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.

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.

How Much is the Football Empire Worth?

Baseball may be America’s past time, but football is America’s obsession. September 5^th marked the beginning of our countries annual football mania. Since the start of the season NFL games have been dominating the airwaves and have the ratings to prove it. Currently the NFL is responsible for 18 of the most watched programs on TV, with the average game drawing 16.8 million pairs of eyeballs across the country. This should help give an indication of the sheer amount of avid football followers we have in the U.S. When you consider that that many people take the time to tune in regularly, it isn’t hard to figure that the NFL is the most lucrative sports league around. This year the NFL is set to rake in just over 9 billion (that’s million with a ‘b’) dollars. But just how does the NFL make its money?

The Special Contribution of the Seahawks

All of the 32 NFL teams have pet charity projects and causes which they support and donate funds and resources to. The Seattle Seahawks by far make one of the most special contributions in the NFL to charity.  With the help of Spirit of 12 Partners, a Seattle community based nonprofit, the Seahawks distribute game day programs at their home games in Seattle. 100% of the proceeds from the programs go to helping fund the Special Olympics of Washington. The giving does not end there, however. For every donation made to the Special Olympics of Washington from the Seahawks the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation matches their donation dollar to dollar, effectively doubling the proceeds.

Most Charitable Players in the NFL

Too often it seems like the sole preoccupation of pro football players is money. The salaries of NFL players are remarkably high, and the lives these players lead tend to be even more high profile. Cars, parties, women, and bling seem to get as much spot light as the careers of those adorned with them do. Not all players are caught up in the love of money and material objects, though. The NFL has quite a few players who reach out and give back to their communities and promote charitable causes. Many of these players dedicate a lot of time and work into the causes that they advocate.

How the Miami Dolphins Give Back

The Miami Dolphins have many community based outreach incentives that they orchestrate and support. Among their causes are: cancer, providing scholarships to outstanding students from challenging backgrounds, youth sporting charities, and summer reading programs throughout Florida. Though all of the charities they support are wonderful, the summer reading programs are the stand out, considering that Florida has one of the highest levels of illiteracy in entire United States. It is estimated that some 20% of adults in Florida lack even basic literacy skills. The only other states that have higher illiteracy rates are New York and California.

The Miami Dolphins are the first sports team to partner not just with their local libraries, but the entire Florida state library system. For the summer reading programs, players and cheerleaders make appearances, provide autographed posters for promotion, donate books, and prizes for milestone achievements in reading programs.

Top NFL Managers

Being an NFL manager is not an easy job. The direction and performance of the team rest mostly on their shoulders, and when a team doesn’t perform up to standards it is the general manager who gets put on the line. A general manager is responsible for essentially running the whole operation. Many NFL teams reserve certain rights mainly leaving the manager in charge of salaries and all matters of the sports aspect of a franchise. To be an NFL manager, one obviously needs to know what they are doing and be among the best at doing it. The idea of whose best is very subjective, but this year’s picks are in.