NFL launching a flag football answer to the Little League World Series

The NFL is introducing what it will call the flag football version of the Little League World Series, which is a four-day championship for youth and teenage players; although most international teams will have flag football teams, this event will probably have other international teams also; this event will be held next month near the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

For what NFL Flag Championships the league has arranged corporate sponsorship and, TV exposure with some of the most popular TV networks. The NFL has persisted in the use of the flag version of the sport as a means of categorizing young people while boosting football’s popularity amongst fans, in the United States and worldwide.

About 280 teams and almost 2900 players who will perform in the event that will be run by the NFL’s flag-football partner, RCX Sports. The boys’ teams will compete in age categories of up to 9 years and under, up to 15 years and under while the girls will be categorized into those up to 18 years and under; all this will be made up of teams which will qualify from regional tournaments. The competition will also comprise teams from Canada Mexico Germany United Kingdom Australia and China where the teams will be participating.

“You ponder on a program like the Little League World Series, which has been this summer staple, this dream for kids participating in baseball, and how you bring that to life broadcast-wise” a senior NFL official, Peter O’Reilly said. “There’s a lot going on, that reflects a lot of decennial. ”

Some representatives of the league also described the event as the prospect and a test event for teenagers who could be the contenders for participating in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 in which flag football will debut.

Explaining the rationale for the decision to select age braches this way, NFL’s executive vice president of Football operations, Troy Vincent offered this explanation: Müller, who loves to vocalize before interviews, said this as he looked at the Asian youths: “This is the future of flag. This is the future of high school, college, professional and Olympic flag play. That is what we are witnessing. We are getting a glimpse. ”

So, it is not guaranteed that the NFL’s event will reach the level of the Little League World Series that is played each year in Williamsport, Pa. , by boys and girls between ages 10 and 12 But, the NFL is backing the event with all its means, corporate sponsors – such as Toyota partnering as the presenting sponsor of the event – and televised coverage on ten platforms – two of them belonging to the Walt Disney Company that owns ESPN

‘It says right here it has our name on it,’ O’Reilly countered. “This is the NFL Flag Championships Young athletes will be wearing or will be using team brands jerseys and representing their team in their market It is something that we are very much directly committed to Growing the sport is the number one priority whether it’s in flag Or even again putting the efforts back into supporting the growth of flag and that is a great scalable core of our sport.

Football will be contested at Tom Benson Stadium where NFL has its Hall of Fame Game and at ForeverLawn Sports Complex at the Hall of Fame Village that was bought by Washington Commanders principal owner Josh Harris and Commanders part-owner David Blitzer in December. The activities include an opening night on 18 July and matches on the 19th, 20th, as well as the 21st of July.

The NFL used to host flag football events at its Pro Bowl Games along with staging a big event last summer in Washington, D. C. However, this is its first time coming up with a standalone huge flag-football tournament.

“At this size and scale,” said the NFL’s newly hired Vice President & Head of Flag Football, Stephanie Kwok, “I would say we are thinking about it as this is the first year we’re even running the NFL Flag Championships. ” … We have this fully dedicated event where it’s all about the players who are going to be at the flag championships. It is the first year of it and I think it is quite promising all the interaction we are seeing with ESPN with the partners and the teams. But we’re very much also thinking about it as the first year and thinking about the further development on how to build it up as well. "

NFL leaders have referred to flag football as a low cost, and low contact version of football that allows girls play football and young boys to learn the sport in a safer manner as compared to full contact football.

Twenty seven states have either officially adopted flag football for girls’ high school or are experimenting on the activity. More females are practicing college flag football in NAIA and attempts to include flag football into the NCAA. The NFL thinks that an increased participation of youths in the flag football was a promising development in terms of expanding the football fan base, and maybe could assist in continuing a recent reversal for boys’ participation in high school tackle football nationally after years of it declined.

“Passage of time has brought high school tackle football to the next level,” O’Reilly said. “So I would say, yes, we are already seeing some of those results now coming from it. More to come for sure. … I think this event – the NFL Flag Championships – this is something I very much look forward to. … So, yes, I believe that that awareness and that excitement is going to happen, given that the distribution is going to be much wider than over those three days.

Today, the NFL has its’ Pro Bowl which is a flag football game and there is a skills competition as well and has stated that the NFL players interested stand a chance to play in the Olympic flag football in four years in the duration of the L. A. Olympics. In that regard, O’Reilly utterances highlighted that the NFL expects this tournament as one of the annual flagship events for the league. It comes in a rather low-profile period in the NFL season, namely before teams start their training camps in earnest in July.

‘Of course that elevator pitch, if you will, of kind of ‘Little League World Series’ is there,’ O’Reilly said. “But then, it’s in the context of this sport that is so rapidly growing,” said Taylor describing the idea behind this coming from people seeing it in their communities and then seeing it played with some of the best girls and boys coming together and how fast and really kind of telegenic it is.