Larry Fitzgerald among NFL players investing in new professional flag football league

Former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is among the many past and present NFL players backing a new, yet-to-be-named professional flag football league for men and women.

The NFL announced Monday it is partnering with TMRW Sports to create the league. TMRW Sports successfully launched the virtual professional golf venture, TGL presented by SoFi, last winter and it operates hand-on-hand with the PGA Tour.

Fitzgerald, who became a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee in February, is joined in the growing investment group by fellow Hall of Famers Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Eli Manning and Joe Montana and active players Russell Wilson, Arik Armstead and Bobby Wagner.

The legendary Arizona pass catcher isn’t a stranger to flag football, which will be part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, as he co-commissioned the Fanatics Flag Football Classic alongside former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees on March 21.

“Co-commissioning the Fanatics Flag Football Classic with Drew Brees this weekend was a great experience. Watching this game bring people together and seeing the talent on display is what sports does best. Grateful to be part of it,” Fitzgerald said in an X post.

Brady threw touchdown passes in the round-robin tournament to Stefon Diggs while Joe Burrow and Saquon Barkley also represented the NFL. The exhibition, however, was dominated by the Team USA squad that featured non-NFL players, such as Darrell Doucette III, who are more acclimated to the five-on-five game.

The league will receive “up to $32 million” for its launch from 32 Equity, a “collective investment vehicle” authorized by NFL clubs last December. It’s official launch is expected to “align with the run-up” to the Los Angeles Olympics, which get underway July 14, 2028.

“As the flag football movement continues its explosive global growth, a professional flag league completes the pathway for elite athletes to compete at every level of the game, from youth to high school and college, to the Olympic stage, and now professionally,” Troy Vincent Sr., NFL executive vice president of football operations, said in a press release.

Roughly four million youth are playing flag football across the U.S., according to the release, as 39 states offer the sport in high schools and more than 100 colleges offer club or varsity levels of the sports for women.

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