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Have you heard of flag football? It’s the variant of American football in which the defensive team has to remove a flag from the ball carrier to end a down. The sport is becoming more popular than ever thanks to a Latina.
Diana Flores Arenas is the quarterback of Mexico’s women’s national flag football team, and she captured the spotlight after winning the 2022 World Championship and appearing in the latest NFL Super Bowl commercial.
The two-time national collegiate champion started playing flag football when she was eight, joining the women’s league “Tocho Bandera” at the National Polytechnic Institute.
In 2012, at 14, she was called to lead the North Penn High School team in Pennsylvania, United States, where she became a regional NFL champion. Two years later, at 16, she joined the Mexican national team and competed in the IFAF Flag Football World Championship in Grosseto, Italy, making history as the youngest player to compete in an international tournament. After that, she continued to participate in the following championships.
Most recently, in June 2022, while her team was competing against the United States, they celebrated victory by winning the gold medal. During the match, Diana achieved a record of six wins and 0 losses in the Flag Football World Games as the starting quarterback of the Mexican team.
In the final against the United States, she completed 20 out of 28 passing attempts for 210 yards and four touchdowns, leading Mexico to a 39–6 victory. She was the only starting quarterback to defeat the American quarterback Vanita Krouch (19-1) in international tournaments.
In 2023, Diana Flores played on the offensive side in the Pro Bowl in Las Vegas in February, working with head coach Peyton Manning and defensive coordinator Ray Lewis for the first AFC vs. NFC Flag Football games.
Earlier in the year, the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, visited an NFL Flag Football program event in Mexico City, where she, alongside Diana Flores, enjoyed youth football and celebrated gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
During the 2023 Super Bowl broadcast, Flores was the star of a two-minute NFL advertisement, appearing alongside Erin Andrews, Sauce Gardner, Jalen Ramsey, Davante Adams, Jim Kelly, Billie Jean King, MrBeast, and more.