Behind the scenes of the 2017 NFL Rookie Premiere

Every year, 40 of the top rookies in the NFL are invited to a unique weekend that kick-starts their marketing opportunities. Here’s an inside look at how it all comes together.

Since the mid-nineties, the NFL Players Association has held an annual event called the Rookie Premiere that brings together various marketing partners of the league and a few dozen of the NFL’s top rookies for a shared weekend. The goal is to help the players begin to think about how to make the most of their new pro platform, and the NFL’s partners are given one-on-one opportunities to create content around the league’s most exciting new players. It’s a win-win situation for all involved, and it’s often a very exciting few days for the NFL’s newest prospects.

This year’s Rookie Premiere is already underway, taking place from May 18-20 in Los Angeles with 40 of this year’s top rookies, including Myles Garrett, Mitchell Trubisky, Leonard Fournette and more. They’ll sign baseball cards for Panini, record marketing videos for FedEx, create content for Nike and so on. It will also be the time that fans will see their favorite team’s newest additions in their full uniform.

We recently asked Ahmad Nassar, the President of NFL Players Inc., for an inside look at the Rookie Premiere. As the head of the NFLPA’s marketing and licensing arm, he’s the ideal insider to discuss how the league is doing its best to prepare the players to make as much as they can from the moment they sign with their respective teams.

Q: How busy are you with the Rookie Premiere?

I presented to the players this morning for about 15 minutes. We have a hands-on project for them, building out their own vision boards for where they see themselves in their career, more in the off-the-field, branding, marketing side. They worked on that for a solid hour, and we floated in the room and talked to them about different aspects of that and various player role models that they all have. Now they rotations with our business partners, so I’m going around making sure they’re okay.

When they’re in rotations, they’re doing everything from taking pictures and signing autographs for trading cards and helmets, filming content with various sponsors and content partners. So I don’t do much there, since the players are the stars of that show. I’m just making sure people get what they need and that our staff is doing what they need to be able to do. I’m the facilitator for the rest of the day. Then tonight we have our big jersey reveal.

This event on Saturday will transition to the L.A. Coliseum. It’s basically a field day and the players will be in full uniform taking photos and other forms of content on the field at the Coliseum on Saturday. What we realized a few years ago is that it’s actually the first time they’ll be wearing their full uniform as NFL players. Working with Nike, who is obviously a key partner, we turned the opening reception on Thursday night into a jersey reveal party. We have a stage and each player has a bust with a jersey on it. We’ll get up and say a few words and so will the folks at Nike and then we’ll actually pull down the curtain and show all 40 players their jerseys.

It’s great because they instantly start taking pictures and Instagramming and Snapchatting. It’s very organic but it’s a cool moment that symbolizes that they’ve made it to the NFL. The draft is always a whirlwind and not everybody is there. If you are, you have to then jet off to whatever city then picked you. You’re sucked into that vortex, so this is a great chance for them to sit back and say, “Hey, I made it and I should be proud of that and build on that.”

Q: Have you found that meant more to the players than you could have predicted?

Yeah, that’s absolutely right. That first year we did it, it was very organic that players wanted to take pictures. They had college teammates who are with them and other guests who are family members and friends. It’s not at all staged. They’re genuinely happy and excited about it.