Flag-football star of Super Bowl ad wants to empower women in sports

Diana Flores, the flag-football star who headlined a viral ad during Sunday's Super Bowl, hopes the message of women's empowerment in sports resonates beyond the TV spot.

The big picture: Girls' and women's flag football has become increasingly popular in the Americas.

What they're saying: "Earning the chance to be part of this commercial makes me so proud … Especially to use the platform to remind the world that the power of sports can strengthen the power of women," Flores tells Noticias Telemundo.

• Flores, a quarterback with the Mexican national flag football team, is a world champion.
• She was also a Pro Bowl coach this year for the American Football Conference.
• "I'm proud to represent as a Mexican and a Latina," she says.

Details: In the ad, part of which is in Spanish, Flores is shown evading Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams and several others (including her mom) who try to capture her flag.

• Tennis legend and activist Billie Jean King comes to her aid in the commercial.
• "Having her there was great to chart the path trodden together in this empowerment fight and showing our greatness in and outside of the courts," Flores says.
• The ad has been watched more than 4.5 million times on YouTube.

• A video of her surprising her family with the commercial has also gone viral.

Of note: Latinos have had some participation in Super Bowls since at least 1978, when Mexican placekicker Efrén Herrera played for the Cowboys, who won the title.

• Mexican Raúl Allegre won in 1986 and 1990 with the New York Giants, and Argentinean Martín Gramática, also a kicker, was victorious in 2003 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
• Isiah Pacheco, running back of Puerto Rican descent, was in the starting roster for this year's champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.

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