The NFL is moving deeper into flag football, announcing a new professional league for men and women in a move that ties together the sport’s fast growth, the push toward the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and a high-profile investor group that includes Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Serena Williams, Alex Morgan, Larry Fitzgerald and Billie Jean King. The league is being developed and operated through a partnership between the NFL and TMRW Sports, the company founded by Mike McCarley.

The announcement came Monday, with the NFL saying the new league is intended to create a professional path for elite flag players at a time when the sport is already expanding through youth, high school and college levels. The league has not set a date for its first games, but the goal is to align the launch with the 2028 Olympics, when flag football will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles.

That Olympic timing is not a coincidence. Flag football has become one of the NFL’s most visible growth projects, and the league is clearly trying to position itself at the center of the sport before the Olympic spotlight arrives. Troy Vincent Sr., the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, said the new venture completes a development ladder that now stretches from youth participation to the professional ranks. “As the flag football movement continues its explosive global growth, a professional flag league completes the pathway for elite athletes to compete at every level of the game, from youth to high school and college, to the Olympic stage, and now professionally,” Vincent said.

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McCarley said the vision between TMRW Sports and the NFL had been building for years and described the new league as a way to expand both participation and interest around the world. “For more than three decades, the NFL has made a significant investment in flag football at the grassroots levels, including youth, high school and college. And now with the inclusion of flag football in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, TMRW Sports shares a vision with the NFL to further fuel fandom and participation worldwide with the development of a professional flag football league,” McCarley said.

Brady, one of the biggest names attached to the league, framed the move as a natural next step for a version of football that has become a major priority for the NFL. “Flag football is an incredibly exciting global game that will continue to grow because it emphasizes the most fun elements of football: speed, agility and creativity,” Brady said in the league’s announcement. “It’s an honor to be part of bringing this vision to life.”

The new venture also arrives just days after a made-for-TV flag football event featuring Brady and other current and former NFL stars. The Fanatics Flag Football Classic aired on Fox and averaged 641,000 viewers, with the title game drawing 649,000. The event had originally been scheduled for Saudi Arabia but was moved to BMO Stadium in Los Angeles because of conflict in the Middle East. That tournament also served as another reminder that the NFL is trying to put recognizable names around flag football as the sport moves toward the Olympic stage.

There is still a long list of details left to answer, including team structure, cities, media rights and exactly how the league will fit into the wider flag football calendar. But the larger point is already clear. The NFL is no longer treating flag football like a side project for youth clinics and Pro Bowl weekend filler. It is putting league resources, brand power and star investors behind a professional version of the game just as the Olympics prepare to put it in front of a global audience.

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