Reebok NFL Players Rookie Premiere Presented by EA Sports to Air on the NFL Network

Reebok NFL Players Rookie Premiere Presented by EA Sports to Air on the NFL Network

WASHINGTON, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2005 Reebok NFL Players Rookie Premiere presented by EA Sports and produced by PLAYERS INC will air nationally on the NFL Network beginning July 11 at 8 p.m. Rich Eisen and Sterling Sharpe co-host the hour-long television special, which showcases the talents and personalities of 30 of the top 2005 NFL draft picks.

Trading card companies Donruss/Playoff, Topps and Upper Deck sponsored the event filmed last May at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The show follows the rookies as they put on their new team uniforms for the first time and go through a series of photo shoots which lead to their very first professional trading cards. The players are also filmed working with EA Sports in the "motion capturing" segment, where each of the players' moves will be transformed to the new Madden video game.

A new sponsor to this year's event was Pepsi, who utilized the Rookie Premiere to launch its Rookie of the Week and Rookie of the Year programs, a season-long promotion where fans vote on http://www.nfl.com/ for their favorite rookie. During the event's welcome reception, several rookies campaigned to win fans' votes as the 2005 Pepsi Rookie of the Year and those video testimonials will be shown in the television special.

In addition, the show will catch up with the "Auburn Connection," which includes Ronnie Brown, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, Carlos Rogers and Jason Campbell -- all of whom were drafted in the first round out of Auburn. Sterling Sharpe will also interview Troy Williamson, the Vikings' newest wide receiver who, like Sharpe, attended the University of South Carolina. In a separate interview, Rich Eisen will talk to his alma mater's newest NFL rookie, University of Michigan and new Browns' wide receiver Braylon Edwards.

In its ninth year, the Reebok NFL Players Rookie Premiere is an official event of PLAYERS INC.

About Reebok:

Reebok International Ltd., headquartered in Canton, MA, is a leading worldwide designer, marketer and distributor of sports, fitness and casual footwear, apparel and equipment under the Reebok, Rockport, CCM, JOFA, KOHO and Greg Norman Brands and footwear under the Polo Ralph Lauren Brand. Sales for 2004 totaled approximately $3.8 billion.

About Electronic Arts:

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS(TM), EA(TM), EA SPORTS BIG(TM) and POGO(TM). In fiscal 2005, EA posted revenues of $3.1 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is http://www.ea.com/. More information about EA's products and a full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com/.

About PLAYERS INC:

Formed in 1994, PLAYERS INC is the for-profit licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). Representing more than 1,800 active and 3,000 retired NFL players, PLAYERS INC "takes the helmets off" the players and markets them as personalities as well as professional athletes. PLAYERS INC activities include retail licensing, corporate sponsorships, special events, radio and television projects, publishing and other promotional programs. PLAYERS INC schedules more than 3,500 NFL player appearances each year. For more information, please visit http://www.nflplayers.com/.

About NFL Network:

NFL Network airs seven days a week, 24 hours a day on a year-round basis and is the first television network fully dedicated to the NFL and the sport of football. For more information, log onto http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/home.

Electronic Arts, EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS BIG and POGO are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All NFL-related trademarks are trademarks of the National Football League.

Source: PLAYERS INC

CONTACT: Lara Potter of PLAYERS INC, +1-202-496-2885, Lara.Potter@nflplayers.com; or Seth Palansky of NFL, +1-212-450-2422, PalanskyS@nfl.com

Web site: http://www.nflplayers.com/ http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/home http://www.ea.com/ http://www.nfl.com/

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