A basketball court is often used as a playing field for flag football, both in children's physical education classes and in adult leagues. In flag football, players wear a belt to which a flag is attached, and you pull the player's flag off the belt to stop the play. Because flag football is a non-tackle sport, boys and girls can play on the same team and do not need to wear protective equipment.
Teams
Flag football is played with two teams of an equal number of players. Team size can vary, but it is generally between five and seven players. The teams are differentiated by the color of their flags. Each player wears a flag belt around his waist with his two flags attached to the belt, one at either side of his hips. A coin toss determines which team starts the game on offense.
Time
A game typically is 40 minutes long, divided into halves. The game length can be adjusted before the game starts as long as the two halves are equal. Timeouts may be called for injuries, an official's timeout or a team's timeout. The clock stops after a touchdown or an extra point. Each team has two 60-second timeouts in a 40-minute game. The team with the most points after 40 minutes wins the game.
Points
A touchdown, which is worth six points, occurs when the ball is successfully advanced to the marked end zone within four plays. Most flag football games allow for point conversions after a touchdown--that is, plays in which the offensive team tries to advance the ball to the end zone from either the three-point-line or half-court. A half-court conversion is three points, and a three-point-line conversion is two points. If a defensive player removes the flag from the ball carrier in the ball carrier's end zone, a safety is awarded at two points.
Boundaries
Players must stay within the boundaries of the "field" on the basketball court--that is, they must stay within the drawn boundaries of a standard basketball court. Orange cones can clearly mark the end zones, located at the basketball court end lines, behind the basketball hoop. If the ball carrier goes out of bounds, the play stops. The game begins at the half-court line.
Players
Each team must have a quarterback, a center and a runner. The center snaps or hands off the ball to the quarterback at the start of each play. The quarterback can then either hand off to the runner or pass the ball to the runner, who attempts to run the ball to the end zone. The defensive team tries to stop the runner with the ball.
Pulled Flags
To stop the runner, the defensive team tries to pull the runner's flag off his belt. The runner's teammates are permitted to try to block the opposing team from grabbing the flag, but they must resist hard physical contact. When someone successfully pulls off the runner's flag, the runner must drop the flag on the ground and play ceases.
Dropped Flags
After each dropped flag, out-of-bounds play or dropped ball, the offensive and defensive teams re-form at the line of scrimmage and continue play, with the offensive team attempting to advance the ball for a touchdown and the defense team attempting to stop it. After four stops from dropped flags, out-of-bounds plays or dropped balls, the ball is turned over to the opposing team.
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