History Of Flag Football

When discussing the history of flag football, it is important to note that there are several types of flag football leagues in the United States as well as hundreds of thousands of players who do it just for the exercise and fun of the game. For example, enthusiasts can play on professional flag football teams, on college teams, on high school teams, and on pee wee teams. Men, women, boys and girls all play flag football.

Contact football began around the middle of the nineteenth century. It was an incredibly rough game in which a significant number of players got hurt. As a result of the risk of playing contact football, the game of flag football followed a few decades later. By the 1960s, a flag football league was formed. That league is credited with establishing the first comprehensive rule book for the game. The National Touch Football League, as it was called at its inception, also established an annual national championship game that has been played every year since 1971.

New Leagues Formed

During the 1980s, a director of the original league developed the United States Flag Touch Football League which has hosted a huge non-college annual tournament in Orlando every year since. The Professional Flag Football League was formed in the late 1990s with the goal of establishing a nationwide organization that included nine-man teams in a number of states. The professional league teams play in an annual tournament ending in the Super Bowl-like Pro Flag Bowl in Ohio.

Local flag football leagues have been established in cities and counties, supporting games for both children and adults. Because there is so much less chance of incurring a serious injury while playing flag football, the number of these leagues is growing, as are intramural leagues at colleges and universities. While the number of players on a team varies from league to league (as do some of the basic rules), the idea remains the same--be safe and have fun!