June 5th, 2009

It’s dynamic, exciting, and increasingly popular. It requires sheer athleticism, precise technique, and clever strategy. But it’s not in the Olympics.

Flag football, despite its legitimacy as an intense physical and mental competition that relies on both individual and team strength, currently remains shut out of the world’s foremost athletic competition. Unsurprising, given the fact that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has similarly sidelined its father sport, American football.The primary reason for this is its lack of widespread or evenly distributed practice around the world. But will flag football find a way to overcome this problem one day and enter the world’s greatest stage?

The first step was taken when the creation of the International Flag Football Federation (IFFF) gave the sport an international governing body, a necessity for any Olympic sport. But before accepting any new sport or discipline into the Olympics, the IOC carefully analyzes its global popularity, ensuring that the competition is both fair for the athletes and widely viewed by the audiences. In fact, it requires that a sport be practiced in 75 or 50 countries (for male and female sports, respectively) and spread across four continents. At this point in time, flag football cannot even approach these numbers. In its 10-year history, the IFFF World Cup has attracted a total of 15 countries. These 15 countries actually are spread across four continents (North and South America, Europe, and Asia) and this is a positive sign for the sport’s future, but if American football can’t get into the Olympics with over 40 member countries on its side, flag football clearly has a long way to go.

The NFL Europa, the European league that operated for 16 years before folding in 2007, increased American football's popularity, but not to the extent that the IOC requires.

In the long run, however, flag football might have a few advantages over American football in its quest to become an Olympic sport. The fast-paced, offensive nature of a football game in which players cannot hit, tackle, or push each other would probably be more appealing to international audiences than the bruising, plodding stalemates that American football often produces. After all, no current Olympic sport (except for wrestling, boxing, and other events that entail outright fighting) involves anything close to the physical pounding that American football players put on each other every single play. Perhaps the brutality of American football hinders the IOC from accepting it, not to mention nations that would need to put some of their best athletes at risk. Flag football, on the other hand, would not provide this dilemma.

Another factor that flag football has going for it is time. In the NFL, players are given a week to recuperate from a game and rightly so. But the Olympics typically last no longer than three weeks, and a legitimate American football tournament with more than 10 teams just isn’t feasible within that time frame. Additionally, the first step for a new Olympic event should not be to drag it out so that it goes on for the entire Games – most audiences would stop caring. To maintain interest, games would need to be played every other day, a schedule that no American football player would be able to handle. This wouldn’t be a problem for flag football players, though. They would only need to worry about running, jumping, catching, and maybe throwing, all of which baseball and basketball players do every other day (or even daily) with ease.

Finally, consider the advantage in fairness that flag football introduces. If American football became an Olympic sport, no one would stand a chance against the United States. The physical beastliness that serves as a prerequisite for being a U.S. football player would not be matched by players of other countries. Imagine a 200-plus pound NFL running back chugging ahead at a blistering speed against a defense full of players that haven’t been exposed to such a frightening concept for generations as Americans have. Who would bring him down? Needing only to pull the ball carrier’s flag would be a much simpler task for opposing teams and an important equalizer for the sport. Olympic sports don’t last anymore if individual countries dominate them – just ask the U.S. softball team. Of course, banning NFL players from entering the Olympics would help too (since unlike the NBA, the NFL has almost no stars from outside the U.S.), but that’s another argument. The existence of flags levels the playing field considerably, giving flag football yet another advantage over American football as an Olympic sport.

"when concerns such as safety, timing, and fairness begin to surround American football as an Olympic sport hopeful, flag football could be the saving grace"

The point of these advantages is that maybe one day, when even more countries have become acquainted with American football, flag football can act as a sort of compromise to finally push the sport into the Olympics. There can be little doubt that American football will one day become popular with at least the requisite 75 countries. According to its website, the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), headquartered in France, now contains over 50 associations from North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. This fact, coupled with the NFL’s unfathomable wealth and sincere desire for international recognition, is likely to mean even more widespread participation in the sport in the years to come. The NFL currently has at least one regular season game played overseas every year, and according to its website, youth leagues are being introduced there as well. The youth leagues are a key step. Introducing the game to a new generation will lead to much greater familiarity (and consequently popularity) within countries outside the United States. And what will these youth football leagues actually be playing? That’s right: flag football.

As American football grows around the world, which is inevitable, flag football will be introduced into various new cultures as well. Then, when concerns such as safety, timing, and fairness begin to surround American football as an Olympic sport hopeful, flag football could be the saving grace that alleviates these worries and catapults the king of American sports to the international stage at last. That day may not be coming any time soon, but with the NFL’s current marketing strategy and the continuing growth of both the IFAF and IFFF, it’s not so hard to imagine.

Picture Sources (in order shown):

1. http://www.squash360.com/images/Olympic%20Rings.jpg
2. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/30/sports/30nfl.650.1.jpg
3. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/2072832884_2d2ea232b5.jpg?v=0
4. http://www.work-wheels.gr/images/designs-mikres/vs_logo.gif
5. http://sportzfun.com/photos/albums/gridiron/football_tackle_head_clash.jpg
6. http://sahara89.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/activities-flag-football.jpg
7. http://www.japanflag.org/image/top/top2.jpg