The last time Topps printed a licensed NFL card, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota headlined the set’s rookie class and the sports card world stood years away from an unexpected boom in popularity.
After more than a decade, Topps will kick off its return to producing NFL licensed trading cards (meaning cards with team names and logos) as the long-term deal between parent company Fanatics Collectibles and the league takes effect with 2025 Topps Chrome Football, a staple brand within the company’s portfolio. The set will be released on April 15 with a pre-order window set to commence Friday.
Topps isn’t holding back for this release either, as it will include arguably the company’s most important and rarest insert set: The NFL version of the famed MLB Rookie Debut patch autographed cards.
The one-of-one Topps Rookie PREM1ERE patch autographed cards will appear in 2025 Topps Chrome Football. Members of the 2025 NFL Draft class wore the PREM1ERE patch on their jersey during their first NFL regular season appearance last season. The patch was then removed and placed into a rookie card unlike any other.
Chrome will also bear one-of-one NFL Honors gold shield patch autographed cards from the 2024 league award winners for MVP (Josh Allen), Offensive Player of the Year (Saquon Barkley), Defensive Player of the Year (Patrick Surtain II) and Offensive Rookie of the Year (Jayden Daniels) and Defensive Rookie of the Year (Jared Verse).
The NFL award winners wore gold NFL shield patches on their jerseys throughout the 2025 season. Some of those patches were removed and placed within cards. This follows the same playbook Topps has implemented with MLB and NBA Gold Logoman cards for award winners.
Fanatics Collectibles CEO Mike Mahan said it wasn’t necessarily a concerted effort to beef up Topps’ first NFL product in more than a decade with such big chase cards, but he said it came out that way because of the timing of the company’s newest licensed release.
“We think it will be the definitive product in the ‘25-’26 season,” Mahan said. “And so getting everything all in one product, I think it’s exciting but it’s also the right thing to do for collectors. Having the gold shields and the PREM1ERE patches all in one product, plus all the other inserts we have across the portfolio and some things that are unique to the NFL, I do think from a content perspective this will be the biggest Chrome product we’ve ever had across any sport.”
Saquon Barkley’s 1/1 gold NFL shield patch autographed card will be included in 2025 Topps Chrome Football. (Photo courtesy of Topps)
Collectors will be able to land the first NFL licensed autographed cards from 2025 rookies like Jaxson Dart, Cam Ward and TreVeyon Henderson. Dart and Ward signed exclusive deals with Fanatics that prevented them from signing Panini cards for sets the previous license holder released prior to the transfer. Other players who signed in Panini products, like Tyler Shough and Cam Skattebo, will also have autographed cards in Chrome.
Additionally, Chrome will include the first licensed autographed cards for standouts from the 2023 and 2024 NFL Draft classes like Drake Maye, Daniels, Caleb Williams, Bo Nix and C.J. Stroud. Like Dart and Ward, those players didn’t sign for Panini products but have autographed rookie cards in unlicensed Topps products.
The April 15 release marks the culmination of the Fanatics/Topps takeover of the three biggest sports league licenses for trading cards, the subject of an ongoing legal battle with rival card manufacturer Panini.
Panini started producing NFL licensed cards in 2009 and took the exclusive NFL license in 2016. Fanatics landed the exclusive NFL and NFLPA trading card licenses in 2021 and purchased Topps shortly thereafter, Topps inched its way back into producing football cards with non-licensed cards in 2024 and 2025 (which included player images but not league or team marks) before the league license took effect this month. In the meantime, Fanatics also scored the NBA license for trading cards after Panini held it since 2009. Topps began printing NBA licensed cards once again in October 2025.
“We’re ecstatic. That old friend (Topps) has a whole new infrastructure, and I think that’s what we’re excited about,” said Casey Collins, NFL senior vice president of consumer products and licensing. “First and foremost, Panini’s done a really great job, and they’ve been a great partner. … We looked at the future and we wanted to make sure that we were doing the right thing by the fans and the right thing by the league and the right thing by a partner. The more we really kind of understood what Fanatics was doing with MLB, we really believed they were going to be best in class for us going forward.
“And I think that what we’ve seen once Fanatics took over Topps with MLB, what we’ve seen they’ve done with the NBA transition this past season, that’s really got us excited. … We want to really modernize and innovate this category, and we think that Topps give us by far the best chance to do that. I think another important initiative for the league is to reach a broader, younger audience. We think that Fanatics can help us really bring in new fans into the NFL.”
Collins, who started with the NFL in October 2025, has spent the past 30 years involved in licensing for such companies as Lucasfilm (Star Wars), WWE and Hasbro. He admits even the NFL has been taken aback by the growth in sports cards the past few years and believes the league’s deal with Topps will only increase the popularity and demand for football cards.
“I wish I could say we weren’t surprised. I think everyone’s been surprised by (the growth),” Collins said. ” I think what we’ve really been pleasantly surprised by is, it wasn’t a COVID bubble that kind of hit and came down. Quite frankly, I think that the COVID part of it was able to really help us for the long term. We had kids coming into this, they were bringing their parents back into this. They collected when they were kids. We have this cross- generational appeal.
“If you went to the National (Sports Collectors Convention) five years ago versus the National now, you’ll see the demographics are completely different. You’ve got five (year olds) to 95, and they’re all enjoying this and engaging in different ways. It’s really looked at by different people. … And I think the older audience is looking at this as kind of a commodity stock market, right? How do I invest in this? This is a different way for me to invest in a passion I have, but at the same time, it looks like an investment.”
The 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh will serve as a grand re-introduction of sorts for Topps and the NFL. There will be a multi-faceted interactive celebration of football card collecting in Pittsburgh each day of the draft, starting April 23 when there will be a dedicated space where fans can learn about the hobby, snag free packs of cards, watch live pack openings and more. This culminates with “Collector Celebration Day” on April 25 on the field at Acrisure Stadium, featuring special guests and athletes.
“Our ability to partner with (the NFL), to encourage their audience to come into the world of collecting, that is a big opportunity,” Mahan said. “They have so many fans, both here and around the world, and so the fact that we get to speak to those fans with trading cards that we think enhance that fandom, enhance that connection with an athlete or a team or a moment, and really drive that relationship that a collector feels with the player, that’s what we’re doing.”
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