With no live football on television or in stadiums because of the coronavirus pandemic, the next best thing — other than watching old reruns — is collecting football cards.
But let’s be honest. You can only watch so many reruns of Super Bowl VII, no matter how delicious the outcome was. Perfect season times 100. I think I can call every play in my sleep now.
So, I ventured to Target and bought a blaster box of 2020 Leaf Draft football, which was released last month but finally made it to my area this week.
The idea behind this set is fun: Put together the most promising college football prospects who have a chance to be drafted in the upcoming NFL draft. This year’s draft, even though it will be held in a virtual format, will still be intriguing.
The 2020 Leaf Draft blaster box contains 20 packs, with five cards per pack. There are two autograph cards in every retail box. At $19.99, this works out to just under a dollar a pack. It’s hard to get those kinds of deals anymore.
But let’s be honest. You can only watch so many reruns of Super Bowl VII, no matter how delicious the outcome was. Perfect season times 100. I think I can call every play in my sleep now.
So, I ventured to Target and bought a blaster box of 2020 Leaf Draft football, which was released last month but finally made it to my area this week.
The idea behind this set is fun: Put together the most promising college football prospects who have a chance to be drafted in the upcoming NFL draft. This year’s draft, even though it will be held in a virtual format, will still be intriguing.
The 2020 Leaf Draft blaster box contains 20 packs, with five cards per pack. There are two autograph cards in every retail box. At $19.99, this works out to just under a dollar a pack. It’s hard to get those kinds of deals anymore.
The set consists of 100 cards. The first 60 of them are designated as commons. Cards 61 to 75 are All-American cards, No. 76 through 90 are Touchdown Kings, while 91 through 100 are Flashback cards. Parallels cards are distinguishable by gold components.
The box I opened had 47 commons, 13 All-Americans, 13 Touchdown Kings and seven Flashbacks. And, two autograph cards that were separate from the packs.
There were 20 parallels in the box I opened: 14 commons, two All-Americans, two Touchdown Kings and two Flashbacks.
Some of the packs (I counted at least two) had three Touchdown Kings cards in them and two base common cards.
The design is clean for the cards. The player photographs in the commons are black and white, which gives the cards a nice retro feel. The Leaf logo is in the upper left-hand corner of the card front, while a Leaf rookie card logo is nestled in the upper right.
The box I opened had 47 commons, 13 All-Americans, 13 Touchdown Kings and seven Flashbacks. And, two autograph cards that were separate from the packs.
There were 20 parallels in the box I opened: 14 commons, two All-Americans, two Touchdown Kings and two Flashbacks.
Some of the packs (I counted at least two) had three Touchdown Kings cards in them and two base common cards.
The design is clean for the cards. The player photographs in the commons are black and white, which gives the cards a nice retro feel. The Leaf logo is in the upper left-hand corner of the card front, while a Leaf rookie card logo is nestled in the upper right.
It seemed a little silly to have a rookie card designation on these cards; after all, except for Flashback cards, many — but not all— of the players depicted are likely to be NFL rookies. I can see Leaf’s point to a certain extent, but it seemed unnecessary.
Because Leaf does not have licensing rights, all of the team logos are airbrushed out of the cards. In the fine print on the card back, Leaf notes that the card “is solely licensed by the depicted player.” It goes on to remind the consumer that the card has not been endorsed by that player’s university, college or any licensing agency.
The card backs for the commons contain a seven-line mini-biography of the player, along with vital statistics like height, weight and position. There are also biographies for the other card subsets.
I particularly enjoyed the Flashback cards, which contain cards of NFL legends. The ones I pulled were Jerry Rice, Paul Hornung, Dick Butkus, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, Deion Sanders and Aaron Rodgers.
Because Leaf does not have licensing rights, all of the team logos are airbrushed out of the cards. In the fine print on the card back, Leaf notes that the card “is solely licensed by the depicted player.” It goes on to remind the consumer that the card has not been endorsed by that player’s university, college or any licensing agency.
The card backs for the commons contain a seven-line mini-biography of the player, along with vital statistics like height, weight and position. There are also biographies for the other card subsets.
I particularly enjoyed the Flashback cards, which contain cards of NFL legends. The ones I pulled were Jerry Rice, Paul Hornung, Dick Butkus, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, Deion Sanders and Aaron Rodgers.
As promised, there were two autograph cards in the blaster box I bought. Both were sticker autographs. The first was of former Auburn offensive tackle Prince Tega Wanogho, who signed with a giant “P’ and what looks to be a line stroke that could form a “T” on the same alphabetical character. There is a period to the right. I knew there was a paper goods shortage, but I didn’t realize there was a shortage of ink.
The second signature belonged to former Oregon tight end Jake Breeland. It’s sloppy, but at least he signed his first and last names.
Overall, this is a nice product that is inexpensive and seemingly easy to complete. Even the parallels appear easy to complete, given the amount placed in each blaster box.
It’s a nice way to spend time looking at cards and wondering which of these young football stars will get drafted and whether any of them will become stars.
The second signature belonged to former Oregon tight end Jake Breeland. It’s sloppy, but at least he signed his first and last names.
Overall, this is a nice product that is inexpensive and seemingly easy to complete. Even the parallels appear easy to complete, given the amount placed in each blaster box.
It’s a nice way to spend time looking at cards and wondering which of these young football stars will get drafted and whether any of them will become stars.
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