Flag Football Is Coming to Saudi Arabia. Tom Brady and others will be a part of it

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The National Football League is looking for new markets; Saudi Arabia is looking for new sports. So next year, some of the N.F.L.’s biggest stars will play in Saudi Arabia, a country where football means soccer.

On March 21, Fanatics, which runs the league’s online merchandise shop, will produce a flag football event in Riyadh that will feature former stars like Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski as well as a host of current players. The event is a foothold for Fanatics: The Saudi sovereign wealth fund invested in the online licensed sports goods retailer in 2017, as did the Qatari sovereign wealth fund in 2022. Fanatics also sells sports memorabilia, and customers from the Middle East have been among its biggest buyers in recent years.

The National Football League will not produce the event, but team owners are allowing some of their players to participate. Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, among others, have agreed to take part.

Several N.F.L. owners are also expected to attend the three-team, round-robin tournament, at which Fanatics is planning a halftime show. The teams will be led by three of the league’s best-known head coaches: Pete Carroll of the Las Vegas Raiders, Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos and Kyle Shanahan of the 49ers.

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The event is the N.F.L.’s first step toward potentially entering the Saudi market. The league has been expanding across the globe at an increasing pace. It has been playing regular season games in North and South America and in Western Europe, and it is evaluating new markets like the United Arab Emirates, Japan and other countries with little connection to football. It will not play a regular season game in these places unless football is played locally — it is a niche sport in Saudi Arabia — and there are significant commercial opportunities like media and sponsorship deals.

“We’re not going to go into a market unless we’re really committed for the long haul in terms of year-round engagement,” said Peter O’Reilly, the executive vice president at the N.F.L. in charge of international expansion.

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Tom Brady coming out of retirement — for flag football tournament in Saudi Arabia

Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, CeeDee Lamb, Maxx Crosby, Rob Gronkowski, Sauce Gardner and Myles Garrett will also participate.

And Pete Carroll, Sean Payton and Kyle Shanahan will coach the three teams.

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