U.S. Bank on Tuesday announced a multiyear partnership that makes it the official bank and wealth management sponsor of the NFL, per details shared with Marketing Dive. The league’s banking rights haven’t been available in more than 30 years.
“It’s a generational opportunity to become an NFL sponsor and we were at a place where our brand was ready to take on a bigger stage in its evolution,” said Michael Lacorazza, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at U.S. Bank.
The NFL’s retail banking rights had been held by Truist since 2021 as part of a pass-through of Visa’s larger financial services sponsorship, which ended after last season. U.S. Bank has banked the Minnesota Vikings since the team’s inaugural season in 1961 and has had a relationship with the NFL itself for more than 20 years.
As part of the new partnership, U.S. Bank will be the presenting sponsor of the Super Bowl MVP Award and a top-tier sponsor of the NFL Flag Championships. New creative in the bank’s ongoing “Power of Us” campaign is in development and will feature the NFL’s intellectual property and talent.
The deal is the latest move by U.S. Bank — the largest bank in the U.S. outside of the Big Four of U.S. banks — to make its brand a bigger part of American culture. The institution last year integrated with Netflix’s “Happy Gilmore 2” as a top sponsor of the fictional Tour Championship in the sports comedy. Such tie-ups have been a priority for Lacorazza, who joined U.S. Bank in 2023 and oversees marketing, enterprise analytics and customer experience for the company.
“This is the next step in our evolution of leaning into culture, and it’s a big one for us,” the executive said of the NFL pact. “It’s a source of pride for our culture here. The internal impact is important, if not more important, than how it will be viewed in the world.”
The NFL’s top pick
U.S. Bank is keeping some elements of its NFL partnership under wraps for now, but one component is at the center of the deal: a customized financial guidance program for NFL players called the U.S. Bank Financial Edge. The program is part of the NFL’s work to modernize how it helps guide players financially.
“We’re building out this playbook for financial acumen across all stages of players’ careers, whether they’re new to the league and they’re rookies, or whether they’re more more seasoned,” Lacorazza said. “I think it was one of the components that was of value to [the NFL] in selecting us, because we have this kind of expertise that we can deliver.”
U.S. Bank Financial Edge covers topics like cash flow, charitable services, saving strategies, long-term wealth and entrepreneurship that are crucial to professional football players and for their lives after the game. The face of the program — and U.S. Bank’s Chief Financial Playmaker — is Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman-winning Indiana University quarterback who is widely expected to be the first player selected in the NFL Draft on April 23.
Mendoza graduated from the University of California’s Haas School of Business and is currently earning an MBA at Indiana University. The self-described “finance geek,” who wants to work in the financial space after his NFL career, was a perfect fit for a partnership with U.S. Bank, Lacorazza explained.
“He probably has more knowledge and acumen, relative to his age, of other folks coming out of college,” Lacorazza said. “For him to play a central role in helping to launch our new Financial Edge program, it made a ton of sense on so many levels, especially given his visibility as the No. 1 player in the draft.”
