Quarterback Diana Flores has won world titles and MVPs on the flag football field. She's starred in Super Bowl commercials to promote her sport, too.
This, though, confirmed just how far-reaching women's flag football has become — Kansas City Chiefs standout Patrick Mahomes once referred to her by name and mentioned her being a QB.
Game simply respects game, especially one on the rise.
Flores, the signal caller for the reigning world champion Mexico
squad, is doing all she can these days to build up the sport ahead of flag football making its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. It's quickly catching on, too, with the NCAA recently adding flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program. Nebraska announced it would be the first power conference school to add flag football as a varsity women’s sport, with competition beginning in the spring of 2028.
The 28-year-old Flores is an open book on the subject. She just authored “Flag Football For Dummies,” which breaks down everything from the rules of the game to her involvement (she started at 8 against much older players) to what it takes to be elite ("leadership is the backbone of a successful quarterback," she wrote).
“I just want to grow awareness of the sport, the importance of the sport for boys and girls, and how it can change lives, help open those doors and opportunities,” Flores said in an interview as she prepares to cover the Super Bowl on Feb. 8 for TUDN, a Spanish-language sports network. “(The book) challenged me in ways I’ve never experienced before. It's just a huge opportunity for me to pour all the love and passion I have for the game to others.”
The stats reflect the growth of an NFL-backed sport: There were 267,000 girls aged 6 to 17 in the U.S. that participated in organized flag football in 2024, according to USA Football. It's an increase of 39% since 2020.
Flores is one of the most decorated players to take the flag-football field, guiding Team Mexico to back-to-back World Games gold medals and winning the MVP in 2022. She was recently honored as the 2025 Game Changer Award recipient by the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Her commercial during the 2023 Super Bowl, titled “Run with it,” was a popular hit.
It starts out with reporter Erin Andrews talking to Flores, in uniform, and suddenly reaching for her attached flags. Flores looked surprised and juked to avoid the maneuver before bolting out of the stadium. Flores runs through parking lots, down sidewalks, over rooftops and through a hotel, with NFL players such as Sauce Gardner, Jalen Ramsey, Cam Heyward, Aidan Hutchinson and Davante Adams in pursuit. Tennis great and women's sports advocate Billie Jean King played a role in throwing a key block with a car door.
It was all part of promoting the game, with the end of the commercial featuring USA Football quarterback Vanita Krouch running alongside Flores in the street. Both were offensive coordinators of the 2023 Pro Bowl game.
So, how many times has Flores seen that commercial?
“I don’t even have the count,” Flores said with a laugh. “That’s been one of the most amazing moments of my life. It was the first time flag football was showcased in a big platform like that.”
Flores patterns her QB style after an array of players, ranging from Peyton Manning to Lamar Jackson to Joe Burrow and Mahomes. And it was meeting Mahomes a little while back that opened her eyes to her sport's soaring popularity.
“I was doing an interview with (Mahomes) and introducing myself and before I even finished my sentence he was like, ‘Oh, yeah, Diana, you play flag football and you’re a quarterback, too,'” Flores recounted. “I didn't expect that to happen.”
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