CNN
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When Tatiana Dos Santos started playing flag football, she did so on a dirt field in Panama. By the time she left high school, she had played at the NFL Pro Bowl, held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

It has been a remarkable rise for someone who is now competing at the elite level, but Dos Santos’ story is also a mirror for the progress that the sport, which is due to make its Olympic debut in 2028, has made as a whole.

“All of these things just keep upgrading,” Dos Santos, who last year helped the Ottawa Braves to their fourth straight NAIA Finals title, told CNN Sport’s Coy Wire. “I started playing in the dirt. And I came all the way up to playing on these big fields, universities, and also stadiums – we play our national championships in the (Atlanta) Falcons stadium, the Mercedes-Benz (Stadium).”

In many ways, it should come as no surprise that athletes like Dos Santos are competing on some of the NFL’s most iconic stages. Played by more than 20 million people in more than 100 countries, flag football is expected to overtake tackle worldwide in terms of organized participation opportunities in the next few years, according to the International Federation of American Football (IFAF).

The growth of the sport in the US, where flag football is now played by the NFL’s biggest stars as part of the Pro Bowl, has been just as striking.

“I started in 2018, and the sport has skyrocketed,” said NFL FLAG executive director Izell Reese. “When I started with NFL FLAG … players were roughly about 200,000 participating. It has ballooned to 800,000 participating.”

At the high school level, 42,955 girls participated in the 2023-24 season, a 105% increase from the previous year.

The game is doing just as well at the collegiate level. In December, Alabama State announced Jennifer Constuble as the first ever women’s flag football coach in Division I athletics.

This growth has allowed – and been spurred on by – international scholarship opportunities for young athletes like Dos Santos to study at universities and colleges such as Ottawa University.

“It’s just crazy,” said the Braves wide receiver. “Thinking about how I came from a small town in the west side of Panama, all the way to be in Kansas, winning national championships and being able to get a scholarship – it’s such a proud moment.”

Flag football has been aided to no end by the support of the financial behemoth that is the NFL.

“They’ve got the full breadth of the NFL using their marketing horsepower,” said Reese. “They’ve nationally televised the FLAG Championships in Canton, Ohio on ESPN, for instance. They used a Super Bowl commercial in past years as well.”

Individual NFL teams have also played their part in growing the game.

“Having NFL teams involved, having the players involved, both active and former – you’re really seeing the breadth of the NFL and them looking at this as a priority,” added Reese.

Rockford Park District Youth Sports Manager Lamont Jones has seen firsthand the influence this can have, whether that is through teams investing in Parks and Rec programs, donating turf for training facilities, or sending NFL players to connect with the district’s young athletes.

“We would not be where we’re at right now in the state of Illinois if it wasn’t for the Chicago Bears,” he said. “When the Chicago Bears reached out to us about high school girls flag football, it was just a no-brainer.”

The effect of all this investment has seen the sort of growth which may be starting to allow the sport to stand by itself. The American Flag Football League (AFFL), previously only an amateur tournament, is due to launch a professional league in spring 2025 with players earning $1,000 a week. Its first franchises, the Boston Brigade and the Las Vegas Lucky 7s, were bought from the league for $3 million each in 2022.

Equally important to the sport’s boom is the nearly 30% increase in equipment sales, as reported by the Sport and Fitness Industry Association.

“You start thinking about all those jerseys, all those flag belts, all those footballs, all those participants, all those tournaments and events. Youth sports tourism is a big thing,” pointed out Reese. “That multi-billion dollar industry of youth sports – flag is a skyrocket for that, and one of the biggest growth sectors.

“You’re just starting to see the industry start to involve. You’re starting to see Nike, Adidas, all of these apparel companies now wanting their brands to be donned and worn across collegiate, high school and youth.”

Players and coaches across all levels of the game have been reaping the benefits of improved equipment.

“Freshman year we were using the reused soccer jerseys,” said Lainey Thatcher, a student at Dunwoody High School in the Atlanta area. “And (now) we have our own flags with our names. We used to just have yellow flags with nothing on them. Now we have our own customized flags and it’s really nice.”

Kevin Fraser, flag football head coach at Pope High School, also just north of Atlanta, has seen similar developments.

“We use wristbands now that we didn’t use our first year for play-calling, so the girls can see. I have a software system that I can basically draw out plays on and can fit it on a little card. The first year I was drawing cards on literally note cards and laminating them, and that was the play call!” he said. “Now they’ve got 24 drawn plays on their wristband.

“Without that now, I would be like, ‘I’m out!’”

Success breeds success, and the growth of flag football has seen the sport secure a place at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

“When would anyone think that a sport like flag football would be part of the Olympics!” smiled Dos Santos. “You would never think that!”

With current NFL players interested in competing, there are hopes that flag football might see something akin to the so-called “Dream Team,” the 1992 US men’s Olympic basketball team featuring the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley.

If NFL teams allow their players to join the Olympic effort, a star-studded lineup would no doubt see another financial boom for the sport.

But, even if they don’t, one thing is for sure: flag football is not going back to the dirt field any time soon.