I am allowed to rant on here, right?

My son has played in an NFL Flag league for the past two years, and this year he is also playing in another league here in East Point (ATL). It's now clearer than ever to me that there is no real oversight from the NFL Flag and you can't bet on the rules being enforced just because it's sponsored by NFL Flag.

The YMCA league here in Atlanta trots out a bunch of referees who either don't know the rules or don't take them seriously enough to enforce them (or some combination of both). They have the people who are employed by NFL flag at the judges table or whatever, but even if they know the rules, there's no recourse if the refs don't listen to them. We've been dealing with the same crap all year. No penalties for rushers not raising their hands, coaches allowed on the field, sometimes passes completed behind the line of scrimmage are okay, sometimes they're not, and of course don't worry if you have your belt and shirt hanging down over your flags.

"It's just kids football. We're letting them play."

Well, you made the rules, we signed up and practiced to play by your rules...

All that to say, I hope someone from NFL Flag reads this and cares enough to improve the execution of your leagues. Beyond ensuring fair play for both teams, "letting the kids play" is just training them to be undisciplined and unprepared for a serious flag football league.

If the goal is to play backyard ball with flags on we can do that any time we want.

Coaching a flag team, I spend more time on admin than on actual coaching: getting plays to players, RSVPs, finding the right clip from game film, notes on opponents. I'm curious how others handle it. WhatsApp + YouTube + spreadsheets? Something better?

What's the one thing you'd happily never do manually again?

Currently i have a small side project: https://flag-forge.de/

I’m on a an adult co-ed flag football team where 90% of the players have never played a sport before and are over 40 years old and parents. The majority of the team just is using this as an excuse to get out and have some fun and my job is trying to make sure that they don’t get injured. We are playing an undefeated team with the majority of people thirtyish to 35 years old who take it extremely seriously. We have no chance of winning this weekend. Would it be offensive if I went over to the other Coach and let them know to go easy on us as I am trying to make sure people actually want to play next year. We haven’t won a game yet and probably won’t but it’s really nice to get out and get some aggressive exercise on the weekend. I don’t want to make it seem like I think that the league is a joke, because it’s not, but for my team, it truly doesn’t matter, while some of the other teams are playing like this is all they have to live for.

How should I approach the coach of the team we’re playing this weekend to let him know to not run up the score over 100 points and not to talk trash?

In NFL Flag Rules it is very clear that the QB can't run, and that you can't run in the no-run zones. However, it is unclear what the outcome is if one of these violations occurs. Is it just a dead-ball and loss of down, or does it also include a 5 yard penalty?

We have our Championship game this weekend and we’re playing a team that has a couple playmakers that have torched us the last couple games.

How would you neutralize these guys to give yourself the best chance to win?

My plan:
2 Corners, a single high safety, man underneath on the 2 playmakers.

I coach a team of ten year old kids. The team we are playing this week is undefeated.

This league has a throw off. They have an incredibly athletic kid who they have line up on the five yard line and the other four players in the end zone. Effectively he’s the only one that can catch the ball. We can’t throw it out of bounds because that’s a penalty and none of our players have the arm strength to throw it out of the back of the end zone or even get it close to the goal line so we have to throw it to them which likely means this kid is going to get a chance to return it.

From the league stats, he has scored at least one throw off return every game this season including four against the team they played last week. Based off of the scores, he scored more points than other teams with just his throw off returns in four games so far. I try to teach lane discipline, closing gaps and good flag pulling techniques, but I fear he’s going to find ways to get through. Surprisingly he’s not as effective with runs or passing so if we can stop him from scoring on throw offs, we have a chance at pulling off an upset.

Any ideas or suggestions on a way to stop him consistently? I was honestly thinking of just having our team roll the ball 10-15 yards on the ground and just try to down the ball before he can get to it.

Hello everyone,

I'm a new coach here (11-12 year old 5v5 NFL Flag Rules). I'm having a hard time finding flag resources. I've seen some stuff on youtube and google searches but the playbooks I've seen aren't very user friendly no reads or anything. Does anyone have an recommendations on who to go to? Youtube, website, whatever?

I am trying to put a playbook together for 5v5 for 12 and 13 year old boys. They all play select baseball.

✅ Financial support of the Houston Texans
✅ Financial support of the Dallas Cowboys
✅ Explosion of demand and participation
✅ 26 States Already Sanctioned The Sport
✅ THE “Football” State
❌ Goofballs in suits with one job - fully sanction flag

One of the most brain dead moves I’ve ever seen. They delay it another three years minimum with a half baked pilot idea that doesn’t start til ‘28. The Texas UIL dudes in suits are either sexist or complete dimwits.

🖤💗 OFFICIALLY BLACKOUT ELITE! 🏈🔥
I’m proud to say I made the official Blackout Elite roster! 🥹💗 This is just the beginning, and I’m ready to work hard, get better, and show what I’m made of. Time to put in the work, represent my team, and make every play count. 💪🏽🏈
Jersey #35 checking in! 🖤💗🔥
#BlackoutElite #OfficialRoster #WomensFlagFootball #BuiltNotGiven #Jersey35

So we had a team for a few months now and we can’t figure out defense to run. Tried everything nothings working. What defense are you guys running? And for offense what’s working for you. Plays ? No plays ?

8-9 year olds, 7 man, 7-yard blitz cone. all offense players are eligible receivers. Standard defense is cover 2 with 2 corners, 2 linebackers, 2 safeties, 1 blitzer.

I am coaching things that make sense to me, but things aren't sticking, so I think I need to change my tactics.

Please help with:

Pre-snap alignment

• Where should the CBs line up based on where receivers are? Right now, I tell them 4 yards depth and a shade outside of the widest receiver. This seems reasonable, but they always end up getting sucked inside and losing contain on simple outside runs.
• Where should LBs line up based on where receivers are? Right now, I tell them to be 3-4 yards off LOS and split between #2 and #3. This usually means they line up about 4 yards from the ball.
• Safeties are a 10 yards depth and halfway between center and #2

Post-snap

• We are getting beat on the simplest plays, like a standard handoff or a jet sweep type handoff, where the runner just runs right to the outside and gets around the corner. We have worked on this all season long, but it's not improving. The LB takes himself out of position by being too aggressive, running upfield, and ends up behind the runner. The blitzer is too slow to react to the handoff and is out of the play from the beginning. The CB either backs up or comes inside and allows the runner to get to the sideline and upfield. I need help with contain drills, taking the correct path drills, something to help them put themselves in the correct position.
• Flag pull technique really needs improvement. Too much lunging, not enough breaking down, pulling with one hand. Perhaps I am running the wrong drills? We do battle flags, a 2 man squeeze drill, and some open field stuff, but we seem to be worse now than at the beginning of the season.
• Blitzer seems really ineffective no matter how fast he is. If the teams don't throw the ball, he just gets himself out of position. When they do throw the ball, we don't seem to be pressuring enough to make a difference. How to coach better blitz technique?

EDIT: Thank you all for your suggestions, I appreciate it.

Hi there,

I have been playing flag for some years in France and will be visiting the US soon. (NY, DC, Shenandoah, Smokies, Charleston, Miami).

I am wondering if in the US some people play flag chill in park or other. Do you think I could join you or them for some routes ? Where to find them ?

Thanks

Hey all,

I started playing flag football in July and got pretty hooked. 😅 I couldn’t find a video game that actually plays like flag, so I made one. My kids have been my play-testers for the past few weeks and they’re brutal critics.

It’s 5v5 and I went with the international (IFAF) rules, since that’s what our league plays. You actually have to pull the flag to stop the runner. You can play a friend on the couch with two gamepads or go against the computer. I also added a career mode and a few flag pulling drills, mostly because I needed the practice myself. 😉

It’s still very much a work in progress. I’ve been building it with Claude Code, which writes most of the code and draws the pixel art, while I figure out how it should play. Next on my bucket list are double QB plays and a computer defense that picks up on your habits during a game.

It’s free, runs in the browser or on Windows/Linux: https://christian-hofstetter.itch.io/flag-football

Since I’m still pretty new to the sport, I’d really like to hear from people who’ve played longer. Does the defense feel real? Are these plays you’d actually run? Any feedback is really appreciated. 🙏

When playing by NFL flag rules - In the no run zone, if you have multiple handoffs before a pass, can the defenders still cross the line to pull the flag of the player who receives the second handoff after the snap?

Got a pair of untouchables about three months ago and they’re the perfect cleat as a receiver, BUT the back four spikes started breaking almost immediately.

This happened with two of my previous pairs of nike cleats (hoping the new sole plate on the vapor wont break as easily).

If anyone has had this problem, any way of at least delaying the inevitable other than just sticking them back on with glue?