It Is a Structural Shift
At present, there are approximately 4,200 girls playing the sport in New Jersey. With flag football set to debut as an Olympic sport in 2028, the Jets have always emphasized a path for girls in flag football. Now a girl in New Jersey can imagine her steps from high school to a college program, to a national team and then to the Olympic stage.

Varsity status unlocks sustainable funding, structured competition, dedicated coaching, and the long-term infrastructure that any serious sport requires. Nearly 160 New Jersey high schools are expected to field teams next season, a clear sign of a structural shift.

The Jets just had three players from the Jets Flag Elite 14U travel team — Myla Ramos, 13, Kaitlyn Richards, 14, and Raz Colter, 13 — participate in a United States National Team training camp in California.

“For Jets Flag Elite, it’s credibility,” said Mickey McDermott, the head coach of the Jets Elite Team who also has led Ridgewood HS to multiple New Jersey HS Flag Football Championships. “Having national team representation shows that what we’re doing — organizational structure, coaching, accountability and expectations — is making avenues possible. Other NFL teams should see this as an example of what can happen when you invest wholeheartedly in girls and provide them with opportunities they may never have been able to experience — because when you do it the right way, you don’t just grow the game, you also change lives.”

Movement Always Powered by Community
Lives were again changed on Monday with the sanctioning of girls flag football as a varsity sport in New Jersey. Johnson, who through his family’s foundation and the Jets have contributed funding, grants, and long‑term support to help schools start or sustain teams — supporting more than 260 girls flag football teams, reaching more than over 7,000 young women each year, through more than $3.5 million in investment across the United States and abroad, is pleased to do his part. But he has maintained the momentum that has always come from the athletes who wanted to play and the adults who made space for them to do it.

The official sanctioning of girls flag football as a varsity high school sport in New Jersey is a win for a community of coaches, athletic directors, teachers, parents and student-athletes who would not be denied.