New Jersey sanctions girls flag football as varsity sport after 15 years
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On May 4, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association made girls’ flag football the 35th sanctioned varsity sport in the state. Voting took a few minutes. The work behind it took 15 years.
Allowing girls to pursue soccer as a varsity sport formalizes the opportunity. At the same time, transforming the years of efforts of parents, educators, coaches, students and our people into lasting equality through stable funding, structured competition and a clear path for girls to advance.
Football has always been a powerful force for connections bridging communities, generations and backgrounds. Most of the time, access to the game does not match the promise. Opportunities, resources, and the simple reassurance that a girl belonged on the field were unequally shared. Girls’ flag football is changing this not through symbolism, but through sustained commitment, genuine belief and determined action.
This belief was paired with investment. Since 2011, the New York Jets have supported more than 260 teams in three countries and reached more than 7,000 young women annually with more than $2.5 million in funding and donations. What started as a matter of the possibility of supporting about 20 schools in the New York City Public Schools Athletic League has turned into a movement, and with it, a responsibility to continue moving forward.
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The Betty Wold Johnson Foundation and the New York Jets host the largest Women’s College Flag Football Championship. (Courtesy of New York Jets)
Numbers have never been important to us; they were just proof of what happens when a community is determined to make room. New Jersey’s vote is the final and most personal turning point in this work. This is the result of a five-year effort by students, coaches, schools and advocates who believe the game deserves equal status.
This journey began in earnest in 2021 when the Jets launched New Jersey’s first high school girls flag football league, comprised of eight schools, all located a short drive from our Florham Park facility. Within two years, this modest beginning had grown into a league of more than 100 schools and 1,000 athletes, expanding across the state and into Long Island and the Hudson Valley.
From the beginning, the goal was clear: Girls’ flag football should stand alongside soccer, lacrosse and softball, and yes, boys should field football as an official varsity sport. New York reached this goal in 2023. New Jersey is now joining in, closing a long-standing opportunity gap.
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More recently, the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation has been at the center of this progress. Its mission reflects the values my mother lives by: expanding opportunities, opening doors, and measuring success by impact, not words.
Today, that commitment extends to every level of the game. Supported by a $1 million grant from the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation, we helped the Eastern College Athletic Conference launch the nation’s largest collegiate women’s flag football league. We continue to invest in youth and middle school programs that strengthen the pipeline. Internationally, we helped launch the first NFL-supported girls flag football leagues in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
With the introduction of flag football as an Olympic sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, the path can now be seen from end to end – but only if the first step is real. This is what sanctions provide. University status transforms girls’ flag football from a promising program into a permanent part of high school athletics, unlocking the sustainable funding, structured competition, dedicated coaching and long-term infrastructure required of any serious sport.
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Today, a girl playing her first season at a New Jersey high school can clearly and without imagination see the steps from the school field to the college program to the national team to the Olympic stage. And because varsity status removes the sport from the discretion of any one school, that path becomes reliable for athletes in the next class as well. Approximately 160 New Jersey high schools are expected to field teams next season; This is a clear sign that this is not a moment to pay attention. This is a structural change.
Susan E. Wagner High School was crowned champion of the 3rd Annual High School Girls Flag Football Tournament. (Courtesy of New York Jets)
It is also a moment that does not belong to any organization. It belongs to the parents who advocate at school board meetings, the educators who listen, the athletic directors who make room on the calendar, the coaches who build programs from the start, and the students who show up, compete, and advocate for themselves on the field. This movement has always been supported by the community. The Jets’ role was to have the vision, invest, build the path, and make sure the door stayed open.
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Together, we have made New Jersey a national model for equity in sports and ensured that the next generation of female athletes no longer have to ask for a spot on the field because the opportunity is finally official.
There is already one.
