The NFA Research Approach

The NFA Research Approach will secure donations to show the world what is possible when performance and safety are pursued simultaneously. Our immediate goal is to raise $1.5 million in contributions and partnership funding to conduct two separate research projects to advance the player experience. The research project will operate under the direction of our Chief Medical Officer and the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

If you would like to participate in or donate to our Research, please contact us.

Project #1: The AB-1 Research Retrospective

The State of California passed AB-1, the California Youth Football Act in 2019. AB-1 codifies many youth football best practices in a state law for all youth football leagues and teams in California. To learn more about AB-1, please visit our affiliate the California Youth Football Alliance.

This research project will conduct a systematic review of existing medical research to identify medical research that supports one or more of the requirements of AB-1.

 
 

Project #2: THE NFA Teams of the future™ Research

Over the course of three years, the NFA will build the “NFA Teams of the Future” as the foundation of our research to advance the player experience.

 
 

To start, we will recruit three teams from the East, Midwest, and West Regions of the United States for a total of nine teams to join our research project. We will invest heavily in these nine teams to demonstrate what is possible. Each team will receive:

  • Virginia Tech Five-star rated helmets

  • Education and training for:

    • The NFA Safety Risk Management Framework

    • Health assistance: AED, CPR, first-aid

    • Heat-related illness training

    • Football contact that improves performance and minimizes the head-in-play

  • EMT or athletic trainer at every home game

  • Baseline testing 

  • Injury tracking processes and software

  • Culture development, including purpose and mission statement development for each team; player, parent, and coach code of conduct, as well as conducting the NFA pledge before every game

Each team will participate in our research project so we may measure the efficacy and impact of our investments. This research project will identify and measure key performance indicators across three categories:

 
 

  • Experience KPIs include measuring the player, coach, and parent/guardian experience.

  • Performance KPIs include measuring the competitiveness of the players and team.

  • Safety KPIs include measuring the physical and mental health of the players.