On their blog today, Panini gave us the first look at their initial 2011 Football release. Although some of the product is a VAST improvement over 2010, some of the cards are right down the same road they are infamous for travelling. It also looks that some of the rookie autographs will be on card, something that Prestige has been missing during its whole existence, and I could not be more happy that they are going in the correct direction with that.

When it comes to the good of this preview, I am SO glad they are going helmet on for the rookie cards, something that has been a problem with UD’s exclusive rights to uniforms and likenesses of NCAA schools. I think the design looks streamlined and sleek with the swooping border to the full game shots, a factor that limited the visual appeal last year. The only part that could be a problem is the NFL shield on the base cards, as hopefully they will edit in the NFL logo of the team the rookie is drafted to. If not, the base cards will look odd, and the Autos will be the star.

I like the Preferred design, as well as the inside the numbers design, and hopefully Panini will finally get it through their thick fucking skulls that there needs to be separate designs for autos and jerseys. I know this is a complete pipe dream, and likely they will just fill out this set the way they always do.

As for the bad, there are a few specific things that make my blood boil. First, it looks like we are going to have another god forsaken year of those lame ass manupatch auto cards. I cant even put into words how sick of these cards I am, and I think that my opinion is becoming more and more common among the collectors on the net. There needs to be another option, something that incorporates the on card signatures from the helmet autos of 2010, but avoids the played out gimmicks that Panini overuses every single year.

Also, the passport cards and the connections cards look like typical busy eye sores from Panini, mostly because whatever design team they have doesn’t understand the concept “less is more.” Im not impressed with that aspect of the product, especially when so many of the box hits will be junk jersey cards based on these designs. I still don’t get why companies consider these single jersey cards to be “hits,” at least Topps had the common sense to low number them in Supreme. I can guess this will not be the case in this product.

Overall, this is definitely an upgrade from 2010, im just sick of having to wait for that one big leap that Panini SHOULD be taking, rather than these tiny fucking baby steps in the right direction.