Sponsors, partners and licensees met with 40 of the NFL’s most marketable rookies last week, as the 20th annual NFL Players Association Rookie Premiere took place in LA, where brands ranging from Nike, Pepsi and Electronic Arts to Topps, Uber and Panini America got face time with the newest class. What began as a convenient photo session for upcoming trading card releases has now evolved to a business summit for the athletes who are now walking brands. NFL Players Inc., the licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFLPA, transformed the opportunity into a full-fledged workshop complete with veteran players such as Marshall Faulk delivering business of football seminars, along with networking opportunities to prepare the recent student for the path ahead.

Cynopsis Sports was embedded at the event, and spoke with NFL Players, Inc. President Keith Gordon as well as brand executives about the growth of Rookie Premiere and how players are benefitting from their new-found knowledge. By the way, make sure to read Gordon’s diary from the multi-day event and view a photo gallery here.

Gordon on 20 years of Rookie Premiere: We’ve been looking at this year to commemorate 20 years of blood sweat and tears for the players. It started 20 years ago as an idea to get the card companies what they needed in time to get the rookie cards out. What started out as a very big need for three trading card companies at the time has now grown into something much deeper. Now, the photo shoot is almost an afterthought. So much of what Thursday and Friday is about is content capture: meeting these guys in a way that they will never be able to do again, just before they launch their career.

On brands: They want to know whether or not this guy is going to connect with their consumer. With PepsiCo for example, they have family of brands and the most notable ones are Gatorade for on-field performance while Pepsi is all about off-field and lifestyle. So they want to know how they can get these guys to open up and show their lighter side and do whatever they can to bring that out for their audiences.

On the takeaway: Players should take away, and we tell them this at orientation, that it starts with their on-field performance, we don’t want to take away from that. But once you’ve got a job, we want you to be able to turn it into a career. Once you do that, you take your potential to take more away from football than it does from you. In order to be successful, you have to be able to perform on the field and then you also have to let your personality shine in order to establish connections both with the brands and their consumers. You don’t have to be liked because you are some sophisticated guy who loves tech companies and you know how to Tweet a million things for a million brands, it could also be that you are an Air Force guy who grew up in a military family and you have this connection to the military. Their story is what we want guys to take away from this weekend, the value of their story and the value of how they got it to work for them.

Jason Howarth, VP, Marketing at Panini on player visibility: The dynamic has changed in the marketplace. There’s definitely a lot more visibility for these players in everything that they do from a social media perspective, and they have to be that way. I think they are probably more dialed in to the process. They still have to understand the process and this event and what happens here is really a good learning tool for them to understand what happens when you are not on the field and how you can maximize that opportunity when you are not on the field.

Kevin Eger, Football Brand Manager at Topps on communication: Communication is the key thing. This year, being the 20th anniversary of Rookie Premiere, we have coined the phrase "the Topps family." Rather than have them come here and sign a bunch of cards, where they don’t really know how it is helping them and how it is helping us, we can now let them know, hey you’re part of a family. We show them how a lot of other rookies who have come through here and some of them are now in the Hall of Fame while others have won Super Bowls. If they open up, we can help them make the most of this opportunity.

FOX Sports announced that the 2014 UEFA Champions League Final on May 24 totaled 3.1 million viewers when combined with the audience generated by FOX Deportes. That marks the second most-watched since FOX began carrying the competition in 2010, and was up 48% versus 2013. The broadcast delivered a 1.1/3 household rating/share on FOX with an average audience of 1.9 million viewers, +22% in rating and 36% in audience compared to last year’s final.

ESPN unveiled the talent lineup for the SEC Network’s two-hour Saturday morning college football series SEC nation. Members of the on-air crew are set to include, in addition to the previously announced host Joe Tessitore and analyst Tim Tebow, Paul Finebaum and Marcus Spears. The new channel will debut August 14 and is operated by ESPN in conjunction with the Southeastern Conference. The show will launch its September slate in Nashville and will visit all of the 14 SEC schools by season’s end.

WGN America is getting out the Chicago sports game. Crain’s Chicago Business reports that as the channel transitions to a national basic cable channel, the network will drop coverage of the Cubs, Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox telecasts. The report states that advertising income from those sports contributes $250,000 to income, less than 1% of Tribune’s $234.3 million in operating profit last year.

UniMas reports that its telecast of the Mexico/Israel friendly on May 28, and simulcast on UDN, averaged 2.9 million total viewers and 1.8 million Adults 18-49. Regardless of language, UniMas ranked as the highest rated broadcast station during the match among Adults 18-34 in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Phoenix.

The NCAA Division I Softball Championship Super Regionals last week scored spikes for ESPN with telecasts on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS hitting 26,347,000 viewers, for a 30% uptick over 2013. The Super Regional coverage averaged 413,000 viewers, for a 17% rise. Tulsa ranks as the highest-rated metered market for ESPN’s Super Regional telecasts, followed by Knoxville, Birmingham, Nashville and Oklahoma City.

NUVOtv slated its first ever three-hour live "Knockout" fight event for Saturday at 7p. Bouts will include Dennis Douglin/Charles Whittaker and Azea Augustama/Cory Cummings. Meanwhile, the series, about rookie boxers who come to Las Vegas to train with legendary trainers will return in 2015.

Minor League Baseball revealed the remaining 10 games of this season’s 2014 Game of the Week broadcast schedule on CBS Sports Network. The schedule includes matchups within three classifications of Minor League Baseball, including Triple-A, Double-A and Single-A and marks the first time in MiLB history that multiple classifications of Minor League Baseball will be featured on a national TV broadcast. The schedule resumes June 5 at 10:05p with the Albuquerque Isotopes/Tacoma Rainiers.

Discovery Communications completed its acquisition of a controlling interest in sports entertainment group Eurosport International, to 51% from 20%. "By combining Eurosport’s popular sports programming with Discovery’s global brands and local expertise," said Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav, "we will continue to capitalize on the international growth of pay-TV and create long-term value for our shareholders."

The Denver Broncos as well as Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning inked new, multi-year partnerships with Nationwide. The deal will see Manning work with the brand’s family of companies "to support consumer and business offerings in the auto, home, life and retirement categories" as well as be featured in national advertising starting this fall. Meanwhile, the company also cemented an expanded relationship with the Denver Broncos in a deal that includes media, on-site activation, in-stadium branding and hospitality. In 2014, Nationwide will also be the presenting sponsor of the Broncos’ final regular-season home game on Sunday, Dec. 28, against the Oakland Raiders.

Yahoo Sports announced upgrades for its Fantasy Football platforms, with the app introducing mobile auction drafts, in addition to features that include tools, draft recaps, and player news streams. Registration is now open for fall leagues.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Which MLB team used to play in Memorial Stadium? Answer: The Orioles. Kudos: Bobby Coyle-Clear Channel Media + Entertainment/NY; Kyle Dwyer-MetaVision Media/NY; Rick Alessandri-Univision/NY; Mitch Burg-SNTA/NY; Jon Miller-NBC Sports/Stamford; Chris Madigan-Octagon/Charlotte; Jon Clateman-Frozen Ropes/Syosset; Eric Oberman-Atlanta Sports Council/Atlanta; Joe Lyons-Back Nine Productions, Inc./Dallas; Joe Haack-Time Warner/Lincoln; David Hauptman/Denver; Rick Pike-Intermedia Advertising/Woodland Hills; Steve Morrow-Eclipse/Mill Valley; Joe Pedri-KLAS/Las Vegas; Alan Perris/Beverly Hills.

Roberta Caploe: Editorial Director @robertacaploe
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group

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