The Brief

As the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots get ready to push, tackle and elbow their way to victory in Super Bowl LX, the NFL has been showcasing the contactless version of the sport leading up to the big game on Sunday in Santa Clara.

With 20 million players, flag football is one of the world’s fastest-growing sports and a growth area for the NFL and its international counterpart, the International Federation of American Football. It’s set to make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, and NFL players will be allowed to take part.

The NFL, which has invested heavily to expand flag football in the U.S. and abroad, planned no less than seven unique flag football-related events this week in the Bay Area, from the Pro Bowl Games to an under-13 international championship.

Beth Spicer, a middle school student from Ireland, traveled to San Francisco to represent Ireland in that match on Wednesday — the first time the co-ed tournament was held during a Super Bowl week, according to the NFL.

“I only learned how to throw a ball four months ago, and I just fell in love with it,” she said. “It’s not really like any other games. You’re getting tagged at the hips, so you have to move them. It’s unique, but it’s really good.”

Back home, the most popular sports include Gaelic football, hurling and soccer, according to the Ireland team’s head coach, Rob Cooper. He said the flag football program at his school got underway after the NFL reached out, offering free training and equipment.

“ We took it up, and the kids have loved every moment of it since then,” Cooper said. “I have no doubt that flag football, especially in Ireland, will continue to grow massively over the next couple of years.”

Flag football is a less gear-intensive version of traditional tackle football. Instead of physical confrontations, players must strip a length of fabric dangling from either side of a ball carrier’s waist to stop their forward progress.

The lack of contact means players aren’t required to wear helmets or pads, and in the version set to be played at the Olympics, the games are shorter, faster and have only five players per side, instead of 11.

The NFL started its first international flag football program in Mexico in 2000, according to Afia Law, who heads international flag football development for the league.

“ It’s all about creating access to the game for young adults and girls, regardless of the country you are in, regardless of your background, creating an opportunity for you to access the game,” Law said.

The NFL has ramped up efforts to support flag football in 15 countries, including Australia, Spain and Brazil, where the league is growing its reach with on-the-road NFL games next season.

Law said flag football’s Olympic debut will be “absolutely huge.”

“We’ve had people that are passionate about this game playing around the world for so long, and now we finally get to see them on the world stage playing in the game that they’re fantastic at,” Law said.

Kodie Fuller, an NFL and IFAF flag football ambassador from Australia, is excited that her sport is getting international recognition at the Olympics. She grew up playing traditional tackle football but transitioned to playing flag football three years ago.

“ As I got a little bit older, not taking hits every weekend definitely felt a lot nicer on my body,” Fuller said.

Now an Olympic hopeful herself, the 29-year-old said the Olympic debut will encourage more young athletes, especially young women, to get into the sport.

“We can sell the Olympic dream to all of them, because it is a very real possibility now,” she said.

Flag football is also making inroads in the U.S. In December, all 32 NFL clubs voted to invest a collective $32 million to develop and launch a professional flag football league.

Last spring, the Atlantic East Conference launched the first-ever NCAA women’s flag football season. Since the 2023-2024 school year, flag football has been a statewide-sanctioned sport for high school girls in California, although not for boys.

Watching the under-13 international flag football tournament at Moscone Center on Wednesday, Fuller said her “jaw was on the floor.”

“The talent that is coming through is out of this world,” she said.

Online safety groups have criticized OpenAI and child advocacy group Common Sense Media’s jointly proposed ballot measure creating chatbot guardrails for kids, saying it would shield tech companies from accountability.

The California Initiative for Technology and Democracy, or CITED, and Tech Oversight California — two groups that have sponsored anti-deepfake and AI laws — circulated a letter shared with lawmakers on Wednesday addressing the Parents and Kids Safe AI Act, announced by co-sponsors OpenAI and Common Sense Media in January.

“Though seemingly well-intended, the measure would exempt AI companies from the robust framework of laws already established in California to give consumers meaningful protections,” the letter states.

The letter warned that the proposed measure could undermine age and privacy protections, in part by narrowly defining child protections to “severe harms,” effectively shielding AI companies from liability related to children’s mental health.

“This definition fails to account for mental or emotional distress caused by companion chatbots or exposure to age-inappropriate content that may contribute to psychological harm,” the letter reads.

John Bennett, initiative director of CITED, told KQED that the definitions “raised a lot of alarm bells in our heads, because we didn’t think it was sufficiently protective of children.”

The first alarm bell, Bennett said, was the fact that Common Sense and its CEO, Jim Steyer, negotiated alone with OpenAI, leaving out the fold of child and consumer advocates that had previously been working together to lobby for strong laws with lawmakers like Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), chair of the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee and author of a closely-watched AI child safety bill ultimately vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last legislative session.

In a statement sent to KQED on Thursday, Common Sense Media did not directly address the concerns outlined in the letter, but wrote the measure “will be the strongest, most comprehensive youth AI safety law in the country, whether it’s passed by the voters or the legislature.”

That said, in his remarks introducing the joint effort on Jan. 9, 2026, Steyer presented his approach as primarily strategic, saying he would use any political tool available to get most of what he wants on behalf of children and their parents.

“I cannot begin to know where Mr. Steyer’s mind actually is at,” Bennett said, adding that he was perplexed by this initiative nonetheless. “Usually, you try and introduce something that’s extremely strong — some might think overly strong. Then you use that as a negotiating arm within the legislature.”

In the absence of comprehensive, effective child protection legislation from Washington, California has helped lead the way on kids’ and teens’ tech privacy laws, as well as general consumer-focused tech safety laws. As a result, child advocates pay a lot of attention, early and often, to the rough and tumble of California AI-focused politics.

Outside the U.S., Australia and Spain have rolled out aggressive restrictions on youth smartphone use, including banning social media use for children under 16. Some advocates speculate the fear of a similar ban in California prompted OpenAI, which did not respond with a comment in time for this story, to reach out to Common Sense Media and negotiate a compromise.

Bennett has another theory. As with other ballot measures, if voters approve it, any changes will require a two-thirds vote of the legislature, making stronger, more effective regulation later difficult, if not impossible. “We can’t just come back and change this in a year or two if we see that there are new dangers and new harms that are coming about because technology’s evolving so quickly,” he said.

The Parents & Kids Safe AI Act is still in the signature-gathering phase and has not yet qualified for the November 2026 ballot. Supporters have said they expect to start collecting the requisite 546,651 valid signatures from registered California voters this month.

This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Feb. 6, 2026.

Bad Bunny isn’t just topping charts — he’s landed on college syllabi.

Now, as the Puerto Rican superstar is set to take the stage at the Super Bowl halftime show this Sunday, a Cal State LA professor is inviting the wider community to unpack what the moment says about Latinidad.

José G. Anguiano, a professor and department chair of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, is hosting a plática on Monday to reflect on how Latinos are celebrated and sometimes overlooked during major sports culture moments.

The selection of Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime performer has sparked much interest and controversy, with some perceiving the artist — who only sings in Spanish — as not American or mainstream enough to headline the show.

As part of the conversation — “Pláticas con Profes: ¿Bad Bunny ‘Too Latino’ for the Super Bowl?”— Anguiano wants to explore why some Americans see him as a controversial pick.

Bad Bunny not falling in line with “white American Anglo culture” doesn’t make him any less American, said Anguiano.

The professor reminds the public that Bad Bunny — born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — is an American citizen. The fact that he speaks Spanish, “I would argue is a very American thing,” he said.

“Given the current administration, I think that’s part of the conversation about why he’s so important,” Anguiano said.

Anguiano is also gearing up to teach a special topics course on Bad Bunny in the spring of 2027 at Cal State LA. Bad Bunny, Anguiano said, is an entry point to learn about broader cultural history.

He thinks of the song “El Apagón,” which sheds light on power outages, government corruption and the displacement of native Puerto Ricans. In “Yo Perreo Sola,” which Bad Bunny dedicated to “those who desire to dance alone and safely in the club,” Anguiano finds ways to talk about gender and sexuality.

“I know some people don’t take popular music as a serious subject, but … there’s really important things that are happening through music,” Anguiano said.