NFL Play 60: Managing the intersection of professional sport and obesity

•Intervention mapping can be used to guide intervention program development.•Sport teams are most effective when providing marketing and financial resources.•Teams should partner with health organizations which can contribute health expertise.•Programs can conform to theoretical parameters without significant investment.Professional sport teams are increasingly involved in corporate social responsibility initiatives that target public health issues. However, the development of these programs are rarely guided by the best practices in public health, and they are almost never subjected to rigorous evaluation. Using a case study approach, intervention mapping, a public health method grounded in the social ecological model, was applied to NFL Play 60, the NFL’s efforts to combat childhood obesity. Using uncontested secondary data, the purpose of the research was to determine the ways in which the program conforms to or deviates from what is suggested by public health research and practice. Program components were examined at the individual and organizational level. The results of the current study suggest that the NFL’s most successful efforts to address childhood obesity are those that were developed with public health partners. Practical implications for developing theoretically-grounded methods and strategies for behaviour change are provided.