Is This the Future of Football?

Emi Dahle lines up on the football field, waiting for the snap. When the play starts, she takes off, cutting sharply past the other team’s defenders. The 14-year-old from Whispering Pines, North Carolina, is smaller than most of the other players on the field. But in her kind of football, that’s exactly what makes her dangerous. “I’m small and shifty,” she explains.

Emi plays flag football, an alternative version of one of America’s most beloved games. In tackle football, players stop the action by tackling the person with the ball. But in flag football, players pull a flag from that opponent’s belt. 

This gentler form of football is growing fast. Across the country, the number of kids playing flag football has exploded in recent years. More high schools are adding varsity teams, especially for girls. And in 2028, flag football will make its debut in the Summer Olympics. 

In addition, new information has emerged about the safety of tackle football, including the risk of serious brain injuries for young athletes. Some states have even proposed banning tackle football for children under 12. 

Does that mean flag football could be the future of the sport?

Flag football is not a new sport. It is believed to have started in the 1940s, when American soldiers played a game called “Touch and Tail” on military bases during World War II.  They wanted to have fun but couldn’t risk getting hurt. 

Now many young athletes, like Thaddeus Robinson of Durham, North Carolina, choose to participate in flag football for similar reasons. The 13-year-old has played both tackle and flag football. He enjoyed parts of tackle football—especially the team atmosphere—but didn’t love how often kids got hurt. “I always came home with bruises,” he recalls. 

And bruises are just one risk associated with tackle football. A 2021 study in the journal Sports Health found that kids who play tackle football get hit in the head 15 times more often than kids who play flag football. These repeated head impacts increase the risk of concussions, which are brain injuries caused by direct blows to the head or hits to the body that shake the brain inside the skull.

Concussions are serious injuries for everyone—they affect how the brain works and can lead to symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, and confusion. But they can be extra harmful to kids, whose brains are still developing. That’s why many doctors suggest that athletes under 14 years old avoid tackle football.

Safety isn’t the only reason kids are turning to flag football; it’s also easier to get started. You don’t need helmets or heavy pads—just a football and flags. That makes the sport cheaper for schools and families. “You just hop in the game,” Emi says.

Size also matters less in flag football, which opens the door to more players, especially girls. Katie DiChiaro, a coach in New York, helped start one of the first girls flag football leagues in the state. It began with about 30 players in 2018 and has grown to hundreds. Today she coaches a high school team and runs leagues for girls and women. “It’s powerful for girls to play a sport they weren’t always encouraged to play,” she says. 

DiChiaro has seen girls who were nervous at first become leaders. She has watched boys come cheer for girls teams from the sideline. And she has observed an exciting style of play emerge. In flag football, defenders must move quickly, watch a runner’s hips, and reach for the flag at exactly the right moment. On offense, players use spins, cuts, dips, and quick changes in direction to escape. “You can’t just use your momentum to run someone over,” DiChiaro says. “It takes discipline and control.” 

More than 20 states have already made girls flag football a high school varsity sport, and many colleges are adding it as well. Emi herself is hoping to play flag football in high school—and maybe beyond. “I really hope it becomes a bigger thing,” she says.

It’s certainly on its way. Earlier this year, National Football League (NFL) commissioner Roger Goodell called flag football “one of the hottest sports in the world,” and his league is helping to fuel its growth. In 2028, the NFL will launch a pro flag football league, and it has already turned the Pro Bowl—its all-star game—into a flag game. Goodell and other NFL officials are hoping that flag football’s popularity will bring in new players and fans for their league.

Meanwhile, tackle football organizations across the country—from youth teams up to the pros—are taking steps to make the sport safer. These include teaching players new tackling techniques, educating coaches about concussions, and investing in better safety equipment.

In the end, maybe there is room for both versions of the game.