BACKRain, Rap and Camera Snaps: 2025 NFLPA Rookie Premiere Recap
Written by: Isaiah Lucas
The 2025 NFLPA Rookie Premiere was a massive success.
A crop of over 40 of the league’s newest stars attended the event in Los Angeles, including Travis Hunter, Shedeur Sanders, Ashton Jeanty and Tetairoa McMillan. Fellow field generals Jalen Milroe, Quinn Ewers, Dillon Gabriel and Tyler Shough were in attendance, along with wideout Matthew Golden and running backs Omarion Hampton, Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson.
With the way the players attacked the signing process on Thursday morning, it wasn’t evident that many of them arrived in L.A. around 12 hours prior. There was a shared motivation amongst the group to knock out as many of the assigned cards and stickers as possible in the two-day time frame.
The energy in the penmanship chambers was at a high level early, as many of the players linked with their provided Bumpboxx speaker, filling the room with a cornucopia of tunes — mainly rap. Tons of good conversations were shared with Panini employees who were there to help with the process.
Once it was time to make heavy progress in the 10,000-signature total, each player had their own way of locking in. Some opted to turn their speakers up louder, some popped in headphones, while others preferred straight silence.
One of the coolest moments came when a few of the quarterbacks decided to treat the signing room like a locker room. Shough and Gabriel took control of the room at various points, providing a mix of jams loud enough to drown everything out. Luckily, the change of vibes they offered was accepted.
Gridiron legends Ricky Williams and Chad Ochocinco added to the good times in the signing room, popping in to chat with players and staff. The early determination paid off when more players than ever reached the 10,000-signature threshold by week’s end.
While rain was present through most of Saturday morning at the actual photoshoot at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, it didn’t slow any progress down.
Players rotated through a series of 10 stations, with five out on the field and another five inside the gym on campus. Inside, players took still photos and did promotional activities. Outside, they took action shots, on-field portraits, and walked through various football moves for film content, while also taking time to sit down with the one and only Kay Adams for interviews.
As always, players were blown away by the speed of the Instant cards developed on site. Panini took pictures, edited them onto cards, then printed them out and presented to the players within minutes.
Everyone wants to prove they could be a quarterback if it came down to it, making the ball toss station the hub of the week’s ultimate competition. The position players tried to make more targets than their buddies, new teammates, and of course, the actual quarterbacks in attendance. Those rookie signal-callers tried to one-up each other as well.
There were a lot of moving pieces, but everything came together by the time things wrapped on Saturday evening. Just based on vibes alone, the 2025 rookie class will be a treat for their respective franchises and the league as a whole.
