Both youth and adults have been playing flag football for decades. This wildly popular sport is basically a safer, non-contact version of traditional American football that just about anyone can enjoy playing!
Flag football has flourished since its invention, with amateur leagues active all across the world. The game has spawned an entire industry of specialised equipment, unique rules, and clever techniques like 6 on 6 flag football running plays that enable teams to give their opposition a real challenge! Flag football has earned its place as a great sports tradition. Let’s take a look at its colourful history!
American tackle football got its start in the mid-1800s and was followed by the less physically demanding flag football not long after. Flag football was made for people who wanted to enjoy playing the game, but avoid all the hard hitting.
The original version was called “touch and tail” football and was played in the 1930s. Today’s flag football began on military bases in the early 1940s for military personnel as a way to enjoy a recreational sport that would help them stay in good physical condition. After World War II ended, recreational leagues formed. The most famous of these early leagues was the National Flag & Touch Football League (NTFL).
Every December, the National Collegiate Flag Football Championships are held at the University of New Orleans. There has been a National College Champion crowned on the UNO campus every year since 1979.
In 1988, the NTFL’s regional director, Mike Cihon, broke free from the league to found the United States Flag Touch Football League (USFTL), the first major competition to the NTFL. The annual USFTL National Flag Football Tournament is held annually in Orlando, and is the nation’s largest non-college flag football tournament.
Another prominent flag football league today is The American Flag & Touch Football League (AFTFL). The AFTFL was formed in 1991 in Long Island. The AFTFL league now hosts its own national championship tournament every February in Atlanta, Georgia.
A host of other so-called national organisations have formed since the mid-1990s to accommodate over 20 million flag football players. Fans and players of the friendly non-contact sport continue to grow in number as its popularity soars. Many flag football fans say it is their hope that even more national professional flag football leagues will come into being in the near future, so they can watch their favourite game more often!
