Feature Foundation: TJ DUCKETT's Foundation

Welcome to the TD Foundation

TJ Duckett has established a foundation to positively impact youth and families who have lost loved ones to cancer with providing assistance to those who are currently living with cancer. As a son of a cancer victim, TJ knows first-hand the challenges families face when treatment becomes necessary as employment. The TD Foundation wants to help patients focus on living with cancer instead of dying from it-- to turn cancer patients into cancer survivors.

As a member of the Detroit Lions , all players are encouraged to get involved in charitable organizations and to give back to the community. TJ has taken it one step further by establishing the TD Foundation. For many years TJ has actively supported cancer research and awareness projects but now he wants to personally provide resources and assistance that he feels would have made a significant difference to his family while they were struggling to live with his mother’s illness.


The American Cancer Society estimates in 2007 that there will be over 1.5 million new cases of cancer diagnosed and that 559,650 people are expected to die of cancer, more than 1500 a day. Cancer has a lasting impression on patients, friends and loved ones. Some have just been diagnosed or are going through treatment, while others no longer have active symptoms of cancer or are considered cured. Today, cure rates continue to improve as new medicines and treatments are discovered. Join Team Duckett as we strive to assist organizations in the fight to cure cancer.

‘Maddenpalooza’ Rocks Rose Bowl

For thousands of gaming enthusiasts, the big day had finally arrived. On Monday, avid players of the hit video game Madden NFL 09 swarmed into the historic Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the most popular video gaming franchise in sports history.

But hard-core fans weren’t the only ones there.

“I used to be good at Madden back when you only needed three buttons to play,” retired NFL star Warren Sapp said.

While Sapp’s best Madden playing days may be behind him, the future is bright for EA Sports and its signature game. The launch of Madden, themed “Maddenpalooza,” gave fans the opportunity of a lifetime at this gaming and music-based festival/event—a first look at the highly anticipated Madden NFL 09.

The strong relationship between Electronic Arts and NFL PLAYERS, the marketing and licensing subsidiary of the NFLPA, was on display Monday as “Maddenpalooza” featured more than a dozen former NFL superstars including Marshall Faulk, Eric Dickerson, Warren Moon and Eddie George, the first Madden cover athlete. This unique interaction allowed fans to experience the launch of the franchise’s 20th iteration in grand style.

Peter Moore, President of EA Sports, said, “The launch of Madden NFL 09 is of a magnitude that only the Rose Bowl can accommodate.”

The fan-fest atmosphere offered a player autograph stage, more than 300 gaming kiosks, football long-toss competitions and free beverage tents. Kicking off the day, fans were treated to musical performances by Rev Theory and Airborne, two bands whose music has been featured on the game’s soundtracks.

“To have an event at an historical place like the Rose Bowl and to go outside and see the huge tarp of artwork draping the whole stadium is incredible. Madden has become synonymous with the NFL,” said ex-Chicago Bears wide receiver Willie Gault.

Fans flocked to the Rose Bowl, grabbing their place in long lines as early as 3 a.m. on Aug. 11, in order to guarantee themselves a chance to play and buy the first available copies of the game. One of those loyal fans, Pasadena resident Jonathan Martinez, could hardly contain his excitement.

“I came out today just to get Madden NFL 09,” he said. “I’ve been playing since 1989 and I’m really hoping to play against some former NFL players. I couldn’t miss this.”

Faulk, the cover athlete for the 2003 version of Madden, put into perspective the impact of the game on its fans. “They love this game, they want this game, they do everything for this game. If you drop this game on the field, and just gave one out to everyone, it would cause a riot,” Faulk said.

The pre-launch buildup ended with a bang as Good Charlotte and Busta Rhymes amped up the crowd just hours before the sale of the first game. In an adjacent Wal-Mart store made specifically for the event, the first fans to purchase a copy—Jessica Didway and Fernando Aragno from Hacienda Heights, Calif.—were showered in confetti and presented the first sale by former San Francisco 49ers great Roger Craig.

With millions of pre-ordered copies for this year’s game, the first 20 years of the Madden franchise has been a rousing success. And if the popularity of “Maddenpalooza” is an indication of things to come, it will only continue to get bigger.

History of Madden

Dating back to 1989, when it debuted on the Apple II, the Madden franchise has grown tremendously over its 20 years of existence. Despite the original game’s unchartered success, the sentiment from retailers and EA alike was to not move forward with a sequel. Undeterred, and with a change of heart, the game continued to evolve. EA made its biggest splash with its 1995 edition, the first game which featured an NFL PLAYERS (then PLAYERS INC) license, which granted the rights of all active NFL players for use in the game.

NFL PLAYERS COO Andy Feffer reinforced the enthusiasm of partnering with EA Sports over the past 14 years. “We are thrilled to be partners with the leaders in the video game industry,” Feffer said.

A Player’s Game, Too

As fans gave their feedback on the game, the group of former NFL players in attendance discussed a wide range of topics about Madden and showed that when it comes to video games, the real players are big fans, too.


Longtime Buffalo Bills great Andre Reed, who had his 12-year-old son with him, noticed that “kids are going crazy” over the game. Dickerson, he of the 2,000-rushing yard season, said, “I love to play. It’s just like playing real football.”


Meanwhile, Moon, also a fan of the game, offered one critique: “They need a bigger controller. These people don’t realize how many broken and jammed fingers I had in my career,” Moon said. And perhaps George summed it up best when he explained, “When you walk into a room, I’m not sure if it is a real NFL game on the television screen or Madden.”

Union Plus Provides Support for Education

The NFLPA’s involvement in the Union Plus program provides members with various opportunities available to them and their children, including scholarships.

“Students are eligible for various union-sponsored scholarships,” said NFLPA Union Privilege Liaison Christie Gagnon. “It’s a great way to help make continuing education more affordable.”

For more than a decade, the Union Plus Scholarship Program, offered through the Union Plus Education Foundation, has supported working families pursuing post-secondary education. There are currently four types of scholarships offered, all of which target different needs: the Union Plus Scholarship, Union Leaders of the Future Scholarship, Union Plus National Labor College Scholarship, and Nationwide Scholarship Search. All are available to family members of dues-paying union members in good standing. The 2009 scholarship applications will be available through the Union Plus website in September 2008.

“In addition to our player development department, which offers career and continuing education guidance, the Union Plus scholarship opportunities and College Planning Center are excellent resources available through Union Plus,” said Gagnon. “These tools are available to our active and retired members and their children, and we hope to increase the awareness and use of these educational tools amongst our membership.”

The College Planning Center provides family members with career assessments as well as assistance with the completion of college admission forms. To help simplify the timeline of the college application process, the center breaks it up into several segments: discovering, selecting, deciding, preparing, applying and paying.

To take advantage of these scholarship and college assistance opportunities and more, login in the upper right corner of this page. If you do not yet have login account please contact our offices at 800-372-2000. Active players should ask for ext. 475 or 474 and retired members should ask for ext. 167. Once logged in, click on Membership Discount Programs to view all current offers, which are subject to change.