NFL Continues to Use Made in USA Penalty Flags

Aug 3rd, 2011

While at the 2011 NASO Summit, I had the privilege of meeting several members of the NFL Officiating Department, including head of officiating Carl Johnson and Brian Flood, who wears several hats within the department in addition to his title of instant replay assistant.

As is typical of me, I wanted to discuss the NFL uniform. And while the entire uniform is changing from Reebok to Nike soon, accessories including penalty flags that will be thrown at an NFL stadium near you will continue to made by Officials Flags N' Bags, a small Florida based business that also provides our supply of the very same long toss penalty flags to our amateur level officials.

If you've followed along at all, many officials' sporting goods companies have in the past few years changed the design of this ball center flag in an attempt to circumvent patent issues and acquire them at a less cost. One can easily do a quick side by side comparison to see that the original Officials Flags n' Bags flag is a much superior product.

And while this would be a much more exciting article to write saying that the NFL decided to allow us to outfit their entire official's uniform, at least it's nice to see we are on the same page with them on the quality of this one very key item in the officiating arsenal. 

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About the Author

Picture of Jim Kirk

President Jim Kirk

Jim is a leading expert, educator and author on umpire gear, safety & appearance. After playing baseball at Centre College, he worked as a high school umpire. He became involved in E-Commerce while working on an MBA in the early 2000s and bought Ump-Attire.com in 2006, He eventually led it to the leading umpire gear & attire retailer worldwide, a “Best Places to Work in Louisville” honor in 2020 & 2021 and a National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) Preferred Vendor. He maintained a long-standing relationship with Minor League Baseball Umpire Development & Training Academy for 10 years. He serves as an adviser to UMPS CARE Charities, the charity of MLB umpires, served as a 2-term board of director from 2012-2018, and was named their 2015 Ambassador Award recipient. A supporter since the inception of the Wounded Warrior Umpire Academy, he was named to their Board of Directors in 2020.

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