70,000 spectators sit in the stands of the Munich Allianz Arena. Sold out house. The football stars of the American professional league compete on the pitch, and footballers, musicians and entertainers meet off the pitch. In the middle of it all, the flag footballers of the Augsburg Lions are waiting to make their appearance.
The NFL’s instructions were actually that the players should wear tracksuits. However, the young team doesn’t have that yet, so the Lions are waiting in sweaters for the first quarter break. When the time comes, everything has to happen very quickly. They have just under two minutes to come to the square, receive the check, have a photo taken and disappear again. But the schedule fails. The photo isn’t completely taken before they’re sent off again. Only in the tunnel does the representative of Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB) hand them the check. In one fell swoop there are 2,500 euros more in the team’s coffers.
In flag football, the opponent is not knocked to the ground
“We are really happy about the money,” says Lions coach Paul Primps on a side court at DJK Augsburg-West while his team trains behind him. “But it was a crazy situation the way it all happened.” Since Primps and his FLINTA team of women and everyone who doesn’t identify as men won the German championship title straight away, they had the honor and the money at the home of FC Bayern. “It was a good opportunity to network and exchange ideas with others,” says youth leader Dustin Altmann. In parallel to the Lions, the U-15 national team, as reigning European champions, received a further 5,000 euros.
In this comparatively young sport, that’s both a lot and a little money at the same time. A lot, because the sport is actually quite cheap. A pair of cleats, a pair of gloves – that’s all you need to play contactless flag football. In comparison to the full contact variant, the players do not have to pull the ball carrier to the ground, but rather pull one of the two flags from his belt. This saves on protective equipment. But it sounds easier than it is. Flag football players are fast, agile and use sophisticated deceptive maneuvers in their moves.
At a high level, the sport can quickly add up
Primps and Altmann used to play standard tackle football. They have since fallen in love with flag football, which is denigrated as a “girls’ sport.” “There are fewer rules, fewer interruptions, fewer injuries and a lot more plays, long passes and cool actions,” says Primps. “It’s like the continuous highlight version of American football.”
If you’re at a level as high as the Augsburg Lions, the sport can quickly cost money, even if it doesn’t actually cost much. The travel costs in particular are expensive. Last year a Lions team was at the Champions Bowl in Croatia. The three-day tournament with 16 players cost 7,400 euros. This cannot be financed through the membership fee of 12 euros per month. “We then decided to see the whole thing more as a fun tournament,” says Dustin Altmann. “If you wanted to take part, you had to pay for it yourself, so we scaled back our ambitions a little.”
2028 is Flag Football Olympic
As quickly as the Lions develop, so does the entire sport. When the flag football department of the then Augsburg Raptors spun off in 2022, there were only around 50 flag football clubs in all of Germany. There are now almost three times as many. The first teams have also been formed in rural areas. This is mainly due to the fact that the sport will be Olympic in 2028. “Anyone who is fast today and has good athleticism has the opportunity to be there in Los Angeles,” says Paul Primps.
Four Lions players have already made it to the senior national team. To ensure that Augsburg is still a location for the masses, Altmann and Primps want to open a second FLINTA team. The DKB donation will also be spent on this: “We want to use the money to broaden our structure,” says Altmann. There are currently three youth teams: U11, U13 and U16. As soon as these girls and boys are old enough, there could be so many clubs that travel distances are significantly shorter. Then the prize money could perhaps also be spent on a first set of tracksuits.
