Jimmy Garoppolo stepped onto SoFi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Rams, on the evening of Nov. 23 wearing light blue cleats with white words reading “Oceana Foundation.” 

Eastern Illinois’ hall of fame quarterback and 2014 second round NFL draft selection chose to represent the Oceana Foundation during the NFL week 12 Sunday Night Football game as part of a campaign happening the last two weeks – weeks 12 and 13 – called “My Cause My Cleats.” 

Oceana Foundation is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Its mission is to protect the oceans across the world by advocating against overfishing, habitat destruction, oil and plastic pollution and the killing of threatened species. 

“Really my whole life, I’ve been to the oceans,” Garoppolo said. “Recently in the last couple of years, I’ve been doing some vacationing to Hawaii and kind of got to see the coral reefs, all the fish life and marine life around there. And that’s kind of what sparked this whole idea. And then me and my brothers [Mikey and Billy Garoppolo] found a cool organization and just went with that.” 

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Submitted by the Los Angeles Rams

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo's cleats for the NFL My Cause My Cleats campaign representing the Oceana Foundation that he worn in the Rams 34-7 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Nov. 23.

Oceans make up 70 percent of the earth and are an important driver for global change, according to NASA. 

They also sustain livelihoods and feed more than one billion people a healthy seafood meal every day, forever, according to Oceana. 

“You make the ocean better, you make the world better type of thing,” Garoppolo said. 

The cleats also read, “Our Oceans, Our Planet, Our Future,” and “Protecting the world’s oceans,” which are both slogans Oceana uses. 

Garoppolo was a part of over 1,800 participating in the NFL My Cause My Cleats campaign.  

The initiative was put in motion after former Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall wore lime green cleats for Mental Health Awareness Week and was given a uniform violation fine in October 2013. Then, the campaign was launched in 2016. 

“We’re only out there for two, three hours, but that one picture maybe someone on the internet sees it and it rubs off on them or gives them an idea to do something good for the world,” Garoppolo said. “We all have different causes, but all of it is really just to create a better world.”