Girls flag football will have a presence alongside the NFL Draft when the league’s annual event comes to Washington, D.C., in 2027, as Off The Field, the official NFL Wives Association, plans to bring its Girls in Flag clinic to the nation’s capital.
The D.C. State Athletic Association recently sanctioned girls flag football as a state championship sport, with a record 26 D.C. high schools fielding teams this spring. The move gives the sport an official place in the city’s high school athletics scene.
Flag football has been part of the NFL’s youth programming since the 1990s, when the league introduced the noncontact version of the sport through its youth football initiatives. The NFL later developed NFL FLAG, a program designed to provide boys and girls with an accessible way to play football. The program has since expanded across the country, particularly at the youth and high school levels.
The D.C. pop-up clinic will build on Off The Field’s “Girls in Flag” initiative, which began at the 2024 Super Bowl in New Orleans.
“We started off with 50 girls in New Orleans at the Super Bowl in 2024,” said Tenisha Patterson Brown, President of Off the Field NFLW. “Our largest turnout has been Pittsburgh, which was the draft, and it was over 600 girls.”
Patterson Brown said the organization has continued to increase participation since its first event. “Now we’re going to be at 1,000 girls in Seattle, 1,000 girls in Tampa Bay and 1,000 girls in D.C. when we come for the draft,” Patterson Brown said.
The D.C. event is expected to include girls ages 5-18, with the goal of bringing younger and older girls together and exposing them to the sport. The draft-week clinic is part of a larger initiative, with Off The Field’s chapters spanning all 30 NFL markets. The organization plans to host a Girls in Flag clinic in every market by the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The pop-up clinics offer girls opportunities to participate in the sport but do not operate as teams.
Patterson Brown said those programs are designed to address some of the barriers that can prevent girls from participating in sports. The organization provides items including sports bras, socks, feminine hygiene products, hair scrunchies and shoes or cleats to help girls have access to what they need to participate.
The organization also works to connect girls with women who have experience in athletics. Off The Field members include former collegiate athletes and Olympians, including gold medalists, who can provide encouragement and mentorship.
Patterson Brown said having women who have already navigated athletics and opportunities such as college recruiting can give younger girls someone to look up to.
“We want them to understand the depth of who they could be,” she said.
That mentorship can be especially significant for girls considering athletics beyond high school. Patterson Brown said some of the girls involved in the programs are already navigating recruiting, scholarships and, at the high school level, NIL opportunities.
Ashley Cobb, captain of Off The Field’s D.C. chapter, said she also wants to continue increasing awareness of girls flag football and bringing more girls into the sport through schools.
“The attention, of course, is always on boys’ football, but in the D.C. area in particular, the girls are getting as much attention,” Cobb said.
Cobb pointed to a new buzz around the sport, including coverage from DC Gridiron, an Instagram influencer who had previously been focusing on boy’s football but has increasingly highlighted girls flag football games and athletes. She said the growth of the sport is also creating more opportunities for girls to pursue flag football at the college level.
The Washington Commanders have also invested in building that pathway. In August 2025, they announced a more than $1 million commitment to 127 girls flag football programs across the DMV including funding, equipment and programming such as coaching clinics. The Commanders have also hosted a high school girls flag football college showcase for 200 student-athletes in the graduating classes of 2026-2030, connecting players with college opportunities.
As the sport expands across the district, multiple high schools have developed girls flag programs, with the new DCSAA ruling meaning the schools will have an opportunity to compete for an official state championship. The 2027 NFL Draft will be sure to bring another national spotlight to the sport when Off The Field’s “Girls in Flag” event arrives in D.C. during draft week.
This article is in partnership with Listen In With KNN.
Senior at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism
UMD '27