Bears, Biggert Play Financial Football with BHS Students

Learning about financial responsiblity can be extremely boring for students, but not when players and a video game are part of the lesson.

Bears running back Matt Forte and cornerback Charles Tillman, along with U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-13th) and Visa, teamed up to visit students Tuesday to play Financial Football, a game teaching students about financial situations.

About 40 athletes from the football and girls basketball teams participated in the event, which was held in the wrestling room.

Financial Football is a football game from the Madden video game franchise. To run a play, students had to answer financial questions on topics such as assets, debt, poor credit and 401(k) plans.

If a team gets a question right, it would get a statistically favorable play. If the question was incorrect, the other team would be able to steal and possibly get a favorable play.

The room was split into two teams: the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions. Forte and Biggert were captains for the Bears while Tillman and Visa led the Lions.

Captains were not allowed to answer the questions, but they were able to voice the students' group response.

Tillman's Lions got a touchdown to begin the game, but Forte's Bears answered with a touchdown and a two-point conversion to win 8-7.

Jason Alderman, director of financial literacy with Visa, said Financial Football was developed to make financial planning more interesting for students. As sponsors of the NFL, Alderman said Visa talked to the NFL about Financial Football and the league has been helping for the last five years.

"The NFL and the players union have been great in making this happen," he said.

Before playing Financial Football, Biggert told students she formed the Financial Literacy Caucus in Congress 13 years ago because she thought there were even members of Congress who did not understand Economics 101.

"Many pre-teens don't even know the difference between cash, check or credit," Biggert told the students.

She then handed the microphone to Forte, who graduated from Tulane University with a finance degree.

“The biggest thing about managing money is learning how to save and make good decisions,” Forte said. “You need to make good decisions with your money. You can’t go out and buy all this crazy stuff.”

Tillman, a Lousiana-Lafayette criminal justice graduate, talked about how he only has one nice car and is carefully saving money for his family so he could retire without working again.

“My mom use to tell me, ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees,’” Tillman told the students. “I’m sure all your parents have said that too. She was right. Be smart with your money and listen to your mom because it doesn’t.”

The students had a blast as the room was full of smiles and laughter.

Bolingbrook senior and offensive lineman on the football team Anthony Sharp tried sneeking an autograph from Forte during the game. Alderman teased him by saying "we're not supposed to ask Matt for those until after the game."

"It was real cool," Sharp said. "I'm a big fan of Matt. He tried giving us some of the answers. Like he said, managing finances is not a joke."

Kennedy Cattenhead, a junior guard on the girls basketball team, was on Tillman's team.

"It was really exciting having the teams doing it together and having the athletes and Biggert here," Cattenhead said. "Getting to play with them and interacting with them was fun."

When the game concluded, the students took pictures with the NFL players and received autographed photos.

On Monday night, the Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles 30-24 on the road.

Despite the Bears plane landing in Chicago at 3:40 a.m., Tillman said he and Forte committed to this event before the game and would not miss it because they are men of their words.

"I have helped with other school activities, but this is the first time it's involved money," said Tillman, who heads the Charles Tillman Cornerstone Foundation to help seriously ill Chicago-area children. "It was a good experience. Some of the questions asked I didn't even know. I got a little knowledge out of today."