Making it happen didn’t come without some bumps in the sand, though.

The global COVID-19 pandemic forced a pause, and Banta-Cain earned a coaching internship with the San Francisco 49ers through the Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship program. If he didn’t get a job on the coaching staff, he promised himself he would go all in on the BFL.

Sitting in the back of these 49ers meetings, he drew up a potential logo and drafted a rule book in his notebooks. Attending Super Bowls as part of the NFL Player’s Choir, he was able to share his ideas and gauge interest from NFL players and coaches.

Banta-Cain also tapped into his friend, Adam Cyril Nesheim, to take on the challenge with him from the ground level.

The now business partners initially met at Nesheim’s neighborhood barbecue in Hermosa Beach, becoming fast friends who bonded over football, music, and beach culture.

Both from the Bay Area, the entrepreneurial spirit rubbed off on them. There was no class or YouTube video on how to create a new sports league, but they looked at the business as filling a void and solving a problem, just like any other successful product.

“The joy the game brings to so many people is really why I’m in it,” Nesheim said.

“Football has always been a centerpiece of my life and it taught me so many life lessons and opened up so many doors for me. Having the opportunity to give people a salary or provide them a place to play – there are so many football players that come from Division I, Division II, Division III, hundreds of thousands of them, but as we know only a couple hundred will be selected in the NFL Draft. So the talent pool that is out there just in the US alone is so vast, and the idea was to be able to provide an outlet for so many talented players that don’t get a shot to play on Sundays. That’s why I wanted to team up with Tully.”

The duo studied the model of a few emerging sports, like beach volleyball, beach soccer, and even the BIG3 pro basketball league. A serendipitous run-in with Paul Rabil in Manhattan Beach really gave them something to strive for, as Banta-Cain learned the former lacrosse star and his team were huddled around a laptop working to get the Premier Lacrosse League off the ground.

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

“That was a huge inspiration because we felt lacrosse is a big sport, but with football, and flag football now being in the Olympics, players are looking for alternative ways to compete, because it’s not a sport like basketball where you can just go to a park and play pickup. It has to be organized, and this is another outlet.”

With a business plan and the means to bootstrap, Banta-Cain and Nesheim got to work to launch the first pilot event in Hampton Beach last summer. Leveraging his status as a former athlete in New England and his community ties, the hope was he could get support from fans and players.

Current and former Patriots Kendrick Bourne, Jamie Collins, and Max Lane were among a group who traveled up to New Hampshire with Patriots Cheerleaders to engage fans and generate hype, and John Nyhan, president of the Hampton Chamber of Commerce, was instrumental in helping Banta-Cain get this off the ground, even getting them in touch with former New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu for state-wide support.

Nyhan has even offered his own ideas for how to improve the BFL’s future stops at Hampton Beach, suggesting bleachers, beer gardens, and other activations to draw fans and families in.

“We’ve had a couple of planning meetings already, and I believe some of the things we have brainstormed so far really fit the Patriots community model,” Nyhan said. “It will be a two-day event as of right now, Saturday and Sunday, with all of the all-star football players from high schools all around the seacoast of New Hampshire playing tackle football against first responders on the beach the first day.”

Volunteers from the Winnacunnet High School football team volunteered last summer, and to thank them, Banta-Cain made a $1,000 donation to the program, Nyhan shared.

And if last year was any indication, the Granite State will once again embrace having representation from their hometown team come to them for a change.

“Lines were everywhere for signatures, picture taking, and there’s so many people up here who don’t get down to Foxborough and aren’t able to attend Patriots games or events often or ever,” Nyhan said.

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

Banta-Cain and Nesheim have seen similar responses from the other communities they’ll expand to in 2025.

“You can tell people about a beach football league, and it sounds good, but until you show people the vision it’s hard to just describe it,” Banta-Cain said.

“Having the players who went out there and coaches, the NFL guys who came out, the kids who participated in our kids activation – they’re all coming back and asking when the next event is because it was just such a special day. Everyone had so much fun. To see it come to life and for people to embrace it, that’s what I get excited about. I get chills daily thinking about what this thing could be.”