Flag Football Facts

Flag football is a variation of American football that involves pulling a flag from a player's waist instead of tackling him. It is popular with recreational players because of the reduced risk of injury and need for less equipment. Flag football is played with a variety of rules. It can be played occasionally as a pick-up game or in leagues with a set schedule.

Rules

Flag football follows most of the basic rules of tackle football. The team with the ball initiates offensive plays and has four downs to advance the ball ten yards for a first down. The ball can be advanced through running or passing. Instead of tackling the player with the ball to end a play, flags that are clipped around the waist are pulled off. In non-contact flag football, the player with the ball is not allowed to push another player away who is trying to remove their flag. Teammates are also not allowed to block players on the other team trying to de-flag the player with the ball. Flag football games permitting contact allow hand blocks by the player with the ball and blocking by teammates in the open field.

Team Size

Flag football is played with many different team sizes. They range from four-player teams with ten-player rosters to nine-player teams with unlimited rosters. Flag football games with larger teams tend to allow contact. This includes linemen who can block. Blocking in flag football is usually restricted to the upper body. Blocking of the legs and chop blocks are generally prohibited. When linemen block in flag football, they are sometimes ineligible to catch passes as with the rules of tackle football. However, some variations of flag football allow blocking linemen to catch passes. When no contact is allowed in a flag football game, pass rushers are required to wait a set amount of time before they can blitz the quarterback.

Scoring

Some flag football games include kicking, while others do not. Flag football games that do not allow kicking generally pass the ball down the field for kickoffs or start the play on a particular yard line. Kicking games can award three points for a field goal and one point for a kicked conversion after a touchdown. However, most flag football fields do not have goal posts. Games on these fields award six points for a touchdown and one, two or three points for conversions. One point is awarded for a conversion from the three yard line, two points from the ten yard line and three points from the 20 yard line. Flag football games are usually shorter than tackle football games. A game is often played in two 18-minute halves instead of four 15-minute quarters.

Field

Flag football can be played on a regulation tackle football field that measures 100 yards long by 53 1/3 yards wide. However, the game is usually played on a smaller field. Some of the more commonly used sizes are 40 yards by 60 yards or 25 yards by 64 yards.

Popularity

Flag football is popular in countries around the world among men, women and children. There are many organized leagues for different genders and age groups. They have elaborate tournaments to determine league, city, state, regional, national and world champions. There is a Youth World Championship for children between 12 and 14 years old, and a Flag Football World Cup for international teams. There is no universally recognized sanctioning body overseeing flag football. As a result, there are many variations of the rules among the different leagues.

Resources

• Flag Football Magazine