For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
Brad Williams
Staples, Inc.
508/253-1833
bradford.williams@staples.com

or

Chris Widmaier
NFL
212/450-2066
widmaierc@nfl.com

FANS TO PICK TOP NFL COACH

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – Nov. 5, 1999 – Behind every winning NFL team is a great head coach, and most football fans have definite opinions about who they think is the best. Starting on Monday, Nov. 8, fans can vote online for the NFL head coach they believe deserves this year’s Staples NFL Coach of the Year award. From Monday through Jan. 14, 2000, fans can log onto www.nfl.com to make sure their voice is heard in the only NFL award determined solely by a vote of the fans.

The three finalists will be announced on Dec. 25 during a half-hour Staples NFL Coach of the Year Finalist Special airing at 2 p.m. EST on CBS. Fans can continue to vote for one of the three finalists through Jan. 14. The winning head coach will be announced during the AFC Championship Game pre-game show on CBS on Jan. 23. In addition, $25,000 will be presented to the coach’s selected charity on behalf of Staples and the NFL.

"Excellence is determined not only by a coach’s winning record but by the admiration of his fans, which makes this award one of the greatest honors in football today," said Tom Stemberg, Staples chairman and chief executive officer.

"NFL fans are some of this country’s most passionate sports fans and we are proud to have an avenue for them to pick this year’s top coach," said Sara Levinson, president, NFL Properties. "By having the voting on the Internet, our fans domestically and around the world have a easy way to collectively "voice" their opinion and this year we expect hundreds of thousands of fans to do so."

Last season, the Atlanta Falcons’ Dan Reeves was the winner of the 1998 Staples NFL Coach of the Year award. Online balloting reached a record high in last year’s voting with nearly 180,000 votes cast overall. Participation is expected to be even higher this year with Internet usage and traffic at an all-time high on nfl.com.

The Staples NFL Coach of the Year award compliments the Staples Coach of the Week program that honors an NFL head coach each week for an outstanding game during the regular season. In conjunction with this recognition, a local school in that coach’s region is randomly drawn from entries to receive a $5,000 Staples gift certificate and a visit from the coach. Now in its fourth year, more than $250,000 in school supplies has been donated to schools nationwide through the Staples Coach of the Week program.

Staples Inc. is a $7 billion retailer of office supplies, furniture and technology to consumers and businesses from home-based businesses to Fortune 500 companies in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal. Headquartered outside Boston, Staples invented the office superstore concept and today is the largest operator of office superstores in the world. The company has over 46,000 employees serving customers through more than 1,000 office superstores, mail order catalogs, e-commerce and a contract business. More information about the company is available at http://www.staples.com.

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