FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NFL-31 7/13/98

Seven nonprofit organizations have been named as 1998 NFL National Youth Football Partners, the National Football League announced today. The organizations are the first recipients of funding from the new $100 million NFL Youth Football Fund, a charitable foundation created by NFL clubs and the NFL Players Association to support youth football initiatives through non-profit organizations.

The NFL National Youth Football Partners are composed of national youth organizations that include football as part of their curriculum. The 1998 partners are the YMCA, Police Athletic League, National Recreation & Parks Association, Boys & Girls Clubs, Amateur Athletic Union, Pop Warner Football, and the Jewish Community Center.

Those organizations, already recognized for their positive work with children via athletics and mentor programs, will use the grants to help support youth football development and permit thousands of youngsters to participate in a variety of football programs. Affiliates of these seven organizations will be eligible to apply through their national agency to the NFL Youth Football Fund for 1998 grants to support innovative youth football programs on the local level.

"We are very proud to be partners with the NFL to support youth football programs across the country," said GENE UPSHAW, executive director of the NFL Players Association and a former NFL player. "The only way to preserve the character and integrity of the game is to invest in those who will one day play the game."

Carolina Panthers owner JERRY RICHARDSON, also a former NFL player, agrees with Upshaw on the value of the NFL youth football initiative. "We call it ‘investing in the game,’" said Richardson, a member of the NFL Management Council Executive Committee that helped create the $100 million Youth Football Fund as part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and its players. "Not everyone will play in the NFL, of course, but all can benefit immensely from their participation in our game."

In addition to nurturing the next generation of participants and fans, the NFL youth football initiatives help take children out of unsupervised homes, off street corners and other unproductive after-school environments and allow them to participate in a positive athletic experience in which they can learn life skills from adult mentors.

The NFL Youth Football Fund also will support other football-related projects, such as the NFL Teacher of the Year and NFL High School Football Coach of the Year programs; the NFL High School Football Web Site, which will cover all aspects of high school football; and the NFL Community Football Fields Program, which funds the construction and restoration of community football fields.