NFL ROLLS OUT LATEST FLAG CAMPAIGN
The NFL has unveiled a new global marketing campaign designed to capitalise on the remarkable rise of flag football, launching Be The Story as the sport continues its rapid expansion towards its Olympic debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
The campaign will debut in the United States ahead of this month’s NFL Flag Championships in Westfield, Indiana, before being rolled out internationally throughout the year. Rather than focusing on NFL stars, however, the initiative shines a spotlight on the young athletes helping redefine one of the world’s fastest-growing sports, with Sarah Bishop, the NFL’s vice president of global brand and consumer marketing, explaining that the campaign is intended to reflect both the sport’s diversity and its growing opportunities.
Produced in partnership with Dentsu Creative UK and directed by Grammy Award-winning film-maker Hannan Hussain, the campaign features players from four countries alongside popular Twitch streamer RaKai, highlighting flag football’s increasingly global appeal. Among those featured are four-time United States national team member and NFL-IFAF Global Flag Ambassador Ashlea Klam, Mexico junior international Azul Trujillo, Arizona Player of the Year Samaya Taylor Jenkins, 2024 NFL Flag Player of the Year Ryder Noche, Australia women’s international Liz Lomu Stewart and Germany Under-15 European champion Arved Mohr.
“Be The Story celebrates a generation of players around the world who are dynamic, diverse and fearless, and it reminds every young athlete watching that the game has a place for them to shine,” Bishop claims. “From the NFL Flag Championships this summer to the sport’s Olympic debut in 2028, flag football has incredible momentum right now, and we’re more excited than ever to keep building pathways for more kids to play, compete and lead at every level of the game.”
The campaign arrives at a pivotal moment for flag football. Participation continues to accelerate across multiple levels of the sport. More than 4.1 million young athletes now play flag football in the United States, representing growth of over 50 per cent since 2020. The game has expanded into high schools across 40 states and jurisdictions, while more than 250 colleges and universities now offer women’s flag football programmes as the NCAA continues working towards recognising the discipline as a championship sport.
Globally, the numbers are even more striking, with more than 20 million participants spread across 100 countries. For players like Klam, that growth is opening doors that simply did not exist a few years ago.
“This sport has grown so much in the past few years,” Klam confirms. “There are more opportunities, especially for women. That is what we’ve been fighting for, for so long, and it’s been amazing to see all the growth that this sport has brought. It has opened so many doors.”
The NFL has also moved to establish a professional pathway. Earlier this year, the league announced a partnership with TMRW Sports to develop and operate a professional flag football league for both women and men, with the competition expected to launch before flag football’s Olympic debut in Los Angeles.
The timing reflects the NFL’s wider ambition to position itself at the centre of the sport’s global development, from grassroots participation through to elite competition. That pathway will be on display later this month when more than 350 boys’ and girls’ teams from around the world gather at Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana, for the third annual NFL Flag Championships presented by Toyota. The tournament, the largest youth flag football event in the world, will be broadcast across ESPN platforms, NFL Network and selected international broadcasters.
International attention will then shift to Europe, where the world’s leading men’s and women’s national teams will compete at IFAF World Flag 2026 in Düsseldorf from August 13-16th. As the first direct Olympic qualifying event for LA28, the tournament represents another significant milestone in the sport’s transformation from a developmental discipline into a genuinely global competition.