Commissioner Roger Goodell joined volunteers to fill food bags during the “Huddle for Hunger” event before this year’s draft.ap images
The NFL cordially invites you to volunteer to help a cause as it celebrates its 100th season this year.
The league started “Huddle for 100” to motivate 1 million people — including players and fans — to donate 100 minutes of volunteer time to a cause. The first event was “Huddle for Hunger,” held before the 2019 NFL draft at the Titans’ Nissan Stadium in Nashville, where 500 volunteers stuffed 8,000 packages with food. Huddles will be held at other major NFL events, such as the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl.
Huddle for 100 is but one example of the league reaching out with community relations programs that address a variety of social issues. For example, the NFL Foundation’s 2019 priorities are to promote youth health and wellness (NFL Play 60), military appreciation (Salute to Service), cancer prevention (Crucial Catch: Intercept Cancer), healthy relationships (Character Playbook, InSideOut) and social justice (Inspire Change).
“What’s driving it is an understanding that the NFL has a responsibility to give back to the communities that do so much to support us every day,” said Anna Isaacson, senior vice president of social responsibility for the NFL.
NFL Play 60 is a national health and wellness program to motivate youth to become active for at least 60 minutes a day. It began in 2007 and the league has committed more than $352 million to it since then through Play 60 programming, grants and media time for PSAs. There’s also the Fuel Up to Play 60 program, which is in 73,000 schools nationwide and promotes good nutrition, among other goals.
“It’s given more than 38 million children the chance to boost their physical activity,” said Melissa Schiller, community relations director for the NFL. “The great thing about Play 60 is that it’s about any sort of movement, such as jumping rope and running.”
The NFL Foundation has spent a combined $10 million to support two programs that began in 2014, the Character Playbook and InSideOut program.
“What we realized was getting to youth and focusing on healthy relationships was important,” Isaacson said. Thus the NFL and United Way have offered the Character Playbook, teaching how to build healthy relationships, resolve conflicts and manage emotions. The hope is to reduce incidents of domestic violence and sexual abuse. The program has reached about 500,000 students in more than 5,000 schools nationwide.
Also in 2014, the NFL started the InSideOut program to counter a win-at-all-costs mentality at the high school level. “Rather than just about X’s and O’s, it’s about being a transformational person in a student’s life,” Isaacson said. The program operates in 17 NFL markets.
The NFL Foundation’s funding in support of healthy relationships has approached $50 million since 2014 when you add in its support for a national domestic violence hotline and sexual violence center, plus other programs.
The Inspire Change initiative started this year, designed to show what players, owners and the league do to create positive change in communities nationwide. It has three priority areas: education and economic advancement, police and community relations, and criminal justice reform. Just last month, the NFL announced a multiyear partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation on Inspire Change. Roc Nation will advise the league on selecting artists for major NFL events such as the Super Bowl and find ways to use football and music to strengthen communities.
“We are lucky to have a platform that allows us to reach millions of people,” the NFL’s Isaacson said. “Therefore it’s our responsibility to use that to make changes to society.”
Bruce Goldberg is a writer in Colorado.
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