She might be the world's best receiver: Meet Isabella Geraci, U.S. flag football star

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The last time they held this tournament, Isabella Geraci wasn't a thing yet.
It was just three years ago. She was playing a different sport entirely, her upcoming ascendancy unfathomable.
'I don't know how to explain it,' teammate Madison Fulford said. 'She's kind of a vibe.'
Through five seasons of Division I college basketball, Geraci's teams listed her at 5-foot-9, although the game made her feel smaller. Then, almost by accident, she began playing flag football to reclaim her identity. In a flash, Geraci not only made the U.S. national team, putting her on the cusp of becoming an Olympian, but she is also considered one of the greatest wide receivers in the world.
The USA Football media guide correctly lists her at 5-foot-7. On the field, she is starting to look larger than life.
'When she stands next to you,' said Callie Brownson, 'there's a standing-next-to-giants kind of feel about her.'
Brownson is USA Football's senior director of high performance and national team operations. She previously spent four years with the Cleveland Browns as their chief of staff and assistant wide receivers coach.
Brownson is among those who declare Geraci, 24, the globe's best receiver (no qualifiers).
'I think about it a lot: How did I get here?' Geraci said last week near her suburban Cleveland home before departing for Chengdu, China, and the World Games, an international event for non-Olympic sports. 'What did I do? I really don't even know. It's a pinch-me moment all the time, where I can't believe I'm in this position.'
Geraci is an avatar for flag football's profound growth. Girls and women are gravitating toward the burgeoning opportunities. The International Olympic Committee approved flag football for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, with the NFL heavily involved in promotions and letting its players participate. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) added women's flag football as a scholarship sport, while 17 states (and quickly growing) have sanctioned girls' flag football as a varsity sport.
Talent development has been exponential, as evidenced by Team USA's roster turnover. Only two members of the roster that lost in a stunning blowout to Mexico in the 2022 World Games final are back this year: quarterback Vanita Krouch and defensive back Deliah Autry-Jones.
'We don't know what we are going to expect because the game has been growing that fast,' Mexico quarterback Diana Flores said of defending the team's gold medal. 'That's the most exciting part of this for me.'
Geraci and the flag veteran who practically discovered her — record-setter Fulford — have emerged as an unfair receiving tandem that could dominate these World Games and didn't waste time Thursday, their colossal performances helping the Americans to a 2-0 start in the preliminary round.
On USA's second play in the tournament's opening game, Geraci's post pattern blew the top off Canada's defense. Krouch's trademark sidearm delivery found Geraci wide open for a 45-yard touchdown.
Geraci caught 10 of her 13 targets for 130 yards and three TDs with one extra point in a 39-31 victory. Albeit legally and unintentionally, she also laid out Canada defensive back Rosalie Landry, whose coverage got too tight. Fulford was held in check through the first half but scored the game's other two touchdowns on her only catches in the second half.
A few hours later, Fulford was relentless in the USA's 48-34 victory over Austria. She caught 12 of her 13 targets for 156 yards and a touchdown. Fulford added an extra point — snagged on a pass that might've been intended for Geraci, who caught three of her four targets for 24 yards and a touchdown with an extra point.
On Friday, the U.S. beat host China 39-12 to finish 3-0 in pool play, with Geraci and Fulford each recording another touchdown. They'll face Italy in the quarterfinals Saturday morning in China (Friday night Eastern time).
'There's really nothing like it,' Geraci said about her passion for flag football. 'I feel like it's my true calling.'
There is no hemming or hawing from Brownson when asked what sets Geraci apart. Before taking the USA Football job in January, Brownson marveled at what she saw on video: size, the suction fingers, the ability to beat defenders with pure route running, leaping power, that-ball-is-mine defiance.
'It's like a vacuum, the way that her hands work, when the ball approaches, her grip,' Brownson said. 'She can win just off her routes, and that's essential in the five-on-five game, especially on short routes, where you have to win now.
'But a big strength of her game is what she does downfield. She's able to create separation, but when a 50-50 ball goes up in the air, it's Izzy's. It's really special to watch what she can do in contested situations.'
To ask a football expert about comparables can be folly, potentially dangerous. Scouts and coaches are hesitant to load expectations on a player, no matter how accurate the resemblance may be.
Especially when discussing a rookie.
'Sometimes, when she's stretching the field and makes an unbelievable play,' Brownson said, 'you see shades of Julio Jones, Calvin Johnson, who are the quarterback's dream: 'Hey, I'm in trouble, and I'm just going to put this up.' Izzy's down there somewhere.'
Brownson, though, stressed she doesn't want to pigeonhole her because Geraci is equally extraordinary at short and intermediate routes, too.
OK then.
'I buy it,' said Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II, ambassador for NFL Flag's high school girls campaign. Newsome and Geraci recently worked a camp together. 'I've seen some of the catches she's made, and it's unbelievable. There are clips of her making one-handed catches or going on top of two defenders in the back of the end zone, making incredible plays.
'She'll be a huge trailblazer in this movement.'
Geraci doesn't sit still for long, but last week she spent a couple of hours reflecting with The Athletic about how fast it's all happened. She barely touched her latte at Emilie's Coffee House & Wine Bar in Avon, Ohio, just down the street from her family's jewelry store, where she also works.
She always loved football, playing tackle from age 7 through her freshman year at North Ridgeville High in suburban Cleveland. Her nickname came about because one of her coaches couldn't bring himself to call her 'Isabella' around the boys. 'Izzy' stuck, but she couldn't stick with football.
She gave it up because that's what young girls too often are told they must do to maximize their athletic pursuits. Her sports future was too bright, a scholarship too attainable for someone of her prowess, to focus on a sport women didn't play in college. So she played basketball and softball, golfed, ran sprints, long jumped and high jumped — pretty much everything but football.
The 2018 Lorain County Student-Athlete of the Year accepted a scholarship to play basketball at Cleveland State.
And was miserable.
'Basketball was one of those things she was just naturally great at,' her mother, Tammy Geraci, said from behind her work station at Peter & Co. Jewelers. 'But when she went to college, it was a totally different game. She just felt like she was getting kicked down.
'You could see her little flame was getting smaller and smaller.'
On a long slog further mucked by COVID, Isabella trudged through her four years at Cleveland State but finished what she started, earning a marketing degree and transferring to South Carolina Upstate for a graduate season. The move brought her some joy. She studied business analytics, led the Spartans in rebounds and steals and took second in the high jump at the Sun Belt Conference outdoor track and field championships.
Geraci's college athletic career ended on a pleasant note. Nevertheless, she remained unfulfilled and now stricken by the notion of being done.
'I was just looking for other ways,' Geraci said. 'I thought, 'Something needs to fix me.''
Football never stopped summoning her.
Briefly living in Charlotte, Geraci researched women's football leagues of all types. She spotted that Fulford was playing in the area and asked for guidance.
'I thought she was super-electric in the flag-football world,' Geraci said. 'I remember watching her highlights and thinking, 'Dang, I want to be able to do stuff like that.''
Fulford pointed her in the right direction and provided some local contacts who put Geraci in a league. But it wasn't until Fulford saw highlights of the newbie that she realized bigger dreams were possible.
There's a national flag football team, Geraci learned. The Olympics. NFL involvement. Television. The big time.
Fulford invited Geraci to play on her exclusive club team, a break that fast-tracked Geraci's development and elevated her platform. The right people soon noticed. Geraci called it 'serendipity.' Despite this, Fulford refused to acknowledge making any discovery.
'No, no, no, no, no,' Fulford muttered, then punctuating with one last, loud, 'No! That girl is phenomenal. She would've easily found her way on this team without me. I just brought her into certain situations.'
Brownson, however, insisted on giving Fulford credit for recognizing a future USA teammate and — when on the road for tournaments — roommate. Three years from now, they could be on the Olympic medal stand together in Los Angeles.
'I appreciate Madison giving us credit that we would have found Izzy, but timing is everything,' Brownson said. 'Who knows what would've happened without Madison getting Izzy into the sport when she did?
'The impact that it's had over the past two years by getting Izzy in the pool, Madison deserves a ton of credit. Little did she know she was bringing in her '2' for that 1-2 punch they give us. It's changed the dynamic of our offense completely.'
At the forefront of that overhauled roster, the U.S. could have used them at the World Games three years ago.
Back then, Geraci couldn't have imagined any of this, not the 'USA' across her chest, not the world stage, not the talk of her being the best receiver in the world. She heard Brownson say those words, but all these months later the rookie still doesn't believe it.
'I can't even explain what it felt like to hear because I was so blown away that she would think that of me,' Geraci said. 'It drives me to want to be better every day because I want to meet that standard. I'm still asking questions and learning. I don't want to disappoint anyone and drop to a lower level.
'This happened really quickly. It's still a whirlwind.'
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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