2008 Upper Deck NFL Draft Edition

The Bulldogs' victory got me all jazzed up over football again and I felt like getting a pack with some college players. I chose UD Draft Edition mainly because it was cheap and has players in their college unis. It's like a low rent Press Pass. I've been deathly afraid of pulling a card of Matt Ryan, but I figured I could risk it. There's ninety nine other rookies in there, what are the chances I'll pull Ryan?

Here's how I reacted when I opened the pack:

95 Thomas Brown

Hell Yeah!!! Go Dawgs! Sic 'em! WOOFWOOFWOOFWOOFWOOF!

74 Matt Ryan

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

82 Philip Wheeler

Hey cool! Tech! Sting 'em! or... something

SOD8 Antoine Cason Stars of the Draft

Yay, an insert. Wait, these are one per pack. Yawn.

170 Kellen Clemens
130 Demarcus Ware

Meh. meh. Don't care about NFL players at all right now.

My worst nightmare was revealed but I got a Dawg and a Jacket to help mitigate the pain. Now it's time to start drinking heavily in preparation for the Georgia - Alabama game between the Hedges next week.

2008 Upper Deck Draft Edition Football

Too early for football? Meh.
This is actually a really great-looking product. The collegiate colors are the perfect palette with which a company can craft a football card.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
52 John David Booty (Not the first time a pack of cards led to the getting of some Booty, but that's another story for another time...)

31 Kellen Davis

18 Colt Brennan Green Logo Parallel

66 Malcolm Kelly

166 Amani Toomer (Wha?)

123 Carson Palmer (Wha-wha-WHA????)

On the one hand, this pack was more interesting, player-wise, than the pack of Press Pass I opened earlier. The inclusion of NFL veterans has me baffled. If Palmer had been in a USC uniform, then it would have made some sense, kind of like a "Where Are They Now?" subset, but his and Toomer's are just regular cards.

I'm also not too thrilled about the missing logo on the Davis card. What, has MSU co-opted the rights to the capital letter "S" or something? If this is possible, I've got dibs on "B", but I'll probably need tax-exempt status or something like that. Damn.

There you have it, folks, my only two packs of new football cards this year.

2008 Upper Deck NFL Draft Edition

Since the NFL Draft is tomorrow (and I already ripped this pack on my own site so it's an easy post) here's a pack of Upper Deck's NFL Draft Edition product. This is a retail pack, hobby packs have 10 cards and cost three times as much, but you get 5 autographs a box. Let's open this sucker.

93 Tashard Choice RC
70 Mario Urrutia RC
10 Brian Brohm RC
SOD7 Keith Rivers Stars of the Draft
103 Larry Fitzgerald
184 Patrick Willis


For years people who wanted cards of brand new draft picks had two choices. The College oriented Draft Pick sets from companies like Press Pass and Sage, or early NFL products from the mainstream manufacturers that doled out one rookie a pack. Upper Deck makes a hybrid of the two with this set which has the NFL Draft logo prominently displayed on the wrapper. The cards are kind of goofy looking with spot UV coating and foil Rookie Card stamps even on the veteran cards. However, the fact that UD is not short printing the rookies is a welcome change. I like cards of players in their college uniforms and for once, UD isn't showing the players in NFL unis from an "NFL Rookie Shoot" photo session. I guess they ponied up for a license to use the college logos. I'm surprised no one else thought to do this before now. I like football, but I've gotten to the point where I'm not really interested in collecting a dozen different sets every year. This is essentially two sets in one, and the packs aren't outrageously priced at two bucks a pop.


This isn't the greatest pack in the world, but it's not bad. Larry Fitzgerald and Patrick Willis are solid players but they'll never be considered superstars. Out of the draft picks, I've heard of three of them which ain't bad for someone who only really follows SEC football. Tashard Choice is huge news in Atlanta, but I'm not sure how he'll be as a pro. He could be a stud in the right system. Keith Rivers will go in the top 10 and will anchor a defense one day. If Brian Brohm is wearing a Falcons hat by tomorrow evening I'll be dancing naked in the streets. Mainly because we didn't waste our #1 on Matt Ryan, but dance I shall until they come to take me away. Urrutia sounds like a skin disease or a type or lettuce. He'll probably make me look stupid now and end up in the pro bowl.