Girls flag football takes the field at U.S. Bank Stadium as sport grows across Minnesota

For generations of high school football players in Minnesota, stepping onto the field at U.S. Bank Stadium has been something to imagine from the stands. Now, a growing number of high school girls are getting the chance to play there themselves.

Eight girls flag football teams from across the Twin Cities gathered at U.S. Bank Stadium on Aug. 30 for an afternoon of competition organized by J.D. Pride and Pridercise. It’s the start of five planned Sunday sessions for high school girls at the stadium this fall.

Teams included Minneapolis Edison, Irondale, Wayzata, Shakopee, Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Lakeville North, Elk River and Blaine.

For Pride, who has spent more than four decades creating recreational opportunities for young people with his wife,  bringing high school girls onto the field shows another step toward making the stadium accessible to Minnesota youth.

“The most important thing we’re looking for right here is to be the first and be in the front as far as having girls to come in and actually play,” Pride said.

Pride said his programs previously brought younger girls to the stadium, but this is the first year Pride Sports League is offering the opportunity to high school girls. The teams played two games on shortened fields inside the U.S. Bank Stadium.

The rapid growth of flag football

The new opportunity is just as girls flag football is experiencing major growth across Minnesota and nationally.

The Minnesota Vikings launched a four-team pilot program in 2024 before expanding to a 51-school high school girls flag football league in 2025. The Vikings said they funded $600,000 that year to support the league and schools. By 2026, participation had grown to more than 100 Minnesota high schools.

Flag football is also preparing to make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Pride said he wants girls to receive many of the same lessons and experiences boys have had through football.

“It teaches you discipline, how to do teamwork, how to get along with everyone and to work at it,” Pride said.

Inner city meets suburban powerhouses

Minneapolis Edison second-year head coach Matt Thornton said his athletes came to the stadium ready to compete. “We’re inner city and we want to show out,” Thornton said. He went on to say that the games also allow his team the opportunity to go against teams from different communities.

“We want to play against Lakeville North. We want to play against Elk River. Iron sharpens iron, and that’s something we strongly believe in.”

Thornton said flag football was not an option for many of his athletes while they were in middle school or even during their first years of high school.

“It’s another opportunity. It’s a brand-new opportunity,” Thornton said. 

He said he has watched his players grow dramatically after trying the sport, both athletically and personally.

“We’re here to just help them build their confidence and be the best individuals they can be,” Thornton said.

Lakeville North girls varsity head coach Dave Paradise said accessibility is part of what has fueled the sport’s growth. Flag football doesn’t require much equipment and gives athletes who may not have spent years playing the sport a new entry point into competition.

“This is a new game for everybody,” Paradise said. “So we’re seeing new athletes coming to the sport. We’re seeing the communities embracing it, loving it.”

The push for MSHSL sanctioning

For players at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, the excitement began before game day.

Coach Joe Crear said his team was scheduled to arrive at 2 p.m. Instead, players showed up an hour early. “All they kept saying [was], ‘We’re going to play where the Vikings play,’” Crear said.

Crear, whose program is entering its third year, said participation has grown since the team began with small numbers. He hopes girls flag football can become a fully recognized state sport in Minnesota.

That possibility is still in progress.

Earlier this summer, FOX 9 reported that the Minnesota State High School League Board of Directors tabled a proposal to give girls flag football “Emerging Sport” status while it gathered additional feedback from member schools. FOX 9 reported that the board could revisit the issue at its October meeting.

For Pride, the growth is already creating opportunities he once could only imagine. Growing up in Southern Pines, North Carolina, Pride said he did not begin playing organized sports until ninth grade and did not play football until 10th grade. He later played at the University of Minnesota and was drafted by the Miami Dolphins.

“I didn’t get a chance to walk into an NFL stadium until I was actually playing in one,” Pride said.

Now, watching young athletes enter U.S. Bank Stadium is part of what keeps him organizing the programs decades later.

“The first thing they go, ‘Wow, this is sick,’” Pride said. “We just like to make kids happy. That’s what we do.”