MINNEAPOLIS >> Now that the NFL is providing tickets for an entire youth football team from Minneapolis to attend the Super Bowl, it’s also giving away more free tickets to the game.

The Super Bowl Ticket Giveaway will be a nationwide initiative. Beginning this week and continuing throughout the season, fans will be surprised during tailgates, or at stadiums, and even at their homes.

More than half of the tickets (256) will be given out by the NFL teams. An additional 64 will be distributed by the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominees.

The remaining 180 tickets will be awarded at league events such as fan forums, youth football clinics, and through social media and other channels, the NFL says.

Already winners as part of the 500 freebies: The entire Phelps Falcons team, along with coaches and pastor Jim Halbur, who started the 501c3 Phelps Activities Council in 2008, which supports numerous youth leagues, including a local youth football team made up of seventh and eighth graders.

“We know that Super Bowl tickets are out of reach for most people,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “That is why throughout the rest of the season, we’re going to surprise fans with tickets to the big game. In total, we’re going to give away 500 tickets to Super Bowl 52 in Minneapolis.

“Some of these tickets will be given to fans identified by our clubs as exemplifying the heart of their team spirit. Some will go to outstanding youth football coaches and community heroes. And others will recognize our most creative fans — at tailgates, in our stadiums and watching at home — who put on their face paint and jerseys, their Cheeseheads and Viking helmets, and support our teams through thick and thin.”