Flag and two-hand touch football

We have many posts and podcasts on the early beginnings of football on Pigskin Dispatch from its roots of Rugby and Soccer through the transformation of the 19th century into the gridiron game we love today. Many derivatives of th basic game have come about over time but one that has stayed popular for over 80 years is that of flag football. Flag football is the version of the game where basically the tackling aspect of the game is replaced by relinquishing the flag of an opponent from connection to their person.

UPDATE: Author Timothy P. Brown from the Fields of Friendly Strife website contacted me after this article posted to inform me that in his research he found that touch and flag football was actually started in 1910. The Missouri Tigers actually adopted the practice during football's brutal seasons when the escalation of deaths and injury were rampant as the forward pass was being adopted into football. Make sure to read Tim's piece of flag and touch football.

An early version of flag according to the website studentweb.cortland.edu came about in the early 1930's as a game called "Touch and Tail" football. It was a variant of two hand touch but each aooponet would stock a cloth streamer, probably a rag of some sort tucked in their britches and hanging from their backside. The objective of the defense was to remove this rag from the runner to stop play and further advancement of the ball.

The side streamers and name of flag football was developed on military bases in the early 1940's as a recreational sport for military personal. Fort Meade in Maryland is often generally-accepted as the birthplace of the streamer game in the military.  In the post World War II years, recreational leagues soon sprouted up across the country by the servicemen who played it while on duty.  Perhaps the most remembered of these leagues was the National Flag & Touch Football League (NTFL), which was the dominant national league for over a decade and a half.

Other forms of recreational football began it's spread across college campuses nationwide. It wasn't the non-contact versions of two-hand touch of flag football though at first. The college intramural football game of the 1960's and 1970's was normally a seven-man contact game almost taking the game . For today's game, the National Collegiate Flag Football Championships is held each December at the University of New Orleans. There has been a National College Champion crowned on the UNO campus every year since 1979.

The first major competition to the NTFL was formed in 1988, when the NTFL's own regional director Mike Cihon broke out on his own to create the United States Flag Touch Football League (USFTL). According to the USFTL's website their history was:

The U.S.F.T.L. was the first organization to address all versions of Flag & Touch Football in clear, concise Rule Book. Due to the differing opinions on how the game should be played, the U.S.F.T.L did an exhaustive 5 year study of all the different types of Flag & Touch football and concluded that there were 4 basic styles of play (Games.). Those “games” are Flag Football, Touch Football, Screen Flag Football and ineligible Lineman Flag Football. The U.S.F.T.L is dedicated to promoting the games of Flag & Touch Football to all people, regardless of gender, race, age, religious affiliation or natural ability.

A competitor to the USFTL is the American Flag & Touch Football League (AFTFL). The AFTFL was created in 1991 by founder George Higgins after a disagreement between Higgins and USFTL director Mike Cihon. The league based in Long Island roots has expanded and grown. More recently as of 2017, it has been rebranded as the AFFL, or American Flag Football League under the leadership of President Jeff Lewis. This group hosts it's own national championship tournament as an annual event held in Atlanta each February. According to the organization's website:

The American Flag Football League (AFFL) is the preeminent professional flag football league in the United States. The first league of its kind, the AFFL taps into the energy of one of the fastest-growing sports in America. The AFFL is a collective of elite athletes hailing from a variety of sports who have the speed, agility and charisma to compete and entertain on a national stage.

There have been other organized leagues that have sprouted up over the past 30 years to promote the game to exceed 20 million players participating in flag football programs. There was even an attempt to jump athletes into the paid category when in 1999, the Professional Flag Football League of PFFL played the first ever professional flag football travel schedule, with teams in Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, and Indianapolis. The league was not successful financially, folding after only one season. Perhaps in the future a more fruitful attempt will be made to professionalize the activity but in the meantime lets just enjoy this exciting variation of the gridiron played by amateurs everywhere!

Accroding to an article on Apex Indoor Sports, Tampa Bay Buccaneer long tenured NFL Quarterback Tom Brady started his playing career with flag football back in elementary school. The basic skills he learned in flag football propelled him on to success on the gridiron at the high school, collegiate and professional levels where so far he has won a record seven Lombardi Trophies.

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikimedia Commons collection of People playing flag football, taken by an unknown photographer.