On this episode of HeadCase, I speak with Mr. George Higgins the commissioner of the Long Island Flag Football League or LIFFL. George and I talk a bit about his background, what his program does, how they teach football compared to regular tackle football, and how the kids are influenced by these teachings.
Cameron: Welcome back to Headcase everybody! I hope you all enjoyed the last episode the series. On today’s episode I’m joined by George Higgins, the commissioner of the Long Island Flag Football League. In the late 1990’s the NFL approached George about starting NFL Flag, which is a flag football program for youth across the country. They drew up the rules, and that program now has about 2 million kids playing across the country. George and I talk about a little of what his program does and how it could be a safer alternative to tackle football.
George: Ok, well the Long Island Flag Football League was the first flag football league in the country. It began in 1984. Uh, in the late 1990’s the NFL approached me about starting NFL Flag, which is a flag football program for youth across the country. So I sat down with the NFL. We drew up the rules, and that program now has about 2 million kids playing across, across the country.
Cameron: First, I wonder how flag football’s enrollment has changed over the years.
George: Well since the 90’s the enrollment in flag football has steadily grown. Um, I would say you know, anywhere upwards of 5,000 to 10,000 percent. So on our league on Long Island we have 1600 kids playing, and uh that includes boys and girls. It’s coed.
Cameron: Then I got a little bit into the basics. How do they teach non tackle football compared to tackle?
George: In flag football there is no blocking and there’s no tackling, so it’s really a skill driven sport. You know we’re basically concentrating on uh, passing, catching, running, defense, etc. There’s no kickoffs. So a lot of the contact that you normally see in tackle football is removed without having kickoffs or punts, field goals, and also since there’s no line play the ball gets snapped by a center by the quarterback and everyone goes out for a pass. There’s no blocking allowed.
Cameron: Next I wondered about some of the similarities between tackle and non tackle. What are some of the skills in flag football that are also in tackle football? Geroge gives in some input.
George: Uhm, of course being the quarterback it’s the same thing, there is a rush. So you have to scan the field you know, left to right, just like tackle football. You have to know you know, plays. You have to memorize plays. You have your receivers and your running backs still. So that’s all the same, and the same with uh receivers, I mean the only difference is the receiver is not getting hit. You know he’s being de-flagged after he catches the ball. Uh, plus there’s no contact on the pass so you know all uh, contact has to be towards the ball, there’s no body to body contact defending. So you know, those are the main similarities. And then on defense you still have rushers., they still have to pursue the quarterback, and you still have defensive backs who still have to defend against the pass.
Cameron: So there is no blocking and no tackling. I pondered if there was any other skills in tackle football that LIFFL doesn’t teach as well.
George: Obviously kicking, since there is no kicking or punting we don’t cover that. You know, uh, a lot, a lot of the worst injuries in tackle football are on the kickoffs, cause you have both teams full speed down the field, and that’s when the worst head to head contact happens.
Cameron: As stated by George earlier, LIFFL has 1600 kids playing in the league all across Long Island. Such a big program has a lot to offer to these kids. I wondered how the flag football program as a whole will affect kids in the future learning football and moving towards tackle football
George: Well there is a lot less uh, participation in tackle football already in the youth groups. Uh, studies in Europe and the United States show that contact before twelve years old is worse than contact after twelve years old. So you’r seeing decreasing numbers in the under twelve year old age group of tackle football. Uhm, and also you’r seeing decreasing varsity teams. I mean some teams on Long Island no longer have, some high schools on Long Island no longer have varsity teams. High schools like Great Neck, Wheatly, you know, uh, there’s a few of them, but uh, so the teams that do have teams used to have try outs, there’s no longer try outs. Some of them only have eighteen twenty players on the whole squad. You know which is bad and again because now those players are playing both ways, defense and offense. So their gonna increase their contact. CTE isn’t necessarily concussions. CTE means blows to the head. So most blows to the head in football aren’t necessarily resulting in concussion, but it’s still cumulative over the years. So you know, that’s a big feature people don’t realize when they talk about CTE they just think it’s concussions and it’s not. Other sports also have blows to the head measured like hockey, soccer, uhm rugby, and also military veterans, you know from the concussion of explosions and things like that. But football far outstrips you know verall blows to the head over the course of a career probably by at least one hundred percent.
Cameron: During my research I found that some flag football leagues have contact with nearby highschools to have the kids transition from the non-tackle flag football program to the tackle program at the high schools. I asked George if this was the same case with LIFFL.?
George: No. Uhm, there are PAL, what they call Police Athletic Leagues across Long Island that have tackle football for the kids. You know usually six years older and above, you know, and they have more contact with the high school teams. Uh, some high schools have contacted us about having flag football teams in their program. You know and that’s probably going to be the future. Down in Florida a lot of high school teams, I mean a lot of high schools have a flag football programs that compete competitively against other high schools.
Cameron: Next, I want to know how George thought his flag football program will encourage kids to take the step up to tackle football.
George: Well as far as the skill positions, which again are wide receiver, running back, quarterback, defensive back, uhm, they will and they do go on to tackle football many times. Many times they don’t. Uhm, a lot of them wind up being in our men’s league once they turn 18. We do have high school divisions for flag football already, uhm, and so a lot of those kids go on to play men’s flag football. And a few will go on to tackle football you know once they are around thirteen or fourteen sometimes they go on to tackle football just to you know have a wider range of experience being a wide receiver or a quarterback.
Cameron: As stated before on the podcast, concussions have played a large role in not only in the declining numbers but also in the decision making of parents and school districts. So how has concussions affected the decision making of LIFFL?
George: Uh, we really don’t have concussions in flag football. I mean could it happen sure, I guess if two kids inadvertently ran into each other, and didn’t see each other coming, but in our own program, knock on wood, we’ve never had a concussion. Uh, we’ve had maybe a person running to each other head to mouth maybe on defending a pass, but that probably is one or two times out of thousands and thousands of games. So, uhm, you know we do have a concussion protocol you know in place where if there is a blow to the head ever, you know, we try it’s supposed to be taken out of the game and then not brought back to the field without a clearing, a doctors note that he or she is ok to play. But again we’ve never had a concussion.
Cameron: The flag football can be a very inclusive program, full of people coming from anywhere on Long island How does LIFFL reach out to the parents and kids in this community about your flag football program?
George: We advertise on Fios and News 12. We also advertise in Newsday. Uhm, a lot of the schools you know, contact the parents with flyers and things like that. So, and then it’s word of mouth, just like anything with kids. Once kids like –kids love this sport more than any other sport I’ve seen, and they uh they come down and they say , you know, this is their favorite sport to play even more than soccor or baseball. So it’s a lot of word of mouth also.
Cameron: Next, I asked George how he and the program can ensure parents that their program is safe from concussions??
George: Well their usual portal to the sport is through our website and on the website it explains in flag football there is no blocking. There’s no uhm, there’s no contact allowed. There’s penalties called if there’s contact, so, you know, the main problem with tackle football for kids is helmets, and when they don’t teach them helmet t helmet contact is bad, or if they don’t penalize it, that’s what leads to tackle injuries. You know in this case there’s no head to head contact so helmets, there’s no contact at all.
Cameron: Since there is no blobking or tackling, I wondered if there was any differences in the equipment between non tackle and tackle?
George: They have usually uh you know a, a mouth guard, something like that because you can always get hit in the mouth. Or, you know, uh, sometimes some leagues have these new foam uhm, helmets they make now. You probably seen them somewhere. There like you know, soft to the touch helmets the kids use for skateboarding, you know and uh, other sports like that. And then, we haven’t had it here some, some leagues across the country use those foam helmets.
Cameron: What is the future for George’s flag football program?
George: Uhm, the future here on Long Island hopefully is to spread really. We’re more Nassau focused on our youth league. So the future is to spread the youth league out toward Suffolk more. We keep getting a lot of requests but its hard when you’re competing against a lot of sports to move it out that way. But that’s our biggest future is to, the numbers will continue to grow here in Nassau and eventually we will expand into Suffolk.
Cameron: Since they want to get involved in Suffolk more, I asked is there anywhere in Suffolk specifically do they want to reach?
George: Uh, you know, no the whole county. Its, there’s big school districts out there larger than Nassau County so its, its ready for it. Uh, tackle football is a little more popular in Suffolk. Their programs have not suffered like Nassau. Uhm, so that’s part of it too. Nassau has a more diverse uh, population that plays sports. You know, uh, and a wide range of sports from soccor to uh other sports you don’t typically don’t see in Suffolk. Suffolk is a little more traditional like baseball and football.
Cameron: With Suffolk as George just said, still having a love for tackle football does Geroge see the program having problems integrating in Suffolk because of it?
George: Uh, no, because we have a lot of kids that play both now. Kids just love to play football, mostly the skill position. So a lot of them play, you know, youth tackle football, and play flag football simultaneously.
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