Tom Brady wants flag football to look more like tackle football

Player mentions

Article text

Tom Brady's first taste of flag football didn't go well, with his hand-picked team of current and former NFL players (for the most part) going 0-2 in the inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic. Coincidentally, or not, Brady explained after the event that he'd like to see the rules of flag football change. "I think maybe about different ways to marry a 7-on-7 version of the game versus a flag version where it resembles a little bit more football, might make it more exciting to watch every single day, and get more people involved in it, kind of globally around the world," Brady said. It became immediately clear on Saturday that, in flag football, the quarterback does more than throw passes. He runs routes. He advances the ball. He needs to be agile, shifty, fast. As a result, Brady wants "to bring a little more passing into" flag football. Brady also floated a concept that would prevent a repeat of Team USA running roughshod over their tackle-football contemporaries in the 2027 Fanatics Flag Football Classic. "I think, you know, even on the sideline, just thinking about maybe an NFC team next year versus an AFC team, and then kind of sprinkle in some of the great, you know, American flag players," Brady said. "I think that could really help." The undercurrent is obvious. The NFL players believe (accurately) that they have much greater overall ability than the flag players. And while the easiest fix is to pick NFL players with the right skills to thrive in flag football (nickel corners, receivers, scatbacks), adjusting the rules to make the whole thing look more like real football and less like the product of a P.E. teacher's fever dream will make it easier for fans of tackle football to accept, or at least tolerate, flag football. If the NFL's goal is to use flag football as a way to introduce the game not only to global participants but also to global spectators, there's merit in the notion of making flag football look more like football football. Ideally, the International Federation of American Football will move quickly to incorporate those changes before the 2028 Olympics. That will be the true coming-out party for flag football. The format and the rules to be used then will, in theory, become the foundation for the version of flag football that will spread throughout the world in a way that more closely simulates the 11-on-11 version of the sport.