Women are rising up the ranks throughout professional football, earning positions of power in a space that for too long was ruled almost exclusively by men. We're seeing more and more women breaking barriers in the sport, but what are the stories beyond the headlines? Who are the women shaping and influencing the NFL today? Answering those questions is the aim of the Next Woman Up series. While the conversational Q&As are edited and condensed for clarity, this is a forum for impactful women to share experiences in their own words. Without further ado, we introduce:
Hannah McNair, Houston Texans
Position: Vice President of Houston Texans Foundation
As Vice President of the Houston Texans Foundation, what does your job entail?
It's figuring out how to impact the community to the greatest degree that we can as an organization and with our platform.
Can you walk me through what you do in that role?
I meet with our community development group; it's one of the most incredible groups. Amanda Grosdidier and Brittany Hernandez are constantly thinking of ways to best impact the community. A couple of years ago, during the interview process with Amanda, she asked me, "If you could do anything, and pick one thing, that would be most beneficial for the Houston Texans Foundation to make an impact, what would it be?" We are in so many different directions with what we support, but in that interview, I said, "I'd love to impact the community how we best know how, and that's with girls flag football." It can change communities and it's not a huge overhead cost. She ended up getting hired and, six months later, she approached (chair and CEO) Cal (McNair) and I about creating a flag football league.
I couldn't speak for a moment because I was so excited. We know how football can impact a community, and we do this well. Our players know this, our coaches and players are behind it, everybody in the building knows football and the impact it brings. It's been two years since we started our girls flag football league, and the growth has been incredible. But on a day-to-day basis, we're really finding those areas in the community we can best impact, along with flag, on a bigger scale.
In what ways have you seen flag football grow in the Houston area over the last few years?
We started the league in 2023, and in 2025, there are teams in more than 80 schools across Houston, Austin and El Paso, and 2,000 high school girls are playing the sport. They participate in a six-week program during the spring. This summer, the NFL FLAG Championships were broadcast on ESPN, ABC, Disney networks and NFL Network, and all that did was bring more eyes to the sport. There were so many highlights, and the Texas Fury Texans won the high school girls national championship. It was amazing to watch. With so much attention on the sport right now, we are really pushing to get flag football sanctioned in Texas so we can do more. Scholarships really help these communities, and we are all about creating opportunities for the community so people can use them to earn scholarships to ultimately do what they want to do.
Along those lines, what do you see the future of flag football being? What are your hopes for it?
We want to get it sanctioned, first and foremost. I have a 6-year-old daughter who started playing flag last year. She recruited four of her friends to play in a 5-on-5 co-ed league in the spring. Their team had five girls and one boy, and they won the league. The confidence it has brought these young girls through their success is really fun to watch. To know we can have that kind of impact in communities with young girls, for their confidence and mental health, that helps them realize they can find success in anything they want to do in other areas of life.
What can you do to help it get passed as a sanctioned sport?
Flag football will be in the 2028 Olympics, so there is already massive interest around the sport right now. Gaining more interest on the local and state levels will certainly help. It's interesting because states that only have a few high schools playing flag are sanctioning it, whereas in Texas, we have so many participants already. I think we'll get there. It's a matter of getting the right votes.
That makes sense. Is there anything else you'd like to add about flag?
I love that three generations of our family have played flag. My mother-in-law (and Texans co-founder and senior chair) Janice McNair played, I played and now my daughter plays. All four of our kids play football, which is so much fun, especially when our family lives and breathes it every single day. It's really special.
Let's pivot a bit. Do you have any mentors? What advice have they given you?
This is a pretty easy one for me. My mentors are my mom and Cal's mom. There are so many things my mom taught me about working through adversity, being tough, persevering and being committed to something. Then I had the honor to marry into Cal's family and meet Janice, and there are so many things I have learned from her and continue to learn. She lives and breathes grace and competitiveness while always lifting others up next to her. I strive to carry out some of that wisdom, and that's what we try to do at the heart of this organization. We want to lift everyone up in the organization and in the community.
What advice do you have for women who want to pursue a career in sports?
Add value wherever you want to be. Even if it's not in an area of football or sports that you see yourself, that doesn't mean you won't ever get there. If you eventually get to that place, you'll look back at your other stops and think, Man, I learned a lot from that.
And lastly, what are you most proud of?
I'm so proud of how Cal and I have worked together through hard times. I'm proud of my kids and this organization and how we've come together and grown as a family. I'm proud of where we are in creating an atmosphere to go do something great.
