rip flag

We were a girls' school but we got to play football sometimes. American football - the man's game with the ball that isn't round and with touchdowns and field goals and dropkicks and all. We didn't have tackles, though, like the real thing. We played a version called 'rip flag' in a field across from the school buildings. Each player wore a belt with two small pieces of cloth in the team's color. An offensive player ran with the ball toward the goal line until a defensive player caught up with her and grabbed a cloth - a flag - ending the play like a tackle ends a play in standard football. The ball went into play again at the point where the flag was taken. We didn't play rip flag often but with lots of running, screaming, chasing, and scoring, it was high-spirited fun.