Panini Blog
Panini Blog
For the better part of 100 years, the NFL has made the great game of football as much a part of this country’s Thanksgiving tradition as turkey, stuffing and mid-afternoon catnaps between snaps. And when Panini America’s 2013 Totally Certified Football releases next week, it will pay proud tribute to that tradition with an expansive 50-card insert set that honors the greatest players, teams and games in the NFL’s storied Turkey Day history.
In what is easily the most significant Thanksgiving Day initiative in football-card history, 2013 Totally Certified Football’s “Thanksgiving” insert encompasses seemingly every meaningful Thanksgiving performance from the 1920s through last season, and will also include special colored parallels and rare autographed versions of some cards.
“With the release of Totally Certified Football on the heels of Turkey Day, this insert set just seemed like a natural fit,” said Panini America Editorial Director Jeff Sullivan, the person largely responsible for the insert’s inclusion. “So we researched every NFL game ever played on Thanksgiving, going back to the league’s first season in 1920 with the Canton Bulldogs and Decatur Staleys and all those iconic teams playing each other. Red Grange played his first pro game with the Chicago Bears in 1925. His debut was more or less the true beginning of the NFL in terms of fans having interest.
“We tried to find the best performances, the most memorable games and include those players in this set. Because there’s really nothing else to do on Thanksgiving but eat and watch football, the games tend to be more memorable.”
Here’s betting you’ll find at least a few Thanksgiving games that you remember in the following gallery, which includes a card-by-card exploration of “Thanksgiving” as well as a look at some of the rarer inserts and autographs.
CONTEST: Pay special attention to the images that follow. To help jolt you out of your turkey-induced tryptophan trance, we’ve hidden a logo of the Panini knight into three of the images. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tell us — AS A COMMENT TO THIS POST — on which three images you found it.
We’ll wait to approve all comments until after the entry deadline, which is tonight — November 28 at 11:59 p.m. – so your comment will appear to you as “pending moderation.” That’s our way of protecting your answers to this contest so that everyone else can’t see them. To be eligible to win, please keep your answers to yourself until after the deadline. We want to reward those folks who’ve taken the time and effort to find the hidden images.
We’ll place all correct entries into an online randomizer and award five winners with a box of 2013 Totally Certified Football. Just to be clear, here is the hidden image you’re looking for:
Good luck and thanks, as always, for participating. And from all of us here at Panini America to all of you: Happy Thanksgiving!
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