New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees, Retired Tampa Bay Buccaneer Derrick Brooks, Congressman Gregory Meeks and Visa Collaborate to Showcase Financial Football for Super Bowl Week

New York, NY – January 30, 2014 – Tackling head-on the issue of financial literacy among teens, New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees and retired Tampa Bay Buccaneer Derrick Brooks joined Congressman Gregory Meeks and Visa Inc. today to showcase an effort to improve the money management skills of high school and middle school students. Visa developed this free educational video game and classroom curriculum, called Financial Football.

Congressman Meeks, ranking member of the U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, kicked off today's event in the Super Bowl Media Center, Sheraton Times Square in New York with help from Brees, Brooks and Visa officials. The two future hall of famers, Brees and Brooks, shared personal experiences and his thoughts on the importance of money management with students. Meeks, Brooks and Brees then rolled up their sleeves and led student teams in a hard-fought, high-energy game of Financial Football. The teams were made up of students from Bethpage High School.

"Financial Football is a wonderful way to get students interested in personal finances and gives them a financial playbook they can use the rest of their lives," said U.S. Congressman Gregory Meeks. "This is a valuable program and a great partnership between my office, Visa, and the NFL."

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

"Kids need to know how to make smart money management decisions early in life," said Saints quarterback Brees. "It takes the combined efforts of parents, teachers, and mentors within the community to give teenagers a strong financial playbook."

"It doesn't matter whether you make minimum wage or millions," said legendary Tampa Bay Buccaneer Derrick Brooks. "If you don't learn to budget, save, invest and pay bills on time, the consequences can be devastating."

Available online at www.practicalmoneyskills.com/financialfootball, 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 Android or iOS app.

"For over a decade, Visa has been committed to promoting financial literacy and we are proud to assist Congressman Meeks in his efforts to strengthen financial education in the state of New York," said Nat Sillin, Head of U.S. Financial Education for 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-one states and the District of Columbia to distribute Financial Football to every high school and middle school in those states, including Alabama, 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 and 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 https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/our_business.html.