Mexican Flag Football Champion Diana Flores Is ‘Rewriting History for Women in Sports’
Diana Flores is a force to be reckoned with. And if you don’t know her name yet, chances are you’ve seen her in one of the Super Bowl commercials running like a gazelle while everyone — including her mother — tried to take away her yellow flags.
The quarterback of the Mexican women’s national flag football team, and world champion, has gone where no other Latina has gone before, and her message is powerful: “In this Super Bowl, we are rewriting history for women in sports,” Flores said on her Instagram page Sunday.
Diana Flores’s road has not been easy
Like David training to fight Goliath, Diana Flores had to overcome prejudice and a lack of faith from others to make a place for herself in a male-dominated space.
“It hasn’t been an easy road for me,” she said in a video at the behind-the-scenes of her Super Bowl commercial. “People were telling me that I was not tall enough to play quarterback, that I was not strong enough to play because I was the youngest from the team.”
Although those around her doubted her leadership abilities, her father’s confidence and support were all the fuel she needed.
“I started playing flag very young, at the age of eight, because of my dad,” Flores remembers. “He always saw what I was capable of rather than what people were saying.”
The superstar athlete then fell in love with flag football.
As with most sports, flag football has always been monopolized by men’s teams. In fact, when Diana Flores started playing, she had to join groups where her teammates were up to seven years older or all boys.
“I was the only girl, so I had to win the respect,” she remembers.
On the quest for gold
Flores joined the Mexican national team when she was 16 years old. Although she couldn’t play quarterback at the time, she played every other position, which gave her a vast knowledge of the game.
“It took me literally nine years to get where I wanted,” Flores continues. “All the things people used to criticize about the way I played the sport are actually things that helped me to lead my team at the world games.”
And what a way she did it!
Diana Flores made her World Games debut in 2014 as captain at age 16 and returned for the 2016, 2018, 2021, and 2022 games. At the latter, Flores’s leadership led her team to take gold.
“Every one of us understood that the impact of that gold was way bigger than ourselves,” she said, “that we were fighting for something bigger. We were fighting a game for all these young girls coming behind us. That really helped us do magic on the field, win that historic gold, and make history.”
A year later, the young athlete participated as offensive coordinator for the American Conference team in the 2023 Pro Bowl.
Diana Flores brings much-needed Latinx representation to Super Bowl
Last Sunday, the captain of the Mexican women’s national team starred in the commercial alongside tennis legend Billie Jean King and sports anchor Erin Andrews.
At just 24 years old, Flores not only showed off her silky moves that have made her a world champion but also brought to the table the representation of women in sports and Latinas in the American sports industry.
“I could never ever imagine that the sport I love could give me these amazing opportunities,” she said. “I’ve been honored at the biggest stadium in my country and recording a Super Bowl commercial.”
“For me, to come from where I started, when nobody knew flag, to now be on the biggest stage, I think it is a big step for the sport, but also for women in football,” she concluded.
