Why NFA?

 

The Current Football Environment

The sport of football is under attack.

Five states have had legislative ban bills presented (IL, MD, CA, MA, NY). These are early warning signals. CA, MA, and NY have active bills to ban football before high school as of January 2024.

The Industry needs to Mature.

The sport of football is not well integrated across all levels of play. From the NFL through college, high school, and youth, football standards, processes, best practices, and knowledge sharing are fractured.

The results of this fracturing are unacceptable and result in suboptimal performance and increased safety risks for our players.

These challenges are compounded by:

  • Absentee stewardship by those with the financial means to support the sport.

  • A lack of consistent standards, rules, and policies.

  • A primarily apprentice-based professional development model for football coaches creates longer timelines for coaches to master the game.

  • A primarily volunteer labor pool at the youth level with high turnover leads to constant knowledge loss.

  • Insufficient funding at the youth and high school levels of play.

  • Some people incorrectly perceive flag football as a replacement for tackle football.

  • The current social-political landscape in the United States.

Our Purpose

  • Honor, improve, and advance the sport of football so that future generations will benefit from the life lessons it teaches.

  • To create a better football experience for all participants through research, education, activation and advocacy.

    • Courage – We act boldly at all times.

    • Accountability – We do what we say we will do.

    • Discipline – We are diligent with our actions.

    • Passion – We care deeply about American football players, coaches, parents, and administrators.

    • Respect – We hold players, spectators, officials, and the game in high regard.

    • Teamwork – We work together with our partners and members.

Our Goals

  • We put the player experience at the center of everything we do by developing, implementing, and improving standards for players, administrators, coaches, officials, and healthcare providers that improve the experiences of football players on and off the field.

  • Create the best possible student-athlete experience by teaching, supporting, and inspiring our community to play football using the highest-performing and safest techniques available.

  • Inspire, educate, and curate a coaching community that consistently demonstrates its commitment to the intellectual, emotional, social, and physical development of football student-athletes.

  • Educate parents on the sport so that they know what to expect and how to optimally participate in their players' football experience.

  • Evolve the sport in a medically informed way with research aimed at developing experience, performance, and safety improvements for the football community.

Our Commitments

The National Football Alliance is addressing the current market conditions and driving improvements through:

  • Establishing a strong culture of consistent standards and best practices for high-level football operations and optimal player experience.

  • Research, advocacy, and engagement.

  • Education, training, and leadership development.

  • Improved access to high performing, safe, cost-effective, and technology advanced equipment, support, and apparel.

The world deserves a new voice to honor, improve, and advance the game of football and the National Football Alliance humbly and confidently intends to be the new voice.