Last night, when Tom Brady announced his first return to the field since retiring in 2023, this time as a flag footballer, the natural question was: What exactly is this Fanatics Flag Football Classic? After all, the seven-time Super Bowl champion is not just suiting up for a friendly appearance. He is stepping back into competition at an event that’s been billed as star-studded. So, here’s all you need to know about it!
Advertisement
The Fanatics Flag Football Classic, scheduled for March 21, 2026, at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, is being organised by Fanatics, a collectable company, in partnership with FOX Sports, OBB Media, and Riyadh Season. It will be broadcast live on FOX Sports and streamed worldwide on Tubi. This all but signals just how seriously this initiative is being treated.
As Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin put it, the vision is to “bring together icons from every corner of sports, entertainment and culture for an experience unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”
Unlike casual pickup games many fans might be familiar with, the Fanatics Flag Football Classic will follow the exact Olympic-style format that the sport will adopt in 2028. The field will be seventy yards long, with a fifty-yard playing surface and two ten-yard end zones.
The game will be Five-on-five play, with two twenty-minute halves governed by a running clock that only stops in the final two minutes of each half.
Teams will have four downs to reach midfield from their own five-yard line and another set of four downs to score, which means every possession carries weight, and failed drives will immediately swing momentum with a turnover.
Structurally, the Fanatics Flag Football Classic will see three teams of eight players each, who will compete in a round-robin before the top two advance to a championship game. To ensure competitiveness, each squad will be guided by a proven NFL coach, with Pete Carroll, Sean Payton, and Kyle Shanahan agreeing to lead the rosters.
And when it comes to players, luckily for us, the confirmed names already make the lineup feel like a Pro Bowl on steroids: Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, CeeDee Lamb, Tyreek Hill, Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett, Sauce Gardner, Odell Beckham Jr., Rob Gronkowski, and Brock Bowers will all join Tom Brady on the field.
Adding the entertainment factor, Kevin Hart will serve as host, ensuring that the off-field energy matches the on-field competition.
View this post on Instagram
And last but not least, the event’s execution is bound to be stellar with big names like Fanatics on board, and especially Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season, which has made a reputation out of staging big-ticket cultural events, and this fits perfectly into that mould.
As Chairman Turki Alalshikh emphasized, “This is certain to be the biggest competition of its kind yet in flag football, bringing together some of the most prominent names in sports and entertainment.”
For Tom Brady, however, the significance is deeply personal. “I have always admired the power of flag football and how it connects fans of all ages. It’s awesome to be able to showcase the sport on such a global stage while joining together so many incredibly skilled athletes,” he said.
So while the sight of the NFL’s GOAT lacing up again at the Fanatics Flag Football Classic will inevitably dominate headlines, the event itself represents something larger. With the LA28 Olympics on the horizon, it is being positioned as both a preview and a proving ground for the sport’s global future.
