The NFL’s newly-appointed head of flag football Stephanie Kwok believes the already-popular sport of flag football is going to experience a significant period of growth leading up to and beyond the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The games will see flag football included as a sport for the first time with men and women from around the world competing on the biggest of international stages.

“I think it has to be a game-changer,” says Kwok, who has played flag football for years in the New York area as a wide receiver and occasional quarterback.

“Flag football will be on the world stage and while it’s taking place in the U.S., it will also have such an impact internationally.

“To see flag football games broadcast with elite players at the men’s and women’s level, that’s the inspirational piece. You’ll have some kids whose earliest sporting memories will be watching these amazing flag athletes.

“Los Angeles is going to give such a wonderful platform for those athletes to showcase their talents. That will create so much excitement and is going to drive a lot of demand and a lot of growth in the game.”

Flag football is a hugely popular non-contact, five versus five version of American football that can be played by people of all ages, and is proving to be an ideal entry point for younger boys and girls. The NFL reports that more than 20 million people are currently playing flag football across 100 countries.

But it’s not only young international athletes who dream of playing flag football at the very highest level, it’s an ambition of some of the NFL’s biggest superstars.

Once it was confirmed as an Olympic sport, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill and Dallas Cowboys defensive star Micah Parsons led the way in expressing a desire to form an American Dream Team for the flag football tournament in Los Angeles.

Kwok says: “Seeing how excited those players were about it and proactively bringing it up and saying they wanted to play and putting that pressure on to make it happen, it showed just how much excitement there is around the Olympics.”

In speaking with Kwok – who previously co-founded a company called Pickup Football and ran competitive flag football tournaments across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut – it is clear that flag football will be about much more than the star power of the Los Angeles Olympics.

It is a sport that continues to gather momentum around the world, as Kwok explains: “What is so wonderful about flag is that it is a sport that has something for everyone.

“There are different positions people can play, you can have different skillsets and body types. But also, with the number of players on the field, you can play in a league, or you could even just have a pick-up game.

“Internationally, flag football is a great way for folks to get on a field, touch a football and experience what that’s like. I know there are a lot of great flag activations around the excitement of watching football through our international games.

“So, that’s a really good way for people to understand that if they love sports like American football, they can get on the field, they can throw and catch a football and they can play this game as well. Even if they haven’t watched a game live, for young kids to get on the field and have that feeling of running a great route, catching the ball and juking someone, that visceral feeling is something that carries you forward.”

While regular season games played internationally continue to dominate the headlines, there are wonderful examples of global success for flag football. In the United Kingdom, 60,000 boys and girls from 650 schools across England, Scotland and Wales are currently experiencing NFL Flag and will play for a national championship in Loughborough this June.

More than 5,000 schools in Mexico participate in the programme, giving more than 2.2 million young people access to the sport. China has 200,000 boys and girls playing in schools, flag football is part of the national curriculum in Japan’s elementary schools and NFL Flag is played in every state in Australia.

Kwok explains: “We certainly anticipate flag football becoming even bigger. In what form, we will see. Having it in the Olympics in LA is a start and then hopefully continuing to have flag be an Olympic sport. When I think about my role and growing flag football, it really is around opportunities for boys and girls to play at the youngest level.

“If they want to, they can play a form of football in flag and then be able to play at the youth level and continue to play as they move through high school and college.

“And it’s about making sure that girls and women have that same opportunity and they can play as a varsity sport in high school and then when they get to college, not just playing in intra-murals like I did at Stanford, but also the potential to play on a varsity team and then at an elite level representing your country and the potential to play in a professional league at some point.

“When you start to think about the demand for it? It’s certainly a little early to say, ‘Okay, we’ll have a professional women’s league’ but there is so much momentum right now. Leading into 2028, it will be really interesting to see how we continue to grow it.”

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