Saratoga's High Tea

Kids' flag football gives parents something to gossip about.

Untz, untz, untz, untz. The pre-game nightclub music wafted above the antsy crowd, as the players shook off their nerves by chanting, “fight, fight, fight!” before sheepishly mumbling, “just kidding.” The much-anticipated Saratoga NFL Flag Football League’s championship weekend had finally arrived.

And it was the talk of the town.

For the uninitiated, this kiddos’ league is not your scrappy neighborhood flag football league you threw together during childhood. Good quarterbacks are fought over, the professional-level draft was done behind closed doors (but gossiped about for months), and the teams boast big-name sponsors such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and GE Research. And the players? The various co-ed divisions range from pre-K to 10th grade, with the littles grabbing the spotlight.

The week before the play-offs and yes, the Super Bowl, the games were all the moms chatted about over lunch at the Saratoga Golf & Polo Club. “Did you hear that two moms got in a fist fight?” “What about the dad that was yelling at a kid on the other team?” “Oh, but one coach got fired for fighting with a parent.” “Alice Dalton is a rockstar quarterback.” “Who do you think will win?”

Saturday morning, Weibel Avenue was a parade of cars headed to the PBA Fields for the 9am playoffs. Alice’s team, which had won both of the previous weekend’s games, got knocked out. Some parents shrugged that they didn’t even know which division (done by grades) their own children were in. Others humble-bragged about their kid. It was widely agreed that it was the biggest social event so far this fall.

Sunday’s Super Bowl was less of a scene, but the stakes were high. One smaller division pitted the Bills against the 49ers. When the 49ers eked out a win at the very end after an intense game, one Bills Mafia mom gushed, “Now that is how a Super Bowl should be—exciting to the very end,” indicating that the real NFL’s recent attempts at a Super Bowl did not get as rave of a review.

Final score: Who knows! (Who cares?) The parents are already gossiping about how the losing team thought it was weird that they got trophies. And scheming about next year’s draft.

—Abby