License to Thrive

Turf's Up!

The NFL has recognized the desire of girls to be more involved in the sport of flag football, noting that one third of all NFL FLAG football participants are girls . NFL research shows that there is a high demand for girls’ flag football to be legitimized and played as a scholastic high school sport. The NFL has developed a leadership program to give girls what they want – a place to play football! It’s time for their first down.  

The NFL has identified the top 10 most concentrated cities of recreational girls’ flag football participation:  Peabody, MA; Wayne, NJ; Charlotte, NC; Austin, TX; Fort Wayne, IN; Levvittown, PA; Glendale, AZ; Las Vegas, NV; Fallon, NV; and San Jose, CA.  The league selected one girl in each city who is extremely passionate about flag football, has been involved with our NFL FLAG  football program, and desperately wants to play flag football as a legitimate high school sport.   The NFL is empowering these girls to pursue this desire, and request that her high school pilot a girls’ flag football program. The selected participants will champion this initiative and with the assistance of local high schools and will be the pioneers of female flag football in the U.S.A.

The NFL will help subsidize this program for every high school that agrees to pilot a girls’ flag football program in Year 1 (2008/09 school year). The NFL will provide flag football equipment free of charge to each school as well as flag football coaching and officiating manuals.

For more information about the program, go to: www.nflyouthfootball.com/Its_Time_For_Our_First_Down.htm