Sharpie S-Gel "Rookie of the Year"

Year one. Where the platform started.

Rick Wayne built Rookie of the Year on an observation that had been sitting in plain view for decades. Before the stats and before the highlights, the first thing every professional athlete does is sign their name. Contract, ball, jersey, a kid's hat in the parking lot. The Sharpie is already in their hand. Nobody had made a campaign out of it.

The 2024 film turns that ritual into a premise: the Sharpie Signature Combine. Athletes had trained their whole lives for the league, so the film makes sure they are also ready for the signature. It is a combine they did not know existed, played straight enough that you almost believe it. The line is "sign your future."

The cast is two 2024 NFL first round picks: Michael Penix Jr., quarterback, Atlanta, and Rome Odunze, wide receiver, Chicago. The hero product is the Sharpie S-Gel, positioned as the pen that holds up to a million autographs.

The tone is the load bearing decision. Sports adjacent rather than sports, conceptually tight, and committed enough to the bit that the joke never has to announce itself. Comedy that winks collapses. Comedy that commits gives an audience somewhere to be, and gives a brand a place it can come back to.

That last part turned out to matter more than the spot. Year one proved the territory could carry a campaign, which meant the signature was somewhere the brand could live rather than a single execution. Year two stretched it across a full rookie season with Ashton Jeanty and Tetairoa McMillan, and one of the athletes went on to win NFL Rookie of the Year, arriving at the trophy after the campaign had already named it. Year three went back to the origin with Jeremiyah Love.

The storyboards for this year were assembled from AI frames stitched together with found imagery, because the tools were early and Wayne made them work anyway. By year three he was visualizing in full cinematic AI, frame accurate to the cut.

The film runs 0:55.