Playoff Time

It's an off-day for the tournament, so we'll take a break from our Card Madness on this blog. Thanks to all those who have been reading and commenting. It's fun to see which cards other people would choose if they were in charge of the madness.

Basketball may be in the forefront of everybody's minds, and Spring Training is finally underway, but I have more football for today. In past couple of weeks, I've come across some 2021 Playoff football retail. I picked up a hanger box and a fat pack.

The base design is so-so. There is a lot space taken out by the border, leaving a smallish picture. These are base cards from the hanger box. I have to say that the Green and Gold looks good on these cards.

Each team has a legend in the checklist. It's weird to me that Philip Rivers was active last year for one team, but has already sneaked in as the Chargers' legend.

The hanger box came with nine Goal Line parallels. In my particular box, I pulled three base vets, three legends, and three rookies. I don't know if that's always the distribution, but it was nice and even for me.

The hanger box also came with six rookies. College backfield mates Javonte Williams and Michael Carter are the headliners here.

When I got around to scanning the fat pack, I didn't divide up the vets, legends, and rookies. I just had them in order of card number when I scanned, so that is the order you see.

Luckily, there weren't a ton of dupes, although I have decided not to try to build this set. I already completed one set for this season, and this one doesn't interest me enough to keep buying more.

As you can see, the rookies come at the end of the checklist. The fat pack yielded five rookies. A Jet is the best rookie pull here, but it's not the one I was hoping for.

The parallel you can find in the fat packs is Kickoff. Just so we're clear: hanger=Goal Line, fat pack=Kickoff. There isn't much difference between the two.

The base set is okay. The parallels are inane. Where 2021 Playoff really shines, however, is the inserts. Literally, these are shiny inserts! And I like every single one that I pulled. I decided to chase the Thunder & Lightning set. I would be more interested in the Behind the Numbers set if the back had blurbs that actually went behind the numbers, but it just talks about statistical milestones. Still, DeMarcus Ware fits nicely into my collection.

These three cards go back to the hanger box. I love the Rookie Wave and will chase it, too. This particular Thunder & Lightning with the incomparable duo of Montana and Rice is beautiful in-hand. Tutu Atwell is a purple parallel. It's pretty, but I'm not interested in a parallel, so it is on my tradelist.

The major takeaway is that every insert was shiny and beautiful. I liked all of them that I pulled and have a pair of insert sets to chase from this release.