Flag Football at Hofstra University

Every year at Hofstra University various student clubs and organizations participate in the flag football season which begins in early September. Although flag football is a non-contact sport, players are still extremely aggressive. No pads, no helmets just a flag on the waste. After viewing this video one can understand how physical this sport can be. Not only was I involved with the filming of various games, but I also participated on Sigma Alpha Epsilon´s team. I remember going out on the field during a game and blocking the opponent with full power. Sometimes the referee would say, ´´hey you can´t do that,´´ but no penalty was ever issued. Usually the opposing team would get their revenge and answer back with a harder hit. On one occasion one of my team mates blocked a kid so hard that he dislocated opponents shoulder.

Again no penalty, however the referee told my friend to calm down with the hard hits. The game still continued, and we won. One could pose the question, why do the officials allow the sport to get so physical? Why are players getting hurt? With all of the stress from being in college, students are able to come to the fields to take out some of their stress and anger. Personally I believe that playing an extremely physical sport helps relieve some stress and anxiety. Were all in college, we all have stress. What´s wrong with a little rough football?

Our team was fairly successful throughout the course of the season. Winning six games, and losing only one in the regular season, we advanced to the playoffs. I remember the emotional state our team was in before entering the first playoff game. We were arrogant and confident due to the fact that we were so successful during the regular season. We thought we were the most physically dominating team. Unfortunately we were extremely mistaken. Our first playoff game was against a group of veteran football players from the Hofstra football team. They were big, they were fast, they were intimidating. They were collegiate football players. We were a group of college students in a fraternity. After the first quarter we were down by three touchdowns. Not only did we lose the game by five touchdowns and were eliminated from the playoffs, but our team was physically drained and some were even injured. We were physically and mentally outmatched. Flag football is a lot of fun when you win, but getting physically dominated by another team is miserable.