(Chatham) — The National Football League is offering to partner with Pittsylvania County Schools to expand a fast-growing sport.
Superintendent Mark Jones gave the county School Board an update Tuesday. “The NFL is looking at some pilot opportunities for school divisions. They reached out to us and wanted to know if we were interested in piloting flag football for girls,” Jones said.
The Edmunds family of Ringgold, with four current and former NFL players, will help the county implement the program. Ferrell Edmunds spent seven seasons in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins and the Seattle Seahawks, making two appearances in the Pro Bowl.
Three of Edmunds’ sons played in the NFL. Tre Edmunds played with the New Orleans Saints and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Terrell Edmunds is still active with the Tennessee Titans. He previously played with the Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles. Tremaine Edmunds is also still active, starting at middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears. He previous played with the Buffalo Bills.
The younger Edmunds brothers have formed the “EBoyz Foundation.” It’s a charitable outreach that promotes athleticism, scholarship and citizenship for area children.
This will not be the Edmunds family’s first partnership with local school children. The Danville School Board launched the E-BOYZ Innovative Learning Program last fall. That’s an after-school program for middle schoolers, offered on the I.W. Taylor campus. At the time, Tre Edmunds told the Danville School Board, “We want to create a safe and nurturing environment for students.”
The NFL has sponsored flag football for youth for thirty years. It began as a global health and wellness initiative called “Play Football.” The goal was to make football accessible for all children—no matter their age, size, or gender.
Today, NFL FLAG has more than 600,000 participants in the United States and Canada.They’ve expanded girls flag football to the collegiate level.
While youth participation in sports has declined 13 percent over the last decade, flag football has become one the fastest growing youth sports in the country. On their website, the NFL reports the number of 6-to-12-year-olds playing has increased by 38 percent, to more than 1.5 million, since 2015. NFL FLAG is the largest flag football league in the U.S., with more than 1,600 leagues in 50 states.
Flag football is an increasingly-popular alternative to traditional football. It’s non-contact and the equipment costs are a fraction of what’s needed for tackle football.