Pennsylvania on Wednesday made flag football an officially sanctioned sport for girls in high schools, amid an effort by the state's NFL teams to encourage more female athletes to take the field.
The approval by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (the state governing body for high school sports in the state) makes flag football an official sport for girls in the nation’s fifth-most populous state beginning in the 2025-26 school year.
As part of the process to sanction girls flag football, the PIAA required at least 100 teams from across the state to participate. That threshold was reached in April, with 65 schools participating in the Philadelphia Eagles flag football league and 36 in the Pittsburgh Steelers league.
“This is not only an important day for the Eagles and Steelers, but also for the sport of football and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Eagles owner Jeff Lurie said in a statement. “When we launched our women’s flag football league in 2022, we set an ambitious five-year goal to get the sport sanctioned in our state. Now, here we are, three seasons later and two years ahead of schedule. The organic growth of the sport is a credit to the participants, administrators, coaches, referees and parents who helped raise the profile of women’s flag football.
“We thank the PIAA for its leadership in recognizing a sport that has the power to open new avenues and opportunities for girls of all ages in every community.”
Allowing interscholastic competition at the state level will open the door for school districts to add flag football as a sport and allow schools to compete for a state championship, ultimately developing a talent pipeline for the collegiate game and beyond.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, 42,955 girls participated in flag football in the 2023-24 school year, a 105% increase in participation levels over the previous year.
Last year, at a women's flag football game sponsored by the Eagles, team president Don Smolenski reflected on the growth of the sport and the club's involvement.
“That commitment at this age makes you a lifelong fan in this age group,” he said. “And if more people are playing the game and enjoying the game, and learning the lessons that it provides, it's going to be better for the game and the National Football League as a whole.”
The move adds Pennsylvania to a growing list of states that have included girls' flag football in their high school sports programs. Those other states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New York and Tennessee.
The surge in interest in flag football — in which no one is tackled and the play ends when the ball carrier's flag is pulled from his belt — reached a crescendo this summer when the International Olympic Committee announced plans to make flag football an official Olympic sport, for men and women, at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
