The game of flag football is growing rapidly within the NFL.
The Arizona Cardinals, along with State Farm and Arizona’s Family, announced a partnership on Friday to broadcast the Cardinals High School Girls Flag Football Game of the Week presented by State Farm. It will be the first time an NFL team produces and airs a high school girls' flag football game of the week.
Eight games will be aired throughout the season beginning Tuesday, Sept. 17 through Thursday, Nov. 7 on Arizona’s Family Sports. The first game will be on Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. when Hamilton (Chandler) High School travels to Xavier (Phoenix) High School.
“We are thrilled to partner with State Farm and Arizona’s Family Sports to provide this unprecedented platform to showcase the amazing young women competing in high school flag football in Arizona,” Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill said in a press release. “The growth of flag football has been explosive not only in our state and our country but worldwide. As an organization we are proud to help grow the interest even more and shine a spotlight on those competing at such a high level in our own community.”
The other seven games will be aired and produced on Tuesday or Thursday nights. Each matchup will air live on Arizona’s Family Sports and have a 90-minute game broadcast featuring play-by-play calls, analysis and sideline reporting.
In July, the 2024 NFL Flag Championships took place in Canton, Ohio, a first-of-its-kind competition featuring 280 NFL Flag regional winning teams of boys and girls. All 32 NFL teams were represented at the flag football event, with 2,860 young football players participating over the three-day event.
Arizona is among 12 states that have introduced high school girls' flag football as a sanctioned sport. Flag football will be included in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.