Like many college students, Allison Gandlin has a lot of interests. She was a dancer for 10 years, rowed on the Rutgers University crew team her freshman year, and is passionate about her industrial engineering major. But what really has her heart — and a large chunk of her time — is football.
“I’m around football all the time, no matter what aspect it is,” Gandlin says in an exclusive interview with Her Campus. “It’s deep rooted within me, and I have to be around it. I don’t know what it is … I need it.”
When she’s not in class, Gandlin can often be found working in the videography department for the Rutgers football team or refereeing rec league games. But most of the time, she’s dominating the field as a player — a flag football player, specifically.
On July 21, the 19-year-old Rutgers sophomore helped guide her flag football team, the Staten Island Giants, to victory in the NFL Flag Football Championships, which took place July 18 to 21. Gandlin was instrumental in her team’s 28-7 win, scoring the final touchdown points that pushed them toward victory. But given the opportunity to brag about her role in the big win, Gandlin instead gave all the props to her teammates, even becoming self-critical of her own performance. “I wish I could have done better on a national stage,” she says. “That’s the athlete mindset I guess. You always feel like you could be better.”
Gandlin certainly deserves her own flowers for her accomplishments, though. In February, she was named one of the NFL’s Flag Football Players of the Year, an honor she does not take lightly. “Now, little girls can come up to me and tell me they want to play like me,” Gandlin says. “Being able to become the role model that I didn’t have was so heartwarming.”
If you’re unfamiliar with flag football, it’s pretty similar to the classic American football game — but instead of tackling, players pull “flags” that are attached at the waist. It’s the same sport you probably played in your middle school P.E. classes, except now it’s backed by the country’s leading professional football league. (NFL FLAG is the largest flag football league in the country, with 1,800 leagues in 50 states and a national championship sponsored by Toyota.) According to the New York Times, flag football has become one of the fastest-growing youth sports in the country, and it’s making its way to colleges and beyond, too.
“It’s really nice to see that people are like, ‘Oh, flag football is a real thing,” Gandlin says. “They understand that it’s legit.”
When Gandlin started playing flag football, it wasn’t a hugely popular sport. She discovered her love for the game on a playground after school in Staten Island at age 13, and soon signed up for one of the local recreational flag football leagues. In the years since, her love for the sport has only grown.
Surprisingly enough, Gandlin didn’t seek out flag football scholarships when she was making plans for college. Rather, she chose Rutgers because she felt it best aligned with her goals to study industrial engineering. She did so knowing one important fact about whatever school she ended up at: “If I go there, flag football is going there too.”
Case in point: One of Gandlin’s current projects as she heads into her second year of college is to start a club flag football team at Rutgers. “It’s going to be my pride, my joy, my baby,” she says. “It’s going to take a lot of work to make it happen, but I know it’s going to happen.” She hopes the accolades she’s gained as an NFL Player of the Year and NFL FLAG championship winner adds some credibility to this quest.
Speaking of her accolades, Gandlin says her success within the flag football world still feels surreal. “I cannot believe that I am where I’m at now,” she says. “Thinking about everything that I went through and everything I’ve learned through experience … It’s indescribable, actually.”
According to Gandlin, the growth of flag football is inevitable, and she sees it becoming an international phenomenon, with leagues and teams popping up all over the world. And as flag football continues to rise in popularity, Gandlin believes she will be involved with the evolution of the sport every step of the way.
Her next goal is to make it to the Olympics — a dream that’s very much in reach, considering flag football has officially been added as a sport in the 2028 Summer Games, taking place in Los Angeles. “My driving factor, my driving motivation, is the Olympics,” she says. “That’s the goal!”
Beyond that, Gandlin doesn’t know exactly how she’ll be involved in the future of flag football. From figuring out how to balance her sport with her classwork to questions about whether she’ll pursue a career in engineering or football after graduation, she still has a lot to consider. But no matter where she ends up, she knows she will be part of flag football — because flag football is a part of her.
Interview by Lexi Williams.