Considering that the first sports cards used painted portraits of athletes, using art instead of photographs for a set of football cards is about as retro as it gets. UD Masterpieces Football takes this idea to its logical extreme with painted images on simulated canvas stock, but adds modern elements like autographs and game-used cards.
Boxes of 2008 UD Masterpieces Football hold 12 packs of six cards each. Collectors can expect to find two memorabilia cards and one autograph per box on average.
Base Cards and Parallels
Unlike a lot of current football products, the base cards are really the focus of Masterpieces Football. As mentioned above, Upper Deck commissioned artists to paint 110 new images for the set, each one set on card stock textured to look like canvas.
The first 100 cards are a mix of rookies, veterans and retired players. There's also a special subset called Time Warp that mixes different eras together, resulting in cool cards like the one that shows Dick Butkus attempting to tackle Adrian Peterson.
Ten rookies appear on short-printed cards that round out the set. Usual suspects like Matt Ryan and Darren McFadden are in this tier, along with players like linemen Jake Long and Glenn Dorsey who don't always get this kind of treatment.
Though the base cards have decorative gold borders that help make them look like actual paintings, the parallels take it to the next level with actual cardboard frames. There are 10 different levels with varying print runs, and thankfully Upper Deck has dispensed with the pretentious names it gave them in Masterpieces Baseball.
This is a set that begs to be put together, but it will take more than one box to do it. I opened a random box to review and found 57 of the 100 regular prints (plus three duplicates) and two of the ten short prints. Among seven framed parallels were a Red Joe Namath numbered to 199 and a Second Blue Johnny Unitas numbered to 50.
Memorabilia Cards
Captured on Canvas cards provide the memorabilia punch for Masterpieces Football, falling two per box. The cards have pretty standard square jersey swatches, but they are incorporated into the simulated canvas stock.
The checklist goes 57 players deep and is heavy on 2008 rookies, though there is a sprinkling of stars like Tom Brady and Reggie Bush. Patch versions sport black frames and are numbered to 50.
As expected, the About.com sample box held two Captured on Canvas cards: Brett Favre and Calvin Johnson.
Autographed Cards
Autograph collectors should enjoy the Stroke of Genius cards that are signed directly on the simulated canvas stock. Stars from the past, present and future of the NFL make up the 77-player checklist, with 2008 rookies appearing in their college uniforms.
Case in point: the autograph in my review box. I pulled a Chris Johnson signature featuring the lightning fast Titans rookie in his East Carolina purple.
The Last Word
In an era when some sets get a little carried away with inserts and parallels, Masterpieces Football is refreshingly straightforward. Though art cards won't be every collector's cup of tea, there seems to always be a place for them, and Upper Deck incorporated plenty of nice little touches into the set that even improve upon its baseball counterpart.
The parallels, autographs and game-used cards all work together to reinforce the set's theme, adding to the overall package. Masterpieces Football stands out a bit from other sets currently on the shelf, and in this case, that's a good thing.