Topps Total Football claims to have the largest list of players in the industry, and with 900 NFL athletes on 550 cards, it's a claim that's not likely to be challenged by any other 2007 product. Building the set is the name of the game for Total, whether it's the entire league or simply a favorite team.
Hobby boxes of 2007 Topps Total Football come with 36 packs of ten cards each, with two rookie cards and one parallel in each pack.
Base Cards and Parallels
How do you get 900 players into a 550-card base set? Topps Total does it with clever use of 90 dual and 130 triple-player cards to supplement 220 single-player cards, allowing just about every veteran in the NFL to be captured on cardboard. It's a nice way to get everyone in the set without forcing people to complete a 900-card checklist. The cards are numbered by team as well as within the entire set, making it simple to put together team sets if so desired.
Falling at the rate of two per pack, 110 rookie cards top off the set. All base cards share the same design that features a green border, team-colored stripes in opposite corners and player information at the bottom. Card backs don't have much in the way of stats, which is kind of surprising for a set of this type, but they do have nice blurbs that define each player's role with his team.
If the green borders aren't your cup of tea, Total's parallels may be more to your liking. That's because they put a rainbow of different colors around the same photos with Blue (found 1:2 packs), Red (1:4), Silver (1:6), Gold (1:9) and Black (1:18 packs and numbered to 50) levels, plus bronze 1st Edition parallels (also 1:2). The many variations mean there's enough for one in each pack (and some look a little better than the original green), but their sheer number may prove confusing for collectors who prefer something simple, a.k.a. the target audience for this set.
My review box had no duplicates, which is always nice. I found 292 base cards (including 72 rookies) and a total of 56 parallels.
Insert Cards
While they certainly aren't the centerpiece of Topps Total, a few insert cards add a little bit of variety to every third pack or so. Three simple, mostly foil-based inserts - Total Topps, 2006 Award Winners and Total Production - all spotlight some of the best current NFL players.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Total's team checklists, which are basically white-bordered parallels of one player from each team, except that the card backs list the card numbers for all of his teammates in the set. It's a cool way to combine something useful with an extra couple of cards of star players, never a bad thing in an inexpensive product like this.
Along with eight team checklists, the About.com sample box produced 11 insert cards - six Total Topps, four 2006 Award Winners and one Total Production.
Autographed Cards
Yes, Total does have autographs, but that shouldn't be the reason you bust packs because they are tough pulls. Think of them more as an added bonus if you happen to hit one.
Continuing from Topps Football, the 2007 Signature Series features autographs from NFL stars past and present, not the least of which are big names like Emmitt Smith and Joe Montana. Total Signatures adds another 15 players, mostly rookies and young stars like Frank Gore and Maurice Jones-Drew.
As expected, there were no autographs to be found in my review box.
The Last Word
A set like Topps Total aspires to be solid but unspectacular, and to give collectors an affordable yet comprehensive set. The 2007 set mostly succeeds, though it does suffer from the same parallel overload that afflicts many of today's sports card products. Removing, say, two of the levels could put people about five percent closer to completing the base set, which is likely to be the goal of most hobbyists who open packs of Total.
There's certainly no griping about the player selection, because almost everyone who steps onto the gridiron in 2007 is on one of these cards. For set-builders, young collectors and anyone on a budget, Total isn't a bad choice for your football card dollar.