With the Beach Football League, the retired Patriots linacker Tully Banta-Cain hopes to build the next Olympic sport

However, it did not occur without making a few bumps in the sand.

The global Covid 19 pandemic forced a break, and Banta-Cain received a coaching internship at the San Francisco 49ers as part of the Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship program. If he didn't get a job in the coaching team, he promised himself that he would go to the BFL.

He sat on the back of these 49ers meetings, raised a potential logo and designed a rule book in his notebooks. As part of the choir of the NFL player, he was part of Super Bowls and was able to share his ideas and interest of NFL players and trainers.

Banta-Cain also typed his friend Adam Cyril Nesim to put the challenge with him.

The now business partners first met Nesheim's neighborhood grill in Hermosa Beach and became fast friends who combined football, music and beach culture.

The entrepreneur's spirit rubbed both from the Bay Area. There was no class or YouTube video about how to create a new sports league, but they regarded the business as an emptiness and solution to a problem, just like any other successful product.

“The joy that the game brings so many people is really the reason why I'm there,” said Nesm.

“Football has always been a core of my life and taught me so many life lessons and opened up so many doors. The opportunity to give people a salary or give them a place to play – there are so many soccer players who from Division I, Division II, Division II, hundreds of thousands of thousands of them, which are only a few hundred. are not to be played.

The duo studied the model of some emerging sports such as Beach Volleyball, Beach Soccer and even the Big3 Pro Basketball League. A random enema with Paul Rabil in Manhattan Beach really gave them something to strive for Banta-Cain that the former Lacrosse star and his team turned around a laptop to get the Premier Lacrosse League on the way.

“Now (the PLL) has collected hundreds of millions of dollars and the league is on ESPN and it is so cool to see the growth of it,” said Banta-Cain.

“It was a great inspiration because we felt that Lacrosse is a big sport, but with football and flag football, which is now at the Olympic Games, the players are looking for alternative opportunities for competition because it is not a sport like basketball in which you can simply go to a park and pickup is organized, and this is another outlet.”

With a business plan and the means of the boat trap, Banta-Cain and NESM started work last summer to start the first pilot event in Hampton Beach. He used his status as a former athlete in New England and his community relationships and hoped that he was able to receive support from fans and players.

Current and former patriots Kendrick Bourne, Jamie Collins and Max Lane were among a group who traveled to New Hampshire with Patriots Cheerleaders to get fans and produce hype, and John Nyhan, President of the Hampton Chamber of Trade, was able to help Banta-Cain.

Nyhan even offered his own ideas for improving the future BFL stops in Hampton Beach, which suggests grandstands, beer gardens and other activations to attract fans and families.

“We already had a few planning meetings, and I think some of the things we have done so far have been suitable for the Patriots community model,” said Nyhan. “It will currently be a two-day event that will play all All-Star soccer players from High Schools all over Seocoast of New Hampshire on Saturday and Sunday, against first aiders on the beach against first aiders on the beach.”

Volunteers of the Winnacunnet High School Football Team volunteered last summer.

And if there was an indication of this last year, the granite state will again assume that it will come to them to change.

“Lines were everywhere for signatures, image recordings and up here are so many people who do not come to Foxborough and are unable to take part in Patriots games or events, often or ever,” said Nyhan.

“So that they come here, not only for the adults, but for the children, so many New Hampshire fans carried their Patriots soccer shirts, and it was amazing to see how the community accepted this event.”

Banta-Cain and Nesheim have seen similar answers from the other communities to which they will expand in 2025.

“You can tell people about a beach football league, and it sounds good, but until they show people the vision, it is difficult to only describe them,” said Banta-Cain.

“The players who went out there and the coaches, the NFL boys who came out, the children who took part in the activation of our children – they all come back and ask when the next event was that it was such a special day. Everyone had so much fun to see that it is brought to life, and that people assume that I am surrounding myself to chills every day.