The Conquer Chargers participated in an all-girls flag football hosted by the Los Angeles Chargers on April 11, 2024. (Photo by LA Chargers)
By Lynda Eernisse
Females in the United States have infiltrated a male safe space and comfort zone, and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon — taking on a traditional male sport that Americans idolize football.
The gridiron sideline — once the space for female cheerleaders — now hosts more than 500,000 girls participating in flag football with studies and trends indicating that this number will increase in the coming years.
Some remain skeptical that flag-football is the country’s fastest growing sport, but the numbers do not lie. As of October 2024, 13 states have sanctioned girls flag football as a high school varsity sport.
And an organization leading the growth is the National Football League.
In collaboration with Reigning Champs Experience, the NFL has created more than 1,800 leagues with 700,000 youth athletes throughout all 50 states. These leagues serve athletes ranging in age from four to 17 “giving boys and girls of all abilities a chance to develop their fundamental football skills in a positive, inclusive environment,” stated the websitenflflag.com.
And a pioneer for the female football movement is Frank Albers, the chief operating officer for Orange County Football Academy and Matt Leinart Flag Football in California.
Albers hosts two successful programs, Females in Flag and The Conquer Chargers. Both aim to bring more girls out onto the field.
What started out as a small group of 200 boys playing flag, grew into a collective with 7,500 members with girls accounting for 2,500 of those during the 2024 season. This is just for the recreational league. Albers said that a few hundred more participate in the club program.
“It’s exciting, it’s growing, (and) it’s very rewarding being a part of something that’s offering a sport which really didn’t exist out here before,” said Albers.
The teams have fall, winter, and spring seasons, so they practically play year-round.
“It has been wildly popular, (and) wildly embraced by everybody,” Albers said.
The change did not happen overnight.
In 2010 during, MFLL’s primitive years, Albers recalls a “sprinkling” of girls who participated kick-started by the first female player, the daughter of one of the league founders who needed one more player to fill the roster.
In 2020 the number of the girls participating led to hosting a free girl’s flag football camp to gauge interest. Hundreds of girls showed up, and the following season the all-girl division for flag football in Orange County started.
“We really had an explosion when the girls started playing the girls,” Albers said. “It felt safer to them. It was their safe space. It really has just exploded since we created the all-girl divisions.”
The girls loved it so did parents.
“Everybody loves it,” Albers said. “I’ve only had one parent complain. There’s been so many dads that never thought they were going to have that experience with their daughter playing football that are thrilled.”
A concern surrounding the female league was injuries, an area not heavily researched.
In a 2022 study conducted by Maddison Miller for the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, it showed that among 87 players in the Women’s Football Alliance “50.6% of participants sustained an injury between April 2019 and February 2022.”
Female flag footballers are allowed to play with the boys if they choose.
“The boys, they respect the girl’s program,” Albers said. “It’s all been overwhelmingly positive in support.”
He sees a bright future for girl’s flag football.
“It’s going to become a Division I (college) sport,” he said. “It’s not if it’s just ‘When?’ It’s probably about two years out.”
His prediction comes with some backing.
Currently, The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), which develops rules-writing for high school sports, is assembling a task force to write and publish national playing rules for flag-football after several requests from its member associations.
Sanctioned have a ripple effect, and they likely will cause more states to sanction the sport. That would lead to more attention and participation, and will hopefully cause the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) to ultimately follow suit, Albers said.
Another impetus for growth comes from an NFL franchise, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In August, the organization named the new recipients of the 2024 Buccaneers Girls in Football Scholarship. The award was given to four individuals who played high school football and were pursuing a career in sports through higher education. The $250,000 commitment to scholarships came from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Foundation.
Meanwhile, Bowling Green native Tyreon Clark plans to start a similar league in Warren County, Kentucky.
Clark is the president of Bowling Green Youth Flag Football, an organization founded in 2017. He wanted to provide affordable sports opportunities to all youth in south central Kentucky
Clark initiated a partnership with NFL Flag in 2019.
Last spring, Clark started something new: a league strictly open to girls. After just one season, Clark knew he had to do more.
“I finally have really put in place a plan to implement a full girls league coming this spring of 2025.” Clark said.
Clark is no stranger to football. He started playing pee wee at age 5 and went on to play for the Austin Peay State Governor’s as a defensive back and cornerback from 2012 to 2013.
So, his success as a youth football leader makes sense.
“I have always had a passion to work with kids, and I really had a passion for coaching,” Clark said.
The new league will begin with a free camp hosted by NFL Flag solely for the girls on Feb. 28, 2025, at Bowling Green High School. The camp acts as an invitation to young women in the area to learn about the sport. Specifically, it will teach them the necessary skills, gauge interest and potentially get them to sign up for the spring league.
“My hope this spring is to gather as many girls as I can in our community to come out and play flag football,” said Clark.
Flag football’s growing interest among females has spurred interest tackle football as a sport for women.
CJ James is the owner and a player for the River City Sting, a women’s tackle football team in Richmond, Virginia. It is one of three in the area, and one of approximately 90 throughout the country.
Before starting the River City Sting in 2019, she played for the Richmond Black Widows. She dabbled in flag football and played for fun as an adult.
“I kind of stumbled upon it as an adult,” James said. “I wanted to do something different and try things my way. It just kind of took off, from there.”
The River City Sting is now a part of the United States Premier Women’s Football League. The Sting competes with the highest level of women’s tackle footballers and will pay players in the upcoming season.
“We put a lot of thought, blood, sweat and tears into starting this organization,” said James. “It was from the ground up. It’s something we have worked for, for so long and now we actually have the opportunity to make that happen.”
James has reflected on the root of her motivation.
“Football has been a catharsis for me,” she said. “My mother passed away in 2013 from her third bout of breast cancer, so I was able to kind of use football as my outlet. So, when I started my team, I wanted us to feel like a family. I wanted to give women the opportunity to have that family-orientated place because not a lot of people experienced the love and care I did from my parents.”.
The team recruited almost 30 women for its inaugural season and one month later were playing an exhibition game at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium, home to NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
James said that her work is not done.
“There are still people who don’t know about women’s tackle football, and we’re trying to change that narrative,” she said.
“People will assume we’re not good athletes, or they will assume we are a part of a lingerie league.”
CJ James (Photo by Richmond Free Press)
The Extreme Football League, the “X League,” is a women’s semi-professional indoor American football league. The league was originally founded in 2009 as the Lingerie Football League and later rebranded as the Legends Football League in 2013.
James must work on shifting the perception of women’s football as something played by scantily clad players as a source of entertainment for men.
“We’re in full pads, full clothing, and we want you to see our athletic abilities and not be focused on anything else,” James said. “We’re not taken as seriously as the men, until they come to a game and they’re like ‘Oh, this is totally different than what I thought.’”
Resources flag:
https://clubs.bluesombrero.com/bowlinggreennflflag
https://www.nfhs.org/articles/nfhs-to-write-playing-rules-for-high-school-flag-football
https://www.conquersocal.com/page/show/7772741-about
Resources tackle: