Football card

A football card is a type of collectible trading card typically printed on paper stock or card stock that features one or more American football or Canadian football players or other related sports figures. These cards are most often found in the United States and Canada where the sport is popular.

Most football cards features National Football League players. There are also Canadian Football League and college football cards. Player cards normally list the player's statistics. Some special edition packs of cards include authentic autographs or jersey cards. Some may include bubble gum or a special edition player card. Many cards are now serial-numbered, meaning that there are only so many of that particular card produced. These include unique prints (numbered 1/1). Included in these are printing plates, used in the actual production of the card.

History

The first football cards were included in cigarette packages in the late 1800s. In 1887 Harvard football player Henry W. Beecher was included as the only football player in a set of 50 cards distributed in packs of Old Judge and Gypsy Queen cigarettes, being the first football card. The first set of cards to focus on football players was printed by Mayo Cut Plug Tobacco Company in the early 1890s and featured players from the schools that became the Ivy League.

Trading card

A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other text (attacks, statistics, or trivia). There is a wide variation of different types of cards. Modern cards even go as far as to include swatches of game worn memorabilia, autographs, and even DNA hair samples of their subjects.

Trading cards are traditionally associated with sports; baseball cards are especially well-known. Cards dealing with other subjects like Pokémon are often considered a separate category from sports cards, known as non-sports trading cards. These often feature cartoons, comic book characters, television series and film stills. In the 1990s, cards designed specifically for playing games became popular enough to develop into a distinct category, collectible card games. These tend to use either fantasy subjects or sports as the basis for game play.