NFLPA Partners With Popular App SportsManias For Custom Emojis

Remember the old days of texting when, to let your friend know how things were, you had to manually take a colon and anything on the keyboard to signify your feelings? Back in the days of flip phones, a colon and a right parenthesis meant all was good, trade the right one for the left parenthesis and you were sad, a colon and a capital O meant something caught you by surprise, and so on. As technology moved on, though, we had to do less work in our texting lives thanks to the creation of emojis, otherwise known as little smiley faces that express any emotion from joy to embarrassment to even frustration.

And now, emojis can even celebrate what’s going on in sports — though the sad face for Browns fans will likely stay in place. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) announced Friday that they would be partnering with the popular app SportsManias to create custom, animated sports emojis featuring some of the league’s biggest names, from Adrian Peterson to Darrelle Revis.

Vicente Fernandez, the CEO and co-founder of SportsManias, said the following in a press release.

“Emojis are becoming a new language for millennial sports fans. SportsManias has taken this to another level, creating animated sports emojis that give fans a way to share their passion. Partnering with the NFLPA is an honor as we seek to connect fans with their favorite players in ways that take full advantage of new opportunities in digital and messaging.”

Steven Scebelo, the vice president of the NFLPA, also chimed in on the partnership.

“We are excited for the opportunity to showcase player personalities in digital form through this partnership with SportsManias. Player emojis allow fans a new, simplified and fun way to keep players involved in their social conversations.”

Our Football Emoji Keyboard is finally here! Take your smack talk to a whole new level! https://t.co/CLfzjqPemN pic.twitter.com/E8CqUTm58r

— Sportsmanias (@Sportsmanias) September 9, 2016

Prior to Friday’s update, the SportsManias keyboard had emojis like Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton doing his signature dab and New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham dancing, but nothing to this extent. What better way to taunt your friend about your fantasy victory than with an emoji of Antonio Brown hugging a goalpost?

Sample emojis include Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jarvis Landry, former NFL MVP and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, All-Pro defensive end and Houston Texans leader J.J. Watt, and Ball So Hard University’s own Terrell Suggs, who is still with the Baltimore Ravens. Other emojis on the SportsManias keyboard include Michael Phelps, Stephen Curry, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Usain Bolt.

SportsManias also confirmed that new emojis will come out during the season featuring the best plays and highlights from around the NFL. If Odell Beckham makes another one-handed catch that goes viral, you’ll be able to get an emoji version of it within days. The same goes for new touchdown celebrations, meaning the Gronk Spike and Cam Newton’s dab will be joined by whatever new trend takes over the league.

The vice president of SportsManias, Tim Stephens, gave a brief statement on the emojis as well in a separate email.

“Today is an exciting day for SportsManias as we launch our new line of pro football emojis in partnership with the NFLPA. The biggest stars of pro football come alive in our keyboard available in the free SportsManias app. These fun emojis, available on iOS, are a great way for fans to celebrate their favorite teams and players during the football season.”

There are two key things to keep in mind when you download this app, specifically when it comes to the keyboard.

1. On most phones, the emojis are not on their own unique emoji board like regular ones, but are in a separate keyboard format.
2. These emojis are not like the normal happy face or jet emojis but are more like GIFs. This makes them more unique and more fun for both the sender and the receiver.

This is a must-download for all football fans because, yes, SportsManias is a free app with no purchase required for the emojis. There’s no in-app purchase to get extra emojis, no type of mandatory subscription just to even access the app; — all you need to do is download the app, set your favorite teams, and you’re free to taunt your friends with as many NFL emojis as you want.

For those wanting to download the SportsManias app, you can add it to your device here.

[Image via SportsManias’ official website and used with permission]