Flag Football
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
40 free Flag Football trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Flag football keeps almost everything people love about the gridiron game, from long passes to last-second touchdowns, and swaps the tackling for a quick tug on a belt. That makes it a staple of school PE lessons, a sport that girls and boys play on equal terms, and one that now has a place on the Olympic programme. This quiz covers what a player needs to know before stepping onto the field: how a game starts, how downs and scoring work, what each position does, which moves are legal and which penalties to avoid. It also looks beyond the rulebook, at where the sport came from, the international tournaments that shaped it and the famous names who have backed it. The questions start easy and get tougher, so they suit an elementary or middle school class, a co-rec league or a family of football fans. Every answer comes with a short explanation, and the whole set can be played on screen or printed for a lesson.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which city's Summer Olympics were chosen to give flag football its Olympic debut?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles 2028 makes flag football the first form of gridiron football to be a full part of an Olympic program. Organisers proposed it and the IOC approved it in 2023.
Q 02Which brothers coached the two teams when the NFL's Pro Bowl became a flag football event in 2023?
Peyton and Eli Manning
Peyton and Eli Manning took a conference each after Peyton's production company helped the NFL redesign the event. Skills contests and three seven-a-side games replaced the tackle game.
Q 03Flag football is believed to have begun as a fitness game for American troops during which conflict?
World War II
World War II is when the game is thought to have been created for American troops, designed to keep them fit while avoiding the injuries that tackling could cause.
Q 04In NFL FLAG football, shorts must be free of which feature to avoid penalties and hurt fingers?
Pockets
Pockets can hide the belt and flags from view, which draws a penalty, and fingers reaching for a flag can get stuck inside them.
Q 05Under NFL FLAG football rules, every game starts with which event instead of a kickoff?
A coin toss
A coin toss decides which team gets possession first, and that team simply begins its drive from its own five-yard line.
Q 06Which item is the only piece of protective gear that players wear in NFL FLAG football?
A mouthguard
A mouthguard is all the protection a player needs, which helps make flag football cheaper for families than tackle, with its helmets and pads.
Q 07Which country's women beat the United States 39–6 to win flag football gold at the 2022 World Games?
Mexico
Mexico won all six of its games at that tournament, the first time flag football had featured at the World Games.
Q 08NFL FLAG football teams play five-a-side by leaving out which group of tackle football players?
Linemen
Linemen are dropped from the tackle game's eleven, which leaves every player on offense free to catch a pass and keeps the game fast.
Q 09Which dodge is legal for an NFL FLAG football runner, while leaping and diving are both banned?
Spinning
Spinning is allowed because the runner's feet never leave the ground, which is the test the rules apply to any move made to avoid a defender.
Q 10Which tackle football staple do NFL FLAG rules remove to limit contact between players?
Fumbles
Fumbles are ruled out to limit contact between players: a dropped ball is simply marked at the yard line where it hit the ground.
Q 11Which penalty punishes an NFL youth league runner for stiff-arming a defender or covering the belt?
Flag guarding
Flag guarding costs the offense ten yards and the down, and it covers anything that blocks a defender's reach, even a lowered elbow.
Q 12Which NFL FLAG football defender starts seven yards back, hand raised, before chasing the passer?
The rusher
The rusher must wait behind an imaginary line across the field until the snap, and no more than two defenders may take the role on a play.
Q 13In NFL FLAG football, which player snaps to the quarterback and then runs out to catch passes?
Center
Center is the position that differs most from its tackle football version: instead of blocking after the snap, the player becomes a receiver and runs a route.
Q 21Which racket sport was approved to make its Olympic debut alongside flag football at the 2028 Games?
Squash
Squash and flag football are the only two first-timers among the five optional sports; cricket, lacrosse and baseball/softball are all returning.
Q 22Which Alabama city hosted the 2022 World Games, where flag football made its first appearance?
Birmingham
Birmingham put eight men's and eight women's teams on the turf of historic Legion Field, with the NFL sponsoring the sport's inclusion.
Q 23Which Super Bowl-winning quarterback was named chairman of the NFL FLAG youth program in 2020?
Russell Wilson
Russell Wilson took the chair as part of a global partnership meant to strengthen the youth leagues at home and expand them abroad.
Q 14Which defensive play in NFL FLAG football can be returned for six points, or two on a conversion?
An interception
An interception is a pass caught by the defense before it touches the ground, and one run all the way back for a touchdown is nicknamed a pick-six.
Q 15Which two-point score is awarded when a flag football ball carrier is downed in their own end zone?
A safety
A safety is a real danger in NFL FLAG football, where every opening drive starts just five yards from the offense's own goal line.
Q 16Which penalty is called on a flag football defender who crosses the scrimmage line before the snap?
Offside
Offside moves the ball five yards closer to the defense's goal line under NFL FLAG rules, a costly gift on a field only 70 yards long.
Q 17What do NFL FLAG football rules call the areas near each goal line where the offense must pass?
No-run zones
No-run zones stretch five yards out from each goal line, and they exist to prevent power football in tight spaces, which limits contact.
Q 18An NFL FLAG football offense starting at its own five-yard line gets four downs to cross which line?
Midfield
Midfield is the only spot on the field that resets the count, and an offense that gets past it has three more plays to score a touchdown.
Q 19Which kicking term do NFL FLAG football teams use for giving up the ball, although nobody kicks it?
Punt
Punt simply means the offense declares it is handing over possession, and the other team begins its drive from its own five-yard line.
Q 20The NFL's push for flag football followed growing concern over which tackle football injuries?
Concussions
Concussions and the brain disease CTE drew growing concern in the 2000s and 2010s, at the same time as youth tackle football participation was falling.
Q 24Which NFL quarterback was named flag football's ambassador for the sport's 2028 Olympic debut?
Jalen Hurts
Jalen Hurts, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, also starred in an NFL teaser in which he lit the torch at a famous Olympic stadium by throwing a flaming football.
Q 25Which state was first to sanction girls' varsity flag football, with 103 high schools playing?
Florida
Florida led the way in 2002, and by the 2025–26 school year 20 states had fully sanctioned a state championship.
Q 26Which Maryland army base, now home to the NSA, is accepted as the birthplace of flag football?
Fort Meade
Fort Meade is where the first known recorded games were played, as a way for soldiers to stay fit with less risk of injury than tackle football.
Q 27Which NFL FLAG football penalty is called on a defender who smacks the ball out of a runner's hands?
Stripping
Stripping is a spot foul in NFL FLAG football, so the ten yards are marked off from where it happened rather than from the line of scrimmage.
Q 28What do official NFL FLAG belts produce when a flag is pulled off, showing that the play is over?
A popping noise
A popping noise comes from the small plastic socket that holds each flag, and it also helps the referee spot the ball more accurately.
Q 29Which route in the NFL FLAG football route tree runs seven yards upfield, then angles to the middle?
Post
Post routes are easy to remember, NFL FLAG tells coaches: picture yourself running toward the field goal post.
Q 30What name is given to the part of a flag football field directly behind the line of scrimmage?
The backfield
The backfield is where every handoff and backward pitch has to happen in NFL FLAG football, since neither is allowed past the line.