NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league’s support of girls’ flag football is a long-term investment in making football more popular for decades to come.
Goodell [said on Women’s Sports Now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWScKCdy4K0) that the league’s research shows that people who have played football at the youth level are more likely to remain fans of the sport for life. In the past, those youth football players were almost exclusively boys. Now there are hundreds of thousands of girls playing flag football, and the NFL says the sport is only going to continue to grow.
“Data shows that if you play the game you are more likely to be a lifelong fan,” Goodell said. “I think that’s a true statement and a fact. So if young women are playing the game and they’re getting that exposure early on . . . they have the opportunity to be exposed to football, and that’s why they fell in love with it. I’ve always said, it used to be, the guys used to say, ‘I’m going down to the basement, I’m watching football, I’ll see you at dinner.’ Or they go on Sunday afternoon to a football game. Now they’re going with their family. And when I go to a game, the No. 1 thing I look at in the stands, I’m looking to see how many women are there, how many families are there, how many young people are there. That audience mix has changed dramatically in our stadiums. It changed in our events, the draft — I can’t even tell you, it’s probably 50/50 at the draft, and I just think that’s a really significant thing for the growth of the NFL, to have a fan base. Women are fans too, and they’re awfully good fans or great fans.”
There are now at least 40 states that have girls’ high school flag football programs, and 23 states have state sanctioned varsity flag football championships. The NFL has a stated goal of seeing girls’ flag football as a high school varsity sport in all 50 states.