NFL Will Launch Flag Football Training Platform

The NFL is developing a tech platform that will address gaps in flag football coaching, officiating, strategy and training.

Brian Flinn — the league’s SVP for global flag — made the reveal last week at the Columbia University Sports Management Conference:

"No one's really done the work to understand how unique the discipline is and what training modules do you ⁠need to get athletes ready. We're working with third-party experts in that space to develop curriculum so that we can train athletes to go a little bit further. And then on the coaching and officiating side, the reality is there's a lot of great people out there, in some cases volunteering their time. And it's not an indictment on them, but the reality is no one's invested in them to develop them to keep up with the ‌demanding ⁠players at every level." — Flinn, according to Reuters

Flinn told the conference he expects the platform will be up and running “at scale” in 3-4 months. That would make it live right in time for the spring season, which is when many of the states that have sanctioned the sport at the high school level compete.

Along these lines: RC Football — a free, AI-powered play design tool for coaches — recently published a mid-year report that said 51% of its users are designing flag (5v5) plays. And another 20% are drawing plays for 6v6 and 7v7 competitions.

Quick Take: Flag is the Wild West right now. The ecosystem lacks structure and many are just trying to figure it out. Tech solutions like Flag50, Blitz Board Stats, and others are seeing early traction with scoring and stats solutions. GameChanger has indicated that a heavier flag effort is in the cards after a big push (a shove?) into basketball this year. GameBreaker is leading in protective headwear and making a push into jerseys and other ecosystem solutions. And while RCX Sports holds the NFL license, most of the programming is left to local operators. It will be interesting to see just how much effort the league puts into structure. We continue to believe major U.S. pro sports would benefit from a homegrown player rule like MLS'. That would give teams a real reason to develop local talent, not just for the good of the game or philanthropy, but for competitive and financial reasons. It's a long shot with the draft and the players' unions in place, but it's the kind of incentive that would compel leagues and teams to actually build structure and invest in talent development, rather than outsourcing it to colleges, event circuits, and clubs.