Steve Young, Venus Williams and the Growth of Girls Flag Football

As coaches at Dove’s ’45 Yard Line’ event ahead of the Super Bowl, the top-notch athletes talk about how the sport has exploded recently.

Two of the greatest athletes in American sports reminisced for the first time in years, a few miles west of the Las Vegas Strip, which was hosting Super Bowl LVIII festivities.

Steve Young knows what it’s like to win the Super Bowl and Venus Williams is familiar with big events, having won numerous tournaments throughout her tennis career. Williams had her arms crossed on the frigid day, while sporting a No. 45 football jersey. She reminded Young, the San Francisco 49ers’ legendary quarterback, of when they first met three decades ago.

“I was a huge Steve Young fan,” Williams told Sports Illustrated before she coached a girls flag football game against Young’s team. “I remember when I met him when I was in my teens. I was so excited.”

But after exchanging stories, Williams’s competitive side took over, the one that helped her win seven Grand Slam singles titles and become the No. 1 ranked player in the world.

“I also told him my team is winning,” Williams recalled. “Big fan, but you’re losing today. It’s competitive.”

Williams and Young got together two days before the Kansas City Chiefs defeated Young’s former team in the Super Bowl for their own football showdown at Durango High School.

Williams’s expertise isn’t football, but the “45 Yard Line” event hosted by Dove was special to her because it celebrated body confidence for girls, while also reminding them they can achieve greatness in any sport. According to Dove’s self-esteem project, 45% of teenage girls globally drop out of sports by the age of 14, with low body confidence being the primary reason.

“You would never think the number would be that high, but it is,” Williams says. “And we have to change that, and that’s why we’re here today, to shine light on that.”

Williams joked that she could only offer tennis tips to her girls flag football team, but she made it a priority to remind them they can dominate in any sport as long as they participate.

“It’s great for me to be able to branch into something like flag football,” Williams says. “I think there were probably a lot of girls who thought ‘I won’t be able to play football,’ but now here we are; girls are playing this sport and playing it well. So I think this is a great opportunity for me to be inspired by these young women.

“There are no limits to what girls can do and achieve and how we can play and how we can participate in sports. I think that’s the huge message here, that we can do it well.”

Young has seen firsthand how many girls have participated in flag football as an assistant coach for Menlo School in Atherton, Calif. Six months ago, his two daughters, Summer and Laila, asked if he could help coach at the high school because it was the first year California sanctioned girls flag football as a varsity sport.

“It’s been a revelation,” Young says. “I ran into something that ended up being very emotional for me. Kind of taking me back to the roots of why I love the game and how I always just took it for granted. I told my wife [Barbara], the girls, seeing the inclusion [in flag football] was visceral. You can feel it. I love that. That was enough if that was all it was, but that wasn’t all it was. Then they started to learn the game, and as they learned the game, they would realize how much they love the game, and by the end of it, it was their favorite sport.”

Menlo School lost its first flag football game, 2–0, creating some confusion for the girls because they hadn’t learned about safeties in the sport. After the learning experience, Menlo School went undefeated the rest of the way.

Young said he often found himself turning to the school’s head coach, John Paye (also a former teammate of Young with the 49ers), saying how impressed he was with the girls, despite the lack of playing experience.

“Just seeing all the details, and how they saw the game, once they learned it and got it,” Young says. “I just think girls flag football is going to explode, with the Olympics leading the way. Every team that we played the coach said, ‘We expected half of the girls that came out. We have two teams, three teams.’

“Flag football is built for women. Football is a choreography, and once they understood it was choreography, they ate it up.”

Williams, who won Olympic gold in 2000, said he was thrilled to hear flag football was going to be available for women during the inaugural tournament in 2028 for the Los Angeles Games.

“I want all kinds of girls to play all kinds of sports at the highest levels,” Williams says.