Panini America to Produce Leon Sandcastle Rookie Cards for 2013 Score, 2013 Prestige

Panini America, the world’s largest sports and entertainment collectibles company and the official trading card partner of the NFL Draft, announced today that it will produce officially licensed Rookie Cards of Leon Sandcastle, the NFL Network’s fictional top NFL draft prospect, for its first two 2013 trading card sets – Score and Prestige. Sandcastle will appear as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs and will join other members of the 2013 NFL Rookie Draft Class.

Sandcastle, played by NFL Hall of Famer and NFL Network personality Deion Sanders, first burst onto the scene as the subject of an entertaining Super Bowl XLVII commercial promoting the network’s months-long coverage leading up to this week’s 2013 NFL Draft. Sandcastle instantly became a social media phenomenon. Now, he’ll have his own Rookie Cards.

Sandcastle’s first cards will appear exclusively in retail packs of 2013 Score Football, which releases in late May and retails for $1.99 per pack. The landmark 25^th anniversary of the Score brand will feature Rookie Cards on the iconic 1989 Score design, including Sandcastle’s. Panini America also will include autographed Leon Sandcastle Rookie Cards in the late-June release of 2013 Prestige Football as a hobby exclusive.

“Leon Sandcastle’s larger-than-life persona took the NFL world by storm earlier this year and his presence in our first two products of 2013 season is a direct result of that,” said Panini America CEO Mark Warsop. “We had fans and collectors from all over asking us to make Sandcastle Rookie Cards a reality. Now that we’ve done that, we’re confident that his first trading cards will deliver a definite fun factor along with other 2013 NFL Rookies.”

Be sure to keep up with the Sandcastle craze by following @PaniniAmerica on Twitter using the hash tag #ScoreRookie. You can also pre-order 2013 Score Football now at iCollectPanini.com.