| Sport | Flag football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 |
| Commissioner | Joel Horton |
| Country | United States |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Official website | ngffl |
National Gay Flag Football League (NGFFL) is a nonprofit LGBT flag football league, currently comprising 200 teams in 28 leagues in the United States and Canada.
The NGFFL was founded by Jim Buzinski and Cyd Zeigler [1] in 2002. [2] Teams compete in the national championship tournament to win the Gay Bowl. [1] The championship takes place annually over Columbus Day weekend. [3] The first tournament was held in 2002 at Hollywood High School [3] in Los Angeles, California. It was a two-day event with teams from San Francisco, Boston, and Los Angeles competing. [4] LA Motion won the first Gay Bowl. In 2003, Boston hosted Gay Bowl III. The New England Patriots sent Andre Tippett to officiate the ceremonial coin toss. [5] The DC Gay Flag Football League won the Gay Bowl in 2003 and 2004. [6] In 2005, Chicago Freeze won the Bowl. [7]
In 2016, the Gay Bowl was held in Washington, D.C., [8] on the National Mall. [6]
In 2017, the San Diego Bolts were the five-time defending champions of the tournament. [3] [5] In 2017, the New England Patriots sponsored the Gay Bowl XVII. Additional sponsors included several Boston teams including the Red Sox, [9] Celtics, and the Bruins. [10] This was the first time professional sports franchises have sponsored the Gay Bowl. [11] Other sponsors, of the 35 total, include United Airlines, Fidelity Investments, Sheraton Hotels and UPS. [12] The tournament took place at Progin Park in Lancaster, Massachusetts. There were three divisions in the tournament, Open A, Open B, and Women's. [3]
In 2018, Gay Bowl XVIII took place in Denver; [10] the tournament expanded to include an Open C Division.
In 2019, Gay Bowl XIX took place in New York City. [13]
Gay Bowl XX was scheduled for Honolulu [14] [15] in 2020, but was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Gay Bowl XXI was scheduled for Toronto in 2021, yet due to many factors including pandemic travel restrictions, the tournament was held in Tempe, Arizona. [16] Gay Bowl XXI saw the expansion of the Women's+ and Open Divisions with a re-seeding of teams after the first two games of pool play. Ultimately, champions were crowned in Open A, Open B, Open C, Open D, Women’s+ A, and Women’s+ B.
Gay Bowl XXII took place October 6–9, 2022 at Kapiolani Park in Honolulu, Hawaii. 50 teams competed and the tournament seedings followed the format created the previous year and six champions were crowned.
Gay Bowl XXIII took place in Seattle, Washington, October 5–8, 2023 and a Women’s+ C Division was added.
Austin, Texas will host Gay Bowl XXIV from October 31 through November 3, 2024.
Currently, over 200 teams in 28 leagues in the United States and Canada are part of the NGFFL. [17] [18] DC Gay Flag Football League is one of the oldest members of the League. [6] The NGFFL imposes a limit on the number of heterosexual players at twenty percent on each team's roster for the Gay Bowl. This is enforced using the honor system. [19]
The NGFFL was the subject of the 2015 documentary F(l)ag Football . It features several people including Wade Davis, Cyd Zeigler, and Brenton Metzler. [1] [20]
Andrew Scott Goldstein is the first American male team-sport professional athlete to be openly gay during his playing career. He came out publicly in 2003 and was drafted by his hometown team, the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse, in 2005. Goldstein played goaltender for the Long Island Lizards from 2005 to 2007, appearing in two games in 2006.
Ryan Thomas O'Callaghan is a former American football offensive tackle. He played college football for the California Golden Bears and was selected by the New England Patriots in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL draft. He also played for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cyd Zeigler Jr. is a commentator and author in the field of sexuality and sports. Zeigler co-founded Outsports and the National Gay Flag Football League. He had a featured part in the documentary F(l)ag Football (2015).
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non-heterosexual or non-cisgender (LGBTQ+) community is prevalent within sports across the world.
Wade Alan Davis II is an American speaker, activist, writer, educator and former American football player.
There has been only one player who has publicly come out as gay or bisexual while being an active player in the National Football League (NFL): Carl Nassib, who revealed himself as gay on June 21, 2021, while with the Las Vegas Raiders. He became the first openly gay player to play in an NFL game on September 13, 2021. He later became the first openly gay player in an NFL playoff game on January 15, 2022. Six former NFL players have come out publicly after they retired. In the 2014 NFL draft, the St. Louis Rams drafted Michael Sam in the seventh round, the 249th of 256 players selected, which made him the first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL. However, on August 30, St. Louis released Sam as part of a final round of cuts to reduce their roster to the league-mandated 53 players before the start of the regular season.
Although gay athletes and coaches are increasingly accepted in college sports, they continue to be controversial among some people.
Scott A. Frantz is an American former college football player who was an offensive tackle for the Kansas State Wildcats. He earned second-team all-conference honors in the Big 12 as a senior in 2019.
My-King Johnson is an American football defensive end.
DC Gay Flag Football League (DCGFFL) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit LGBTQ flag football league consisting of 20 teams in Washington, D.C. It is a member of Team DC, which provides a network of sporting outlets for the LGBT community of the Washington Metropolitan area, and National Gay Flag Football League.
F(l)ag Football is a 2015 American documentary film on the National Gay Flag Football League directed by Seth Greenleaf. It documents the training of players on the NGFFL's New York Warriors team as they prepare for the Gay Bowl. The documentary explores masculinity in sports. The documentary stars, Wade Davis, team captain of the New York Warriors, Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of the NGFFL, Brenton Metzler, and Jared Garduno.
Madison Pub is a gay bar in Seattle, Washington, United States.
The 2024 NAIA flag football season was the component of the 2024 college football season organized by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in the United States. It was the fourth season of the NAIA sponsoring flag football as a varsity women's sport, in contrast with traditional, full-contact college football which is played almost exclusively by men. With 19 schools playing in this season, up from 13 in 2023, it remained classified an "emerging" sport by the NAIA. For the fourth straight season, a postseason tournament was held in Atlanta, with the finals taking place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Ottawa Braves outscored their opponents by a combined total of 114-25 en route to retaining their title for the fourth consecutive season.
