49ers, Hall of Famer Steve Young partner to bring more access to flag football for girls

Young girls and women have cheered on the San Francisco 49ers for years. But now, the team and Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young are giving them opportunities to be on the field themselves.

"Boys have played it for 100 years, but football, at its root was made for girls," Young said.

Flag football is a fast-growing sport across the world as players gear up for the 2028 Summer Olympics.

And the San Francisco 49ers want to get girls involved locally in a way that they never have been able to before - the "Football is Made for Girls Initiative."

"When I said football is made for girls, like I really felt that, like it was in my heart," Young said. "And then, because we're 100 years behind in a way, we owe it to them."

The new initiative from the 49ers Foundation and Forever Young Foundation promotes girls flag football at every level from youth to high school.

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49ers Foundation Executive Director Justin Prettyman says they are bringing flag football to more than 100 schools across the Bay Area with special P.E. programs.

It's just one way they are able to provide something many girls haven't had before.

"Access and expanding the reach and making sure that every girl who wanted to play flag football had the opportunity and removing those barriers," Prettyman said. "So, that's really where we're starting."

Young's involvement as the organization's honorary captain of girls flag football stems from coaching his daughter's flag team.

He says he sees their knowledge and passion for the game on full display every time he steps on the field.

"For me again, it's rooted in my love of the game and that's where the girls took me back to," Young said. "It's like when I was a kid and when I was learning to throw the football and I was trying to throw like, you know, the pros that I was watching."

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Now, young women are getting that same shot.

At his first game coaching. Young said four women told him that they would've loved to play football growing up in the 1950s but the opportunities were not there.

Decades later, times have changed through this new initiative.

"I'm excited about our efforts to get more girls playing, more girls and women coaching, more, you know, in schools in an area and just develop the game," Young said. "Because as those four elderly women so rightfully said, we dreamed about 1950s and now here it is happening."

Making up for time lost and opportunities deserved: the spirit of Football is Made for Girls.

You can learn more about the initiative on the 49ers' website here.