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The NFL seems to conjure lucrative, new media rights out of thin air. Look for the league to eventually open bidding on another possible new package: professional flag football.
In his annual state-of-the-league address during Super Bowl week, commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL is considering the establishment of a pro flag football league—or potentially, two pro flag leagues for men and women.
During an interview with Front Office Sports, NFL media czar Brian Rolapp confirmed the league could sell new media rights to flag football beyond its current 11-year cycle of rights worth a monster $111 billion.
“We do believe as it grows in popularity, that there is room for more leagues, including a professional league, and that would clearly have a media package as well,” Rolapp told FOS editor-in-chief Dan Roberts. “We’re very early in this. The commissioner talked about it. … So I think we’re pretty bullish on it.”
The NFL is smartly using flag football as a way to sell the sport to women and girls, notes ProFootballTalk. Rolapp, the NFL’s chief media and business officer, noted his league has several reasons to be intrigued by the potential of pro flag football.
First, flag football will make its Olympic debut in 2028. That’s a big opportunity for the NFL to plant its brand around the globe. Second, the league has attracted millions of new female fans, many of them Swifties following the romance between pop superstar Taylor Swift and Chiefs star Travis Kelce. The NFL wants to keep those newcomers happy and interested.
“We’re big believers in flag football for a lot of reasons. It’s clearly going to be an Olympic sport. So we think it has international potential. One of the greatest things about flag football is half of our fans right now are female—but don’t really have access to playing the game competitively. We are now providing that,” Rolapp said.
“And some of the most exciting things happening across the country is more and more states are sanctioning flag football as a high school sport, which I think is fantastic. And so we love this long-term for the development of the sport in general.”
Dan Cohen, EVP of media rights advisory at Octagon, likes the idea of the NFL pushing flag football toward potential new fans and viewers.
“Any time you can expand the sport, and bring people under the tent that drives fan growth, it’s a plus. However, not all fan growth initiatives can be strictly a cost/profit project. In this current media environment, the NFL would be challenged to make a profit on this project in the early years,” he said.
According to Cohen, the most likely suitors for a flag football package would be existing league media partners with a streaming platform. They include: NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, Google/YouTube TV, and Netflix.
But he added: “This all changes if the NFL is able to convince existing sponsors to incrementally spend on the new league and that comes with media must-spends. In this scenario I could see a few linear windows opening up for perhaps the first game and some playoffs.”
There’s a big difference between the average start-up league and a league backed by the financial and marketing might of the NFL, noted Doug Perlman, founder and CEO of Sports Media Advisors.
“Any new league is going to have a tough time finding a rights fee in general—until you’ve proven you have an audience and a following. But obviously if it’s backed by the NFL, there’s a presumption of success. One, because they have so much executive talent. Two, because people are going to want to be in business with them. I don’t think they’d get a big rights fee up front. But it’s something they could build over time.”
It’s also smart for the NFL, added Perlman, to target families who might not sign up for the more dangerous sport of traditional tackle football.
“Obviously, you have some parents worried about injuries. Or the kids are just unable to play tackle football for whatever reason. But by playing flag they learn the game of football, they know what the language is. They know what the strategies are. I think it’s going to be great for the league on many levels. The people that have played it are not just going to watch a new NFL flag football league. They’re going to watch the NFL, too.”
With NFL stars now playing flag football at the Pro Bowl, the fast-growing sport is having a moment. Flag football is now played by 20 million people in more than 100 countries worldwide.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the NFL, it’s that any time they put a package up for sale, blue-chip suitors fall over themselves to bid. We’re about to find out if that extends to a new league.
Incidentally, ESPN became the rights partner for the new NFL Flag Championships in 2024. ESPN televises both the NFL’s Monday Night Football and the new annual summer showcase for boys and girls playing flag football.
Just sayin’.
