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Fanatics announced Thursday it’ll be producing fully licensed NFL cards under the Topps brand for the first time since 2016 – and they’re bringing their patch program along for the ride.
The company’s rolling out something they’ve already done with MLB and NBA cards: one-of-one Rookie PREM1ERE Patch Autograph cards and NFL Honors Gold Shield Autograph cards. Those gold shields? They’re coming straight from the jerseys of 2024 Associated Press award winners (MVP, Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year) that’ll be worn during the 2025 season.
Fanatics is launching its 20-year deal with 2025 Topps Chrome Football on April 15. The deal stems from an agreement with the NFL Players Association that kicked off back in 2023.
It’s a spectacular moment for our company, for the industry and for collectors. The things we’re doing with the PREM1ERE and NFL Honors Gold Shield patches deepen and strengthen connections and storytelling. … We’re enhancing fan experience.
That’s Michael Mahan, Fanatics’ CEO of collectibles, talking to ESPN.
The debut patch program works like this: they’re taking patches from players’ jerseys worn in their first regular-season game and inserting them into one-of-one-numbered, on-card autographed cards.
Those gold shield autograph cards will feature shields pulled from the 2025 jerseys of 2024’s major NFL award winners – Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, Denver Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, and Los Angeles Rams linebacker Jared Verse.
Fanatics has been on a licensing spree lately. The company bought Topps for $500 million in 2022 after winning future MLB exclusive rights in 2021; they became the exclusive NBA trading card licensee this past October.
The set also includes Fanatics Collectible exclusive athletes like Daniels, Drake Maye, C.J. Stroud, Bo Nix, Jerry Rice, and Tom Brady. They’re planning pack giveaways and live-breaking at the 2026 NFL draft (April 23-25 in Pittsburgh).
Casey Collins, NFL senior vice president of consumer products and licensing, explained the thinking behind the partnership.
We sat down with Fanatics and asked: What have we not been doing or giving our fans that they previously wanted? We felt relics was a place we needed to innovate, so we’re bringing more game-worn merchandise — jerseys, pants, footballs, coins, pylons, headbands, towels — into trading cards. We know fans want more authentic, game-used merchandise embedded into collectibles, so we’ve got exciting plans in the next few months to let them know we listened.
There’s legal drama brewing, though.
Fanatics’ deal with the NFLPA sparked an antitrust lawsuit from Panini, which previously had licenses to produce NBA and NFL trading cards. Panini’s claiming that Fanatics has “created an entirely new monopoly spanning multiple leagues and multiple players associations.” Fanatics fired back with a countersuit, alleging “unfair competition, tortious interference with business relations, and breach of duty to negotiate in good faith.”
Both the NFL and Fanatics declined to comment on the antitrust litigation between Panini and Fanatics.
