Flag Football on the Rise Locally

RECREATION & LEISURE

By Randy B. Young
Correspondent

“Oh say, can you see”…how high schools and recreation agencies across the US—including Carrboro Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Resources—are “rallying around the flag?”

Flag football—an alternative to full-contact tackle programs—is having “banner years” as recreation departments and even state high school associations recognize flag football’s growing popularity.

Tackle football has come under extreme scrutiny over the past few decades, with former UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz among those leading the call for changes that put athletes at less risk for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive brain disease caused by repetitive head impacts.

As parents of football-crazed boys and girls weigh safer options for their children, even colleges are reducing risks to young, developing brains. To wit, Dartmouth College even steered away from “hitting” drills and famously began conducting non-contact practices.

And if this summer’s World Cup soccer frenzy didn’t foment interest among young athletes donning “Messi” or “Mbappé” jerseys, it certainly galvanized public opinion that there are safer alternatives to riskier contact sports.

In short, the risk of tackle football is raising flags, flag football is assuming its place in the football cultural zeitgeist, and the Carrboro Recreation is reaping the benefits.

Tackle football takes a hit

Both Carrboro and Chapel Hill recreation have suspended their youth tackle football programs. Carrboro Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Resources Recreation Administrator Charles Harrington said Carrboro hasn’t offered youth tackle football for 15 years.

“The last time that we had teams in each age group when we had a full league was 2011,” he said. “A couple years after that, we had one team in a particular age group, so then we had to combine with the town of Chapel Hill, who ended up taking the league moving forward.”

Chapel Hill Communications Manager Alex Carrasquillo noted that Chapel Hill hadn’t offered youth recreational tackle football for seven years: “The last time was 2019.”

“Close by, I think there have been some private (tackle) groups that have come up recently,” Harrington said. “Some of the ones that have been around for a while include some of the Pop Warner programs in Durham. Some of those (draw from) Chapel Hill, such as the Firebirds and the East Chatham Chargers just on the other side of the county line.”

“We’ve seen an increase in participants (in all sports) gravitating to private groups,” he said, “which may offer more options for players…that are outside a traditional municipal recreation model.”

Co-ed flag football is also offered by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the YMCA, with their fall season running from September 19 through November 7, with U8, U10, and U12 teams.

Harrington said, while tackle football programs imposed greater investments for equipment, uniforms, etc., it was the waning interest that spelled the end of longstanding local leagues.

“There are significant expenses when it comes to equipment, officials, and field use, but the primary factor was just lack of interest,” he said. “Participation just got to be so low that we couldn’t field teams any longer.”

Raising the flag

Harrington said flag football has essentially filled the void left by suspended tackle programs.

“It was all around the time that CTE became more prominent in the news media following the death of (NFL football player) Junior Seau,” he said, “and then some studies came out regarding repetitive head contact. We pivoted, and in 2019, we began offering NFL Flag football for ages 9 to 12.”

After an inaugural year of NFL Flag football in 2019, Carrboro’s leagues were temporarily suspended in 2020 due to COVID but reinstituted in 2021.

“We’ve had a fall league each year since, so we’re beginning our seventh season this year,” Harrington said. “We do have a full league with a wait list, so I think it’s become a popular means of playing football for youth.”

NFL Flag seeks to engender a love of football among both girls and boys, seeding new competition at the high school and college level.

‘Falling’ for flag

Flag football bars tackling, blocking, and virtually all contact. Players wear specialized belts with flags hanging at their sides. To stop an offensive play, a defender must pull a flag off the ball-carrier’s belt.

Though staged by Carrboro Recreation, the local NFL Flag-affiliated football league is open to young athletes from Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and beyond.

“Teams will start practicing late August into early September,” Harrington said, “and team formation is going to be mid-to-late August this year, so they’ll have a couple of practices, and games will start the weekend after Labor Day.

“We do have a wait list now for our NFL Flag program. We started registration in early May, before people go on summer vacations. We’re happy to have people join the wait list, just because it helps gauge interest.”

That growing interest has allowed Carrboro to expand from four to five co-ed teams of youths aged 9-12, with 12 athletes on each co-ed roster, and active competition is 6-on-6.

“One of the good things about the NFL Flag program is that they provide uniforms that mirror the actual professional NFL teams,” Harrington said. “We’ve changed it up for different years.”

Harrington added that this fall’s teams will be the Seahawks, 49-ers, the Giants, the Rams, and the Cardinals.

Thus far, Harrington said boys have shown more interest than young girls, but Carrboro is evaluating whether there exists enough interest to do an exclusive girls’ league in the future.

“Smells like teen spirit”…

As interest in NFL Flag and other flag football programs grows, younger devotees, particularly girls, are finding traction on middle school and high school flag football teams.

“It’s not just youth,” Harrington said. “Flag programs are gaining popularity at all ages. Even at the high school level, you’ve got the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) now sanctioning girls’ flag football for this upcoming school year.”

The NCHSAA Board of Directors’ ratified rules for the upcoming inaugural season of girls’ flag football on May 6.

The 2026 flag football season at North Carolina high schools will limit teams to 18 regular season games, with a first contest date no earlier than September 9. With state playoff seedings set for October 28, the regular season will run just seven weeks, with teams playing an average of two or three games per week.

NFL Flag helps to promote football skills, sportsmanship, and safety among boys and girls of all ages. Photo courtesy of “NFL Flag.”

“2,000 Leagues Under the Flag”

NFL Flag, with whom the Carrboro leagues are aligned, is the official flag football program of the NFL, with nearly 900,000 participants, aged 4 through 17, across all 50 states. Leagues are no contact, giving boys and girls of all abilities a chance to develop their fundamental football skills in a positive, inclusive environment, the NFL Flag website stated (https://nflflag.com/).

NFL launched a wellness initiative called Play Football in the 1990’s to make football accessible for children of any age, size, or gender. Leagues began to take off, and by the early 2000’s, athletes from all over the US were participating in everything from local school leagues to Boys and Girls Clubs and recreation programs.

NFL Flag now provides a pathway for both female athletes to play in college and tackle athletes to compete in the offseason.

“While youth participation in sports has declined 13% over the past decade, flag football has become one of the fastest growing youth sports in the country,” the website said. “The number of 6-to-12-year-olds playing has increased by 38%, to more than 1.5 million, since 2015.”

“NFL Flag is dedicated to creating more opportunities for female athletes to participate in flag football,” the site added. “We’ve also teamed up with National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and RCX Sports to make women’s flag football a sanctioned college sport.”

“Friday Night Lights”

“Our teams typically play on Friday nights at (Anderson Park in Carrboro),” Harrington said. “Sometimes we may play on other weeknights or on Saturdays if the schedule requires it, but it’s so nice seeing them play under the lights, and everybody has a good time.

“I think the kids really enjoy it too. It’s a great program: it’s really enjoyable.”

Carrboro flag football contests are generally scheduled under the lights at Carrboro’s Hank Anderson Park on Friday nights. Photo courtesy of the Town of Carrboro.

A Dartmouth College graduate, Randy B. Young first worked as an award-winning advertising copywriter in New Hampshire, then in communications at UNC for over 30 years. He maintained an award-winning newspaper feature covering Recreation and Exercise in the Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Orange County. Retired and living in Chapel Hill, Randy continues to write for regional publications both locally and in New England, and his book, And the Stars Flew With Us, is available through Amazon and at independent bookstores. He coaches track at Chapel Hill High and has a photography business, Pierless (sic) Photography. This reporter can be reached at: Information@TheLocalReporter.press