NFL Player of the Day returns for 11th season

The NFL Player of the Day program has gotten cool stuff into collectors hands for more than a decade now and as it starts its 11th season there’s no end in sight.

The promotion offers up a chance at 50,000 prizes and the chance to spend the day with an NFL player. It launched Wednesday and runs through Nov. 30 at more than 550 hobby shops. You can find a hobby shop involved with the program at www.nflpod.com.

In the past, the program was a joint effort between the NFL licensees, but Panini is now the title sponsor of the program. It also is supported by NFL PLAYERS and its licensees, Gamewear, The Licensed Products Company, McFarlane Toys, WinCraft, Reebok, and PSG.

The hobby shops involved receive a free merchandise kit with materials for he promotion, including posters, T-shirts and a variety of prizes supplied by participating licensees.

Each store also receives an autographed card to award to its individual grand prize store winner.  Some of the featured players this year include Arian Foster of the Houston Texans , Philip Rivers, Vernon Davis, Johnny Knox, Anquan Boldin, Chris Long, Marques Colston, Jeremy Maclin, Rashard Mendenhall, AJ Hawk, LeSean McCoy, rookie Demaryuis Thomas, plus NFL Legends Dan Marino, John Elway, Billy Sims, Eric Dickerson and Marcus Allen. In addition, this year the autographed cards are presented in a One-Touch magnetic case with an official Panini authentication sticker.

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 “Panini NFL Player of the Day.”  In addition, Panini spokespersons Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow have been designated as wild cards.  Every time a collector purchases a pack of Panini officially licensed NFL trading cards in a participating hobby shop, he or she can win a prize if the Panini NFL Player of the Day or wild card 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 its store winner who will then be eligible to be entered into the national sweepstakes.

All store winners entered into the national sweepstakes are eligible to win one of more than 100 prizes including the grand prize — the chance to Spend a Day with an NFL Player.  The grand prize includes a 60-minute autograph appearance at the winner’s favorite hobby shop, where the winner will also enjoy a $250 shopping spree and a visit by the player to the winner’s home for a private party.

In addition to the prizes provided by licensees, each store will also receive fourPanini NFL Player of the Day exclusive card packs featuring a unique five card set of Manning and Tebow.  An individually numbered version (1 to 100) of each card will also be randomly inserted into packs.

This marks the 11th consecutive year 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 winners have spent the day with: Patrick Crayton, Steve Slaton, A.J. Feeley, Maurice Jones-Drew, Chris Simms, Rudi Johnson, Donald Driver, Ed McCaffrey, Chad Pennington and Frank Wycheck.