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We are now already at the half way point of the NFL season! It is very busy around here at the Pro Football Hall of Fame as can be seen by the fact that I have not updated my blog in a month. I will work on that going forward.

In the merchandise department we are in full holiday mode as we have placed most of our advertising buys through the end of the holidays. We have planned out weekly promotions and holiday gift items right through the end of December. All of the newspaper ads have to be submitted along with magazine and some Internet promotions. We have some really cool things coming up so please stay tuned and sign up for our free enewsletter so you do not miss anything. Jersey and football specials along with some great gift with purchase items will start in full force in the next two weeks.

We also have a huge special collectibles promotion coming out in the next 10 days which is one of the most special things we have ever done here at the Hall of Fame. We will have signatures of over 130 of the living Hall of Famers on collectible items- just a tease for now! I will write about this and you will see coverage all over our website once this program is released to the public.
 
Tomorrow I am headed to a very special event in California. The event is the Pro Football Hall of Fame Legends Golf Tournament. Over four days we will play the Pebble Beach, Spyglass and Spanish Bay Golf courses. Each foursome will have a celebrity Hall of Famer golf with them each day. I cannot wait to play these courses and it is a great event which raises money for a good cause along with the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I will try to take some pictures and get some information from the Hall of Famers to pass on to everyone. Lynn Swann is the Hall of Famer being honored this year.

By the way, I also celebrate my one-year anniversary with the Hall of Fame on the November 17th. My one year on the job puts me about 35 years behind two of our Vice Presidents Joe Horrigan and Dave Motts!
 
My first half picks generated some good debate- especially in the NFC East where I was accused by a few people of being a “homer” towards my Eagles. Here were my picks through week 4: 
 
NFC- Saints, Eagles, Vikings, 49ers win their divisions as the 1-4 seeds and the Giants and Falcons are Wild Cards (maybe a bit of a homer on the Eagles prediction to win the NFC East). AFC- Colts, Ravens, Patriots, Chargers win their division as the 1-4 seeds and the Steelers and Texans are the Wild Cards (I am taking a wait and see approach on the Jets and Broncos). 
 
Here are my revised picks through 8 weeks: NFC- Saints, Vikings, Eagles (yes they will finish ahead of the Cowboys despite last week’s loss), and the Cardinals (replacing the 49ers) to win their divisions as the 1-4 seeds and the Giants and Cowboys (replacing the Falcons) as Wild Cards. AFC- Colts, Patriots, Steelers (replacing the Ravens, although the Bengals could end up here very easily if they beat the Steelers again this weekend) and the Chargers to win their divisions as the 1-4 seeds and the Bengals and Broncos as the Wild Cards although I still really like the Texans.

 

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2:30 p.m.

Well, we are at the quarter point of the NFL season as most teams have played four games. It is still very early but it seems like there are some teams that really have separated themselves as the upper echelon of the NFL. For fun, and so all of my friends can make fun of me later, I am going to predict the playoff teams in each conference. I will revisit and revise throughout the season.

NFC- Saints, Eagles, Vikings, 49ers win their divisions as the 1-4 seeds and the Giants and Falcons are Wild Cards (maybe a bit of a homer on the Eagles prediction to win the NFC East). AFC- Colts, Ravens, Patriots, Chargers win their division as the 1-4 seeds and the Steelers and Texans are the Wild Cards (I am taking a wait and see approach on the Jets and Broncos).

So now that you have my predictions I wanted to let you know how merchandise is affected by the play of each team on the field. As most of you know, we carry a wide selection of merchandise from all 32 team here at the Hall of Fame and on Profootballhof.com. We have everything from the latest jerseys to sideline apparel to kids and women’s items. For example, take Mark Sanchez of the Jets. Being a rookie in a big city from a high profile college team we had a good amount of Sanchez jerseys and Jets items in stock when the season started. Within the first two weeks and with the Jets quick start we sold through a lot of Sanchez and Jets merchandise. We immediately went to Reebok and placed at-once orders and were fully stocked within a week. We have adjusted our forecasts for Sanchez and Jets merchandise going forward and will be ready for the balance of the season.

Another obvious example is Brett Favre and the Vikings. We have had a huge run on Favre jerseys, t-shirts and other Vikings items with the team’s 4-0 start. We have made large upward adjustments for our Favre and Vikings merchandise going forward. Other teams that have been nice surprises and we have had to adjust upward have been the Saints, 49ers, Bears with Cutler, Broncos and Bengals.

Now things can go the other direction as well. Teams that have not gotten off to a great start usually means slower selling merchandise. We have made downward adjustments on the Redskins, Cardinals, Panthers, Dolphins, Bills and Titans.

There is another very important factor that can affect a team and more directly a high profile player’s sales- injuries and trades. So far this year there have not been many high profile players who have been lost for the season. Brian Urlacher was a big loss for the Bears defense and a big loss for Urlacher jersey sales. We cancelled all future Urlacher jersey orders the day he was declared out for the season. A big trade just happened today which will have an impact on our jersey sales- Braylon Edwards. We now have to mark down and get rid of all our Edwards Browns jerseys. The flip side is that we will carry Edwards jerseys in Jets soon and if he plays well will sell a bunch of Edwards Jets jerseys.

So we are only four weeks into the 2009 season and you can see the impact the team records and players performances have on merchandising. Most people do not realize that all sports retail stores, on-line sports websites and team outlets have a vested interest on how teams and players do and make weekly and daily adjustments just like the coaches do. Things can change very, very quickly in the NFL and we have to be ready to react on a moment’s notice and try to forecast teams and players performances the best we can.

Plus, I tell my wife that is why we have DIRECTV and need to watch as many games as possible every week!  
 

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2:30 p.m.

Saturday (8/8) of Hall of Fame Weekend starts at 8:00 a.m. with a parade through downtown Canton which is attended by more than 200,000 people each year. Many returning Hall of Famers participate in the parade along with all of the members of the new class being inducted. My wife and kids along with my in-laws attended that parade and said that it was a great and very festive time. I was unable to attend as I was already at the Hall of Fame getting ready for the busy day ahead.

At 9:00am I attended The Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. This was a truly special event. The event kicked off with remarks from our President/Executive Director Steve Perry who was followed by our Chairman of the Board Tom Schervish. Next up was the Commissioner of the NFL Roger Goodell who talked about how important this new gallery was to the history of the National Football League. The Commissioner was followed by the President of the Kansas City Chiefs and son of Lamar Hunt, Clark Hunt. The ceremony ended with Lamar’s widow Norma Hunt telling some touching stories about her husband and how proud he would be of the Super Bowl Gallery being named after the Hunt family. The ribbon was then cut and all of the VIP’s toured the new gallery. The Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery is absolutely amazing. This new gallery is a great addition to the Hall of Fame. I strongly suggest that all of you come and see the new gallery first hand. You will be amazed with the new technology and the new Super Bowl Theater. At 10:15am the new Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery was opened to the public and was packed all weekend long with guests.

Next up was an Adam Schefter book signing of his new book “The Class of Football.” Adam signed books at various times throughout the weekend. The new book is great and people were excited to get an autograph with the book. From 12:00-2:00 we had an autograph session consisting of some of the returning Hall of Famers. Roger Staubach, Fred Biletnikoff, Mel Blount, Dan Fouts, Forrest Gregg, Joe Greene, George Blanda, and Tony Dorsett led the group along with Bills favorites Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas. This went really well and fans were able to get autographs from many of their favorite Hall of Famers. I went directly from that autograph session to another book signing from 2:00-3:00 with Warren Moon and his new book “Never Give Up On Your Dream.” Warren had a huge crowd and signed at multiple times throughout the weekend.

By mid-afternoon the Hall was buzzing and there was a long line out the door to get in to tour the museum. The excitement was also building for the Enshrinement Ceremony which was just a few hours away. The weather held out enough for us in that we just had some sprinkles throughout the day, and it was clear by nighttime. The merchandise tents were packed and people were buying all of the cool things we had for sale. Bills product was flying off the shelves as there were Bills fans everywhere. Steelers and Chiefs fans were second supporting Rod Woodson and Derrick Thomas. There was a lot of purple supporting Randall McDaniel and Dallas Stars support Bullet Bob Hayes.

The Enshrinement Ceremony started at 7:00 p.m. and was very special. After spending a lot of time with these guys over the past eight months it was so nice to see them get their busts and see them in their yellow jackets. I talked to Randall McDaniel seconds after he got off the stage during the commercial break after he was inducted and he said that he cannot wait until next year so he can relax and enjoy things more not being in the spotlight. As I stated in one of my earlier blogs, Randall was very nervous to speak, but he did a great job. All of the new members and the presenters and family member representatives did a great job. It was quite a sight to see the new guys sitting in front of over 80 of their peers sitting behind them. Each speech was special and from the heart.

After the Enshrinement and we closed everything up I headed to the individual parties. Mr. Wilson had a huge party as he had by far the most guests and had invited his entire organization to join in the fun over the weekend. Bruce Smith’s party was rocking and everyone was dancing and celebrating. Randall McDaniel and Rod Woodson had big crowds with people taking pictures of each of the guys next to their new busts. Derrick Thomas’s party was well represented with many of the Chiefs front office and family. Jerry Jones made a nice speech which was a highlight at Bob Hayes party. It was a long and great day and I was home by about 3:00 a.m. for a few hours of sleep.

Sunday was a beautiful day. The sun was out and so were the fans. Bills fans still lead the way, but there was a nice showing of Titans fans as well. I saw a lot of throwback jerseys and apparel with the Houston Oilers logos on them. The grounds were packed all day and everyone was having a great time. The atmosphere is so nice and very family friendly. Kids were everywhere supporting their favorite team. At 3:00 we had the Class of 2009 autograph signing which is always very popular. This is the first time that all of the members of the new class get together to sign items for the public. The signing went very well and next it was time for the game.

The game was exciting for the first game of the season. The Hall of Fame game is always so special because it means that it is FOOTBALL SEASON!! I have been on the field for a ton of football games during my lifetime, but the fake punt by the Titans in the first quarter was the best fake punt I have ever seen. When I saw the replay it was still hard to follow it. You wonder why they didn’t save that play for the regular season. The Titans won the game, and everyone had a great time.

I talked to TO on the sidelines for a few minutes during the game. I got to know TO while I was at the Eagles. There are many things that people say about TO, but through it all he is a great football player. He told me that he was looking forward to the season in Buffalo. I would not be surprised if he has a big season for the Bills and that offense will be tough to stop with Lee Evans on the other side.

I got home about 1:00 a.m. and fell in bed. It was a great weekend and I am already psyched for next year. The 2010 Class has the potential to be huge. Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith are on the ballot for the first time. 

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4:05 p.m. ET

The Hall of Famers started showing up on Thursday (8/6) morning. Joe DeLamielleure was the first one I saw in the store. Joe was here helping represent a new company named Yesteryear Fantasy Sports. Yesteryear is launching a new fantasy football game featuring retired Hall of Famers and other NFL players which sounds very promising. Joe is a true entrepreneur and always has something, but this one seems really good. Next in was new Enshrinee and just a fantastic guy, Randall McDaniel. Randall stopped by to see everything first hand and try to relax a bit before the crazy weekend. Randall had a bunch of family members in also, and it was easy to tell why Randall was such a great guy from how nice the rest of his family was.

After putting the finishing touches on everything here at the Hall, I picked up my wife and headed over to the McKinley Grand Hotel for the Board of Trustees Hall of Famer Reception & Dinner. This was a fun event that was pretty casual and relaxed. About 80% of the Hall of Famers are in by the time of the dinner and everyone sits around the large dining room getting reacquainted with each other and telling stories. My wife and I left around 11:00 to get some rest before the long weekend.

Friday (8/7) morning I was at the hotel at 7:00 a.m. getting ready for our annual meeting with the Hall of Famers and select NFL officials including Commissioner Roger Goodell. The meeting started at 8:00 and went until 9:30. It was a good meeting. The information shared is very private and everyone speaks freely from the Hall of Famers to the Commissioner to the officers. We discussed a number of different things regarding the Hall of Fame, NFL and other things. The meeting was very productive and interesting.

After the meeting I met my wife and two ladies who work for me to help them with the internal autograph session for the Class of 2009. Randall McDaniel, Bruce Smith, Rod Woodson and Ralph Wilson Jr. each signed about 125 footballs which immediately went on sale for the public and are available online right now.

Following the autograph signing I headed over to the Ray Nitschke Memorial Luncheon. This event started with a brief reception followed by a group photograph of all the Hall of Famers in attendance for Hall of Fame weekend. We then had the luncheon where Hall of Famers ate alone and broke in the new class while the board and the officers had lunch in a room next door. After the luncheon we had our national board meeting. We had a number of NFL owners who sit on our board attend the meeting including Pat Bowlen, Denise DeBartolo York and Bud Adams. After the meeting, Bud told a wonderful story on how he started the AFL with Lamar Hunt. Hearing this story directly from him was a very special thing.

After the Board meeting I stopped by the Hall quickly to see how things were going and then headed out the Enshrinees dinner with my wife at the Civic Center in Canton. This was an amazing dinner and production. I sat with George Blanda and his wife which was a true honor. It is hard to believe that George played for 26 years and played until he was 48! What an amazing career he had.

So after we ate dinner each member of the Class of 2009 is announced and brought up to the stage (Bob Hayes Jr. and Derrion Thomas represented their fathers). Each Hall of Famer is then  introduced to the crowd and walks down a runway-like stage and congratulates each new member. There are a few awards given out for various accomplishments leading up to the highlight of the night. One by one each new Enshrinee is brought up to the stage and presented his gold jacket by his presenter for the weekend. This is very exciting and it is said that this is the first time it really hits the new Enshrinees that they are actually in the Hall of Fame.

Part 2 will start with Saturday (8/8) in a couple days…..

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