10,000 autographs
Rookie Premiere has roots as a trading card event, providing the first opportunity for new players to suit up in official pro uniforms—and to be photographed wearing them. Participants are by invitation only, and skew towards those the trading card companies deem as the most collectible—or whom the NFLPA sees as the most marketable. This means the group skews toward high-drafted offensive “skill players,” but later-round quarterbacks have been known to make the cut, as they could find themselves in the spotlight when the season begins.
“We’re making some bets of who are going to be future stars and most marketable down the road,” said Matt Curtin, president of NFL Players Inc. the marketing arm of the NFLPA.
Along with Williams, this year’s list includes quarterbacks Jayden Daniels (Commanders), Drake Maye (Patriots), Michael Penix Jr. (Falcons), J.J. McCarthy (Vikings) and Bo Nix (Broncos). Others include edge rusher Laitu Latu of the Colts; wide receiver Rome Odunze of the Bears and Raiders tight end Brock Bowers. All were first-round picks of their teams, with Williams and Daniels the top two picks overall.
The players are paid to attend, but organizers did not reveal how much, except to describe it as “modestly compensated.”
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For the licensed trading card company Panini America, Rookie Premiere presents an opportunity to photograph players in their official gear that wouldn’t come otherwise until preseason games begin in August. Participants will spend all day Saturday shooting in the LA Coliseum; product from that shoot will be on Bowman label cards available in Target and Walmart as soon as early August, said Jason Howarth, senior VP of marketing and athlete relations for Panini America, parent of the Bowman and Prizm trading card brands.
Players on trading cards are covered under the NFLPA’s group licensing deals, and most have already struck individual deals with Panini prior to the event, said Howarth. At Rookie Premiere, Panini holds a Q&A event for hobby fans with some players, and collects a minimum of 4,000 signatures per player to be used in inserts throughout the year, Howarth said.
The advent of NIL has helped this process too, with 33 players last year signing a record 10,000 autographs at the event.
“They had grown accustomed to signing cards when they were in college,” Howarth said. “They knew exactly what they needed to do when they got into the room.”
Speed dating
Because it allows the players’ union to tackle multiple licensing tasks at a single time and place, Curtin compares Rookie Premiere to an expo for NFLPA sponsors. Interactions with brands are a kind of “speed dating” whereby groups of about five players at a time visit with brands, and other exhibits at the event like content studios.
Sleep Number, an NFL sponsor, is on site demonstrating its beds to players and introducing them to the concept of sleep as a means to improve performance, said Andrea Marsh, senior brand manager of partnerships at the Minneapolis bed maker and retailer. The brand’s goal is to meet each of the rookies and demonstrate to them what a better sleep experience can mean for their careers.
“It’s cool, because it’s a light bulb moment,” Marsh said. “They’re looking for every competitive advantage to succeed in the NFL and quality sleep is the foundation of that. Seeing them make that connection is really cool.”