COURTESY NFL
Marcus Mariota will wear customized cleats today against Jacksonville.
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Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota will be wearing customized football cleats to benefit a charitable organization during today’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The NFL allows players specially designed cleats for the league’s “My Cause My Cleats Program” during Weeks 13 to 15 for charitable purposes.
Mariota’s cleats will benefit ALS TDI (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Therapy Development Institute). ALS TDI is the world’s first and largest nonprofit biotech focused solely on ALS research.
During his time at the University of Oregon, Mariota developed a friendship with Oregon Football Student Ambassador Osiel Mendoza, who was diagnosed with ALS at age 21.
Mendoza was friends with San Francisco 49ers receiver Dwight Clark and inherited Clark’s customized accessible van upon Clark’s death from ALS in June.
Mariota’s cleats will be auctioned off on www.NFL.com/mycausemycleats.