Written By: A.J. McDaniel

Back in 2007, the NFL proposed an idea to have a professional flag football league that would be set up just like the NFL. This idea was later shut down and postponed until 2008. Then was continued to be postponed until 2011 where the idea was eventually killed. Now, it’s back.

By a stroke of luck, a man by the name of Jeff Lewis, as he was watching his son play flag football, thought to himself, “I wonder what this would look like if great athletes were playing it.” And thus, ground broke to get a professional flag football league started and it hit the ground running. The organization already has procured 8 starting franchises to be organized by 2018 for the preliminary year of an idea that has been in the early thought processes for ten years.

Late last month, June 27th to be exact, a trial game was played in San Jose, California at Avaya Stadium. This game displayed a new magnetic type of flag that alerts a sensor that marks the player down helping officials be more accurate on ball placement. The two team captains in this pre-view game were former pro quarterback and current advisor Michael Vick and the celebration king himself Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson. Other star players featured in the game were: former running back Justin Forsett, safety Kerry Rhodes, Wide Receiver Steve Smith, and, Nick Collins.

Jeff Lewis has enlisted administrators such as Michael Vick along with former NFL greats such as Isaiah Kacyvenski, Rob Konrad and Donovin Darius, yet Michael Vick has reportedly agreed to take on another role as well. Vick will be an actual player in the league. Vick is coming off ankle surgery he had back in May to repair the broken ankle he suffered back in 2003. He is aware his tackle football days are over but he has a hopeful fight to make a new name for himself in the flag football league.

The league hopes to give retiring NFL players such as Vick that can’t handle the hard-hitting pain in their later years and to give college players that didn’t make it pro another outlet to continue their careers. It will be very easy to find players as the NFL cuts hundreds of players every year and denies thousands more even the opportunity to try and play plus you add in players that retire due to their bodies giving out you are left with a full array of players you can choose from to build a league with. The only lacking part is that at this current moment there are only 8 franchises being started in the 2018 season, not a lot of from for many players to come make a name for themselves or to extend a retiring players career.

The AFFL will hope to get its start next year and finally open a new outlet of sports entertainment and add a new platform of professional football and hopefully can grow into a well-publicized and popular sports empire.