About Minnesota Vikings Girls Flag Football
Since 2022, the Minnesota Vikings have supported the growth of girls’ and women’s flag football, increasing opportunities for athletes at the middle, high school and collegiate levels. With the team’s latest contribution toward Minnesota’s first high school girls flag football league, the organization has allocated more than $1 million toward statewide and regional girls flag football efforts, helping reduce financial barriers for girls to play and assisting with transportation and facility costs and coaches’ and officials’ stipends. After partnering with Minneapolis Public Schools to pilot a middle school girls flag program in 2022, the Vikings saw eight total districts participate in the middle school program in 2024. Following a high school pilot program in 2024, the team launched the first high school girls flag football league in partnership with 51 schools in 2025. At the collegiate level, the Vikings partnered with seven NCAA institutions to introduce the region’s first collegiate women’s flag football league in 2025. The Vikings hope to expand the initiatives to schools across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa and believe providing financial support and other resources may help remove barriers so more schools can introduce programs. Through a longstanding partnership with the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL), the Vikings have held multiple conversations with MSHSL representatives regarding the goal of establishing girls high school flag football as a varsity sport in Minnesota. Additionally, the team spearheads the Minnesota Girls Flag Initiative Committee comprised of high school athletic directors, varsity football coaches, MSHSL representatives, and other leaders passionate about the sport. Flag football is the nation’s fastest-growing emerging high school sport, and as of February 2025, 14 states had girls flag football sanctioned at the high school level (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee).