The Ladies Take the Field in the Redskins’ Burgundy & Gold Flag Football Game

June 12 marks the third annual Burgundy & Gold Flag Football Game hosted by the Redskins and played by the women making a name for themselves in DC area football. In 2013, the Redskins Cheerleaders launched the event to raise money for charities ranging from the Redskins Charitable Foundation to the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.

“It’s an opportunity for us to show our involvement in the community and our football skills,” says Jamilla Keene, Assistant Director of Programs & Marketing for the Redskins Cheerleaders.

This year, the Redskins Cheerleaders are joining forces with the Women of Washington Redskins (WOW) and the DC Divas, the DMV’s top-ranked Women’s Football Alliance (WFA) full-contact team. Glendalyn Junio, the Redskins’ Marketing Manager, says the cheerleaders are looking to change up the flag football experience and involve the women’s platform for the team.

“In the past, the cheerleaders made up both teams,” she says. “This year, we’ve partnered up to really empower more of the women that have played a role in the growth of women in the sport of football.”

Junio says the Redskins are excited to have a variety of women involved who have all been exposed to different levels of the game.

“The fact that we’re involving a women’s professional full-contact football team [the DC Divas] just adds to that excitement. Don’t worry – they are completely aware that it is flag football.”

Redskins alumni Doug Williams and Gary Clark will join the game as celebrity coaches, and current linebacker Houston Bates will serve as assistant coach. The guys selected names at random for the burgundy and gold teams at the Kickoff to the Draft party this spring from a list of WOW, DC Diva, and Redskins Cheerleader and Ambassador draftees.

“It’s a unique opportunity where we’ve partnered up with three groups who are extremely passionate about football and the Redskins,” Junio says. “Not only will we make it feel like a game with giveaways, cheerleaders and hype people, we know these ladies will play their hearts out!”

The game has sold out for the past two years, so get your tickets soon:www.redskins.com/cheerleaders. Gates open at noon, and kickoff is at 1 p.m.

Burgundy & Gold Flag Football Game at Woodrow Wilson High School: 3950 Chesapeake St. NW, DC

Photo: Courtesy of the Redskins Cheerleaders