Flag football is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States, and an NFL legend continues to help that growth with an important partnership announced Tuesday.
Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints legend, and his Football ‘N’ America (FNA) youth flag football league have partnered with Unrivaled Sports, the nation’s leader in youth sports experiences, to continue elevating the game Brees credits his football foundation to.
Brees and Chris Stuart founded FNA in 2017 with the design of making flag football fun, competitive and community-driven for boys and girls of all ages and skill sets.
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“I’m really excited,” he told FOX Business over the phone about the partnership with Unrivaled Sports. “When we embarked on this back in 2017 and created FNA, it was really with the idea of creating the gold standard for flag football. I got three small boys who were getting into the sport. I had played flag football up until ninth grade. In fact, the first time I put on pads was in ninth grade – a lot of people don’t know that. I really credit a lot of my development as a quarterback, understanding passing schemes and everything from flag football.
“So, not only was I coming at it from someone who played the game, but someone who had kids who were wanting to play. Also, I coached all my kids including their friends all the way up until now they’re high school football players, so kinda see it come full circle.”
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Unrivaled Flag has the same ambitions as FNA, and they are ready to bring their vast resources to the table to help expand leagues nationwide through new operators and communities, while connecting them to Unrivaled Flag’s programming, including High School Girls Nationals, The Gold Jacket Classic and the Youth Flag World Championships.
“We’re proud to work with Drew and the FNA team to create amazing athlete experiences and define the standard for the sport as flag continues to grow and gain popularity with girls and boys across the country,” Jim Reynolds, CEO of Unrivaled Flag, said in a statement. “We’re inspired by the momentum surrounding flag football as it heads to the global stage in 2028, and proud to help lead the charge in the youth space.”
As Reynolds mentions, flag football will be an Olympic sport in Los Angeles come 2028, and there’s already massive buzz surrounding what’s expected to be a thrilling part of the Games.
Brees has witnessed first-hand how much impact American football has around the globe given his time in the NFL and his knowledge of their international games. But having been an analyst for Netflix’s international broadcast of the Christmas Day football game last season, he saw the millions of viewers who tuned in to not only watch the game, but also ask him and NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson questions about the game.
“The amount of viewership was insane and just the reach,” Brees said about that broadcast. “So, that was really eye-opening to me to see how many people around the world are interested in American football.”
When it comes to the game itself, Brees believes flag football is a “gateway sport,” giving kids the opportunity to learn so many different things they can take into other sports as well as everyday life.
“Back in the day, you might say the first thing you put your kids in was soccer. But I think in so many cases now, I see young kids playing flag football for the first time at five, six, seven years old and that’s really their introduction to sports,” Breese said. “I see a ton of girls doing it as well, which has never been the case. We’re at a time where flag football is becoming a gateway sport for so many kids.”
With a collective determination and drive to continue impacting kids and communities nationwide, Unrivaled Sports and FNA are ready to work in tandem to impact the future of flag football and youth sports in general.
“The partnership with Unrivaled just adds fuel to the fire because of the leadership at Unrivaled, the access to incredible resources,” Brees said. “They manage some incredible facilities around the country that are going to be host to some really signature events when it comes to tournament series across our flag football leagues. And then just really cool experiential events around flag football that I think currently exist in other sports but don’t exist yet in flag football. We have the chance to be pioneers around that in a lot of years.”
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