Class Is In Session: 4 Licensing Facts You Need To Know

Licensing is an important and lucrative component of being a celebrity athlete. Every fan wants to have a jersey, share playing cards with friends or post a Fathead in his or her home office or bedroom. Conversely, it’s a dream of every player to see fans rocking his gear, to have figurines and toys in his likeness, just as much as a musician would enjoy hearing his or her songs on the radio. 

To make this happen, behind-the-scenes efforts are required to make those products come to life, and it is a daily task to ensure that players and fans are able to purchase their favorite NFL player products all year round.
 

4 Licensing Facts You Need To Know

It is important for each of our player members to understand the basics of this complex business model. The team from NFL Players Inc., the licensing and marketing arm of the NFL Players Association, breaks down the need-to-know basics of licensing and how their services help NFL players.  

It's A Group Thing

The NFLPA licenses players in groups of 6 or more who have signed a GLA, or group licensing assignment. With this document on file, we can then license the active player to various products and merchandise. Contrary to popular misconception, the players are not limited to a handful of superstars; licensees select the players they want to create licensed product for based upon sales recommendations received from key retailers who want to stock popular products for customers.

Endless Opportunities

Licensed products include more than Nike jerseys to wear on game days. Player-identified merchandise falls into the categories of collectibles, fashion apparel, trading cards, figurines, video games (everyone loves to play Madden), bedding, jewelry and virtually anything else that can fit a player’s face, name, number and/or signature.
 

It Pays To Play

Players are paid (ka-ching!) for participating in licensing through quarterly premium royalty payments and annual equal-share royalty payments.

Predicting Future Stars

Our “Rising 50 List” is an annually published index of players sent to all licensees. The Rising 50 Players List is designed to encourage use of more unique players and to bring visibility to players who are underrepresented. These Rising 50 players have not yet appeared on the Top 50 Player Sales List, a quarterly report that ranks players based on overall sales of licensed products, and are selected based upon a great year of on-field performance.