Basketball has been a couple of sports ahead when it comes to gender inclusion. While the NBA remains a different beast, women’s basketball has been steadily growing for over 40 years. That growth in the game has produced many stars over the years, but there might not be a more popular name than Caitlin Clark.
Ever since her meteoric rise in the NCAA tournament as one of the most prolific scorers of all time, Clark has wowed audiences, bringing about a remarkable change at both the collegiate and the WNBA levels. However, if not for a lack of opportunity in another sport, basketball wouldn’t have been the career she chose.
Caitlin Clark Opens Up About Love of Football
In her final two years at Iowa, Clark revolutionized women’s basketball. One of the greatest shooters in history and an equally excellent playmaker, she powered the Hawkeyes to two consecutive NCAA National Championship Games.
Simultaneously, she broke the NCAA’s all-time record for most points and most made 3-pointers. Widely heralded as the best prospect in women’s basketball history, she was taken No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever in the WNBA Draft.
Immediately leading them to the playoffs, she won the Rookie of the Year Award while finishing fourth in MVP voting in her first season in the league.
However, during a recent NFL panel on flag football, Clark revealed how she was more fascinated by football at a young age thanks to her familial connections to the sport.
.@CaitlinClark22 always wanted to play football as a kid, it's just that the option wasn't there.
But with the growth of women's sports and flag football, the opportunities for little girls with the same dreams as Caitlin are endless. pic.twitter.com/NKKNII3rkS
— NFL (@NFL) April 3, 2025
“Growing up, I had an older brother who played football,” Clark said. “My grandfather was a football coach for 40-plus years and I remember going to my brother’s football games and I was like, ‘Why can’t I play flag football?’ I would have played it, I would have loved it.”
Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt responded to Clark’s comment, telling reporters: “It was interesting to hear Caitlin say, ‘If flag football was around when I was growing up, I might not be a basketball player.’”
Joking about her viability as a football player today, Clark added, “Maybe LA 2028, maybe I’ll do two sports. Or if basketball doesn’t work out, I’ll head over to flag football. But I think it’s just a great opportunity to [get women involved]. I can’t think of a reason why they can’t play that.”
With a concentrated effort towards growing the sport, the league is trying to make the game more accessible. That includes globalizing the sport through initiatives like the International Player Pathway Program and the inclusion of women through flag football.
“I think it’s super accessible…” Clark continued. “I think the more women that watch football, like obviously I grew up in it, but there’s a lot of people that don’t grow up watching football. They don’t grow up watching the NFL. The more people that can start that from a young age, it’ll be more powerful, and more people will want to join flag football from a very young age and I think that will continue on.”
As the league continues to grow in stature and recognizes more pathways to make an already popular sport even more of a phenomenon, there might not be a better brand ambassador to appeal to younger generations than Clark.
A trailblazer on and off the court, she has captured the country’s imagination. And with her endorsement, flag football should continue to grow by leaps and bounds.