What we know about the new Premier Flag league

The GIST: A hot new league just entered the pro sports space: Premier Flag, the flag football brainchild of the NFL and TMRW Sports, is set to launch next summer — one year before the sport’s debut at the 2028 LA Olympics. There are flags on this play, but only the green kind. Let’s discuss.

✅ The details: Premier Flag will feature both a women’s and men’s league — great news considering women’s flag football is a sanctioned varsity sport in 25 states and flirting with NCAA championship status in 2028. League play will be hosted in a still-to-be-named U.S. city, emulating the single-host format seen in other start-up leagues (including Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited).

• Just like the location, a lot of the specifics are still TBD, including the number of teams, league format, and season length. But this venture is backed by all 32 NFL owners and big-name investors like Serena Williams and Peyton Manning, so it’s bound to be good.

💪 Why now?: Flag football is a sport on the rise. Girls flag football is the fastest-growing high school sport in the U.S. and upwards of 20M people — more than quadruple the number of tackle football participants — play flag football worldwide, with high school girls’ participation in the U.S. increasing nearly 60% from 2024 to 2025.

• Premier Flag’s priorities are simple: create a paid, professional space where players can quit their day jobs and focus their time and energy on honing their craft.

• The league will also offer a clear (and hopefully lucrative) end goal for the sport’s development pipeline, adding a paid tier to a flag football ecosystem that already includes youth, high school, collegiate, and international building blocks. Talk about a touchdown.