Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The 2023 NFL season is nearing its official end, as the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will duel it out on Sunday, Feb. 11 in Las Vegas for the right to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl LVIII champions.
Before that, though, many of the league's best players will congregate in Orlando, Florida this weekend for the second annual Pro Bowl Games at Camping World Stadium. This event will feature a number of AFC and NFC players compete against one another in different skills competitions, capped off with a flag football game on Sunday.
After years of criticism from football fans with how gimmicky the NFL Pro Bowl has become, the league elected to change things up last season by switching to this format of play. Not only does it provide an format the players seem to enjoy more, but it also captivates football fans of all ages like the Pro Bowl has not done in years.
The change to a flag football Pro Bowl game certainly has many fans in Western New York excited to see the NFL embracing a game that is growing rapidly not just across the country, but also the world.
"It's awesome to see," said Zack Ewings, assistant general manager of Epic Sports and Fun Center in Williamsville. "All the guys that are generally here for our flag football, they talk about it all the time, all our refs bringing up constantly. And I know the Olympics is also bringing in flag football. It's just gonna bring up popularity here in Western New York as well."
"It is amazing to see," added Nekia Kemp, executive director of the Buffalo Police Athletic League (PAL). "We actually started our flag football program five years ago, and it came out of response to parents really wanting a safer alternative to tackle football. It really grew in popularity just because of the safety aspects of it, and now seeing it grow and seeing many leagues pop up all over the city, especially in Buffalo, it's been great."
WGR Bills beat reporter Sal Capaccio agrees that something needed to change with the NFL Pro Bowl, and feels a flag football game with the professionals taking part was a great change of pace.
"We have people playing it all ages, and we have genders, different people all across the country, backgrounds. It's great that people can be included to play flag football, because a lot of people don't want to play the contact sport, and something had to be done to the actual Pro Bowl game with equipment on and people hitting each other, because it didn't represent, really, any kind of actual NFL football," said Capaccio in an interview with WBEN.
As for flag football's rise to popularity amongst different age groups, genders, nationalities, etc., Kemp goes back to the safety of the game compared to the, often, physical nature of tackle football.
"Even among kids, what we see now is we're actually attracting more young ladies [to play] football, which is awesome," Kemp said. "I had the opportunity to see some young ladies scrimmage, actually at a Bills game, a few months ago, and that is great to see the sport is also attracting young ladies as well."
Capaccio feels the sport's popularity has taken off, in a way, with the help of data that has come out about injuries with contact football, including concussions. However, with that data has come a lot of education about how to make the sport better.
"I think we're seeing more-and-more people start the game off at an earlier age playing flag ball before they're deciding if they actually want to play contact football," Capaccio explained. "So I think we're seeing a groundswell of younger people who don't know if they're quite ready, or if their parents don't know if they're quite ready. But also, the explosion of girls and women playing flag football is incredible, and it's awesome to see."
For others, especially adults who turn to flag football as a way to stay active in the game, it's about the team camaraderie that continues to see more-and-more people getting involved in flag football.
"Watching the Bills do what they do week-in and week-out, it really creates a sense of community, and I know people want to be a part of that," said Ewings. "Just seeing people get excited about being a part of a team is really exciting."
Even for Capaccio, playing flag football at the age of 50 is about competition and camaraderie.
"I just love competing. If you're an athlete and you grew up competing, that's the way it is. You could do that in a lot of different ways, but the camaraderie that comes along with football and being on a team and making friends, it's really cool," Capaccio said. "I think a lot of us miss that in our lives, who played football, and that's a big reason why we still play flag football at an older age."
So is flag football the future for kids playing football, especially given the concerns over injuries that many professional and college athletes sustain? The reactions are certainly mixed.
"I think so. It makes it easier for everyone to play, and we even have birthday parties, it's been our most popular request is flag football. It just makes it easier for everybody," Ewings said.
Kemp is unsure if that's going to be the case or not, but she believes it is certainly a healthy alternative for families.
"That's something that will have to be decided on a individual level, as far as the family, but I think giving parents and families the opportunity to have additional choices so they can still enjoy the game and not have to wear all the equipment and a few other things that come along with the differences between the two - the fields are different, the rules are different. It's just a different game, so I really can't tell if it'll change those numbers or not," Kemp said.
And while Capaccio feels there may be a day where there's more flag football players than there are contact football players or more leagues, he thinks the game of contact football can grow even more, especially with the enhanced education about contact football.
"I'm an advocate for that. I don't think we should take away what we're seeing for full contact football and helmets and shoulder pads. But I love the fact that we can keep educating ourselves, educating our coaches, educating our kids to understand what we can do to make it as safe as possible," Capaccio said. "I think as long as we're on that realm, then we'll be OK to keep football as it is for a long time."
So where does the game of flag football grow even more over the next several years? Could it be possible flag football rises to the ranks of popularity with contact football?
Capaccio can already see a shift in people gravitating towards flag football, but admits he doesn't know if it'll ever get to the popularity of full contact football.
"America loves contact sports, and hitting each other. It kind of sells. Football has been around for over 100 years now and it's still the most popular sport in America," he said. "But I do think we are trending towards having a professional flag football league, I think there might even be one out there now. But in the sense of people going to see it and it becoming more popular; look at even sports like pickleball and how much they're growing. And again, now we're seeing flag football at the college level, women's flag football is a collegiate sport now. It's becoming really popular for, I think, the fans to see, people to get involved in, and even get an education through. I do think it's going to become as popular as a lot of the professional sports that are out there now."
As for Ewings and Kemp, both feel the possibilities are endless with the game of flag football in the years to come.
"With specific age groups, it's making it a lot easier for kids to be included in everything. With contact football, you have to worry about injuries, nonstop injuries and stoppages, stuff like that. With flag football, you have different age groups competing all around the world now, so it's very exciting," Ewings said. "We are hoping to expand into girls high school flag football, and right now, our adults like football is very popular. I expect that to increase over the next couple of years."
"It's taking place in the Pro Bowl, I mean, that's huge," Kemp added. "Again, you see more leagues popping up, you see more people wanting to play. It's a sport that's open to all, and all abilities can play. I think when you have that diversity in a sport like that, it's going to grow like wildfire. And in the next few years, it's going to grow in popularity, and more-and-more kids, and adults, are going to want to play."