Promo added for ‘Unsung Hero’

The NFL Players Association and its marketing arm, Players Inc., have expanded the voting for their "Unsung Hero" program to include a promotion with toysrus.com and Microsoft Xbox's NFL Fever 2003 game.

Fans who cast ballots on nflplayers.com will have the opportunity to link to toysrus.com to register for a drawing and to receive a $10 off coupon for the $39.99 NFL Fever 2003 game.

Drawing winners will attend the NFL Fever NFL Players Awards Banquet on April 10, where the "unsung heroes" — NFL players, usually reserves, who do significant community work — will be honored.

Fan balloting has been handled online before, but this is the first time there has been a promotional tie-in. The program involves no fees or revenue-sharing among the partners, said Chartese Booty, assistant vice president of communications for Players Inc. She said it's a way of promoting a licensee, Microsoft's Xbox, and its retail partner, toysrus.com.

— Noah Liberman