During more than 20 years of her working at the NFL, Sam Rapoport blocked, tackled and rushed to create a pipeline for women interested in working in football. Why, she rightly wondered, did women represent nearly half the NFL fanbase, but a minuscule slice of its coaches, broadcasters and league employees? Rapoport started at the NFL as an intern, rose to become director of football development, and thanks to her efforts, innumerable women were hired by the league and its 32 teams. As she once told People, “Our goal is to normalize females on the sidelines.”

Now, Rapoport is moving in from the sidelines. A private sports consultant, she will serve as the commissioner of Grand Slam of Flag. (Michael Strahan, Pro Football Hall of Famer-turned-omnipresent television star, will serve as a founding partner.)  In association with the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), the global governing body of flag football, Grand Slam of Flag will make its debut in Los Angeles in February 2027 during the week leading up to the Super Bowl, with the inaugural event set to include six of the top women’s national teams in the world—USA, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, Spain and China. The Slam will feature a $500,000 prize pool, the largest financial prize ever offered in women’s flag football.

Grand Slam of Flag will also feature confirmed participation from national governing bodies across those same six countries, bringing together some of the world's top flag football talent. Additional 2027 event dates and host cities will be announced.

Rapoport was a longtime flag quarterback before transitioning to the front office. Sports Illustrated caught up with her and asked her to, if not tackle, at least confront some questions about this new venture. Responses edited lightly for brevity and clarity.

Sports Illustrated: What is the organizing principle here?

Sam Rapoport: We’re building a global stage for the best women’s national flag football teams in the world.

The idea is simple: take the best players, representing their countries, put them on one field in a high-stakes tournament, and present them with the production, storytelling and commercial platform that elite women athletes deserve. This isn’t a league. It’s much closer to the Davis Cup or a Grand Slam model—national teams, major standalone events and the best countries in the world competing against each other.

SI: We have this behemoth cultural force: football. And, unlike basketball or tennis or even UFC, it’s seldom played by women. Is this the solution?

SR: That’s exactly the opportunity.

Football is arguably the most powerful cultural force in American sports, and yet women have not yet had the same opportunity as men to play it and showcase it. Flag changes that. People already love football. We’re opening up the playing field to the other half of the population. Flag is truly its own sport—the field is smaller, the skills required are different and the technique is different. It’s faster, more open and built around speed, precision, creativity and athleticism.

SI: How did you seize on this idea?

SR: I’ve spent more than two decades working in football and have played flag football my entire life. I’ve dedicated my career to building opportunities for women in a sport that historically wasn’t built for them.

Flag football completely changes the equation.

Once you see the women at the highest level play, it becomes pretty obvious: the athletes are extraordinary, the sport is ready for television, and there was an opportunity to build a major global property around them. So Michael Strahan and I brought together EverWonder, SMAC and CAA and said: What would this look like if we built it at scale from the beginning?

SI: How will this event work?

SR: Six women’s national teams will come to Los Angeles in February during Super Bowl week for the largest prize pool in the history of the sport. They’ll compete over three days in a tournament format—pool play, semifinals and ultimately a championship.

The idea is short, intense and consequential. Every play matters. Every game matters. And importantly, these are national teams. These women are representing their countries, giving fans an early glimpse of the global competition they’ll see when flag football takes the Olympic stage in Los Angeles in 2028.

SI: What is the skill set required?

SR: To me, flag football is this incredible combination of synchronized swimming, breakdancing, tackle football and ballet. It requires grace, coordination, cohesion and precision—but also speed, strength and an incredible amount of football intelligence.

Because there’s no tackling, people sometimes assume it’s somehow easier. It’s not. You remove tackling and suddenly there’s nowhere to hide.

The field is open. The athletes are incredibly fast. Quarterbacks have to make decisions almost instantly and release the ball faster. Defenders have to cover in space. And pulling a flag off an elite athlete running at full speed is a legitimate skill.

SI: Who are the players and how are they recruited?

SR: These are elite national team athletes selected through their respective national federations. The inaugural season will feature six of the top women’s national teams in the world–USA, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, Spain and China.

The countries select the women who represent them, just as they would for other major international competitions.

That distinction is important. Grand Slam of Flag is the stage. The national teams bring the best players their countries have to offer.

SI: Pick a few players you’d suggest fans watch?

SR: I’m a little biased toward the quarterback position, so here I go.

Diana Flores from Mexico is one of the biggest stars in the sport and an extraordinary quarterback with one of the smartest minds in the game.

Sara Parker from Canada is an IFAF gold medalist and another exceptional quarterback with the quickest release I’ve seen on a flag QB.

And Akemi Higa, the quarterback for Team USA, is about to explode onto the scene and is just 17 years old.

But wait until the world sees the quarterbacks from Spain, Great Britain and China take the stage. I think people are going to be shocked by the level of talent in this sport around the world.

That’s one of the most exciting things about this platform: there are players most sports fans have never heard of who are about to become global superstars.

Part of what we want Grand Slam of Flag to do is create those household names.

SI: What’s the end game? Where does the tour go from here?

SR: We’re building a series of major international tournaments—think Grand Slams rather than a traditional season that will serve to complement the exciting pro flag league launching next year.

Los Angeles is the beginning. We want Grand Slam of Flag to become one of the most important global stages in the sport and a place where the best women’s national teams consistently come to compete.

And there’s something incredibly special about doing this in Los Angeles. Flag football will make its Olympic debut at LA28, so two years before the Games arrive, we’re going to give Los Angeles a preview—in its own backyard—of the countries, athletes, rivalries and incredible competition the world will see in 2028.

The timing is extraordinary. Women’s flag football is entering an entirely new era. We want to help build the commercial and cultural infrastructure around these athletes as the sport grows globally.

SI: How did you get exposed to football? My sources tell me you can throw a tight spiral.

SR: I grew up in Canada completely obsessed with football. I was the quarterback for Team Canada the first year international flag play began. I say this with absolutely no modesty, I couldn’t hold a candle to the three quarterbacks I mentioned earlier. The talent in this game has evolved in a beautiful way.

I eventually made my way into the NFL league office and spent more than two decades there. But when I was growing up, there wasn't a real pathway for a girl who loved football to imagine herself playing the sport at the highest level. There was no north star. So we built one.

That’s one of the reasons this is so personal for me. Girls growing up today are going to see something completely different.

SI: The inevitable question: is this a gateway to tackle football, the way flag often is for boys?

SR: I think that framing undersells flag football.

Flag doesn't need to be a gateway to anything.

It is its own sport, with its own elite athletes, its own skills and a significant global footprint.

For women and girls especially, it isn't the beginning of the pathway. It is the destination.

SI: You’re in the open field. What else do you want to add?

SR: There’s a bigger cultural point here. Women have always loved football. They’ve been fans, executives, coaches and officials—but for the first time, there’s a real opportunity for women to own the game as players, too. Football is finally becoming a sport that is truly for everyone.

And at the same time, everyone is paying attention to women’s sports in a way we’ve never seen before. Flag gives us this incredible opportunity to put a sport where women are at the forefront from the beginning, on a global stage.

And we want people to come see what that looks like.

If you love football, come see our version of it. And especially if you’re part of the incredible women’s sports community in Los Angeles, come experience these athletes for yourselves.

You can talk about the speed, athleticism and skill, but you don’t fully understand this sport until you see these women compete in person.

Six countries. The best players in the world. National pride on the line. In Los Angeles.

I think a lot of people are going to walk in as football fans and walk out as women’s flag football fans.