Short answers, pulled from the story.
NFL Properties was founded in 1963 as a subsidiary of the National Football League. It manages the merchandising and licensing arm of the league, maintaining control of NFL and franchise brands and negotiating with vendors to produce official merchandise. Its head office is in New York City.
Team NFL Heroes was a line of mascot-like characters developed by NFL Properties in the early 1990s, marketed mainly to children and teenagers. Merchandise included stuffed dolls, school supplies, t-shirts, and lamps. Costumed characters appeared at the 1995 Pro Bowl, and most of the characters lasted only a season or two.
The Packers' Team NFL Heroes character was a polar bear named Bayer, a name that works as a homonym of 'bear' and as a reference to 'Greenbayer', meaning a citizen of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Notably, the Packers' arch rivals are the Chicago Bears, making the choice of a bear mascot an ironic one.
NFL SuperPro was created by Marvel Comics in the early 1990s under a licensing arrangement with the NFL. The comic was widely panned and only twelve issues were ever printed before it ended.
Electronic Arts signed a five-year exclusive agreement with the NFL in December 2004, making it the only publisher permitted to release games featuring official NFL team and player names. EA Sports renewed that agreement in February 2008, extending it through Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.
Former supplier American Needle, Inc. sued NFL Properties over antitrust violations, challenging the practice of granting an exclusive license to a single supplier for a product category. The case centered on whether the NFL and its franchises acted as one entity or as competing businesses in the merchandising market. It was ultimately appealed to the United States Supreme Court.