Third graders at Dr. Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary School in Monroeville are adding, subtracting and multiplying their way through the Pittsburgh Steelers season, using quarterback Aaron Rodgers' weekly passing totals as their math homework. The school became the first classroom in the region to implement NFeLementary, a Steelers-backed curriculum that turns live game statistics into reading, writing and math lessons for elementary students.
The curriculum itself is built as a six-part, project-based learning model that runs 15 to 30 minutes per lesson, blending weekly game numbers — like tracking Rodgers toward 4,000 passing yards or receiver DK Metcalf toward 1,000 receiving yards — with reading, writing, geography and Pittsburgh history, according to the Pittsburgh Steelers. As reported by CBS Pittsburgh, the program updates its data set weekly after each Steelers game wraps up, and the Gateway School District school was among the first to adopt it in a live classroom.
Dr. Emily Levine leads the NFeLementary instruction for her group of third graders, basing lessons on statistics from each Steelers game. One of her students, Kaydence Knight, has used the program to learn addition, subtraction and multiplication, and says she is now hoping to tackle counting by hundreds next, per the same CBS Pittsburgh report. Knight also said her mother enjoys the program.
A Curriculum Born From a Florida Classroom's Viral Moment
NFeLementary did not start in Pittsburgh. It traces back to South Florida educator Mary Crippen, a teacher and social media content creator who first built the concept at Pinecrest Elementary in Miami-Dade County. Crippen gained national viral attention in 2023 when her class tracked Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill's pursuit of 2,000 receiving yards, according to CBS Sports, before she expanded the idea into a multi-subject curriculum.
The Steelers reached out to Crippen directly and became the first professional team to formally adopt her methods, per CBS Pittsburgh's reporting. Justin Mitchell, the Steelers' director of marketing, said the program aims to engage and develop the next generation of Steelers fandom. Mitchell also said Gateway was among the first school districts to adopt the program, after the team contacted every school district in the region.
That regional outreach has already drawn a notable response: 130 school districts have responded to the Steelers' invitation, and the team believes NFeLementary could eventually reach more than 80,000 students. Teachers in 26 other states have downloaded NFeLementary resources, suggesting the Pittsburgh-born push is resonating well beyond western Pennsylvania.
A Hometown Connection Hanging on the Classroom Wall
There's a personal thread running through the Monroeville pilot that predates the Steelers' marketing push. Steelers defensive back Jaquan Brisker attended Dr. Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary as a third grader himself, and the classroom now displays a framed jersey autographed by Brisker, according to CBS Pittsburgh.
Brisker's path back to Monroeville came full circle in March 2026, when he signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract with his hometown Steelers after four seasons with the Chicago Bears, bringing his NFL career back to the same community where he played high school football at Gateway High School, as reported by TribLIVE. His academic path wasn't a straight line, either — Brisker was academically ineligible for NCAA Division I football out of Gateway High School due to low SAT scores, which led him to Lackawanna College in Scranton, where he earned NJCAA First-Team All-American honors while working through his academic development, according to Steelers Depot. He later played at Penn State before reaching the NFL.
Dr. Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary serves approximately 292 students across grades kindergarten through fourth within the Gateway School District, with an 11-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio, per Niche. State evaluation data cited by the same source shows the school's baseline student proficiency sitting at 45% in both mathematics and reading. Gateway School District overall operates six public schools serving roughly 3,485 students across Monroeville and Pitcairn, with four elementary schools feeding into Gateway Middle School and Gateway High School.
Momentum Building Well Beyond Western Pennsylvania
Levine has encouraged other teachers to try NFeLementary, and the curriculum's reach already extends into other regions. Outside Pennsylvania, elementary classrooms in states including Georgia and West Virginia implemented NFeLementary during the 2025 and 2026 school years, assigning students to act as general managers of drafted NFL teams who track player stats, calculate averages, and write letters to franchise front offices, according to the Effingham Herald.
Other NFL franchises had already been engaging directly with Crippen's students before the Steelers formalized a regional curriculum. In September 2025, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel sent a personalized video message and game tickets to a Miami third-grader who had drafted the Patriots in Crippen's class, an interaction documented on the Monongalia County Schools Facebook page. Kylie Kelce's podcast “Not Gonna Lie” has also featured a segment about a classroom trend.
For now, the most concrete results are showing up in a single Monroeville classroom, where multiplication tables are built from Steelers box scores and a framed Brisker jersey watches over third graders doing their math homework.
