USA Football, the sport’s national governing body and a member of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, has announced the formation of the “Leave a Legacy” Grant Program to provide equipment grants to new flag football and existing youth tackle leagues located in the USA Football Blitz markets visited in 2022.

Markets eligible for grant applicants include: Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, and Tennessee. Leagues interested in applying for the grant may do so here.

The grants are designed to reduce or remove barriers to participation for underserved organizations as well as newly formed leagues nationwide. They come in the form of either a flag football kit complete with jerseys, belts and footballs, or an equipment grant for tackle leagues that provides $1,000 towards the purchase of equipment through Riddell.

“The Leave a Legacy Grant Program is another strategic initiative by USA Football to help remove or reduce barriers for youth organizations to deliver safer and more effective ways to grow the game”, said USA Football CEO Scott Hallenbeck. “We believe in the idea of “Football for All”, and this grant is a direct testament to that, as it helps make sure that everyone that wants to play football has an avenue to do so.”

Since 2006, USA Football has awarded more than $18 million in grants to youth and school-based football programs, which has directly benefitted youth and high school players across 9,500 programs in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.