Rumors of an NFL script caught the internet on fire last year including a tongue-in-cheek teaser featuring Keegan-Michael Key in “The Table Read.” But in fact, the NFL has been working on a screenplay with implications much deeper than just viewership - though it’s not one you’ll find talked about by fans upset at Taylor Swift getting screentime.
Flag Football has let many who obsess over their favorite team run some routes in a beer league, but in the last 10 years, it’s matured to a wealth of opportunity and underdog stories too good not to talk about. The Pro Bowl Games this year even had the pros playing Flag following a massive 2,300-player youth Flag tournament whose top four seeds get to play for the NFL Flag Championship broadcasted on national TV, penning an exclamation point an Oscar-worthy screenplay of growing the game.
Texas Fury Girls Flag Football won the NFL Flag Youth Championship, and their quarterback Ava Wallace has long aspired to run an offense and never took no for an answer on her path to playing in Orlando and winning the Ship.
“The quarterback position, especially, you have to be so mentally strong that you are unbreakable,” Wallace said. “I’ve been preparing myself mentally. I’ve been studying plays, studying route concepts. I’ve been studying defenses. I’ve been watching my film… just trying to get myself as confident as possible.”
Wallace is a University of Texas fan and added one of their red zone concepts to her own playbook. At only 18 years old, she’s a 2x Junior International Flag Football Cup Champion at the U17 level run by USA Football. But 11 years ago when she started playing Flag, these opportunities were nonexistent.
“I started off playing with an all-boys team, it was pretty difficult, being looked down upon as a female,” Wallace said. “I love the game so much. I love playing football, so I just stayed with it and then one day an all-girls team came up and asked me if I wanna try out. I was all for it because why not? It was the most amazing decision I’ve ever made.”
Wallace joined the Texas Fury team which had just six female players for the first few years of its existence. As word got out and other girls became enthusiastic about football there was an influx of talent.
Today, ten states including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New York, Illinois, and Tennessee offer Varsity Flag programs in High Schools, Tennessee was the latest to approve a bill including it on April 10th, 2024. Colleges have jumped into the mix with twenty-five universities sponsoring a varsity team.
The American Flag Football League (AFFL) is the first pro league for Flag Football (though uses a different rule book from NFL Flag). AFFL plans to launch its first Men’s and Women’s season in the spring of 2025 with teams in Boston, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Nashville.
The International Olympic Committee makes an effort to include regionally popular sports in the Olympic Games. With Los Angeles hosting in 2028, Flag Football was one of the few to be included marking its acceptance as an adapted and equitable form of a sport hundreds of millions of Americans watch every weekend and culturally export across the globe to billions.
Although opportunities across the county are still sporadic, any Athlete can compete for an opportunity with the national governing body of Flag, USA Football. For the last two years, both USA Football and AFFL have scouted Athletes using GMTM’s Digital Combine system which lets Athletes express interest, share their stats, game film, and core athletic metrics without fronting costly travel to an event.
Wallace utilized GMTM’s Digital Combine with USA Football then received an invite to the in-person National Team Trials in Charlotte, NC.
“Getting the chance to represent my country through USA Football has been the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” Wallace said. She has since completed National Team Trials and continues to compete in tournaments with Texas Fury and has received an official offer to play Flag at St. Thomas University.
Wallace’s success is a product of her hard work and hours spent studying the game she loves. In spite of the sports’ initial hostility towards her involvement, it has now set her on a trajectory to compete for the most coveted award in all of sports - an Olympic medal.
“I personally encourage every single young girl to try flag football at least one time in their life, see how they like it because, you know, me as a little girl, I never expected flag football to take me as far as it has today, so I am forever grateful for everything the NFL is doing and everything Flag Football has given to me.”
