NFL pouring resources into flag football ahead of sport’s looming Olympic debut

New York – The NFL is developing a tech platform geared toward flag football training, Brian Flinn, the league’s senior vice president for global flag football, said on Thursday, as it continues an aggressive push into the game.

The platform will address the training and development gap in the sport, said Flinn, with the non-tackle form of the game seeing a surge in participation ahead of its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

“No one’s really done the work to understand how unique the discipline is and what training modules do you need to get athletes ready,” said Flinn, appearing at the Columbia University Sports Management Conference.

“We’re working with third-party experts in that space to develop curriculum so that we can train athletes to go a little bit further.

“And then on the coaching and officiating side, the reality is there’s a lot of great people out there, in some cases volunteering their time. And it’s not an indictment on them, but the reality is no one’s invested in them to develop them to keep up with the demanding players at every level.”

Flag football has emerged as a key piece of the NFL’s global strategy as it included a record nine games in its international schedule this season. The league is chasing millions of fans outside the U.S. after launching its global markets program in 2021.

The sport is widely perceived as having a lower barrier to entry for newcomers, with less risk of the injuries commonly seen in the bone-crunching tackle sport, and the NFL views flag as a way of getting more women and girls into its orbit.

The NFL earlier this year announced plans to launch a professional flag football league for men and women.

“The reality is we need to make more investment in player health and safety,” said Flinn. “My expectations in the next three or four months, we’ll have a tech platform out there that is training people at scale.”