Today on blowout, I saw someone post a half case break of 2006 Leaf Certified Materials. Although this is well before Panini took over the former DLP company, its obvious to me where some of the horrendous habits they employ constantly today come from. I have often said that 2006 Paradigm football was one of the worst products ever created, and for the most part, that is still true because of pricing combined with design. I will say this, 2006 Paradigm is ten times as good looking as 2006 LCM. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the ugliest set ever produced.

Just to clarify what I am saying here, as ugly sets have been more prominent over the last few years than ever before. Like 2006 Paradigm, 2008 Letterman Football had just as many problems with the sticker autos on manufactured letter patches, but the cards were often nothing more than just the letters on the cards. In all reality, even though the set featured stickers on the manupatches, they still make 2006 LCM look like the dogshit it really is. Same thing with 2007 Ultimate Football, as the shifting title auto cards really have nothing on this crap. I stand by, 2006 Leaf Certified Materials being the worst ever. Here is what I am talking about:

Base Card – This entire product, with few exceptions is all on hideous rainbow foil, something that never does anyone any favors. Aside from this, the design just doesnt work, even if it were on regular foil. The segmented background with the ugly twists is the basis for many cards in this product, something that will be a big factor as we move on.

Base Card Jersey Parallel – The swatch placement is obvious, but ugly just like the base card. This was back when people still valued jersey cards, but it really doesnt matter.

Base Card Auto Parallel – Besides the fact that the color scheme looks awful with the rainbow foil, this was before the days of DLP using clear stickers. The giant gray sticker breaks the lines of the segmented background and that is a horrible design flaw. The bottom segment top border should have been raised from the start, but that was obviously not taken into consideration.

Rookie Jersey 1 – Here it is, the worst of the worst. First off, the picture of the rookie is trapped up in the corner, making a bad design worse than ever. Secondly, and most hilariously, the jersey swatch is smack dab in the middle of the card, making the middle part look like a virtual diagram of a uterus with fallopian tubes. It makes me wonder who thought this looked good enough to print, but then again, I think that a lot about Panini’s crap.

Immortals Jersey – Okay, I was wrong, this one is worse. The uterus is more pronounced because the swatch is lower, and the GIANT “Immortals” label at the top is that much worse.

Rookie Jersey Auto 4 – If you have seen 2008 certified, you know all about the floating swatches above the autograph looking ridiculously odd. This is that much worse, because the fallopian tubes in the back make it look that much more weird.

Rookie Jersey/Football 2 – I HATE event used football swatches. They are completely fucking lame as hell, and can barely be considered to be even rookie touched, when they are tossed around for a second before being tossed in the bin to be cut up. That’s not the worst part though. Like 2008, they decided to stack the swatches on top of each other instead of putting them vertical and side by side like they should be. It makes me laugh with the rest of these awful cards.

Fabric of the Game Jersey – Why is the jersey swatch all the way up there in the corner? Ohhhh right, because they never adjust the design for a jersey card rather than a jersey auto. Then when you have the player name in that terrible script font stacked on top of the needless addition of the player’s number, its that much worse.

Fabric of the Game Jersey Auto – This is the one card design in the whole goddamn set that looks good. One out of about a million.

Certified Potential Jersey – Why the hell does the bar with the text run through the player instead of behind. Its like Samkon Gado is running through a finish line tape. Then that jersey swatch is again hilariously placed in that top corner. Awful.

There are a lot of times that I want to know who put these down on the routing table and thought the set was a good idea. Each card is worse than the next, and just when you think it cant move further away from a train wreck, you see another card that makes you chuckle. Guys, I challenge you all to show me another product that is as horrid as this one is. Wow.