BEREA, Ohio – Today, the Cleveland Browns debuted a new brand spot featuring Berea-Midpark's Girls High School Flag Football team to generate excitement and raise awareness about the sport's growth, inspiring more girls to participate and help make the push to get girls flag sanctioned as a high school sport in Ohio.
The spot opens with the athletes arriving at Lou Groza Field, one of the Browns refurbished field projects in Northeast Ohio, and going through practice, completing different sets of drills as they prepare for a game. As the players take the field in their custom Browns jerseys, the goal is to encourage more schools to add flag football as a club sport and get more girls excited to play the game.
As flag football becomes one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States, the Browns are determined to make Ohio the next state to sanction the sport at the high school level. As of 2024, flag football is a sanctioned varsity sport in 13 U.S. states. During the 2023-24 season, 42,955 girls participated in flag football in high school nationwide – a 105% increase from the previous year. The sport continues to gain momentum as both men's and women's teams will be featured in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles for the first time in the competition's history.
"We are so excited to highlight girls flag football in this new video and showcase how we are working to create more opportunities for girls to play the sport, especially with the 2028 Olympic Games around the corner," said Haslam Sports Group Vice President of Community Relations, Jenner Tekancic. "At the Browns, we are fully committed to supporting the growth of flag football, particularly at the high school level, and hope that this video can inspire more coaches, athletic directors, parents and athletes to start a team at their school."
In 2021, alongside Northeast Ohio Flag Football, the Browns began the implementation of their Girls High School Flag Football program, presented by Gatorade and in association with Bridgestone, throughout the region and have since created the first Girls High School Flag Football division in Ohio. Over the past four seasons, the number of Northeast Ohio high schools with teams has grown from two to 51 with 20 new high schools committed to play in the Spring 2025 season. Ultimately, the goal is to create a pathway for Girls High School Flag Football to become a sanctioned varsity sport under the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA).
Registration for the Browns Spring 2025 Girls High School Flag Football season is currently open, and anyone interested in starting a team is encouraged to visit clevelandbrowns.com/girlsflag for more information.
The full brand spot can be found here.
About Browns Give Back:
The Cleveland Browns are committed to championing youth football, education and social justice in our community and throughout Ohio. Browns Give Back is the Cleveland Browns initiative dedicated to supporting our fans and neighbors. For more information, visit www.clevelandbrowns.com/community.
About Bridgestone Americas, Inc.:
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. is the U.S.-based subsidiary of Bridgestone Corporation, a global leader in tires and rubber, building on its expertise to provide solutions for safe and sustainable mobility. Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Bridgestone Americas employs more than 45,000 people across its worldwide operations. Bridgestone offers a diverse product portfolio of premium tires and advanced solutions backed by innovative technologies, improving the way people around the world move, live, work and play.
About The Gatorade Portfolio:
The Gatorade Portfolio, a division of PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP), is a connected performance and wellness ecosystem built to fuel all athletes and exercisers. Bringing together Gatorade, Fast Twitch, Propel, Evolve and Muscle Milk, the Gatorade Portfolio is the most complete offering in the category today, with a broad range of personalized solutions at every stage of the athlete journey. This integrated system of brands is built on Gatorade's 59-year history of studying athletes and is fueling the future of athletic performance and wellness by delivering solutions across hydration, protein, energy and all-day nutrition to fuel consumers, no matter how or why they sweat. For more information and a full list of product offerings, please visit www.gatorade.com.
