Ravens’ Kyle Hamilton hosts flag football clinic for military kids

football has grown dramatically in recent years, and its origins go back to the US Army.

During World War II, flag football was born at Fort Meade, an Army base in Maryland, where service members decided it was best not to play flag football in order to stay safer before a possible deployment overseas.

Fast forward decades, Baltimore Ravens star safety Kyle Hamilton has teamed up with Toyota to host an NFL FLAG clinic for military children and their families at the team’s facility in Owings Mills, Maryland — just a short drive from where the football version originated.

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Hamilton spoke with FOX Business before hitting the field with children from Our Military Kids, an organization he worked with before it funded activities for eligible military children.

“I’m very excited,” he said. “It’s a little bright spot in a season that the Ravens aren’t going great right now. But I can come to the facility and have something else to do. Being with these kids today, I’m sure it’s going to be a great time, and from the whole NFL FLAG football perspective, I recently learned that flag football was created at Fort Meade near here during World War II.”

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Hamilton has a history with our military kids, having used them as their charity of choice for the NFL’s annual “My Cause My Cleats” last season.

“My grandfather, my mother’s father, served in the Army, and that’s how he met my grandmother. My mother was already born at the time, but my grandfather was stationed there, married my grandmother, and they came back to the States together. So, thanks to the Army, I’m here today, I guess, virtually,” he said.

Ravens star Kyle Hamilton poses with the Our Military Kids group during the Toyota/NFL FLAG clinic at the Ravens facility on October 13. (Toyota/Our Military Kids/NFL FLAG/Fox News)

Hamilton also noted how his view of these military children changed when he went to Camp Humphreys in South Korea last year to participate in a segregated camp.

“Meeting the kids there and knowing that they don’t have the opportunity to choose the life they’re given, but they’re so happy,” he said of the experience.

At this camp, Hamilton helped the kids with warmups, drills and skills challenges before they ended the night with a fun scrimmage.

Hamilton discussed his excitement in partnering with Toyota, the official automotive partner of the Ravens and the NFL, as they become the presenting partner of NFL FLAG, the largest football organization in the world.

Kyle Hamilton of the Baltimore Ravens reacts after a game against the Detroit Lions during halftime at M&T Bank Stadium on September 22, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Cooper Neal/Getty Images)

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To date, Toyota supports more than 300,000 young NFL FLAG players across the country.

“It’s a lot of fun, and I’m really grateful to Toyota for letting me be a part of it,” Hamilton said. “I know Toyota has been a big supporter of NFL FLAG and helping 300,000 people. I know there’s a slogan that they love, ‘All in Every Season,’ and I think that’s very true in terms of what they’ve done with this program and the NFL in general.”

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