The Future of Football Has Flags

The term 'flag football' is new to me. As a child we played one hand or two hand touch football.

Tackle football is still unreasonably dangerous for minors age 12-17 and that is unlikely to change soon.

Everything old is new again. I played four years of flag football from 5th through 8th grade. So did all but two of my teammates in high school, and all but six in college. Among the guys who played with flags for four years were two future NFL players. I listened to the arguments for going the Pop Warner route when I was a kid. I envied the boys in their pads and helmets, but my parents were smart enough to see through the rather thuggish claims made by the coaches. Many decades later, we know that they produced little in the way of improvements and a lot of needless injuries. I have watched my idiot brother-in-law subject his son to this dumb approach to youth sports, and the boy has had his bell rung a couple times as a result. Flags are the future, no matter what the thugs say. The grownup game will also be much safer once we remove facemasks. This, too, was much discussed in the 1970s. We knew it then and we still know it: remove that one piece of equipment, and players will stop leading with their heads.

I love football and played flag football when I was young. I was pretty good at it but then it became touch, then tackle, and girls weren't allowed. Love that Drew Brees (the guy famous for protecting his toddler son's hearing with headphones after SB win) is behind this.

Flag football, like volleyball, is also easy to make a coed sport. For that matter, why not flag football teams for high school girls? it would be better than the degrading display of "powderpuff football", which should have disappeared a long time ago. If all high school football teams went "flag" instead of tackle, would we still pour so much school money into these teams? Without the level of time commitment and frank lionizing of football players, would they get a better HS education? If we showed we cared about the health and well being of boys in sports, how might they view themselves differently? I wonder.

Wonderful. Why didn't this happen eons ago so the tragic brain injuries from school football could have been avoided? Flag football has all the benefits (kids run, throw, catch) without having to be thrown to the ground and pounced on. If you think of it, the act of tackling on the street is felony assault but on the football field it's the object of the game! What's very telling is the fact that many current NFL players forbid their sons from playing tackle football. And elite colleges such as the Ivys and smaller ones are showing diminished interest in football because of the devastating effects of injuries. Some day, the NFL will experience a diminished pool of talented players, except for those who can smell the money.

Great article with great photos! And kudos to Brees and his family for being part of the CTE solution. Football is not going anywhere. It is such a part of the American fabric that this article did not even bother to explain the difference between flag and tackle football. It will simply continue to evolve.

Anything that gets kids off the couch and away from their screens is a good thing. And reducing the danger is a good thing. It’s like keeping your kids away from the speed events in skiing. It’s the only brain you’ll ever have. Why not take good care of it?

Yes, I have read in at least 150 articles in the Times that tackle football should be abolished. I wish so much print was spent on the good news that global extreme poverty has been cut in half over the past 20 years. Only 5% of Americans know that fact.

Finally realizing that maybe it's not conducive to health to have grown men running into each other at full speed repeatedly? Shocking.

Why are kids being encouraged to aspire to play a so-called game that is closely associated with CTE brain damage.

I have coached football for twenty five years. This is a great way to get the kids into a safe skill development/appreciation for football. Many kids who come to high school football don't have either. See Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll's video on Seahawks tackling techniques ...he went to New Zealand to learn them from the All Blacks. Very safe and easy to teach and execute. There IS a better way to play this game.

So the NFL is going to get involved and ruin it. Cant we just let kids have fun and keep the $$$$ out of it?

Flag football already exists in the NFL. It's called non-dress practice. The players don't wear any padding aside from a helmet. Just jersey and shorts. The drills are designed to teach complex game mechanics without injury. The drills are a great way to teach players game theory. I fully support flag or touch football as a coaching device. The practice also makes sense for young football leagues. However, flag football is not a sport. Don't kid yourself. Football is a contact sport. You're going to get hurt if you don't accept that fact going into the game. As far these things go, football isn't even all that high on the list for dangerous sports. Gymnastics, a non-contact sport, has similar injury rates for instance. Meanwhile, even non-competitive hobbies are potentially more dangerous. Skiing, skateboarding, cycling, rock climbing, sailing, I can go on... The career trajectory from pee-wee football to pro football is dangerous. However, as an individual sport, you should be more afraid about your child driving.

You can easily switch to real football. You don´t even need a mouthgard and you don´t pave the way for a concussion prone sport. The US would be world class in 10 - 15 years.

This article doesn't actually explain how flag football works. Would appreciate a little description for us non-experts!

Could a kind reader please explain to a New Zealander like me what replaces the tackle in flag football? And what has a flag to do with it?

Flag football is the way to go. When I was a high school teacher I saw firsthand the catastrophic effect on the bodies of players on the football team. Students would come to class on Monday with assorted fractures and sprains. Back then, there was no concussion protocol that was followed. Several of those students died before they reached 40 from traumatic brain injury. Many current NFL players prohibit their sons from playing tackle football because they are fully aware of the consequences. I hope that someday tackle football at every level will become extinct. That, of course, will never happen because NFL and NCAA football is one of the most lucrative businesses in our country. But even if there is a reduction of the number of boys who play tackle football, it will result in their escaping the devastation tackle football wreaks. Even with concussion protocol in place, there is absolutely no good reason for any child to risk that kind of injury.

The root of the problem is that safety equipment (namely helmets) are used as weapons in the modern game. I'd like to see football go back to the days of padded sweaters and leather helmets. Seriously. I doubt a free safety is gonna lead with his head if all he's got on it is a leather hat. In American football there's one tackle every 40 seconds or so. Compare that to rugby where you can have as many as ten tackles occuring in that timeframe, and with less incidents of concussion. The reason? Rugby doesn't have weaponized safety equipment, and the tackles from play to play are more technical (a legal tackle must include an intent to wrap the ball carrier's legs). As a person who's played both football and rugby, I'm 100% serious in saying that the NFL would be not only safer, but even more entertaining if they played with minimal equipment. And as a by product, the individual players would be more recognizable and marketable de-helmeted.

Ahhh, lucky kids to be on teams that their parents don’t dare hassle the coach

I am more concerned about all of the teenagers that have died from automobile accidents from 1-3am in my state this year. The number is staggering.

Also ban heading the ball in soccer.

I think tackle football as we have known it is a dinosaur in it’s sunset. A generation from now will see a very different version of the game at the collegiate and pro levels, the only question being how much different. I tend to think it will not be flag football, but there are many things that could limit the intensity of hits and damage done to players. I contend that weight limits on player size could minimize injury- getting hit by a 275 lb player is much different than getting hit by a 175 lb player. The return of all play to natural grass on dirt can further limit the impact of hits- most artificial turn is laid over a very thin pad on top of pavement type material. Just as a wooden floor with a small amount for give is better for workers than concrete, I contend that going back to grass will help. Rules changes to discourage late hits ( the kind not called these days ) could also help limit the damage. Imagine a team having to play a player short for a set number of downs similar to the penalty box of hockey for late hits will do more to stop it than the targeting rules now in place. The NCAA was established to improve the safety of the game a long time ago, but has morphed into something more akin to a trade association. If the NCAA does not fix it, the states could act & they own the majority of schools playing football. The arms race to bigger and more powerful players should be the first thing fixed with weight limits for players.

I don't think majority of fans would like NFL any less if they went flag tomorrow. In part because these people would appreciate that they have to worry a lot less about their favorite players ending up broken for the rest of the game/season/career/life.

This is great news, and a good example of how society, over the long haul, can adapt and become more civilized and humane. I played varsity football in high school, and, as a member of that team, was a referee in my gym class's flag football games. I wanted to play, because it looked like so much fun. No, or few pads. Fast, dynamic. During the past several years, as more and more information about brain damage, etc. has come to the fore, I have advocated that the game should be changed to flag, which actually has the potential to be more dynamic and exciting than contact football. Glad to her the NFL finally listened to my advice!

Thanksgiving and backyard football are played at half speed, and still there are injuries. As young men grow some will become more aggressive and most will have to come to terms with interpersonal aggression. Flag football is a chance to play at full speed. Maybe only a few players will move on to full contact football. It should not be as commercial as it has become but how to say to young men that the risk is too great when the rewards are outsize and so many occupations are at least as risky?

We love flag football - my boys have been playing for the last decade, and our local youth recreational league is thriving with about 50 teams for ages 9-16. All the strategy and running, but without the brutality of tackle. And while height is helpful for receiving, generally size is not a factor in which kids are successful - speed and agility matter much more. Nice, too, that there are co-ed and girls only teams, unlike tackle. But tackle is still out there for HS boys and beyond, and the health risks for those kids and men need to be addressed and mitigated, and tackle overall seriously evaluated for the cost to its players.

I played flag football in Tampa when I was in 4th grade. Our quarterback was my friend and neighbor J.D. Gibbs, son of Joe Gibbs, who was at that time offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I remember Joe Gibbs telling my parents that kids bodies weren't ready for tackle football until at least high school. This was in 1978, forty years ago! People in the NFL have known how dangerous the sport is for a long time. It seems unconscionable for people to let their kids play tackle football. I have no idea why it still exists.

I have read a number of articles by former pro football players, and there is a common thread in those articles: don’t let your children play football! We have allowed our children to become concussed for many decades, thinking they were safe when they weren’t. My wife and I would never allow our child to play football, unless it was tag. I cannot wait for the day football becomes passé.