included in the 2028 Olympic Games<\/a> in Los Angeles. The Rams, for their part, hope that South Korea\u2019s ties to its large diaspora in Los Angeles will get South Koreans excited about their brand, as well as the sport itself.<\/p>\nBut many South Koreans still confuse football for rugby. And how would parents feel about their children playing a sport that is controversial for its injury risk?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey probably wouldn\u2019t like it,\u201d said Shin Youn-hie, Daegwang Elementary\u2019s vice principal. \u201cWe participated in this program because of the English reading element. But who knows? Maybe one of these children will grow up to be interested.\u201d<\/p>\n
The history of American football in South Korea is surprisingly long: The first college clubs were founded in the 1940s and \u201950s, some using equipment discarded by U.S. soldiers at military bases that were established in Seoul after World War II. But since then, as soccer and baseball ascended, football has hobbled along at the fringes.<\/p>\n
Kim Sung Il played quarterback, left tackle and linebacker for the Yonsei University Eagles in the 1980s. \u201cWe never had enough players so everyone had to play multiple positions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A retired diplomat, Mr. Kim, 65, is now the general manager of the Eagles. On a recent Saturday, the team faced off against the Black Knights of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, in the college league\u2019s spring tournament.<\/p>\n
The game was held on a rented soccer field in Seoul, where a group of players hoisted up jury-rigged football goal posts, wedging them securely into the soccer nets. Crooked yard lines were drawn with turf chalk.<\/p>\n
The size of South Korea\u2019s football fandom is a mystery, even to the N.F.L. A common estimate is 150,000, the number of subscribers to a popular South Korean football YouTuber\u2019s channel.<\/p>\n
The Eagles-Knights game drew a single fan: Song Ji-na, 26, a game developer who stood on the sidelines in the baking sun, watching through thick-rimmed shades. Like many young South Koreans, her introduction to the sport was the Japanese manga series \u201cEyeshield 21,\u201d in which a boy\u2019s experience running from bullies helps him excel in football. She was soon joined by a friend she had invited, also a manga convert.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like it because it\u2019s a little more violent than other sports,\u201d Ms. Song said, as the Eagles pummeled their way to a 47-27 win. She said she had been to around 30 college games, \u201cbut I haven\u2019t ever run into another fan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flag football\u2019s newfound Olympics legitimacy could bring in more fans, said Hong Dong Hyuck, the managing director of the Korea American Football Association and an agricultural technology professor at Kyungpook National University.<\/p>\n
\u201cP.E. teachers are into it because it\u2019s exciting and new,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re tired of teaching soccer or volleyball again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The association recently secured about $600,000 in annual funding from the South Korean government, which it has used to hold flag football clinics at schools and organize tournaments. Last year, the Rams held their own flag football clinic. There are currently around 40 youth clubs in the country. Mr. Hong aims to add at least 100 more this year.<\/p>\n
Can flag football endure in South Korea? Niche sports like archery or speedskating have survived here because they regularly bring home medals, which sustains funding. But flag football is dominated by the United States, where the N.F.L. is already developing a professional league for both men and women. Some wonder whether South Korea can be competitive enough at the next Olympics to generate similar interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be virtually impossible to qualify for the Olympics with just the local talent we have now,\u201d said Park Jae-sik, the general manager of the South Korean national flag football team.<\/p>\n
He plans to hold tryouts in the United States and recruit N.F.L. players with Korean heritage, like the Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, who has publicly expressed interest. The league\u2019s owners recently voted to allow its players to join Olympics rosters.<\/p>\n
Mr. Hong, who wants to hire an American coach for the Korean national team, said that football would need a local spin if it is to thrive here.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerican football is all about the spectacle,\u201d he said, musing whether cheerleading culture and K-pop might be fused in some way. \u201cI\u2019m thinking about that a lot these days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWho here knows what the \u2018F\u2019 in N.F.L. stands for?\u201d The question, posed by a teacher at Daegwang…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,596,349367,348587,1263,6564,9139,593,349369,349368,5813,85,333787],"class_list":["post-720683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-kyler-1997","tag-los-angeles-calif","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-murray","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl","tag-olympic-games-2028","tag-seoul-south-korea","tag-south-korea","tag-sports","tag-yonsei-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}