Flag football, particularly women’s flag football, has emerged as one of the most popular sports in the country, primarily due to the NFL’s efforts.
Ahead of the 2022 season, the league announced a switch from the Pro Bowl to The Pro Bowl Games, a flag football series. During Super Bowl 57 later that season, the NFL aired a commercial centered around Diana Flores, the quarterback and captain of the Mexican national flag football team.
After two minutes of her eluding NFL all-stars, the ad concluded with Flores running toward the camera, football in hand, alongside women’s flag football athletes of all ages. Before it faded to black, a message appeared on screen:
“To the women pushing football forward, we can’t wait to see where you take this game.”
The campaign didn’t end with a single commercial. The NFL and its teams poured millions of dollars into youth development, fully endorsing the sport. Both men’s and women’s flag football will debut in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The effects have been apparent. High schools and universities across the nation have introduced flag football as a varsity sport, yet Clemson is not one of them.
Many students instead turned to Clemson’s intramural flag football leagues, but one student knew that would not be enough for her.
“Flag football is the biggest women’s sport in New York,” Amanda Andreano, club president and founder of Clemson Flag Football, told The Tiger. “I’m from Staten Island, so that’s been my sport growing up; I’ve been playing since I was seven years old.”
“Coming into Clemson, I knew I wanted to play in some way, so I did intramurals for a while, but it wasn’t that same excitement that I got before.”
Andreano spent her freshman year building the executive team behind the scenes, eventually securing the club’s approval at the end of the 2024 spring semester. Sure enough, people were lining up to play.
“We went to Tiger Prowl in the fall of 2024, and our interest GroupMe had over 200 girls afterward,” she said. “We had like 25 to 30 girls show up to our first tryout, and we took a team of 20.”
After the fall and spring seasons the following year, Clemson women’s flag football was accepted into the Club Sports Association.
The Tigers have seen nothing but upward growth since then.
“It’s really just been cool to see people find the love for the sport as well,” Andreano said. “This year we had around 40 to 50 people show up for tryouts, and we have a team of 26 right now.”
Before the start of the fall semester, the Tigers joined the newly created Southern Women’s Collegiate Flag Football Alliance, alongside Virginia, Duke, UNC Charlotte and North Carolina Central.
Clemson, 6-6-1, 3-1 SWCFFA, wrapped up the fall season earlier this month at the NIRSA Regional Tournament in Blacksburg, Virginia. The Tigers went 3-2 at regionals, losing to FAU twice. The latter loss occurred in the championship game, 12-6.
Though Clemson fell just short of a regional title, Andreano and company will not be discouraged going forward.
“Last season was our first full year, fall and spring,” she said. “But this fall has blown those two seasons out of the water; we really just keep progressing.”
Andreano has a clear vision for the future: “We want to go to nationals, and we want to win. That’s our goal.”
The Tigers look ahead with positive momentum behind them toward a landscape that grows more intrigued by women’s flag football every second.
The intrigue has always been there, but is only now being recognized.
“People don’t expect you to be good at it, or expect you to love it as much as a guy would,” Andreano said. “But now (flag football) is growing and people are seeing more that, ‘hey, a girl can do this,’ and it’s so amazing to see women in this sport.”
The rate at which women’s flag football expands begs the question: Will we ever see Clemson and others compete in the ACC? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, Clemson will return in the spring, competing in the SWCFFA against club teams and NAIA squads alike once again. Interested players and fans can stay up-to-date with the team through its Instagram account.
