NFL Player of the Day Hosts Free Autograph Sessions
September 29, 2008

NY Jets Brad Smith and Pittsburgh Steelers Marvel Smith Kick-Off 2008 NFL Player of the Day Program with Hobby Shop Visits

To officially kick-off the 2008 NFL Player of the Day program at more than 700 hobby shops across the country, Marvel Smith of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Brad Smith of the New York Jets conducted free autograph signing sessions at two hobby shops this month.

On Sept. 16 Smith a multi-talented wide receiver for the Jets visited Steve's Sports Cards in Rutherford, NJ and signed everything from photos to trading cards and footballs for the nearly 100 fans in attendance. The following week Marvel Smith, the All Pro lineman signed free for more than an hour at First & Goal Sports Cards in the Century III Mall in West Mifflin, PA.

"Marvel Smith was a delight to have in our store. He spent quality time with all of our guests and truly seemed to enjoy himself," said Mark Caputo, owner of First & Ten Sports. "It was a real treat to offer our loyal customers the chance to get up close and personal with a Steelers player. I have been a participant in the NFL Player of the Day program for many years and have heard about many stores hosting events in the past so it was a real treat to have the chance to finally have this type of event in my shop. We thank Players Inc and NFL Properties for this great program and for helping hobby shops promote NFL player trading cards."

"We really enjoyed the opportunity to host Brad Smith in our store to kick-off our NFL Player of the Day program," said Steve Bistany, owner of Steve's Sports Cards in Rutherford, NJ. "Our customers love the NFL Player of the Day program so it was really special to start this year's program off with a big event like this. It really gets people excited for collecting NFL player trading cards. We hope our luck continues and we get to host the grand prize event later this year."

As in years past, all of the 700+ shops participating in the 2008 NFL Player of the Day program received a free merchandise kit with all of the promotional material they need to run the promotion from September through November including posters, t-shirts and 100 prizes from such licensees.

Each store also receives an autographed card to award to their grand prize store winner. Some of the player contributing autographed cards for the promotion include: TJ Houshmanzadeh, Dwayne Bowe, Vincent Jackson, Lee Evans, Patrick Crayton, John Beck, Garrett Wolfe and Lamar Woodley.

The centerpiece of the promotion is a poster featuring the trading card images of 32 NFL players - one per team. Each day a different player is designated as the "player of the day." In addition, each shop also selects one player as the "hometown hero" for the duration of the 31-day promotion. Every time a collector purchases a pack of Officially Licensed NFL player trading cards in a participating hobby shop, they can win a prize if the player of the day or hometown hero is in the pack. Each week, stores will also conduct a drawing among the daily winners to award a weekly prize. At the end of the month-long promotion, each store will award the autographed card to their store winner who will then be eligible to be entered into the national sweepstakes.

All of the store winners are entered into the national sweepstakes to win more than 100 prizes including the grand prize -- the chance to Spend a Day with an NFL Player. The grand prize also includes a $250 shopping spree, a 90-minute autograph appearance at the winner's favorite hobby shops and a visit by the player to the winner's home for a private party.

In addition to the prizes contributed by the licensees, each store will also receive four NFL Player of the Day exclusive card packs featuring one special card from each licensee. Donruss produced a special Darren McFadden card, individually numbering 250 of each card to be randomly inserted into packs.

This marks the 9th consecutive year that the NFL Player of the Day program offers an NFL card collector the chance to spend the day with an NFL player. Past "grand prize" players have included: AJ Feeley, Maurice Jones-Drew, Chris Simms, Rudi Johnson, Donald Driver, Ed McCaffrey, Chad Pennington and Frank Wycheck.

More information is available at www.nflpod.com.

Media Contact
Doug Drotman - Drotman Communications - 631-462-1198 (doug@drotmanpr.com)

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