The Pittsburgh Steelers are expanding partnerships with local schools.
An announcement this week from the team says 130 schools across 30 school districts in Allegheny County are participating in various ways.
“Our young people are the future of the region,” said Dan Rooney, Steelers vice president of strategy. “We want to be a part of students’ lives beyond gameday, and schools give us an opportunity to build that bond in a meaningful way. Students of different ages have different needs, so we’re taking an approach that allows us to use football, education, and our commitment to our community to connect with them in ways that engage, while helping to set them up for future success.”
Participating elementary schools will receive what are called NFeLementary resources — a Steelers-themed curriculum that uses football to support learning across subjects. The project-based learning curriculum allows students to follow the Steelers throughout the season, running alongside teachers’ core instruction to reinforce lessons in reading, writing, math, geography, research and art.
Participating middle schools, meanwhile, will receive NFL FLAG-In-School kits that provide equipment and playbooks to introduce students to flag football. Each kit includes 10 footballs, a mesh equipment bag, pump, 50 flag belts and a standards-based curriculum.
High schools will receive Steelers-branded materials to build team affinity and a Steelers presence within their schools.
The Steelers also plan to continue their partnership with eight Pittsburgh Public Schools through the Stay in the Game! Attendance Network — a year-round engagement effort kicked off last year designed to incentivize and improve school attendance.
School leaders at Grandview are trying to boost the school’s regular attendance rate. More than half of students were chronically absent last school year.
“We were really excited just to see this success from last year and really just want to make sure that we continue that momentum and that support of the students just as they get into the new school year,” said Blayre Holmes Davis, the Steelers’ senior director of community relations.
Each of the eight PPS schools participating in the pilot program have higher rates of chronic absences. Students with improved attendance are entered into a raffle for tickets to a Steelers game and can also earn chances to win autographed memorabilia. Schools with high attendance over a certain window of time can win a visit from one of the team’s players.
Davis said the team works closely with teachers to help incentivize attendance strategically.
“They’re the experts. They know their students. They know the ones who need a little bit more encouragement … it might be just a piece of swag from the Steelers organization or an autographed photo from one of their favorite players. And then for those other students, possibly a ticket to a game.”
The Steelers plan to officially launch the program with Westinghouse High School next week following the school’s successful performance in the program last year. According to district data, the percentage of total students marked absent 10% or more of the time at Westinghouse dropped from 74.9% during the 2024-2025 school year to 59.8% during last year’s pilot Stay in the Game! year.