The Case for Flag Football As an Olympic Sport

The Olympics are not like every other wearing competition on this planet. For 16 days, over three hundred activities representing 35 sports, and each of us competes to take home our prized medals. I’ve looked forward to watching the Summer Olympics every 4 years, seeing that as some distance returned, I will keep it in mind. However, there’s continually been something lacking. One of the United States’ most famous sports, and a pinnacle 10 game at some point in the sector, it seems that tackle and flag Football might be Olympic sports by the 12 months of 2024. Still, problem obstacles nonetheless stay for that to emerge as a reality. First, we will stroll through some motives why getting American Soccer covered in the Olympics has not been an easy journey, observed by why we consider flag soccer the logical answer and desire as a destiny Olympic recreation.

Olympic Sport

WHY Isn’t AMERICAN football always an OLYMPIC game?

In keeping with an editorial by way of NFL.Com, the largest logistical problems going through the game of Yankee football being protected within the Olympics are very similar to that of Rugby. With the big numbers of members on each team, the “gender equality” codecs where each man and woman take part in every recreation, and the compressed 3-week schedule that would be hard with extra bodily entertainment like Soccer and Rugby. Furthermore, for American Football, the barrier to access is high due to its price to equip all gamers with pads and tools. Therefore, it has also been sluggish to undertake in many foreign nations, mainly of the poorer range.

Understanding all this, it’s hard to see how both games could be healthy for the Summer season Olympics. Rugby is a lot like Soccer in that little is needed to play the sport in terms of gear and practice as it is the base stage and has a much larger international following. This, amongst other reasons, has these days allowed Rugby to be cleared for the Olympics beginning in 2016 through converting the conventional fashion to a much less traditional “sevens” layout, which is faster paced with much fewer human beings, that can help carve a comparable direction for American Soccer, or flag football more in particular.

Tackle Safety Concerns

Even an increasing number of excessive college, university, and pro teams are starting to lessen the variety of contact practices, nevertheless carrying soft-padded headgear and shoulder pads for introduced protection. However, what if we should restrict the contact gamers see before high school and middle faculty even as addressing some Concerns related to the game being completely well-known in the Olympics? There have been loads of talks recently revolving around the Safety of tackle football, and now not just inside the NFL, wherein concussions are a primary difficulty. Beginning as far again as the youngster’s football stage, the latest proof has surfaced, helping the concept that even brief concussions, repeated head impacts, and collisions can happen in similar brain accidents later in life for kids tested between ages 8 and 13. Many researchers suggest kids should not be gambling soccer in any respect, meaning that youngsters’ heads are “a bigger part of their body, and their necks aren’t as strong as adults’. So youngsters can be a greater hazard of head and mind accidents than adults.”

DREW BREES BELIEVES FLAG soccer CAN Keep Soccer

As of 2015, research shows that flag soccer is the quickest-developing young people game in the U.S.A., significantly outpacing the boom of traditional address football. Many character-excessive colleges are switching to flag football over the address, getting other faculties of their regions to follow in shape, and developing organized leagues and divisions. It’s even a formally recognized varsity recreation in lots of states. With girls specifically, flag football is a way to permit simpler participation instead of the physical nature of the address. And he’s no longer the only one. Recently, Drew Brees was interviewed using Peter King for NBC’s pregame show and had some robust phrases on why he believes flag football is the answer. “I sense like flag soccer can Shop soccer,” Brees stated.

Brees coached his son’s flag soccer crew and performed flag soccer himself via junior excessive, by no means playing tackle football until high school. “I feel like (flag soccer) is an amazing introductory method for quite a few youngsters into soccer,” Brees cited. “Otherwise, I feel it is spotless to move in and feature a terrible experience early on and no longer need to play it again. I experience that once you place the pads on, there are just so many different factors to the game, and you are at the teacher’s mercy in various cases, too. And to be sincere, I do not suppose sufficient coaches are properly versed regarding the real fundamentals of the game, especially while the pads move on at the youngster’s level.” Many other seasoned athletes and coaches have expressed similar sentiments, singing praises for the game of flag soccer, and the upward push in recognition of the sport echoes that.

Flag football Isn’t a fluke or a recreational development tool that feeds into addressing Football. It’s a full-fledged movement with personal identity and motive, and it’s time we diagnosed that distinction. Internationally, it is gaining popularity as it is appears much faster than traditional American Soccer. The barrier to access is much better with the need for full pads and equipment. In Mexico, for instance, flag football is booming in popularity, in which maximum bear in mind it is the #2 game in Football and last rapid, with an estimated 2. five million youngsters taking part simply at the standard college level. International groups are beginning to ride to a number of the more popular American flag football tournaments, with illustrations from Panama, Indonesia, Bahamas, Mexico, and Canada and a more unusual prevalence.

Everywhere, your appearance, participation, and interest in the sport of flag football are exploding. At a personal level, it becomes a filing year for flag soccer. New, most important tournaments are popping up worldwide, seeing hundreds of groups competing across all age groups, formats, and patterns. Coins prices have been at an all-time high, expected to eclipse over $ hundred 000 in team giveaways in the next calendar year. Sponsors have also commenced taking notice, with the likes of EA sports activities, Nerf, Hotels.Com, Purple Bull, and other most important brands seeing the fee and increase from flag soccer as a way to efficaciously attain their target market in big numbers. Women’s participation is excessive, mirroring its popularity on the young people stage. It is the favored layout of play for American Football in most Important South American nations.

So how do these Sports all lead lower back to the Olympics and getting American Football protected as a legit recreation? First, permits the evaluation of some records on where the sport stands with the Worldwide Olympic Committee or IOC. Historically, So that it will be blanketed into the Olympic games as an indication of recreation, you have to have an International Federation and have held a Global Championship opposition. This must take vicinity at least 6 years before a scheduled Olympic game. The Global Federation of American Football basically centered on addressing football. Still, it included the flag in its event lineup, met this popularity, bec,ame authorized in 2012, and won the provisional reputation in 2014.

This will pave the way for American Football to be covered as an authentic game and flag football as a field of said recreation. Still, the IFAF has since faced setbacks because of alleged scandals, occasion mismanagement, and misappropriation of the price range that can’t bode nicely for the sports activities inclusion short period. Thankfully, in 2007, the IOC followed a new, extra bendy rule set allowing packages to be up for assessment after every Olympics starting in 2020, clearing a direction for all sports to present their case for being blanketed with the aid of winning an easy majority vote. So, the possibility is there for American Soccer to be blanketed inside the most prestigious wearing event worldwide; however, how can we triumph over the obstacles supplied through the shape of the sport to shape the mold of a hit Olympic sporting event?

FLAG soccer IS The key TO OLYMPIC INCLUSION

For every manner addressed, Football does not look healthy. The mildew is a logical choice for the IOC; there may be flag football. Here are the pinnacle 4 reasons flag football must be protected as the subsequent Olympic game.