Checkered Flag
Why flag football is America's dirtiest college sport.
This year's Nunez-on-Nunez action has generated some animated chatter in the nation's flag football salons. Flag's governing body is now strongly considering pleas to purge the sport of rent-a-players. Paul Arnold, in semi-retirement after a 2002 elbow injury, says eligibility rules must be changed to save the soul of flag. "There needs to be a higher minimum of credits. You need to be a full-time student," he says. Looking back, he thinks all the controversy is ironic. "They questioned my eligibility every time I came, when in fact I was probably the most eligible of anyone in the whole tournament."
Josh Levin is Slate's executive editor. You can email him at sportsnut@slate.com, visit his Web site, and follow him on Twitter.
Illustration by Keith Seidel.



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