Le Journal

Quarterback Diana Flores has won world titles and MVPs on the flag football field. She’s starred in Super Bowl commercials to promote her sport, too. This, though, confirmed just how far-reaching women’s flag football has become — Kansas City Chiefs standout Patrick Mahomes once referred to her by name and mentioned her being a QB. Game simply respects game, especially one on the rise. Flores, the signal caller for the reigning world champion Mexico squad, is doing all she can these days to build up the sport ahead of flag football making its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. It’s quickly catching on, too, with the NCAA recently adding flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program. Nebraska announced it would be the first power conference school to add flag football as a varsity women’s sport, with competition beginning in the spring of 2028. The 28-year-old Flores is an open book on the subject. She just authored “Flag Football For Dummies,” which breaks down everything from the rules of the game to her involvement (she started at 8 against much older players) to what it takes to be elite (“leadership is the backbone of a successful quarterback,” she wrote). “I just want to grow awareness of the sport, the importance of the sport for boys and girls, and how it can change lives, help open those doors and opportunities,” Flores said in an interview as she prepares to cover the Super Bowl on Feb. 8 for TUDN, a Spanish-language sports network. “(The book) challenged me in ways I’ve never experienced before. It’s just a huge opportunity for me to pour all the love and passion I have for the game to others.” The stats reflect the growth of an NFL-backed sport: There were 267,000 girls aged 6 to 17 in the U.S. that participated in organized flag football in 2024, according to USA Football. It’s an increase of 39% since 2020. Flores is one of the most decorated players to take the flag-football field, guiding Team Mexico to back-to-back World Games gold medals and winning the MVP in 2022. She was recently honored as the 2025 Game Changer Award recipient by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Her commercial during the 2023 Super Bowl, titled “Run with it,” was a popular hit. It starts out with reporter Erin Andrews talking to Flores, in uniform, and suddenly reaching for her attached flags. Flores looked surprised and juked to avoid the maneuver before bolting out of the stadium. Flores runs through parking lots, down sidewalks, over rooftops and through a hotel, with NFL players such as Sauce Gardner, Jalen Ramsey, Cam Heyward, Aidan Hutchinson and Davante Adams in pursuit. Tennis great and women’s sports advocate Billie Jean King played a role in throwing a key block with a car door. It was all part of promoting the game, with the end of the commercial featuring USA Football quarterback Vanita Krouch running alongside Flores in the street. Both were offensive coordinators of the 2023 Pro Bowl game. So, how many times has Flores seen that commercial? “I don’t even have the count,” Flores said with a laugh. “That’s been one of the most amazing moments of my life. It was the first time flag football was showcased in a big platform like that.” Flores patterns her QB style after an array of players, ranging from Peyton Manning to Lamar Jackson to Joe Burrow and Mahomes. And it was meeting Mahomes a little while back that opened her eyes to her sport’s soaring popularity. “I was doing an interview with (Mahomes) and introducing myself and before I even finished my sentence he was like, ‘Oh, yeah, Diana, you play flag football and you’re a quarterback, too,’” Flores recounted. “I didn’t expect that to happen.” ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Source

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian baby died from hypothermia on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip, underscoring the grim humanitarian conditions in the territory as world leaders were gathering at a Swiss resort where President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan is high on the agenda. Shaza Abu Jarad’s family found the 3-month-old on Tuesday morning in their tent in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City. “She was freezing, and dead,” the baby’s father, Mohamed Abu Jarad, told The Associated Press by phone after a funeral. “She died from cold.” The man, who worked in Israel before the war, lives with his wife and their seven other children in a makeshift tent after their house was destroyed during the war. The family took the girl to the Al-Ahly hospital where a doctor pronounced her dead from hypothermia, said her uncle, Khalid Abu Jarad. The Health Ministry confirmed that the baby died from hypothermia. The family is among hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in tent camps and war-battered buildings in Gaza which experiences cold, wet winters, with temperatures dropping below 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) at night. As Palestinians in the war-ravaged enclave languish in displacement camps, Trump hopes to establish his new Board of Peace at the World Economic Forum in Davos. But the initiative, initially conceived to oversee the Gaza ceasefire, faces many questions over its membership and scope. Israel on Tuesday began demolishing the Jerusalem headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, pressing ahead with its crackdown against a body it has long accused of anti-Israel bias. Shaza Abu Jarad was the ninth child to die from severe cold this winter in Gaza, according to the strip’s health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own. More than 100 children who have died since the start of the ceasefire in October — a figure that includes a 27-day-old girl who died from hypothermia over the weekend. The ceasefire paused two years of war between Israel and Hamas militants and allowed a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, mainly food. But residents say shortages of blankets and warm clothes remain, and there is little wood for fires. There’s been no central electricity in Gaza since the first few days of the war in 2023, and fuel for generators is scarce. The International Committee of the Red Cross said recent biting cold and rainfall in Gaza were “ultimately a threat to survival.” Trump’s Board of Peace was initially seen as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. But recent invitations sent to dozens of world leaders show that the body could have a far broader mandate of other global crises, potentially rivaling the U.N. Security Council. Trump says the body would “embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict,” an indication that the body may not confine its work to Gaza. The panel was part of Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan that stopped the war in Gaza in October. Many countries, including Russia, said they received Trump’s invitation and were studying the proposal. France said it does not plan to join the board “at this stage.” ___ Magdy reported from Cairo and Metz reported from Jerusalem. Source

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