Ki’Lolo Westerlund knew she had a starring position in an NFL Flag 50 industrial selling flag soccer that will air throughout Tremendous Bowl LIX. She knew she’d be showing alongside previous and current NFL gamers comparable to Myles Garrett, Justin Jefferson and Marshawn Lynch. She simply hadn’t seen it. It aired on thousands and thousands of screens worldwide proper after halftime, however the 17-year-old flag soccer star was really on the recreation in New Orleans along with her father.
Westerlund was a standout receiver and defensive again at Liberty Excessive College in Las Vegas. She additionally helped the U.S. Ladies’ Junior Nationwide Crew win gold medals within the 15U and 17U groupings of USA Soccer’s Junior Worldwide Cup every year from 2022 to 2024. Final 12 months, she turned the primary recipient of a Division I flag soccer scholarship, and earlier than enrolling at Alabama State this fall, she’ll check out for the 2025 U.S. Ladies’s Nationwide Crew later this month.
However whereas Westerlund’s telephone blew up with notifications, she eagerly awaited the possibility to witness the Tremendous Bowl advert for herself. As soon as the third quarter ended, it performed on the screens on the Caesars Superdome.
Primarily, Westerlund performed herself, however with the clock wound again 40 years to 1985. She performed a excessive schooler who, regardless of being doubted by her male counterparts, thrived on the gridiron, juking and dodging defenders. The climax was a scene wherein she mimicked Philadelphia Eagles operating again Saquon Barkley’s gravity-defying backward hurdle to embarrass an opponent who questioned her expertise.
Depart the previous behind. Let’s make ladies flag soccer a varsity sport in all 50 states. #NFLFlag50 #SBLIXhttps://t.co/mWxpXJ0Ogy pic.twitter.com/I0yzbDYZGo
— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025
Westerlund was sitting — properly, standing — within the Eagles fan part on the Tremendous Bowl when the advert performed, and the Chicken Gang trustworthy surrounding her, already ecstatic as they witnessed the Eagles’ beatdown of the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, went nuts.
“It was actually an honor,” Westerlund mentioned not too long ago in a telephone interview. “That’s sort of when all of it hit me. I used to be emotional. And I used to be like, ‘Wow, that is really occurring. That is loopy.’ All of the individuals round me had been like, ‘Wait, that’s you!’”
NFL Flag 50 is a marketing campaign that the league began to push for ladies flag soccer to turn out to be a sanctioned varsity highschool sport in all 50 states. There are at present 14 states which have sanctioned it, Louisiana recently gave it conditional approval and 18 further states have began pilot applications. The NFL Flag program has offered alternatives for teens of all genders to be taught and play the game because the Nineteen Nineties.
Should you’re questioning why the NFL would put collectively a two-minute industrial to air throughout an occasion the place a 30-second industrial reportedly value round $8 million, the recognition of flag soccer — and the league’s funding within the sport — has exploded in recent times.
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Flag soccer will debut as an Olympic sport in a five-on-five format on the 2028 Summer time Olympics in Los Angeles. The NFL modified the Professional Bowl to a flag soccer format in 2023. Whereas it’s unsure if NFL gamers will take part within the 2028 Video games, it’s one thing league officers and USA Soccer (the governing physique for American soccer within the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee) are discussing.
Within the final 5 years, flag soccer has turn out to be a collegiate sport on the NAIA, NJCAA and the NCAA Division I, II and III ranges. Earlier this month, the game received a advice to affix the NCAA Rising Sports activities for Ladies program, which might permit colleges in all three NCAA divisions to make a deeper dedication to the game and at some point probably submit it for consideration for championship standing.
Alabama State, an FCS program, turned the primary DI college with a ladies’s flag soccer program in April 2024. This previous offseason, it turned the primary DI college at hand out a scholarship within the sport. It went to Westerlund.
When Alabama State coach Jennifer Constuble obtained approval to supply a scholarship, she knew she needed to apply it to somebody who could be not solely a recreation changer on the sphere however a trailblazer off of it.
“It was truthfully a no brainer,” Constable mentioned not too long ago. “She was my No. 1 choose to try this. … She’s going to be that particular person that children are going to look as much as.”
Westerlund is happy to compete on the collegiate stage, however her bigger purpose is to compete within the 2028 Olympics and, extra broadly, to proceed to develop the sport.
“Completely,” Westerlund mentioned when requested if she believes persons are changing into extra accepting of women and girls taking part in soccer. “They’re coming round and attempting to know it.
“And for people who nonetheless don’t, they’ll quickly.”
Ki’Lolo Westerlund was the star of NFL Flag 50’s two-minute Tremendous Bowl industrial. (Courtesy of the NFL)
Boredom led Westerlund to flag soccer.
Earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic pressured shutdowns worldwide, she was a volleyball and rugby participant with no intention of taking part in flag soccer. However throughout a interval of inactivity in 2020, she determined to check out for Apex Predators, a youth flag soccer membership in Las Vegas.
“I used to be really actually dangerous,” Westerlund mentioned, however she made the crew alongside future U.S. Ladies’s Crew member Maci Joncich and others. They began to play video games in opposition to boys’ groups. And whereas Westerlund step by step improved, the crew wasn’t faring properly.
“We had been always getting beat and whupped and made enjoyable of, which I believe introduced us lots nearer as a crew,” Westerlund mentioned. “And it simply pushed us to maintain combating.”
Because the Apex Predators developed higher chemistry, they started to speak about how they needed to play in opposition to different ladies sooner or later. So that they labored to advertise the sport each regionally and in different states as they traveled to play contests to garner curiosity.
Nevada had already sanctioned flag soccer as a varsity highschool sport in 2016, so Westerlund was capable of begin taking part in when she enrolled at Liberty Excessive in 2021. That was additionally the primary 12 months USA Soccer held tryouts for its nationwide groups. The method of constructing the junior nationwide crew was an eye-opening expertise for Westerlund.
“There have been so many women on the market. And simply earlier than trials even began, seeing (the entire) like-minded individuals, it made me wish to simply maintain going,” Westerlund mentioned. “It made me notice that it’s greater than simply what we had in our little league in Vegas.”
In contrast to her flag soccer predecessors, Westerlund had others she might look as much as as position fashions. The most important was Ashlea Klam, who at 19 turned the youngest participant to make the U.S. Ladies’s Nationwide Crew in 2023. Her former teammate, Joncich, who broke Klam’s file in 2024, was one other.
In the meantime, Westerlund began to develop a repute in her personal proper. Whereas teaching a membership crew within the Los Angeles Open — a flag soccer event — a number of years in the past, Constuble was quick a participant and located herself on the lookout for an additional physique.
Constuble occurred to be pals with an aunt of Westerlund, who was on the town and signed up for the squad. The crew went on to win the event.
3x gold medalist Ki’Lolo Westerlund joins us after starring within the @NFLFLAG 50 industrial throughout #SuperBowlLIX and discusses changing into the first flag soccer participant to obtain a NCAA D1 flag soccer scholarship 🙌@TheRokuChannel | Test native listings pic.twitter.com/8Ke4RONxEG
— Good Morning Soccer (@gmfb) February 10, 2025
As a lot as Westerlund’s expertise stood out, so did her infectious persona.
“Her persona, her presence, her management qualities — she blended with a bunch of ladies she had by no means met earlier than so instantaneously,” Constuble mentioned. “All of them turned pals.
“Her play capability speaks for itself,” Constuble continued, “however past her play capability, it’s her work ethic and her real want and dedication to be higher and uplift everybody round her. That (is) such a pivotal position as a real ambassador for the game and actually any individual that younger ladies can look as much as. It goes past athleticism. She’s only a real one who is humble hearted and has a mindset of, ‘I can do that, you are able to do this and we are able to do that higher collectively.’”
Westerlund was always dancing and couldn’t cease operating her mouth — whether or not it was speaking trash to the opposing groups, complaining to the referees about calls or encouraging her teammates. She backed it up along with her athleticism and competitiveness.
“I believe it’s simply my confidence — that’s what makes me stand out,” Westerlund mentioned. “My ardour for this recreation is simply so robust. It’s extra than simply soccer. It’s all the pieces that goes into it. I all the time wish to play for an even bigger objective and an even bigger purpose. I all the time wish to set a terrific instance for different gamers, younger or older.”
As Westerlund ready to transition into school, Alabama State turned the straightforward selection. It’s an HBCU, which appealed to her along with her Black and Samoan heritage. It could permit her to main in fireplace science, which she hopes to make use of to turn out to be a firefighter. Given this system simply began final 12 months, it offered her a possibility to assist construct one thing.
“It meant the world to me,” Westerlund mentioned. “5 years in the past, I couldn’t see myself on this state of affairs as a result of I didn’t know something about flag. I’m seeing the expansion and understanding that I’m making an impression. And that is only a greater step to open home windows for therefore many younger ladies.”
To Constuble, it isn’t even a query that Westerlund’s flag soccer profession will prolong far past Alabama State.
“I believe she’s already been on that radar to make that Olympic crew in 2028,” Constuble mentioned. “If there went on to be an expert, NFL flag soccer program and it was all males, she’d in all probability make that, too. Her work ethic and her drive are far superior to most individuals her age — and even individuals older than her. She does all the pieces with such a passionate coronary heart that the one limitations are going to be those she offers herself.”
(Courtesy of USA Soccer)
Constuble started teaching flag soccer in 2003 when she and her husband on the time began an NFL Flag program in Victorville, Calif. She coached on the membership and highschool ranges, then labored within the Los Angeles Rams’ youth engagement and soccer improvement program earlier than she was employed as Alabama State’s coach final November. Throughout her lengthy journey in flag soccer, the game has made loads of strides.
There at the moment are over 100 international locations the place flag soccer is performed. From 2014 to 2023, the variety of youngsters who performed flag soccer in America elevated by 38 % (in response to USA Soccer) to over 1.6 million. Throughout that very same time-frame, the variety of ladies taking part in flag soccer elevated by 44 % to upwards of 230,800.
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“I’ve invested on this for over 20 years, so, to me, it’s been a very long time coming,” Constuble mentioned. “The game has taken over the hearts of so many younger women. And these younger women who’ve in all probability grown up watching previous spotlight movies of their dads or being on the sidelines watching their brothers or cheering on their cousins within the stands have developed a real love for the sport. And now we’re seeing so lots of these ladies having a possibility to truly play it for themselves.”
Nonetheless, there was grassroots-level work to be executed when she began at Alabama State final November.
This January, Constuble held an open tryout for her inaugural crew. She landed on a bunch of 26 ladies, none of whom meant on taking part in flag soccer after they enrolled on the college.
“Ninety % of them have by no means performed flag soccer,” Constuble mentioned. “They simply genuinely have a love for soccer and knew that they needed to be part of one thing particular.”
Westerlund is predicted to steer that cost transferring ahead. If she makes the 2025 U.S. Ladies’s Nationwide Crew later this month, she’ll compete within the 2025 IFAF Americas Flag Soccer Championships, which decides who will qualify for the 2026 world championships and The World Games in August.
“After which I additionally attempt to make the Olympic crew, which might be superb. I completely love representing my nation,” Westerlund mentioned. “After that, I simply wish to always make an impression, whether or not I’m teaching or taking part in. I do wish to be a firefighter, however I might find time for soccer, after all.
“My purpose is simply to remain devoted, keep constant and encourage others.”
(Prime picture courtesy of USA Soccer)
