.
Less physical demand , in fact we are used to tournaments being held in a few days and playing four or five games in one day. As condensed as the Olympics are, this is quite a benefit. In addition, Flag Football does not suffer from brain injuries as they do affect and worry so much in the tackle .
The current situation of the Olympic Games
They continue to dream of joining sports such as beach handball, chess, orienteering , squash , dance sports … and American football at future Olympic events. We hope that the Flag Football aspect continues to grow and that its candidacy for the next Olympic Games is confirmed. In 2028 they will be held in Los Angeles , in the United States, which could be another open door for their king sport to enter the Olympics. Through Flag Football. And the NFL has already signaled its support .
The Olympic history of football
As a curiosity, we close this extensive article by talking about the brief Olympic history of American football. It was an exhibition sport at St. Louis 1904 , but where only college teams played and following their respective regular seasons. Several games were shown at Francis Field . The most notable meeting was between Carlisle Indian School (Pennsylvania) and Haskell Institute (Kansas), with 12,000 fans enjoying a duel that ended 38-4 for Carlisle.
And in the second date where American football has been an exhibition sport,
it was in Los Angeles 1932 . With some 60,000 spectators at the Memorial Coliseum , two teams, West and East , faced each other . The West team was made up of players from the Universities of California , Stanford , and USC , while the East team had players from Harvard , Yale , and Princeton . Universities of great prestige and football powers at that time.
