A first international seven-on-seven celebrity flag football event was held at the Copper Box Arena in East London on Saturday.
It was a fitting setting, given the venue was used for the London 2012 Olympics and the sport is set to be catapulted into the spotlight when it is featured at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Across two celebrity rosters, the players had over 250 million followers on social media combined. Participants included multi-platinum recording artists, such as team captains Gunna, from Atlanta, GA, and Aitch, from Manchester, United Kingdom, as well as YouTubers, and flag football and former NFL players.
The game, shown live on YouTube as part of the streaming platform’s partnership with the NFL, saw Team Aitch prevail over Team Gunna 47-25. The Athletic was there to speak with Olympic flag football hopefuls.
Phoebe Schecter, who became the first British woman to coach in the NFL in 2017 when she interned with the Buffalo Bills, hauled in a touchdown from team Aitch quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has played 17 NFL seasons.
The 35-year-old, an NFL broadcaster on Sky Sports in the UK, plays for the Great Britain flag football team and has won two European championships.
“The sky is the limit (for flag football),” Schecter said of this non-contact version of American football. “There are more and more pathways that are occurring, whether it’s playing in high school or college — that’s going to keep increasing — and playing for your country. I just think that this is a game that has got such a high trajectory right now.”
Flag football has grown to have more than 20 million players across more than 100 countries, according to USA Football. Earlier this month, commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL was “committed to creating women’s and men’s professional flag football leagues”.
Seventy-nine nations are members of the global governing body, the International Federation of American Football (IFAF). At the LA Olympics, the men’s and women’s tournaments will feature six nations in a five-on-five format.
Team Aitch’s Ashlea Klam (32) celebrates after a touchdown. (Gregory Payan/AP Content Services for the NFL)
For an indication of the sport’s growth, the NFL’s team owners have allowed players to try out for flag football for the Olympics, though only one player per NFL roster can try out for a given country’s team.
U.S. flag football international Ashlea Klam, from Austin, TX, was another standout player on Saturday, playing for the team of British rapper Aitch, who has over a million followers on YouTube.
“I think it will grow the game 100 percent,” the 21-year-old said of the first international celebrity flag event which, though watched by a small crowd at the Copper Box, was streamed live. Reels of the event on the NFL’s instagram account have received millions of views.
“Hopefully, if someone didn’t know what flag football was, they came out here and saw people are playing and are good at it. There might be a younger girl who was sitting out there who thinks: ‘Wow, this girl just caught a huge catch. I want to do that too’.”
YouTube, which has 2.5 billion monthly global users, and the NFL held their first celebrity flag football game earlier this year in New Orleans before Super Bowl LIX. As Jourdan Rodrigue wrote last month, the NFL and YouTube are getting closer.
“The game has grown so much. It’s really competitive (between nations),” Klam said.
“We just came back from the World Games and we got silver. The U.S. has been growing tremendously, but it’s also huge in other places as well. So, hopefully, if I am on that (LA 2028) team, we will come back with a gold medal. But the game is growing and we have to continue to grow with it.”
Team Gunna’s Diana Flores (33) rolls out against Team Aitch. (Gregory Payan/AP Content Services for the NFL)
The World Games is an international multi-sport event featuring sports that are not in the Olympics — for example, squash, karate, lacrosse and, previously, flag football.
On the winning side at this year’s World Games, held in Chengdu, China, was Mexican quarterback Diana Flores.
Women’s flag football has been part of the World Games program twice, in 2022 and 2025, and Flores led Mexico to gold on both occasions.
The 28-year-old, the first flag football athlete to receive major sponsorships from Under Armour, Gatorade and Oakley, is an NFL global ambassador.
“We had the opportunity to showcase to the world the greatness of flag and how easy it is for people who have never played,” said Flores, who played for three-time Grammy nominee Gunna.
“We had a couple of players in our team that (this) was their first time knowing about flag football, and they were here balling against players who have played football all their lives.”
For all three current flag football players who were at the celebrity event, the sport’s inclusivity was key to its appeal.
“You saw it today: men, women, boys, and girls, all ages, can play on the same field, no matter who you are, where you are from,” Flores said. “If you are tall or short, fast or slow, you will find your place on the field