Football Video Game Coaches Players On Being Financially Savvy

With today being the last day of Financial Literacy Month and the first day of the NFL Draft, I thought it would be a good time to give a shout out to Visa's FINANCIAL FOOTBALL game which uses the sport to help make kids financially savvy.  Created in partnership between the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, Visa's Practical Money Skill's for Life program, and the NFL this video game lets children, teens, and adults test their money management skills by answering questions that allow you to move down the field and score touchdowns when you make the correct choices.

Available to play online via your personal computer or laptop, Financial Football puts players fiscal knowledge to the test in an online simulation game environment by combining the structure and rules of the NFL with financial education questions of varying difficulty. Visa has also released the game as a free iPhone app on iTunes, along with an optimized HD iPad version.  The game can be played in single player mode or against a friend in head-to-head action.

To start the game you can pick its length ranging from 5 minutes to 20 minutes plus select which NFL team you want to play as.  Difficulty settings are also available with Rookie (Ages 11 -14), Pro (Ages 14-18) and Hall of Fame (18+) to choose from.  Players are than able to select defensive and offensive plays with difficulty levels of easy, medium and hard which are followed up with questions about financial literacy and money management that correspond to the selected play's difficulty.

 

If on offense and you get your question right you than your team is successful with their play, but if you get the question wrong than your QB will get sacked, your running back hit for a loss, or a wide receiver drops the ball.  The harder the successfully completed question the better your players do so an easy question might get you one or two yards, a medium question 5 yards and a hard question could get you ten yards or maybe even a break away touchdown.

 

Defense also provides an opportunity for players to answer questions.  Get it wrong and the opposing team will do great but get it right and you could hit them for a loss or sack.

 

This game takes a topic that can be boring and mundane for many kids and adults and adds some excitement to it that will help ingrain important tips and information into people's heads as their competitive instincts get them involved with this game.  As a parent, I'm always keeping an eye out for opportunities that combine entertainment and education to assist getting kids to embrace learning.  Financial Football is a great way to catch children and teens' interest and help them become financially savvy.

For more information about the FINANCIAL FOOTBALL video game, CLICK HERE.