What Is NFeLementary? Inside Mary Crippen’s Viral 3rd Grade Class

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The internet can be a challenging place, but Mary Crippen is thriving. This third-grade teacher from Miami has become popular on TikTok, sharing creative lesson plans centered around football. Her engaging content has earned her nearly 500,000 followers, many of whom wish they could join her class. Crippen describes her online community as a positive space, with nearly 15 million likes and enthusiastic support from NFL players, mascots, and everyday fans—all rallying around her ‘Class Class’ team.

We think this is the most heartwarming content you’ll see all day, and it’s seriously engaging – like watching a game-winning play! Of course, that’s just our opinion.

She explained that people are telling her she’s teaching them how to understand the game, and that her classroom lessons are actually what’s drawing viewers to watch football.

Welcome to NFeLementary, the biggest win for the NFL since Taylor Swift.

What started as a simple project in her mother’s fifth-grade class has grown into a national program. Now, over 350 teachers are using the NFeLementary curriculum – a clever way to teach both school subjects and important life skills – with guidance from head coach Crippen.

Crippen explained he’s always seen sports as a way to understand life. Though he wasn’t a huge fan growing up, he became passionate about football while playing in college. He then applied the teamwork lessons he learned to raising his children and deepening their connection to the sport.

After hearing her students discuss the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins, she had an idea. She wrote the Chiefs’ schedule on the whiteboard and started keeping track of their wins and losses.

She said that if the Dolphins won a game, the students got an extra ten minutes of recess. If they lost, the team had a meeting to discuss what went wrong and how to improve for the next game.

“It was a really enjoyable way to catch up with everyone,” she remembered. “They’d come in excited to discuss the games, and it just evolved into our regular Monday morning meeting.”

What started as a fun weekly online tradition—it became popular on X (formerly Twitter) in 2023—grew into a much bigger project. Now, people are tracking how many yards Tyreek Hill gains, guessing game results, breaking down football plays, and even practicing basic math skills like addition, subtraction, and understanding place value.

After the Dolphins’ season finished and her students didn’t want lessons to stop, Crippen understood she was onto something special. She spent the summer researching and preparing, using materials from her mother and creating her own unique program, which she officially named NFeLementary.

At the start of each school year, students participate in a draft to randomly select a team they’ll support throughout the season. They then create game plans, learn about opposing teams, and watch the games every week.

It’s amazing to see how much the kids are into these old games! Crippen told me they’re actually asking their parents to set them up – not for some updated, kid-friendly version, but the original games. They just want to see real, unfiltered action, and it’s so cool to witness their enthusiasm.

They’re also now helping others learn, acting as coaches. As their children become enthusiastic, adults want to join in and support them, bringing families closer together. It’s wonderful to see kids excited to share their knowledge and teach others.

NFeLementary’s popularity has really taken off, and fans have shown their support in amazing ways! Teams have sent special tickets, autographed merchandise, and heartfelt messages. Incredibly, even Eli and Peyton Manning went the extra mile, signing permission slips so students could stay up late to watch a game.

Honestly, even being right there, seeing everything up close, Ms. Crippen always brings us back down to earth. She’s told us so many times that these incredible experiences aren’t supposed to be the goal. She says if we start expecting things like this, we’ve totally missed the point, and it breaks my heart because I just want her to know how much it means to us, but she’s right – it’s about so much more than just getting close to the action!

The real wins, she insists, are the life lessons: Dedication, heart and teamwork.

And in Florida, where third grade is a heavy test year, those messages are game changers. 

She explained that seeing other players face challenges helps them understand setbacks aren’t permanent. Because of this, when they encounter difficulties themselves, they’ve learned to persevere and guide themselves through tough moments, which she finds particularly impressive.

That’s just one example of how she uses real-world events to teach valuable lessons. When a video of Jalen Carter spitting went viral, she used it as a chance to talk about taking responsibility for your actions. And when Baker Mayfield – who had faced challenges in his career – sent a student tickets to a Buccaneers game, they talked about the importance of never giving up.

She explained that the quarterback’s story is a reminder to never give up, and to have confidence in your own abilities.

Her ultimate goal is to get NFeLementary adopted as the official educational program of the NFL. She’s well on her way, developing versions for students from kindergarten through high school, as well as tailored programs for students with special needs and those in occupational therapy.

She hopes it will be available to everyone, saying she believes it has limitless potential. “It could really take off,” she added.

As someone who helps people optimize their lives, I always say the work doesn’t stop just because things slow down. Even when it feels like a break, there’s still plenty to do behind the scenes to prepare for what’s next. The ‘offseason,’ if you will, is actually a really crucial time for laying the groundwork for future success.

Every spring, her students participate in their own version of the NFL Combine, carefully looking at the results of their 40-yard dash times. Then, they have a unique ‘snack draft’ where students act as team managers, with fast food items representing quarterbacks and drinks representing running backs. She says the comments on her TikTok videos are hilarious, with people playfully wishing their favorite NFL team had chosen a particular snack during the draft, like hoping the Rams had picked Snickers.

Once the initial excitement of the NFL draft is over, her students begin researching the players their teams selected, writing short biographies about these up-and-coming athletes. While the intense focus on the draft itself fades, there’s still plenty to discuss and analyze.

Right after the Super Bowl ends this year, the focus will quickly shift to another major football event: the FIFA World Cup, which is soccer.

Crippen said many of her students love soccer, so they’ll be doing projects about the World Cup host stadiums and the countries participating. She thinks it’s a fun way to finish the school year.

Her record clearly shows she’s dedicated. She’s had perfect attendance many times, and believes that’s directly linked to engaging lessons. Students genuinely enjoy coming to class.

“The mission,” she continued, “is to bring the learning to life and to make school fun.”

In that case, with all due respect to Josh Allen, she might be the real MVP. 

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2025-11-24 22:20