The partnership ends a three-decade void in the league’s retail banking sponsorship — and puts a Heisman-winning quarterback at the center of its pitch to players.
U.S. Bank has struck a multiyear deal to become the official bank and wealth management sponsor of the NFL, filling a sponsorship gap in the league’s retail banking rights that had gone unfilled for more than 30 years.
The agreement, announced Tuesday, makes U.S. Bank the presenting sponsor of the Super Bowl MVP Award and a top-tier sponsor of the NFL Flag Championships. The bank will also integrate NFL intellectual property and player talent into its existing “Power of Us” brand campaign — the first fruits of which arrived Monday, when two 30-second spots featuring Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson and U.S. Women’s National Flag Football team quarterback Izzy Geraci began airing across television, digital video, and connected TV. The ads were produced by agency Supergood.
The NFL’s retail banking rights had most recently been held by Truist since 2021, as part of a pass-through arrangement tied to Visa’s broader financial services sponsorship, which expired after last season. U.S. Bank, the largest American bank outside the Big Four, has banked the Minnesota Vikings since the franchise’s inaugural 1961 season and has maintained a relationship with the league itself for more than two decades.
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“It’s a generational opportunity to become an NFL sponsor,” said Michael Lacorazza, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at U.S. Bank. “We were at a place where our brand was ready to take on a bigger stage in its evolution.”
At the center of the deal is a new financial education initiative called U.S. Bank Financial Edge, a customized guidance program for NFL players covering cash flow, charitable giving, long-term wealth, and entrepreneurship — topics the bank describes as critical both during and after a professional football career. The program is part of the NFL’s broader effort to modernize how it supports players financially.
The face of the program is Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy-winning Indiana University quarterback widely projected to be the first overall pick in the NFL Draft on April 23. Mendoza, who graduated from the University of California’s Haas School of Business and is pursuing an MBA at Indiana, was described by Lacorazza as an unusually strong fit.
“He probably has more knowledge and acumen, relative to his age, than most others coming out of college,” Lacorazza said. “For him to play a central role in helping to launch our Financial Edge program made a ton of sense — especially given his visibility as the number one player in the draft.”
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The NFL deal is the latest in a series of high-profile cultural integrations pursued by U.S. Bank under Lacorazza, who joined the company in 2023. Last year, the bank served as a top sponsor of the fictional Tour Championship in Netflix’s sports comedy “Happy Gilmore 2.”
“This is the next step in our evolution of leaning into culture, and it’s a big one for us,” Lacorazza said of the NFL partnership.