Behind the scenes of the 2017 NFL Rookie Premiere

Q: What are you doing this year that’s different than previous years?

I think we’ve really doubled down on some content opportunities. Every single player in the NFL, by virtue of being there, was a great, great college player. There are opportunities there that historically we haven’t taken advantage of. I think we’re early in that process of taking current NFL players in conjuctions with their collegiate careers and looking at the opportunities it might create.

Let’s say jersey sales, where we have Deshaun Watson here, so putting his name on a jersey and being able to sell that in a way that not only will Clemson make a royalty but now Deshaun will, too, for the first time. There are other products and promotions and content as well, so focusing on collegiate has been important for us and a nice white space. I think we’re early in that process of building and capitalizing on those opportunities.

Q: What are some other directions you’d like to see the Rookie Premiere go in the future?

I’d love to explore having more players involved. Typically we’ve had about 40, which is a good number, but there are close to 300 or 350 incoming rookies, especially now where the league used to do an event that in late June that was a semi-orientation or welcome to the NFL and things to watch out for. Now they don’t do that and every team does their own thing. Some teams do it well and some teams, I don’t think, don’t really prioritize it. I’d love to have every player here every single year.

In addition to the collegiate space as an opportunity, technology is another. We’ve got Whoop here, which is our first licensed wearable. It’s also our first company that we invested in through our venture fund initiative that was announced right before the draft last month. They’re here and really exploring that interesting intersection of sports and technology and trying to turn some of that new technology into leveragable and actionable data instead of just mildly interesting gadgets. That’s something I want to see more of in future years because I think there are a lot of applications for that.