Score Financial Touchdowns at Your Local Library!

Philadelphia Eagles tight end Brent Celek joined Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord and Visa Inc. today to tackle head-on the issue of financial literacy improvement among Pennsylvanians. They announced a statewide effort to improve the money management skills of Pennsylvanians with the rollout of Financial Football to Pennsylvania's' Libraries. Financial Football is a free educational video game and classroom curriculum developed by Visa Inc. The game, already distributed by the Treasurer's office to every public middle school and high school in the state, will now be available at libraries statewide as well as on the Treasury website.

Treasurer McCord kicked off this financial literacy campaign today at Upper Darby High School with help from Philadelphia Eagles tight end Brent Celek and Visa officials. Celek and McCord rolled up their sleeves and led teams of Upper Darby students in a hard-fought, high-energy game of Financial Football. Earlier Celek shared his personal experiences on the importance of money management with students.

'It's critically important to place a greater emphasis on financial education in Pennsylvania, because research shows that too few citizens feel adequately prepared to manage their personal finances," Treasurer McCord said. "Learning financial education concepts early in life engrains good habits into our young people and positions them for a more economically secure future. Financial Football is an engaging and entertaining way to convey these important messages."

The centerpiece of Visa's nationwide educational initiative with the NFL and NFL PLAYERS, Financial Football helps students and adults tackle their financial futures. The game is accompanied by a classroom curriculum.

"Kids need to learn to make smart money management decisions early in life," said Philadelphia Eagles tight end Brent Celek. "It takes the combined efforts of parents, teachers and mentors within the community to give teenagers a strong background in personal finance."



Available online, at www.pennsylvania.financialfootball.com, Financial Football puts students' 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.

"For over a decade, Visa has been committed to promoting financial literacy and we are proud to assist Treasurer McCord in his efforts to strengthen financial education," said Nat Sillin, Head of U.S. financial education, Visa Inc.

This launch is part of a national educational campaign with Visa, the NFL and NFL PLAYERS, now in its seventh season. Since 2006, Visa has reached agreements with forty states and the District of Columbia to distribute Financial Football to every high school and middle school in those states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin.


Financial Football is part of Practical Money Skills for Life (www.practicalmoneyskills.com) a free, award-winning financial education program that reaches millions of people around the world each year. Launched in 1995, the program is now available in ten languages in thirty countries. At Practical Money Skills for Life, educators, parents and students can access free educational resources including personal finance articles, games, lesson plans, and more. Visa also runs What's My Score (www.whatsmyscore.org), a leading higher education consumer awareness program.

About Visa Inc.

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks–VisaNet–that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: Pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit http://www.corporate.visa.com.