The 2026 Football Holiday Gift GuideBest gifts for players, coaches & fans of all ages

Best Gift Under Ten Dollars

GoSports natural eye black sticks, 2-pack

GoSports · gosports.com

Two sticks of eye black made with beeswax and carnauba rather than petroleum.

Eye black is the first thing a seven year old asks for after his first game, and it costs less than a sheet of stickers. The reason to buy this one rather than the drugstore version is what is in it: beeswax and carnauba, which matters when the stuff ends up on a sleeve, in a mouth and on your car seat. Two sticks last one kid a season or a whole sideline an afternoon. Put it in the stocking and let him decide how much is too much.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at GoSports

Best Gift for a Whole Team

Champro FJ57 Shuffle practice jersey

Champro · joesusa.com

A mesh practice pinnie in sixty-five colour and size combinations, youth through adult.

Every coach who has run a practice without pinnies has watched ten minutes disappear while kids argue about who is on which team. A set of these ends that argument for under ten dollars a shirt. For a parent the single jersey is the quiet gift that actually gets used: kids wear the colour the coach assigns, and the one who brings his own is never the kid who sits out a drill because the pinnies ran short. Buy two, in two colours.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player or coach
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at Champro

Best Quarterback Detail

Sleefs thin football towel

Sleefs · sleefs.com

A thin patterned football towel that tucks into a waistband.

A quarterback's hands in November decide more games than his arm does. This is the piece of kit kids copy straight off Sunday television, and unlike most copied gear it does the job: thin enough to tuck and stay tucked, big enough to dry a ball between snaps. It is also the cheapest possible version of the gift every ten year old actually wants, which is to look like a real player.

Before you buy. The patterns rotate, so the exact colourway may have changed by the time you look.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at Sleefs

Most Useful Gift Nobody Asks For

Shock Doctor Gel Max youth mouthguard

Shock Doctor · shockdoctor.com

The standard youth gel mouthguard, in strapped and strapless versions.

Nobody gives a mouthguard as a present, which is exactly why it makes a good one. It is the most lost piece of equipment in youth football: left in a helmet, dropped in the grass, chewed into uselessness by October. A spare in the box in December means the kid is not borrowing one in January. Tackle players need the strapped version to attach to the facemask. Flag players do not need one at all, which is worth knowing before you buy.

Before you buy. Tackle needs the strapped version. A flag player does not need one at all.

• Unisex
• Tackle only
• For the player
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at Shock Doctor

Best First Step to Knowing the Playbook

Cutters Triple Playmaker wrist coach

Cutters · cutterssports.com

A wrist band with three clear sleeves for printed play sheets.

The jump from a kid who runs plays to a kid who knows plays happens the week he can read his own wristband. Three sleeves is the useful number: one for the base offense, one for the red zone, one for whatever the coach added on Tuesday. For a coach it is the cheapest way to stop shouting formations across a field. It works with any sheet you can print, which is why it stays useful long after the wrapping paper.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player or coach
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at CuttersBuild the sheets that go in it

Best Headband That Actually Stays Put

Sweaty Bands Friday Night Lights headband

Sweaty Bands · sweatybands.com

A velvet-backed non-slip headband from a line actually designed around football.

Ask a girl who plays what annoys her most and it will not be the contact, it will be her hair. A band that slides is a band she fixes twice a drive instead of playing. The velvet backing is the whole product: it grips without pinching and it survives a wash. The print is football without being a uniform, which matters at the age where a kid wants to look like herself rather than like everybody else on the roster.

• Girls and women
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at Sweaty Bands

Best Layer for a Cold Field

NXTRND skull cap

NXTRND · nxtrndusa.com

A moisture-wicking cap worn under a helmet, or on its own.

In tackle it sits under the helmet and keeps sweat out of the eyes and the padding off the forehead. In flag, where there is no helmet at all, it does the same job on its own, which is why it ends up in a flag player's bag too. It is also the rare twenty dollar item that reads as gear rather than a stocking filler, because it is what he sees college players wearing on a sideline in December.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at NXTRND

Best Thing a League Uniform Does Not Dictate

Flag-Up performance arm sleeve

Flag-Up · flag-up.com

A compression arm sleeve from a brand that makes flag football gear and nothing else.

A league dictates the jersey, the shorts and the flags. The sleeve is the one thing a player gets to choose, which is why it is the thing they ask for. For girls especially it is the decision that makes a handed-down uniform feel like theirs. It is also genuinely useful on a cold field in a shirt with no sleeves, which describes most flag seasons after the middle of October.

• Girls and women
• Flag only
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at Flag-Up

Best Driveway Drill

SKLZ Great Catch

SKLZ · sklz.com

A training ball covered in raised rubber nubs that hold it off the palm.

The single most common fault a flag coach spends a season fixing is catching with the chest instead of the hands. This makes that impossible: the nubs keep the ball off the palm, so the only way to hold on is with fingertips. A kid can throw it against a wall, alone, for twenty minutes, which is the other half of the value. Twenty dollars and no setup makes it the drill that actually happens in a driveway.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at SKLZMore catching drills for one player

Most Fun Way to Throw More Passes

The Dime Lab Water Football

The Dime Lab · thedimelab.com

A PVC mesh football over a rubber bladder, built to be thrown in water, in mini and standard.

The company was co-founded by the former NFL quarterback Kurt Benkert, and this one followed its Official Game Football about a month later. It works in a pool, a lake and the ocean, so it turns a family holiday into throwing practice without anyone having to call it practice. That is the quiet reason it is a good gift. The kid who throws two hundred more balls a year is the kid whose spiral tightens, and nothing gets a kid throwing like a ball that is more fun wet than dry.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player or parent or fan
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at The Dime Lab

Best Gift for a First-Year Coach

Play Fanatics Starter Coach Swag Pack

Play Fanatics · playfanatics.com

A starter bundle of coaching gear from a company whose day job is running flag leagues.

First-year flag coaches are almost always a parent who said yes in a car park and now owns a team. This is the box that makes that person look like they know what they are doing in week one. It comes from a company that runs leagues rather than one that sells merchandise, which is why the contents are the things a coach reaches for instead of the things that photograph well. It is the best thank-you gift on this list.

• Unisex
• Flag only
• For the coach
• Grown-ups

See it at Play FanaticsBuild their first practice plan

Best Teaching Tool for a 5v5 Team

Flag Football IQ 5v5, International Level 1

American Football IQ · americanfootballiq.com

A physical card deck of 5v5 terms, concepts and coverages, built for the international flag game.

The gap between a team that runs plays and a team that plays football is vocabulary. Every kid needs to hear flat, seam and cover two enough times for the words to mean something before a play call can work at all. Cards do that better than a whiteboard because they get handled, sorted and argued over on a kitchen table. For a coach it is a season of install material that does not depend on anyone having a laptop at the field.

• Unisex
• Flag only
• For the player or coach
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at American Football IQOur 5v5 concept library

Best Glove Made for Girls

Battle I'm HER 2.0 Bella female-fit receiver gloves

Battle Sports · battlesports.com

A receiver glove built on a female-specific last, not a boys' glove in a different colour.

Most girls' football gear is a boys' product in a new colourway, and gloves are where that shows: too wide across the palm, too long in the finger, so the tack sits where her hand is not. This one is cut narrower and shorter. A glove that fits is a glove she trusts to catch in, and a kid who trusts her hands runs better routes, because she stops thinking about the catch before the ball arrives. It is the only glove here made for her rather than adapted to her.

• Girls and women
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at Battle Sports

Best First Glove

Grip Boost Stealth 6.0 youth gloves

Grip Boost · gripboost.com

A youth-cut receiver glove with a sticky silicone palm, in about a dozen colourways at one price.

If you buy one piece of football equipment for a kid who plays, buy gloves. They are the thing he uses on every single play, the thing that goes in the bag first, and the thing that makes a drop feel like his fault rather than the weather's. Youth-specific sizing matters more here than the brand name: an adult small is still too long in the fingers for a ten year old, and a glove that bunches is a glove that drops.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at Grip Boost

Best Gift for the Player Who Has Everything

Shock Doctor Showtime sunglasses

Shock Doctor · shockdoctor.com

Sport sunglasses from a brand better known for mouthguards and protective gear.

Be honest about what this is. A kid wears these to the field, not on it. It is the gift for the player who already has all the gear and wants to look the part walking in, which is a real thing to want at thirteen. The reason it sits on a football list rather than a general one is the name on the arm: a kid who knows the brand from his mouthguard reads these as team kit rather than as his dad's sunglasses.

Before you buy. This is a sale price, around half the list price. It will not hold forever.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at Shock Doctor

Most On-the-Nose Flag Football Gift

Infinite Flag Fight '26 flag set, flags plus belts

Infinite Flag · infiniteflag.com

Flags, connectors and a belt in two size runs, from a flag-only brand.

Every flag player eventually plays in a set that is not the league's: pickup in the street, a game in the back yard, a tournament where the box of belts runs short. Owning a belt means you are never the kid standing in a scrimmage with a shirt tail tucked in to stand in for a flag. It is also the one item here that exists only because this sport exists, which makes it the most on-the-nose flag football gift money can buy.

Before you buy. A limited drop, so check the size run is still listed.

• Unisex
• Flag only
• For the player or coach
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at Infinite Flag

Best Shirt a Kid Will Actually Choose

Homage Youth Peanuts Joe Cool x NFL team

Homage · homage.com

A youth retro tee, Snoopy in a football helmet, available for all thirty-two NFL teams.

Licensed youth football apparel is usually ugly, which is why kids wear it once and go back to the hoodie they like. This is the exception: a design a nine year old will choose on a school morning, in his team's colours. The gift logic is simple. Gear for the field gets used on game day. A shirt he actually likes gets used a hundred days a year, and on every one of them he is thinking about football.

Before you buy. Pick the team before you check the size. Not every team has every size.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12
• Pick your team

See it at Homage

Best Sideline Bottle

Frost Buddy Bottle Buddy 24oz, Football Drip

Frost Buddy · frostbuddy.com

An insulated 24oz steel bottle with straw and chug lids, a detachable strap and a non-slip base.

Football practice is two hours in the heat in August and two hours in the cold in November, and the bottle a kid brings is either part of the kit or a problem. This one has the parts that matter: it holds ice through a doubleheader, the strap means it hangs off a bag instead of rolling under the bleachers, and the base does not slide off a bench. The football print is why it reads as a gift rather than as a chore.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player or parent or fan
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at Frost Buddy

Best Gift for Practising Alone

Passback Junior Composite, ages 9-13

Passback · passbacksports.com

A junior-size football with a flat back that rebounds off a wall, sized for nine to thirteen.

This is the only item here that lets a kid practise alone. Throw it at a wall and it comes back to be caught, over and over, with no sibling required and no parent standing in a dark garden. Every coach knows which kids got better over the winter, and it is almost always the ones who had a way to do something by themselves. The junior size matters: a full-size ball with a flat back is too heavy for small hands.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12

See it at PassbackDrills a kid can run on their own

Best Upgrade to Gear They Already Own

Bownet quarterback targets

Bownet · bownet.net

A 21.5 by 11.5 inch barrier target that hangs on a throwing net you already own.

Throwing into a net teaches a kid nothing except that nets are large. Hanging a target in it turns the same twenty minutes into accuracy work with a result he can see on every throw. It is the cheap upgrade to equipment a family or a team already has, which is the most useful kind of gift in this sport. The brand is the one coaches know from team gear, so it survives real use rather than one season.

Before you buy. This is the target, not the net. It needs a net to hang on.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player or coach
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at Bownet

Best Gift That Goes to School

Chalk Talk football lunch box

Chalk Talk Sports · chalktalksports.com

An insulated lunch box with football artwork, from a sport-specific gift brand.

Nothing else on this list goes to school with the kid five days a week, and that is the whole argument. Football gifts tend to live in a bag in a garage between Saturdays, and a seven year old's enthusiasm for a sport does not survive on one afternoon a week. A lunch box is the gift that keeps turning up, and it is the one a younger sibling will ask for next year.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12

See it at Chalk Talk Sports

Best Gift for a Kicker

Wizard Kicking Stix football holder

Wizard Sports · wizardsports.com

A telescoping steel holder that stands a ball up for place kicking, designed by a former All-American kicker.

A kicker's practice normally needs a second person kneeling in front of him to hold the ball, which is why most kickers practise far less than they should. This removes the second person. It adjusts for height and folds down to live in a trunk. For a high school kicker who wants reps on his own schedule rather than his dad's, it is the difference between twenty kicks a week and two hundred.

• Unisex
• Tackle only
• For the player or coach
• Ages 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at Wizard Sports

The Tackle Buy Parents Most Often Get Wrong

McDavid Rival integrated 5-pad girdle

McDavid · mcdavidusa.com

A compression girdle with five pads built in: both hips, both thighs and the tailbone.

Loose pads in pockets shift, which is how a kid takes a hip to the ground with the pad somewhere up near his ribs. An integrated girdle keeps every pad where it was designed to sit, and he puts it on in one movement instead of five, which is the real reason he will wear all of it rather than most of it. For a parent it is the piece of tackle equipment most often bought wrong and the one most worth getting right.

• Boys and men
• Tackle only
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at McDavid

Best Gift for the Coach Who Plans

RC Football Coach Season Pass

RC Football · rc-football.com

Four months of RC Football: the play designer, AI play generation, the simulator and the playbook maker.

Four months covers a flag season from the coaches' meeting to the last game. A new coach spends the first three weeks drawing plays on napkins and the rest of the season wishing he had them somewhere he could find them again. This is the gift for the parent who just volunteered, and for the one coach every league has who would rather plan than improvise. It is also the only thing on this list that makes his Tuesday night easier.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the coach
• Grown-ups

See it at RC Football

Best Gift for a Coach in the Rain

Fisher Third Hand game plan protector, 3-pack

Fisher · anthem-sports.com

A zip-lock vinyl sleeve on a detachable lanyard that holds an 8.5 by 11 game plan, three to a pack.

A coach's game plan is a sheet of paper in weather. It gets rained on, folded into a pocket, or held in the same hand as the whistle. This hangs it round his neck where he can read it, keeps it dry, and takes grease-pencil adjustments straight on the sleeve so a change made in the first quarter is still there in the third. Three to a pack means the coordinator, the line coach and the spare all have one.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the coach
• Grown-ups

See it at FisherPrint the sheet that goes in it

Best Gift With Their Name On It

Shruumz customised backpack

Shruumz · shruumz.com

A backpack printed with the player's own name and number.

A kid's name on his own bag is the detail that makes him feel like he is on a real team, and it is the reason this gift is remembered when the gear inside it is not. Practically it also ends the sideline pile of nine identical black bags. Order it early: anything printed takes longer than anything on a shelf, and that is the one December mistake nobody can fix on the twenty-fourth.

Before you buy. Printed to order. Give it a head start: early December is the safe window.

• Unisex
• Flag only
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17
• Personalised, so order early

See it at Shruumz

Best Gift for the Parent Who Drove

Rumpl Original Puffy throw blanket

Rumpl · rumpl.com

A recycled ripstop blanket with synthetic fill that packs down into its own stuff sack.

This is a gift for the person who drove. An eight o'clock kickoff in a wet November stand is survivable with the right blanket and miserable with a fleece one, because fleece holds water and this does not. It packs small enough to live in the car permanently, which is the only kind of blanket that ever gets used twice. Buy it for the parent who has watched every game and never once asked for anything.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the parent or fan
• Grown-ups

See it at Rumpl

Best Gift for Standing Still in December

Ignik Ripple rechargeable hand warmers, 2-pack

Ignik · ignik.com

Two rechargeable hand warmers, rather than a box of disposables.

The coldest person at a December game is the coach holding a clipboard, because he is the one who cannot keep his hands in his pockets. Rechargeable is the point: a box of disposables is a consumable that runs out in January, and these are still in the bag next season. It is the gift that admits what youth football is actually like for the adults, which is standing still outdoors for two hours while somebody else runs around.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the parent or fan or coach
• Grown-ups

See it at Ignik

Best Flag-Specific Safety Gift

Guardian Sports LOOP flag football headband

Guardian Sports · shop.guardiansports.com

A soft-shell protective headband built for flag football, in nine colourways and sizes small to extra large.

This answers the question every flag parent actually asks. There is no helmet in flag and head knocks still happen, usually two kids going for the same ball in the air. The brand is the one coaches know from the soft cap worn over helmets across football, and this is its flag version. It is the only product on this entire list designed for flag football and nothing else, which is why it is here even at this price.

Before you buy. Thirty of the thirty-three size and colour combinations were in stock. Check yours.

• Unisex
• Flag only
• For the player
• Ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at Guardian Sports

Best Cleats a Kid Will Brag About

Phenom Elite x Kool-Aid Sharkleberry Fin Quantum Speed cleats

Phenom Elite · phenomelitebrand.com

Officially licensed Kool-Aid teal and pink on an 8.5 ounce low-cut speed plate, from a youth 1 upward.

Cleats are the one piece of football gear a kid has an opinion about, and the opinion is never about the plate. Twenty-three of the twenty-four sizes start at a youth 1, so this genuinely fits a nine year old rather than only his older brother. The same shoe exists in plain team colours for less, so what the extra buys is the print, and whether that is worth it depends entirely on how much the kid likes Kool-Aid. A lot of them like it a lot.

Before you buy. A sale price against a higher list, and twenty-three of twenty-four sizes were available.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at Phenom Elite

Best Last-Minute Personalised Gift

Elite Athletic Gear Pro Number pendant, 6mm Cuban chain

Elite Athletic Gear · eliteathleticgear.com

A stainless pendant with 14K gold plate, in any number from 0 to 99, on a 6mm Cuban chain.

This is the only gift here that is personal without being made to order. Every number from 0 to 99 is stocked, so it arrives in days rather than three weeks, and in December that matters more than almost anything else about a present. A kid's number is the one thing about his season that is entirely his, and this is the version of it he can wear to school. The lighter 4.5mm chain on the same page costs less if the look is too heavy.

Before you buy. All one hundred numbers are stocked, so unlike most personalised gifts this one ships without a wait.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17, grown-ups
• Personalised, so order early

See it at Elite Athletic Gear

Best Gift for a Player Chasing Speed

Kbands Freedom speed training bundle

Kbands · kbandstraining.com

A resistance training bundle sized by waist, for speed and acceleration work.

Speed is the one thing in football a kid can improve on his own, and the one thing every coach would take more of. This is a set rather than a single band, which is what makes it a gift instead of a part: there is enough in the box to run a real session without buying anything else. It suits a thirteen and up player who has started caring about getting faster, and it is wasted on a nine year old who just wants to play.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player or coach
• Ages 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at Kbands

Best Gift for a Coach With a Real Playbook

RC Football Coach Pro Season Pass

RC Football · rc-football.com

Everything in the Coach pass plus wristband creation, printable sideline sheets, more AI credits and the premium play library.

The upgrade is for the coach who already plans. Wristband creation and printable sideline sheets are the two things that turn a playbook on a screen into something a ten year old can read between plays, and the premium library means he spends Tuesday choosing plays rather than inventing them. If the coach in your life is the one who turns up with a laminated sheet, this is the gift he would have bought himself.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the coach
• Grown-ups

See it at RC Football

Best Gameday Gift Beyond the Field

Gameday Couture x Madi Prewett college line

SOHO · shopthesoho.com

A women's gameday collaboration line across about thirty colleges, from a ribbed tank up to a varsity jacket.

Not every football gift is for somebody who plays. This is for the teenager or the mother whose football is a Saturday, a school and a group chat, and whose current options are a men's tee in a smaller size. The fleece crewneck is the piece the line is built around. Check the school before you buy: around thirty are covered rather than all of them, and the fit is a women's cut the whole way through.

Before you buy. Around thirty schools are covered rather than all of them. Check hers first.

• Girls and women
• Flag or tackle
• For the player or parent or fan
• Ages 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at SOHO

Best Gift for the Fan Who Will Not Wear a Jersey

Aviator Nation NFL collection

Aviator Nation · aviatornation.com

A California brand's signature stripes applied to NFL helmet artwork, from tees up to hoodies.

This is the gift for the adult fan who would never wear a jersey. It reads as a brand people already like with football on it, rather than as merchandise, and that is exactly why it gets worn to places a jersey does not go. It is the most expensive apparel on this list and the only item that would survive in a general gift guide. Nine teams are covered rather than the full league, so check yours before you fall in love with it.

Before you buy. Nine teams are covered, not the full league.

• Girls and women
• Flag or tackle
• For the parent or fan
• Grown-ups
• Pick your team

See it at Aviator Nation

Best Way to End the Rush-Count Argument

GameBreaker QB-Tee timing tee

GameBreaker · gamebreaker.com

A programmable tee that starts timing the moment the quarterback lifts the ball and buzzes when his time is up.

In flag and 7-on-7 the rush count is the most argued-about rule on the field, because it is a human being counting out loud. This takes the argument away: the clock starts when he picks the ball up and the buzzer ends it. For a quarterback practising alone it beats a parent with a stopwatch, because it is consistent. The legs come off, so it goes in a trunk and comes to the field rather than living in a garage.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the coach or player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at GameBreakerTiming drills to use it with

Best Trophy for a Whole League

TrophySmack Legendary 6lb custom championship belt

TrophySmack · trophysmack.com

A six pound customised championship belt, in black leather and a handful of other finishes.

The most photographed object in fantasy football, and the reason a league keeps its group chat alive in February. Buy it once and it comes back every December with a new name on it, which is the trick: it is a gift to the whole league disguised as a gift to one person. For a youth team it is the end-of-season award kids remember a great deal longer than a medal, and it is the only thing here that gets handed on rather than used up.

Before you buy. Customised to order, so order in the first half of December.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the parent or fan
• Grown-ups
• Personalised, so order early

See it at TrophySmack

Best Big Present for a Tackle Player

LIGHT Apache Tomahawk youth helmet

LIGHT Helmets · lighthelmets.com

A youth tackle helmet from the brand built around being the lightest shell on the field.

Nobody buys a helmet off a gift guide, but grandparents do ask what the big present should be, and for a tackle player this is the honest answer. Weight is the thing that matters most in a youth helmet, because a heavy shell on a small neck changes how a kid tackles and how long he lasts in August. Fit is not a guess: measure before you order, and check the size, because the middle sizes sell out first.

Before you buy. Measure before you order. The middle sizes sell out first, and two were already gone.

• Unisex
• Tackle only
• For the player
• Ages 9 to 12, 13 to 17

See it at LIGHT Helmets

Best Gift for a Player Who Wants to Go Further

American Football IQ Play Fast Elite bundle, Vol. 1 to 4

American Football IQ · americanfootballiq.com

All four volumes, 216 cards: terms and coverages, the trenches, the quarterback and the perimeter.

This is the serious-player gift in a price band otherwise full of helmets and nets. A player who wants to go further stops being limited by his body at some point and starts being limited by what he understands, and this is a year of that in a box. Bought as the bundle it costs less than the four volumes separately. It also makes a real gift for a high school assistant teaching a position group for the first time.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the player or coach
• Ages 13 to 17, grown-ups

See it at American Football IQOur coverage breakdowns

Best Gift Someone Will Still Wear in Ten Years

Homage x Starter NFL pullover jacket, all 32 teams

Homage · homage.com

The pullover jacket collaboration everyone who was a kid in the nineties remembers, in all thirty-two teams.

Made properly rather than as a costume, which is the whole reason to buy it instead of a cheaper tribute. This is the gift for the parent on the sideline rather than the player on the field, and it is the one item on this list somebody will still be wearing in ten years. All thirty-two teams exist, though a handful sell out, so check yours. There is also a cheaper coach's jacket in the same collaboration if the pullover is too much.

Before you buy. Twenty-five of the thirty-two teams were available. Seven were sold out.

• Unisex
• Flag or tackle
• For the parent or fan
• Grown-ups
• Pick your team

See it at Homage