A Tale About A Jersey

Controversy hit the Tennessee Titans when someone leaked a photo of the Titans’ new jerseys, which were not supposed to be unveiled until a party tomorrow night in Nashville. It may not seem like a huge issue, but the NFL is investigating, and someone will be fired. ESPN was told that the NFL thinks that the photo came from an apparel employee, so I don’t know it they mean Nike or another manufacture involved in the new design and creation of the uniform.

Close Enough Right?

Someone at the Washington Post caught an error on the NFL’s website. The NFL’s online store is offering team plates with each plate showing the team’s logo over the state’s outline and someone made the mistake by using the outline of Washington State instead of Washington, D.C. for the Redskins. Whoops!

The plate has been removed since the Washington Post posted the story and since these are only mockups there is nothing physical to show someone’s geographical error. But as everyone knows, once an image is on the internet it will always remain on the internet.

Update on the Goodwin fire: It is up to 25,000 acres but is now 25% contained and my area is still being used as the evacuation center so we are safe and not under a pre-evacuation order. 

San Diego Goes North and Oakland Goes Way South?

In an interesting, yet strange, turn of events in the world of Los Angeles’ NFL team musical chairs according to a story by Vincent Bonsignore of the LA Daily News if the Chargers do move to Los Angeles as expected the Raiders may move to Sand Diego. WTF?

The NFL To England? Probably Not Just Yet

For years that has been discussion of professional leagues in North America expand outside of the US and Canada. There have been attempts with the most notable being the NFL taking the World League of American Football under it’s wings as NFL Europe but that didin’t last long.

There really is no major league that has expanded outside of its country of origin with great success on a large scale. Sure the Toronto Blue Jays won two World Series but Montreal couldn’t sustain a team and they moved to Washington DC. One MLB team in Canada is not a success story. The NBA tried it in 1995 with teams in Vancouver and Toronto but Vancouver lasted 6 years before moving to Memphis. The NFL has not tried expansion outside the US but the Canadian Football League did and besides the Baltimore Stallions the rest folded and Baltimore moved to Montreal.

So forgive me when I am having a difficult time seeing the NFL putting a permeant team in London by 2022 as was reported today. I think it is a wonderful idea and I loved NFL Europe but it would be quite difficult to work a 16 game schedule fairly and with the nearest teams (East coast teams) being 5 hours away the fan base is going to have to wake up early or stay up late to see their team play in the US.

I think if the NFL wants to expand than consider North American cities. Work with the CFL and maybe bring in the 9 teams, possibly adding another team to balance the divisions. Move the Chargers down to Mexico City or up to Vancouver or Toronto but please do not strand a single team in Europe unless there is serious consideration of adding more teams there. The World League of American Football could not make it work and while the NFL is a better run league it still does not seem logically sound.

As for the question of where will this team come from? The most obvious decision would be the Jacksonville Jaguars, the team’s owner Shahid Khan also owns Fulham FC a football (soccer) team that plays in Southwest London. Family Guy has already taken care of the name with the Patriot Games episode, are you ready for the London Silly Nannies at the London Silly Nanny Stadium?

 

 

 

 

 

California Here Come The Rams

 

It is official, the NFL is back in Los Angeles after a 21 year absences. The Rams will be playing in LA in 2016, most likely in the LA Coliseum until their Inglewood stadium is completed around 2019.

There were originally two plans offered up to the NFL owners yesterday; one was a joint stadium for the Chargers and Raiders to be located in Carson or a stadium for the Rams in Inglewood. It appeared that the Chargers and the Raiders had the inside track in the decision all the way up to yesterday when the owners could not come to a complete agreement so they turned to an alternative plan suggested by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones where a joint stadium for the Rams and Chargers in Inglewood. Surprisingly this was the option that the owners agreed upon.

The Rams have decided to move immediately but the Chargers have one year to make their decision, if the Chargers decide not to move to LA in to the stadium with the Rams than the Raiders will have the option to move in with the Rams. Both the Chargers and the Raiders are being offered $100 million by the NFL in hopes of getting new stadiums built in their current locations.

The Rams have now moved 3 times, originally the Cleveland Rams moved to LA in 1945 and then to St Louis in 1994 and back to LA this year. Now that the Rams are back in California it makes more sense with them in the NFC West.

Having lived in Seattle when the Sonics were stolen I know the pain of losing a team but when you consider the way that the Rams left LA they basically were stolen when Georgia Frontiere moved them to St. Louis, this is them returning to LA. If the Sonics moved back to Seattle I would not feel bad for OKC fans.

 

I do not own any of the cards but the Everett RC

 

 

 

Lets Get Some Playoffs Going

This coming weekend is the Wildcard weekend with the Chiefs-Texans and Steelers-Bengals playing on Saturday and Seahawks-Vikings and Packers-Redskins on Sunday. Currently the odds are against the home teams in all four games.

The game that interests me is my Seahawks visiting the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Currently the weather forecast is 0 degrees at kickoff with a projected wind-chill factor of -15 degrees making it one of the Top 10 coldest games.

Seattle is a cold weather location but not a frigid weather location like Minneapolis. I spent half my life in Seattle and only saw single digit temps a handful of times during snow and ice storms so unless Pete Carrol has the team practicing in a meat locker this looks to be an advantage for the Vikings.

Like every season I am very superstitious so I will not be saying anything about the Seahawks until the end of the season outside of my Sports Cards Super Bowl prediction if they make it that far.

Quarterback Roulette Time

Where do these failed quarterbacks end up? Who has a job next season and who is sitting at home watching the game?

Sam Bradford

 

Robert Griffin III

 

Colin Kaepernick

 

Johnny Manziel

 

Geno Smith

 

 

Tim Tebow

 

There are rumors that the Cowboys are interested in RG3 and Billy Vegas...er Johnny Manziel, what could ever go wrong there? Will Colin K get a third chance under his third coach in three seasons? Will Bradford go somewhere where he isn't expected to win (Looking at you Cleveland)? Will Geno Smith be out of the NFL while Tim Tebow makes a triumphant return?

Will The Last Team To Leave Please Turn Out The Lights

The other day someone stumbled across something interesting while searching around the NFL’s official web site. The fan, Brian Sweeney, stumbled upon what appears to be a current page for the Los Angeles Rams. This got NFL conspiracy theorist on edge claiming this as proof positive that the Rams are moving back to Los Angeles. Once the news got out on Monday the page was deleted which added fuel to the fire.

The NFL responded with the announcement that the search actually brought the reader to a legacy page of the old Rams when they were still playing at Anaheim Stadium prior to their relocation to St. Louis. The coding for the NFL’s web site pulls up the legacy team if no current team exists. If you change the “LA” to “BOS” it pulls up the Boston Patriots or “PHO” brings up the Phoenix Cardinals.

Now that this mystery has been cleared up the question to ask is which team will be the first to move to LA? Will we see a joint Chargers-Raiders collaboration in Carson or will the Rams build their “terrorist magnet” stadium in Inglewood?

I find it interesting that all three teams considering a move to LA, which will not happen until after the 2015-16 NFL season, have spent at least one season in LA previously and moved away.

If any, which team do you want to see in Los Angeles?

Cha...Cha...Cha...Changes

The NFL offseason has been a period of serious transition. There have been three teams that have let it be known that they are seriously considering a move to Los Angeles with the Raiders and Chargers looking to build a privately funded stadium in Carson which they would share and the Rams looking to build a stadium in Inglewood on property already owned by the Rams owner.

Some major players are on the move too. Players like Suh, who went to Miami, was a major (and expensive) coup for the Dolphins but then the Lions turned around and traded for Haloti Ngata. Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore may both be leaving the 49ers after carrying them to the Super Bowl on their backs. Andre Johnson has been tossed out of Houston, the only team he has played with for his 12 year career. Jake Locker has retired after a lackluster career and Percy Harvin hopes to continue his after being released (again) by the Jets. The Eagles and Rams switched QBs with St. Louis picking up a solid young franchise QB with Nick Foles and the Eagles receiving trade bait with Sam Bradford.

In Seattle it has been an up and down ride for the fans with the “Will Lynch resign?” rumors running rampant before he resigned a 2 year contract the other day but then the team lost Legion of Boom member Byron Maxwell to the Eagles which was a bummer but that frown was turned up side today when I found out that Seattle traded C Max Unger to New Orleans for all-around TE badass Jimmy Graham. Losing Unger sucks but Graham is THE BEST tight end in the NFL right now, perfect for those ill-conceived 1-yard TD pass attempts.

 I can not wait to pull some Graham cards in a Seahawks uniform though Graham will have to change his jersey number because #80 is retired. Jerry Rice did wear #80 while in Seattle but he asked Largent for approval first.

Jaguars, Vikings and Dolphins Oh My!

Yesterday the Jacksonville Jaguars released images of their new uniforms through their Twitter account. The jerseys have changed quite significantly. They have three different jerseys- Home, Away and a Teal Alternate. The sleeves are a different color from the jersey and there is a swoop (gold or black depending on the jersey color) across the shoulders from back to front. The numbers have changed font and include a multi-colored stroke based on the jersey color. A "JAGS" patch, with the new Jaguars logo, is located on the upper left chest.

The helmets are the biggest change, they are matte black on the front and gradate back to a glossy gold with the new  jaguar logo on the side.

I honestly do not know how I feel, I kind of like the look but the different color shoulders remind me of an Arena Football team’s jersey. The helmets will take some getting used to over time. I am also guessing that the uniforms can be varied up over the season by switching up the jersey and pants. It would be cool to see one of those new "JAGS" logo patches included on a card, unfortunately they to large to fit on to one card unless it was an over sized box topper or maybe a booklet card.

The Dolphins and Vikings are changing up their uniforms too. The Vikings had planned on unveiling the new uniforms  tomorrow. It was expected the Dolphins would change their uniforms when they announced the new logo but they had not scheduled an unveiling for the new uniform yet. The images of both the Dolphins and Vikings new uniforms were inadvertently released on the Internet by a Jacksonville television station (Action News Jacksonville) who was carrying a story on their web site about the Jags new uniform. The pictures of the Dolphins and Vikings have since been removed from the televison station's web site but not before ESPN writer Paul Lukas, who runs the web site Uni Watch, found the pictures and posted the images of the new uniforms last night.

What is your take on the uniform changes?

How Cool Would This Be?

I think we all can agree that Fleer Retro Football would do much better with an NFL license. This is my vision of what could have been. I spent about 5 days building the templates and another day or so working with the player images to find the right shot and cleaning them up to fit in the templates. Finding the right font with some of the cards was a pain in the ass, I have hundreds of fonts that I went through to find the perfect match but a couple were off slightly but I don't think it really hurt the aesthetics.

 

I began with the RG3 Precious Metal Gems just to see if I could replicate the card surface. I did the Jambalaya next, which was probably the most difficult to make because I had to build it almost entirely from scratch. The Hardware cards are pretty boring really but I made this to add some variety. The 1960 Peterson and base card Richardson were both pretty easy to make. The base card is my second favorite, behind the Jambalaya, followed by the 1960 card as my third favorite. I like the simplicity of the designs.

 

Some of the shots were difficult to find because I had certain things I was looking for (besides size) like the 1960 Peterson where he was in a Vikings uniform with his helmet off. If you look at the original Fleer 1960 football cards the players are all without their helmets and most are in posed shots. With the Jambalaya, my favorite, I wanted to use a shot of Fitzgerald jumping because the basketball versions all have players in a jump/shooting motion. With the Hardware card, because the card theme is players with trophies/rings, I wanted to use a Brady shot from a winning Super Bowl so I used this one from Super Bowl XXXIX where the Patriots beat the Eagles.

 

I was working on a Noyz Boyz card but was not happy with how it was coming out so I dropped it all together and I wanted to add one of the Autographics cards but I decided to hold up and just post what I have completed so far.

 

I am an Upper Deck fan going back to their first releases and I know that Richard McWilliam has made some horrible decisions regarding the company and the athletes UD has worked with but I still hope that someday either he will pass the company on to someone else or shows he can make the right choices and earn back the lost licenses.

 

NFL Refs Blow It Seriously!

I am a Seattle Seahawk fan, I have been one my entire life and as much as I love to see them win I hate to see them win on a blown call by scab refs.

I have been steadfast in my belief that Pete Carroll needs to be fired and even with the team 2-1 in Week 3 I still believe that the man should be shown the door. He called a piss-poor game, who in their right mind runs down the clock with 2:12 left in the First Half? He seriously ran a handful of running plays and let the clock wind down with the Hawks up 7-3 instead of actually trying to pass and increase that lead. Instead he walks away with a cheap win and he probably will not see it that way and consider it a solid win because of his coaching but 99% of the football watching-world see this as what it is, a serious game turning blown call by the refs at the end of the game.

What is worse is that the final minute of the game was horrible calls, there were 4 straight flags during the Seahawks final series including a blown call for Defensive Pass Interference when Sidney Rice was clearly pulling on the defender before the ball was in the area. It should have been a no-call, Offensive Pass Interference or off-setting penalties at worst. This allowed the Seahawks to keep moving in to position to force the refs to make a game winning (horrible) call. When the ball went up for grabs there was not one but two blown calls that turned the game. The first was Golden Tate pushing off a defender before he went up for the ball, this should have been a Offensive Pass Interference and the game should have ended on that but it got worse when there was no question that Jennings had the ball. He came down with the ball in his arms and Tate was able to wrestle it away from him. What is sad is that one ref was waving his arms to signal an interception while a second ref signaled touchdown. I know that some (as I would expect Carroll) may argue that Tate and Jennings had simultaneous control but seeing replay after replay and this was not the situation. Jennings had the ball plain and simple.

As a Hawks fan I am saying, this game should have ended with an interception and a Packer's win and the Seahawks being 1-2 with Carroll sitting on the hotseat for his crappy game plan through the first 3 weeks.

The laughing you are hearing is from the NFL Official's Union as their leverage over Roger Goodell increases. A MNF game ending in this manor was probably the worst thing that Goddell could have hoped for in the middle of union talks.


UPDATE 9/25- As I stated last night, Carroll would not see that the refs blew the call giving him the cheap win and I was correct. In an interview he stated:

"From what I understand from the officials, it was a simultaneous catch, that's how they called it," Carroll told reporters. "Tag goes to the runner. Good call."

Is that seriously his response? He clearly has not watched any of the many many many replays on every channel showing that Jennings had the ball or that Tate has pushed off Sam Shields while the ball was in the air. He is completely oblivious to things he does not want to deal with.


UPDATE (AGAIN) 9/25- I was just forwarded a transcript from a friend in Seattle covering Pete Carroll's interview on the 710ESPN Seattle radio show this morning. When Carroll was asked how he felt about how people are characterizing the win as a "stolen win" he eloquently responded with:

"I don't care, I could care less about all that stuff. The game's played, they called it. We played with the officials they sent out there, we played with the team that they put out there, and at the end of it, we throw the ball up and Golden makes an extraordinary effort."

This POS continues to act as if the game was not decided by a poor call, he seems to feel as if the game was called fairly and that the game ended without a question.

NFL Week 1 In A Nutshell

Two things have become evident in Week 1 of the NFL season.

 

First, rookie QBs received much more hype based on their pre-season results than probably should have been given just yet. Besides RG3 and sort of Luck it was a complete rookie suck fest. It is possible that this can change and that the problems were just jitters but we shall see.

 

RG3- Win: 19/26, 320 years and 2 TDs

Luck- Lost: 23/45, 309 years and 1 TD with 3 INTs

Tannehill- Lost: 20/36 for 219 yards and 3 INTs

Weeden- Lost: 12/35 for 118 yards and 4 INTs

Wilson- Lost: 18/34 for 153 yards and 1 TD and 1 INT

 

RG3 played against a solid Saints defense and he even added 42 yards on the ground. Expect to see a similar performance next week against St Louis and when they hit their Bye week in Week 10 I think it is totally possible to see them with a winning record as long as he keeps up his play.

 

Luck had a very decent output against a stingy Chicago defense and if he hadn’t thrown the picks people would be praising him for his play. Indianapolis has a tough schedule and Luck may not see his second win until Week 9 or 10 (Dolphins and Jags respectively) but on the positive side he would have doubled up last year’s win total and could quite possibly hit 3 or 4 wins if luck is with Luck (see what I did there?)

 

Tannehill was just really out of his league against the Texans defense. His 3 picks were all bad decisions and he gives the defense time to react and jump the route because he follows his target receiver before he threw the ball. Houston was rushing additional players forcing Tannehill to make a quick read and make the throw before getting hit, expect to see upcoming teams rushing him with extra players and blitzes. One positive for Miami is they have weak schedule, it is quite possible that they may not even see a (real) winning team until late in the season. That being said, it is reasonable to say that the Dolphins may actually end the season close to .500 as long as they can score as often as they give up the ball.

 

Weeden just plain sucked, I know Browns fans are going to point out that the game could have easily went the other way but as my high school coach used to say, “Second place is just first place loser”. Look, Vick sucked too but he led the team to a 91-yard drive for the go-ahead TD with 5 minutes left so he took the reins when it was necessary and won the game. Do you realize that Weeden had a 5.1 Passer Rating? I didn’t even know that was possible. He threw 35 passes, completed 12 and gave up 4 INTs. He had 1/3 as many interception as completions. Things are not going to get any easier either, Cleveland was handed probably one of the hardest schedules just based on the division but then someone thought it would be fun to toss in the Giants, Redskins and Broncos for additional Yuks. I am going to go out on a limb and say the Browns end up going 2-14 or even possibly 1-15 and McCoy will see the starting role by Week 3 (who himself will be pulled and replaced by Week 6). On the positive side the Browns will have the chance to draft another QB in the 2013 NFL Draft next April, possibly even Matt Barkley (If Pete Carroll doesn’t bomb the Seahawks season for the chance to draft Barkley).

 

Wilson, if there was a QB who was hyped beyond his talent it was Wilson. Look, I am a Seahawks fan and I have hopes for Wilson. I still think they should have taken Nick Foles but that is neither here nor there right now. Wilson was tossed in to an unstable coach’s game plan and while Wilson fans will point out his pre-season play, I will point out every QBs pre-season play. Every QB has an awesome pre-season for a reason, it is pre-season and many coaches are resting their star defense and they are not going to use their best defense plans, they are going to toss the most basic defense so no other team can figure out the game plan during the regular season. Understand, I am not down on Wilson it is Pete Carroll and his system that I am down on.

 

I had the misfortune of watching two of my favorite teams playing and if you did not see the game, trust me it was a race to see who sucked less. Neither team was superior and even though the Seahawks were handed the chance to win with less than 1 minute left they basically sat down and shit themselves. The Seahawks had 6 plays to win with 51 seconds left even making it to the Cardinals 4-yard line. Wilson threw 3 straight passes on similar plays in to the endzone and screwed up everyone one of them.

 

I personally think Wilson was given a bad hand and I am holding out hope that he can rise above Carroll’s crappy coaching but I am a realist too and do not expect to see Wilson starting possibly as early as next week against the Cowboys. Watch, Carroll is going to switch out QBs like cogs, never staying with one to long before moving to the next option. I think that it would not be a stretch to see Carroll bring Portis in from the Practice Squad and give him at least one start or bring in an un-signed free agent.

 

I made this prediction awhile back and I stand by it (I seriously hope I am proven wrong) but the Seahawks are going to end the season with less than 3 wins and will give the Browns a serious challenge for the chance to draft Matt Barkley. Pretty sad when you consider that just last week people ranging from ESPN and Sports Illustrated to various sports and collectible blogs were talking about how the Seahawks are going to be the surprise dark horse in the NFC after their 4-0 preseason and how well Wilson outplayed Flynn. Here is what I figure for Seahawk wins- 1 win against the Rams and a win against the Dolphins and even those will be wins based on a cosmic aligning by the planets along with 6 starting QB changes.

 

I am a Seahawks fan and this is the beginning of my 12-step program. I sooooo want to be wrong here but only time will tell.

 

Second, the replacement refs suck! I think that the NFL could have grabbed a handful of fans and tossed them in zebra stripes and they would have gotten better results.

 

To steal a line from Harland Williams in “Something About Mary”, Roger Goodell has only one thing to say to these scab refs…

Step in to my office

Why?

Cause you’re fuckin fired!

2011 Topps NFL Review

Schedule Release Date: July 2011
Box Configuration: 36 packs per box, 10 cards per pack
SRP: Unknown


Box Break:
1 Autograph or Relic card


My Thoughts:
This set is just a continuation of the baseball set and I am not sure if this was Topps attempt at just calling it in because football is currently in lockout or if the designers truly felt it was easier to just follow suit and move on to working on those awesome Triple Threads designs (said sarcastically). As far as the base set goes, the design is exactly like baseball. It is clean with a decent layout and this works well for the base product. The only problem is the overloading of parallels and inserts which is just an attempt to give the collector value for their money. Card companies need to learn that this is not what collectors want; they want a well-designed base set and if you must add “value” then limit it to one or two inserts, no parallels and a great checklist.

This release really just seems to be a situation of a hot mess. Topps seemed to want to include lots of ideas and did not know where to stop and just call it a release. We see a set built on a Super Bowl theme, a retro portion (based on the 1950 Bowman release), sketch cards, parallels and a varying array of autos and relics and honestly nothing besides the Super Bowl theme really carries over to the rest of the set. Topps claims the autographs are on-card but the Face of the Franchise dual autograph card is clearly a sticker autograph.

We are going to see the first cards Da’Quan Bowers, Cam Newton, AJ Green and Blaine Gabbert. There may not be an NFL season but at least there will be an NFL Draft and we get to see their cards, but they will not be seen in Pro uniforms.


Pros:
The first autographs of upcoming rookies

Super Bowl autos and relics

Decent base card design

On-card autographs


Cons:
Way too much, just really way too much being shoved in to really be a cohesive collection

The Super Bowl theme insert is just an ugly design

Sticker autographs

Rating: 

I give this a 2 out of 5, I don’t think it really deserves much more because of how little Topps did to differentiate this from the baseball set. The Super Bowl theme is strong armed in to the set and the rest of the checklist is just a Hodge-podge of a collection.

2010 Playoff National Treasure Football

Schedule Release Date: March 4, 2011

Box Configuration: 1 pack per box, 8 cards per pack

SRP: $399/box

Box Break:

6 Autograph/Material cards with at least 3 being autos

2 Commons, Legends, Rookies or Parallel cards

My Thoughts:

First and foremost is that if someone is to spend $400 on a pack of cards they better get on-card autographs not stickers. Panini really messed this one up. I know people will still drop this kind of cash on packs but I bet there will be a feeling of being cheated.

Every autograph except the Souvenir Cuts (which are cut signatures) are stickers, which do not belong in a product like this. To make matters worse is that almost every memorabilia card was designed to add a sticker autograph including the Colossal patches, Timeline, Rookie patches, Notable Numbers, etc. The problem is that apparently they are not all going to include an autograph. I know the Timeline inserts for sure are not all autographed which leaves the card looking unfinished with too much negative space overpowering the design.

To add to the pain of paying $400, know that you can pull hits of power players like ex-Jet Wayne Chrebet and Chargers third-string Running Back Darren Sproles (I know he is a decent Kick Returner but really?) If I am going to pay this price I want three types of players only- Stars, Hot Rookies and HOF players and that is it. I know that Ernie Davis is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame but he is a very special exception.

On the positive side there are some AMAZING cards in this set. The Dual Brand Logo patch cards are beautiful. The Barry Sanders & Adrian Petersen card has been posted and you can see what I mean about being a very sweet card. The Rookie patch and logo cards also look great and I really like the Souvenir Cuts.

Pros:

Dual Brand Logo patches

Souvenir Cuts

Multiple autographed Pen Pals

Ernie Davis relic/cut signature



Cons:

Stickers

Some hits designed to include a sticker autograph do not in fact include an autograph

Sticker… wait, did I mention that already?

EXPENSIVE

Rating:

Not taking the price in to account this product is a solid 3 out of 5, this score is in part due to the sticker autographs and the cards designed with a sticker auto in mind but do not include the autograph. If this product was on-card autographs it would easily be a 4 out of 5.

2011 Topps NFL Rising Rookies

Schedule Release Date: May 2011
Box Configuration: 24 packs per box, 10 cards per pack
SRP: Unknown

Box Break:
2 Autographs cards
2 Memorabilia cards
21 other inserts

My Thoughts:

I have only seen three preview images of the product that were posted by Topps on their Twitter account, a rookie auto redemption (which would change if the Panthers trade away the first pick), Peterson auto and a Bradford patch auto.

This release will contain the first cards of 2011 NFL Draft picks which is impressive considering it will hit shelves less then 1 month following the April 28-30 draft.

No information has really been announced about the set besides the box breakdown which includes:

• On-card Rookie Autograph NFL Draft Logo Patch cards

• On-card Rookie Autograph NFL Shield Logo Patch cards

• Autographed jumbo Relic cards

• Autographed jumbo patch cards

• Rookie 1/1 parallels

• 1/1 Rookie and Base Card printing plates

With a name like Topps Rising Rookies you would expect the product to be loaded with rookies. It is expected that there will be at least 100 rookies in the set and you will get your fill of them. Each pack should contain 4 rookies and 1 rookie parallel. Some of the rookies expected to be included: A.J. Green, Jake Locker, Cam Newton and Mark Ingram.

Pros:

First cards of the newly drafted rookies

Plenty of hits per box plus parallel

On-card autographs with some of the patch and logo cards

Cons:

With 100 expected rookies plan on seeing lots of late rounder and free agents who may never make the team

Sticker autographs

Redemptions for the autographs of the top picks

Rating:

Because no real info has been released I am not going to give a rating yet. Hopefully more images will be posted by Topps so we can see what to expect with the base cards and various inserts.