Demario Davis Says Jets Have Given Girls a Flag Football Pathway

The Jets Eastern College Athletic Conference Women’s Flag Football League will nearly double in size for its second season, with 15 new teams joining after a $500,000 investment from the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation, the New York Jets announced Thursday.

The expansion brings the league to 29 teams. Jets chairman Woody Johnson directed the investment, according to the team.

Not everyone on that pathway reaches the pros, in the view of Jets linebacker Demario Davis, and the high school, middle school, and college experiences count as much.

“I’ve been raving about what’s happening in flag football since I got back,” Davis said. “There’s no better organization to be a part of representing flag football than this one. Our team owner Woody Johnson was a pioneer of flag football before it was culturally popular. So his investments go all the way back to 2011. This organization has invested over $3 million in it, has created a pathway for young girls. When you think about being able to play it at the clinic level, playing at the youth level, club level, high school level, pathway to college [through] the ECAC league, and that is expanding, and now the Olympics and the pros, little girls have what guys have always had, which is a pathway.”

“And once you get on that pathway, it opens up many opportunities,” Davis continued. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if it had not been for the pathway that was created. But it’s not just people who get a chance to play in the pros. It’s people who got a chance to play at a high school level, play at a middle school level, college level. Those experiences and those opportunities that the game has created, being made available to everybody, is just so remarkable. I’m proud to be a part of it, proud to be a part of this organization, because the Jets organization, Woody Johnson, the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation, is a pioneer in this space and really a champion in something that’s grown into a world thing.”

The ECAC league was founded in December 2025 through a $1 million grant from the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation. The goal was to create the largest collegiate women’s flag football league in the country.

Marymount University won the first championship in May. It beat Franciscan University 37-26 at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. Marymount was honored with a ring ceremony at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, and the stadium becomes the home of the championship starting in 2027.

The Jets’ involvement goes back further than the college league. In 2011, the organization became the first NFL club to help launch girls flag football at the varsity level in New York City. In 2021, it launched the first high school girls flag football league in New Jersey.

The 29 teams will compete for “The Betty,” a championship trophy named for the late Betty Wold Johnson, the chairman’s mother. The league will split into four geographic divisions: Titans, Broadway, Sack Exchange, and Gotham.

Division I, Division II, and Division III schools all compete together. ECAC commissioner Dan Coonan said that could change as the league grows.

Caldwell University and Eastern Connecticut State University are among the 15 additions. Teams are allowed 25 practices and one scrimmage in the fall, with full practices starting in January and the first games set for Feb. 20.

The season will end with a playoff in which all 29 teams compete over the course of a week. The top teams advance to the championship weekend at MetLife Stadium.

Flag football is part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. It is on track to receive championship status, pending a vote in January by all three NCAA divisions.

Davis was drafted by the Jets in 2012 and is in his third stint with the franchise. He also played for New York in 2017 and spent the previous eight seasons with the New Orleans Saints.

The Jets are 2-6 heading into Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, which kicks off at 1 p.m. ET on CBS. Roundtable has more on why the Jets were given a surprising chance to upset the Chiefs.