Even as baseball and basketball have become international sports, American football remains, for the most part, a distinctly American sport. In 2015, a former NFL player of Samoan descent and Nike combined in a joint outreach program called “The GEAR Project” to expand the fanbase and participation in the sport around the world.
By leveraging the personalities of NFL players from cultures outside of the US, especially those from developing nations, The GEAR Project (Giving Every Athlete the Resources) to compete was established to help accelerate the growth of the sport.