Ben Gilbert

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has leagues or sponsors leagues like local flag football leagues where they all are named after NFL teams.

And it's getting a lot more kids into the game, especially as tackle football sort of wanes in popularity due to the concussion risk and injury risk.

So from 2019 to 2023, tackle football decreased 5% for the youngest age group playing, but flag football increased by 16%.

So this is, I believe, the fastest growing youth sport in America.

It's growing really fast internationally as well, which this is the 30-year win for the NFL.

Because if kids are playing flag football in other countries, it's only a short number of years before we see a meaningful presence of NFL stars who are not from America because they sort of grew up playing flag.

And then when they hit

13, 14, 15 started playing tackle football.

And that's going to be huge for the international growth of the game.

Yep.

But we're a short number of years away from, I think, seeing a giant breakout star who started in flag football because it was a part of their school or YMCA program from another country.

Also, flag football is going to be in the Olympics.

Yeah.

You could not have made it more disorganized and done more of a disservice to their sport, their game, than how this has all played out.

I mean, if your goal is pay the players, there are a thousand better ways to do it than the way it has actually played out.

So yeah, what actually happened?

Okay, so forever, college football, it was illegal to pay players because they were amateurs and they can't receive gifts or cars or endorsement deals or anything.

And then there was a Supreme Court ruling a few years ago where name, image, and likeness became legal to monetize.

And what sort of ended up happening is these booster groups popped up where groups of alumni or people with vested interests in the school