I’m in Australia and do play American football ( not flag ) and was wondering is there a reason they are having flag football and not full contact.

Australia and other countries have had full teams before and competed. Not saying it’s on the same level as US but why do you think they went with flag ?

I was talking about Olympics my bad

29 comments

  1. Because it gives teams from outside of the US a much better chance at an even playing field. The skills and athletic requirments for tackle football are much more specialized than the ones from flag football.

    Edit: I thought this was about the olympics. Lol. Anyway…

    As far as for recreation, full gear is expensive and the risk of injury is huge.

  2. CTE and equipment is expensive and levels the playing field a bit. Assuming by “they” you mean the IOC the games are only 16 days and at best you can play once every 4 days in full contact (and you get a 10 day break after). They’ll only play 3 games

  3. If you want to play in a park, or with friends/family, you aren’t going to have all the gear and getting tackled without gear isn’t a good idea. So if you’re playing with family at Thanksgiving, as hilarious as it may be to see your drunk uncle tackle your bratty cousin, it could hurt him and that’s generally frowned upon.

  4. It’s so children and women can play / no one gets a concussion playing around in the backyard

  6. It’s 1000x safer and, assuming you meant the Olympics for “they”, is easier for other countries to through together a competent enough team.

  7. If you get hit catching a pass in the middle of the field there’s a very real chance you feel it for a week.

    Football is an incredibly violent game. Rugby fans often assume that the fact they have pads means it’s less violent, but hey would be very wrong.

    people effectively use pads as a weapon on the field.

  9. Who is “they?”

    If you’re talking about the olympics, there’s no way anyone would be able to compete with the U.S. unless all college and pro players were banned. Even then, most countries would be way behind in terms of experience and development. Even a many high school players here have been playing a lot longer, and at a much higher volume than any other country.

    Flag football is way safer as well, and carries far lest risk of head injury. It’s also much, much cheaper and more accessible for other countries: Less equipment, and you don’t need as many players. Heck, outside of programs where they provide gear to you, most Americans can’t afford to play actual football.

  10. Full contact tackle football requires a lot more skill and equipment, and is also a lot more dangerous. Flag makes sense for relatively low commitment leagues or interest.

  11. Full contact football is hard on the body. NFL teams usually have 7 days between games with Monday being a full rest day, and often, Tuesday and Wednesday practice are no-contact. There are also only 17 games a season over the course of 18 weeks where each team gets a bye week. Even with this schedule, football is rife with injuries, some season ending and others requiring a week or two of recovery.

    I can’t imagine running a full contact football competition in the condensed time of the Olympics.

  12. It’s possible the NFL wouldn’t even allow their players to compete if it were full contact, and an American football event without the top American players would be a huge letdown.

  13. Full-contact football is a sport that is very easy to cause injuries. Especially among amateurs. Flag football makes it easy to play the fundamental strategy of the game without causing a bunch of long-term injuries.

  14. We played it in elementary school sometimes. Idk, good way for kids of different sizes and skill levels to have a fun harmless game

  16. Even with safety equipment, playing full contact football is risking at times serious bodily injury. The equipment is also expensive. The reason flag football or two hand touch football exists is because it is cheaper and safer.

  17. Flag football was developed for amateur games where there is no padding. Though I remember at least once playing tackle without padding. I was (and am) to uncoordinated to play though I at least theoretically knew how to make a good tackle from reading up. Anyway that time I got one of the fastest kids and was rather pleased with myself. It wasn’t really a very good tackle. The proper way is to launch oneself like a cannonball to carry the force of your approach into the impact (not losing your footing until you have a grip on the target). I just got a clumsy grip on his feet and inertia toppled him; he was a tall fellow so the effect was ridiculously like a falling tree.

    We didn’t play flag very often though. Pickpocketing a piece of cloth on the run is after all a hard thing to do. Mostly it was touch football.

  18. Because people would get killed playing against a US team made up of even the best college players.

  22. Full contact football is dangerous and requires a lot of expensive specialized equipment to play safely. It would not be realistic to ask that of countries without professional or semi-professional leagues.

  23. We played it in my all girl P.E. class. It was fun and I’m glad we did it. I don’t know if I would have been able to fully understand the ‘real’ game if we hadn’t done that.

  24. Expensive equipment and risk of injury if you’re playing multiple games in a short period of time.

  25. There are a few reasons in general, and a few reasons that may be specific to the context of your question.

    **General**:

    Cost: The complete *mandatory* equipment list per player in flag football (per current rules): mouthguard, cleats, flags (2) , uniform( shorts & jersey). You can buy this equipment for under $200 USD. Olympic Football will be 5 on 5 with 12 man rosters. The cost is less $10 USD per player, even factoring in alternates. A *single* helmet averages $500, with some as high as $1500.

    Staffing: IOC flag football will be 12 man rosters. Assuming a similar coaching structure, we’re looking at 30 -40 members of the teams. 12-20 players and alternates, 2-3 coaches, 2-3 trainers/medical professionals, 1-2 equipment managers. An NFL team has 53 *players* on the roster, not including coaches, trainers, doctors or other members of the staff directly involved with the actual game.

    **IOC specific:**

    Size: Having an “exhibition sport” is the olympic tryouts. Keeping it small in scope and number of countries keeps cost low for both the ICO, and participating nations.

    Injuries. Flag football is still a contact sport, but American Football is a “collision” sport. I can’t think of or recall a football game with no injuries requiring actual medical attention. flag football reduces the car crash element of the sport.

    Accessibility: Flag football is similar enough to [Rugby League](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_league) play that simple rule differences are easy to understand.

  26. No idea why… I guess to insure more even competition? But it’s such an odd sport to include. It’s more of a PE class, summer camp type game than actual competitive sport. Are they going to add sack races and cornhole next?

  27. I’m pretty sure I’m at an age that if I was tackled, I wouldn’t be able to move my back for a week.

    I can imagine it would be nice to play football without having to worry about being mobile

  29. Traumatic Brain Injuries are not cool. Especially when it’s your kid playing. Too many kids get lifelong sports injuries before they even know what they want to do with their lives and then their choices and quality of life are limited forever

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