The NFL Foundation

As we all sit on our couches on Sunday and watch our favorite NFL teams play we don’t take time to realize how much the league and the players do for our community. This includes the NFL foundation charity, individual charities as well as league wide programs such as the online auctions for breast cancer.

The NFL foundation is a way for the league to give back to the youth programs in the community. This helps supports the development of youth football around the country as well as allow them to learn the proper ways to play the game of football.

Excelling On and Off the Field

The NFL continues to excel both on and off the field from San Francisco to New York. The level of play has grown, the talent level is at the highest they have been in years and the profits around the entire league is at an all-time high. This benefits everyone from players to general managers to the commissioner.

Now the side of the the NFL that many fans don’t know about how much they give to charities as well as how much each organization does for their community. The NFL in 1973 created NFL Charities to help give back to the community through grants.

How the World’s Most Popular Sport Can Help the Disadvantaged

The game of football remains the world’s most followed sport. There can be few other sports which ignite such passion in supporters and attract such a diverse range of fans. From the wealthy to the poor, both fans and players of football come from a wide variety of backgrounds. However, it is often the case that the disadvantaged find it difficult to get involved in the game, due to the pressures they face in their lives. Now, one charity has decided to change that.

Street League was originally founded in the UK in 2001 as a charitable organisation working with the homeless. Today, Street League works with young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who are classified as NEET (not in education, employment or training). Youth unemployment has been a worrying issue for many years and remains a major problem with over one million young people out of work and facing a bleak future.

The Million Pound Gift from Cardiff City FC

Cardiff City has long been one of Wales’ most successful football teams. Still the only non-English side to have won the FA Cup, the club have enjoyed a revival of fortunes on the pitch in recent years. After reaching the FA Cup Final in 2008 and the final of the Football League Cup in 2012, Cardiff entered the Premier League at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season. The owner of Cardiff City, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, has not only brought increased funds to the club, but also revealed a philanthropic side when he announced details of a one-million-pound donation to charity in August 2013.

The Rise of Philanthropy in European Football

Football is a sport that’s intrinsically linked to large pay days and players who demand exorbitant fees. It’s also fast becoming a sport where philanthropy is a common occurrence and the number of altruistic ballplayers and football franchises are rapidly increasing. Benevolent teams and individuals are pledging thousands of pounds to varying causes and putting their names behind worthy charitable endeavours in an attempt to invest in the community.

The England Football Squad Helps Charities Across the UK

In 2007 the members of the England football team decided that all of their future pay cheques for England training sessions and matches would now be donated to charitable causes. This impressive gesture has remained the case for all of the subsequent England football sides to this day. Every time you catch an England game on TV, the players fees are helping out a worthy cause somewhere in the UK.

The England Footballer’s Foundation was set up in 2007 as a registered charity to deal with the money and its distribution. Since the charity started, nearly £3 million has been generated for UK charities such as Help For Heroes, Cancer Research UK, The Bobby Moore Fund, Rays Of Sunshine and Wellchild.

The Football Association and the Teenage Cancer Trust Working Together

The sporting world has always been a prominent player in helping to raise money for charity, from the annual fundraiser Sport Relief to the Charity Shield of football, celebrity golf tournaments and all manner of fun runs and marathons across the country. This year the UK Football Association celebrates its 150th year in operation and hopes to raise a record amount of money for its primary partner, the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The Teenage Cancer Trust is the largest charity organisation in the UK that helps with the treatment of cancer sufferers and survivors aged between thirteen and twenty-four. The trust aims to improve both the chances of survival and the quality of life for all cancer sufferers by building special units in NHS hospitals across the UK. These units offer specialised treatment and care as well as helping to educate people in the community to help young people spot the early warning signs of cancer.

New England Patriots

The New England Patriots are a very altruistic team. Overall they support around 16 causes and charities. Among those who receive charity from the patriots are: the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Blood Donation Awareness, the Patriots Women’s Association, and the Science of Sports Science Fair which is hosted annually at Gillette Stadium. The causes supported by the Patriots range from raising public awareness to educational outreach. The Patriots are doing very good and very important work in New England to help the community at large.

Saints for the Environment

By now it is probably safe to say that most every Americans know about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, off of the Louisiana coast.  This “accident” is also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The spill began on April 20, 2010 and remained uncapped for an astounding 87 days. In the almost 3 month period that the spill lasted an estimated 4.9 million barrels (210 million gallons) of crude oil was leaked into the Gulf.  The spill site was not declared sealed until September of 2010, some report that it is still leaking. The impact the spill had on the waters and its life were harrowing. That impact spread to the Gulf residents who make a living largely on the water.

In addition to the damage done to the seafood business, the tourism that the Gulf attracts dwindled as well. The spill had a domino effect that reached every corner and aspect of life in the Gulf and the damage is far from repaired.

Raising Awareness and Making Change

In the past few years our country has experienced a very pronounced interest in one of our last remaining social inequality problems. Equality for all is something that our country was founded on yet there is still a group openly discriminated against in our society, it is the LGBT community. Homosexuality is not a topic that is generally up for discussion in the world of pro sports, which has seemingly adopted a policy of ‘don’t ask don’t tell’. Recently this year, though, this very issue came to light in the NFL. Between talks of expecting players to come out, and news that the Miami Dolphins Jonathan Martin walked off the team citing allegations of bullying by teammates for his sexual orientation, in particular Richie Incognito.