The Brigade, a large NFL flag football league, was forced to relocate its games from Cherokee Elementary School to Pueblo Elementary School due to noise complaints from a small group of affluent residents.
from FRI 11:00 AM MST until FRI 8:00 PM MST, Little Colorado River Valley in Coconino County, Little Colorado River Valley in Navajo County, Little Colorado River Valley in Apache Countyfrom FRI 12:00 PM MDT until FRI 9:00 PM MDT, Chuska Mountains and Defiance Plateau, Black Mesa Area, Northeast Plateaus and Mesas Hwy 264 Northward, Chinle Valley, Northeast Plateaus and Mesas South of Hwy 264from FRI 11:00 AM MST until FRI 8:00 PM MST, Little Colorado River Valley in Navajo County, White Mountains, Eastern Mogollon Rim, Little Colorado River Valley in Coconino County, Western Mogollon Rim, Little Colorado River Valley in Apache Countyfrom FRI 12:00 PM MDT until FRI 9:00 PM MDT, Northeast Plateaus and Mesas Hwy 264 Northward, Chinle Valley, Chuska Mountains and Defiance Plateau, Northeast Plateaus and Mesas South of Hwy 264, Black Mesa Area The Brigade , one of the largest NFL flag football leagues in the Valley, was forced to move its games away from Cherokee Elementary School following noise complaints from a small group of nearby affluent residents.
Complaints escalated in 2025 from neighbors living in multimillion-dollar homes adjacent to the Paradise Valley school fields, including Tim Bidwill, brother of Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill. The Scottsdale Unified School District relocated the league's games to Pueblo Elementary School, a campus that is not surrounded by multimillion-dollar properties. One of the largest NFL flag leagues in the Valley is called "The Brigade.
" For years, the league had been playing their games at a public school, but a FOX 10 exclusive learned that they had to move. , located in the heart of Paradise Valley. But when a small group of people, including a member of a powerful football family, complained about the noise, the league had to move.
On a Friday evening, kids with dreams of becoming an NFL superstar show up to practice.11-year-old Kellen Walsh Silas Schaefer looks up to guys like Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills. The 10-year-old says he had been playing baseball, but when he tried football with The Brigade, that became his focus. Founder Marino Lee, whose mom was a big Dan Marino fan, says the league in north Phoenix and Scottsdale just keeps growing.
Beginning in 2022, the Brigade teams began playing their games on Saturdays at Cherokee Elementary, a public school in the Scottsdale Unified School District. The games went from about 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. As more families signed up, the games ended around 4:30 p.m. in 2025. Even ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham came out one weekend to just watch kids play football. But Lee says that year, "the complaints probably started in 2024.
Minimal complaints just about noise. The duration of the games. They started to really escalate in 2025.
"Tim wrote an email to Lee on February 2, 2025, that said, in part, "Please don’t shoot the messenger here. I just thought it best that you hear directly from me in the hopes that the field layout and scheduling might be tweaked to mitigate sound affecting the homes directly to the east of field 2 … which does coincidentally include ours, as well as to the north.
"A complaint, also in February 2025, came from Peggy Minard. She says the noise caused her to be emotionally exhausted and sad, and "at one point, I downloaded a noise decibel app, set my phone in the middle of the yard, and let it run for the rest of the day. The highest range it captured was 90db, multiple times.
"On the street in the exclusive neighborhood where homes back up to the field at Cherokee, when you add up homes to the north, east and south of the field area, there are about 10 homes. They are all on large lots. Zillow estimates that each home is worth at least 3.7 million bucks or more. One is estimated to be worth about 10 million.
The topic of where the league was playing came up during a Scottsdale Unified School District Board meeting in March 2025. One board member voiced her support.
"My boys benefited from playing flag football at Cherokee. One of them had their college paid for because of that, so thank you. Whatever you need, please reach out to me so we can come to some sort of agreement with the neighbors," the board member said during that meeting. But complaints continued to be sent to Lee, the principal of the school at the time, SUSD and the town of Paradise Valley.
Later in 2025, Lee says the small group who had been complaining got their wish. The school district offered a solution. Now the teams play all of their games at Pueblo Elementary, another public school within SUSD that is not surrounded by multimillion-dollar homes. FOX 10 tried to get a response from Tim Bidwill and Peggy Minard.
Emails were sent to them multiple times and stops were even made at their homes to try to get a comment, but they didn't respond. As for The Brigade, they'll be playing their games for the foreseeable future at Pueblo Elementary. FOX 10's Ellen McNamara reported on this story by interviewing flag football players Kellen Walsh, Silas Schaefer, founder Marino Lee, and by using information from a Scottsdale Unified School District Board meeting.
NFL Flag Football The Brigade Noise Complaints Affluent Neighbors
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