Brian Jordan Celebrates with 2023 Panini NFL Player of the Day Grand Prize Winner Neal Belcher at Champion Sports Cards in Marietta, Georgia

October 25, 2024

Every football season more than 100,000 collectors at 600 hobby shops across the U.S. open a pack of Panini NFL trading cards with the hope of pulling the Player of the Day.  This year, Neal Belcher, a 42-year-old collector from Marietta, Georgia parlayed his lucky pack into the Panini NFL Player of the Day National Sweepstakes Grand Prize.

Belcher and his two sons, ages 12 & 15, are regular customers at Champion Sports Cards.  He was surprised with the news of winning the National Sweepstakes Grand Prize in July in a video recording from former Falcons’ star Jamal Anderson.  Then shop owner Ross Finley presented him with a Matt Ryan Panini POD autograph card (#1/5) as a sign of things to come.

On Wednesday, October 16, Neal received the balance of his national sweepstakes prizes from Panini at a Panini NFL Player of the Day National Sweepstakes Party at Champion Sports Cards.  He was joined by friends, family, 50 other loyal customers and one of the original two-sport star Brian Jordan – who starred locally for both the Braves and Falcons.  The event included a Q&A with Jordan who also, signed autographs, posed for photos and joined in on box breaks.

To kick off the party, Jordan, Finley and Panini representatives presented Neal with four tickets to the November 3 Cowboys-Falcones game and six boxes of Panini cards including National Treasure, Spectra, One, Select, Elite NFL and Optic.  Panini also awarded his sons a Bijan Robinson Rookie Premier Patch/Auto (#69/199) and a Michael Penix Jr. insert card.

Here are some of Neal’s top pulls:

For more than 20 years, the Panini NFL Player of the Day hobby shop promotion has awarded collectors with more than two million prizes. Last season the promotion was staged at 600 hobby shops from January-March.  His journey began just like thousands of other collectors when he uncovered the Panini NFL Player of the Day in a pack of Panini NFL cards.  He was then randomly selected as the store’s grand prize winner and was entered in the national sweepstakes with winners from the other 600 shops.

“We are excited to create this special experience for Neal, his family and the loyal customers of Champion Sports Cards,” said Jason Howarth, vice president of marketing for Panini.  “Collectors like Neal who share their love of collecting sports cards with their kids are truly the lifeblood of the industry, so we’re so happy that we can reward him for passing his love of collecting down to his sons.  The Player of the Day grand prize is a great platform for us the further connect collectors with their favorite players and add unique cards and memorabilia to their collection.”

The Panini NFL Player of the Day promotion included more than 600 hobby shops.  This marks the 20th consecutive year that the NFL Player of the Day program has given an NFL card collector the chance to spend the day with an NFL player.  Past players have included: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Mac Jones, D’Andre Swift, Matt Breida, Patrick Mahomes II, K.J. Wright, Jeremy Langford, Terrence West, Antonio Brown, Prince Amukamara, Beanie Wells, Pierre Thomas, Patrick Crayton, Steve Slaton, AJ Feely, Maurice Jones-Drew, Chris Simms, Rudi Johnson, Donald Driver, Ed McCaffrey, Chad Pennington and Frank Wycheck.

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