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Question about logos and football cards


Plaid Paint

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Posted

Back in the late 1970's, when I was a wee lad, I collected baseball/basketball and football cards before AssClowns like Mr. Mint took what had been a ritual hobby for young boys and utterly and completely ruined it.

Anyway, thinking back to those days, I distinctly recall that in regards to the football cards, the logos on all of the helmets had been airbrushed out, leaving just the solid colored helmet.

I seem to recall the same thing occuring on baseball/basketball cards, but i might be mistaken there, but I'm damn sure about the football cards.

My question is this:

Why?

The NFL had to have a licensing agreement with the trading card companies or there wouldn't have been any trading cards.

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Thanks.

Posted
Back in the late 1970's, when I was a wee lad, I collected baseball/basketball and football cards before AssClowns like Mr. Mint took what had been a ritual hobby for young boys and utterly and completely ruined it.

Anyway, thinking back to those days, I distinctly recall that in regards to the football cards, the logos on all of the helmets had been airbrushed out, leaving just the solid colored helmet.

I seem to recall the same thing occuring on baseball/basketball cards, but i might be mistaken there, but I'm damn sure about the football cards.

My question is this:

Why?

The NFL had to have a licensing agreement with the trading card companies or there wouldn't have been any trading cards.

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Thanks.

I know what you're talking about, because when I was little I always wondered why the teams didn't have the logos on their helmets, or jerseys. It's like seeing photos of training camp.

I don't know why they did it...perhaps it was just an agreement with the NFLPA? I wish I could help you. Maybe they didn't have the licensing structure set up for use of copyrighted artwork.

Smart is believing half of what you hear. Genius is knowing which half.

 

Posted

That's what I'm thinking. Topps must have had an agreements with the NFLPA only, so while they could print the teams' names, none of the logos would have been on the card. I think it was 81 or 82 that the logos were allowed to remain on the helmets.

Back-to-Back Fatal Forty Champion 2015 & 2016

Posted

Topps didn't have the agreement, as you said. Earlier, the Philadelphia Gum Company DID have such an agreement (as did Topps with the AFL), so that cards in the early to mid 60s did have logos on their helmets.

It's where I sit.

Posted

I may be showing my age here, but frequently, with posed photographs, NFL players would have no helmets at all. That way you could actually see their face.

Posted

A lot of those cards weren't posed pictures. Many were action shots or shots taken from players on the sidelines. Everyone looked like the Browns, but with different colored helmets.

Back-to-Back Fatal Forty Champion 2015 & 2016

Posted

Anyone can put out a set of Sports Cards, but if they are not authorized by the league then they can not have the logos visible. In the old days the leagues would sign deals with 1 maybe 2 companies to release Bubble Gum Cards (as they called them then, even though eating the gum that came in them was dangerous to your health). Now the leagues have numerous marketing agreements with so many "Trading Card" companies that you rarely see an unauthorized set any longer.

In the mid to late 90's you saw the same phenomenon with PC Software. I have a couple different versions of Football and Baseball games for the PC that used the same City names as the real thing, but no nicknames and no logos. The colors were right but that was it, because the NFL or MLB had not signed off on the software.

Posted

I just remembered something. There was one team that had the logo showing on the helmet, or at least a partial logo. I want to say it was the Rams, but I'm not 100% sure, but I recall that there was one team.

Yes, it was the Rams, which seems to make the whole thing about airbrushing out logos even more confusing. Plus back when I was collecting football cards, unlike the mid-late 1980's, there weren't a zillion different card companies around, but just one or two.

Posted
Plus back when I was collecting football cards, unlike the mid-late 1980's, there weren't a zillion different card companies around, but just one or two.

Just a small correction, Plaid - you're off by a decade - the bazillions of card companies were established in the 90s. For football, Topps was the main company in the 80s until Pro Set, Score, and Fleer started making football cards around '88/'89. Upper Deck started football in 1991.

Smart is believing half of what you hear. Genius is knowing which half.

 

Posted

I think they do that now for rookies (pics in college). I remember a Tshimanga Biakabatuka card (went to Meesh-igan) with a plain blue helmet.

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Posted
wilt.jpg

Off topic, but the spacing between the 1 and 3 reminds me of the way Kerwin Bell's numbers were spaced when he played in the CFL.

Don't know if that was limited to his tenure with the Bombers, Argos, or both, but I distinctly remember a noticeably disproportionate space between his numbers.

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Posted

I know some of older NHL cards they airbrushed the card when a player was traded after the picture was taken.

I have a Steve Christoff card that's odd that way--I may have to find it & scan it-

Christoff was traded by Minnesota to Calgary who then traded him back to Minnesota after a season--but before he played a game for Minnesota the second time they traded him to the Kings-So the picture is Christoff as a Flame--they airbrushed (badly) him into a North Stars uni--then on the card they printed-Now with the Kings...

Also some older CFL cards have similar to the above--and the Stampeders were sometimes airbrushed into Green unis--then one year the Green Riders were air brushed red.

Comic Sans walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve your type here."

Posted

Yeah, with the Rams they used to show most of the horn on the helmet and the sleeves but airbrush out the curled end. I guess the remaining "stripe" wasn't a problem.

It was always kind of interesting seeing all the various attempts at airbrushing. Some looked great (or as great as possible) but some looked downright amateurish. I remember a Don Nelson card - it might have been the same year as that Wilt card - where they tried to color his shorts for some odd reason. They came out a kinda teal. I don't know what the heck they were trying to do.

The only thing with baseball tyey tried to do was update caps or uniforms for trades (again, some good - some comic). Topps always had the logo rights. Does anyone know why it appears (or even notice) that Topps didn't take many new photographs for the 1969 set? If you check out many of the guys who were traded in 1967 - many of them still don't have new photos. I remember alot of instances but can only think of Ken Harrelson at this time.

Posted

Airbrushing example, when Jackson went from the Yankees to the Angels....

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..compared to...

pc020125.jpg

Posted
wilt.jpg

Off topic, but the spacing between the 1 and 3 reminds me of the way Kerwin Bell's numbers were spaced when he played in the CFL.

Don't know if that was limited to his tenure with the Bombers, Argos, or both, but I distinctly remember a noticeably disproportionate space between his numbers.

Syphi,

Could be the spacing but in this case I think a more likely scenario is that since he is wearing the shirt backwards his chest is forcing the material to stretch more than if it was worn properly. The uniforms were tight as it was back then to wear it backwards would make the back (front for the pic) extremely tight.

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