Commanders star quarterback Jayden Daniels wasn’t the only local football star racking up awards at the 2025 NFL Honors award show. Arlington senior Josie Clayton was named one of the NFL FLAG Players of the Year.
The senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology took home the award after being named a finalist in 2024. Each year, the NFL honors the top 18U female and 15U male players who are excelling both on and off the field.
According to the NFL FLAG website, these winners demonstrate an outstanding performance in flag football, maintain excellence in academics, and embody the core values of the NFL – which includes respect, integrity, responsibility to team, and resiliency.
A Special Experience
As a winner, Clayton received an all-expenses paid trip to the NFL Honors awards show in New Orleans. She was able to walk the red carpet with some of the league’s top players.
“My biggest ‘wow’ moment in New Orleans was the entire NFL Honors experience,” says Clayton. “From having a driver to the event, doing an interview for NFL Network, walking the red carpet and doing interviews, meeting amazing NFL stars and celebrities, to standing on stage in front of some of the biggest names in sports accepting an award. It was surreal and awe inspiring.”
And the wide receiver and safety for the Virginia Hurricanes isn’t the only player on the team receiving recognition. The Washington Commanders nominated quarterback Eleanor Mahshie for the inaugural Maxwell Football Club’s award for Girls National Flag Player of the Year.
This summer, team captain Clayton and the Hurricanes are heading back to the National Championships in Canton, Ohio. The team is a five-time NFL FLAG champion. They’ve won four years in a row from 2020 to 2024.
An Uncertain Future
Clayton is preparing to head to Carnegie Mellon in the fall to study engineering. She says the future of her flag football career is still up in the air.
“My plans for flag going forward are complex,” says Clayton. “I have some friends and colleagues who are trying to establish intramural teams with some of the Pittsburgh colleges like Pitt, CMU, Duquesne, Chatham, Rover Morris, and Point Park. I would also love to get involved coaching some high school teams.”
In addition, Clayton, says she’s eyeing a spot on the U.S. Flag Football team competing at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles – where the sport will be making its Olympic debut. “I want to continue to play and strive to be the best I can. The ultimate goal would be the Olympics in 2028.”
Feature image courtesy David Clayton
