The Best Topps Football Cards for Thanksgiving and Black Friday
It’s that magical time of year when an entire day of football graces our TVs as we indulge and overeat mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and maybe even some green bean casserole. Detroit hosts the first game. Except for 1939-44, due to World War II, Detroit has hosted a game every Thanksgiving for 90 years, and this holiday, they welcome Chicago and Caleb Williams to Ford Field.
For the Cowboys, this will be their 56th season hosting a Thanksgiving game (they’ve hosted a game on every Thanksgiving since 1966 except 1975 and ’77), and this year, they welcome the Daniel Jones-less New York team to Dallas.
To end the evening, just in time for leftover turkey sandwiches, Green Bay will host Miami, who usually doesn’t play too well in the cold. Then, for the second time ever, we have a Black Friday game, and it’s another divisional matchup with Kansas City hosting Las Vegas.
For these Thanksgiving and Black Friday matchups, we’ve gathered two cards from these Turkey Day (and Black Friday) teams that football fans can collect—one offensive legend and one defensive legend from past iconic Topps Football sets and the latest Topps Football sets: 2023 Topps Motif Football and 2023 Topps Composite Football.
Happy ripping – now, vote on who you think will be standing triumphantly biting into a turkey leg on Thursday!
Thanksgiving Day Game #1: Detroit vs. Chicago
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2023 Topps Composite Football Modern Artist #MA-14 Barry Sanders
Player info
• holds the league record for the most Seasons with 1,500 or more yards rushing: 5
• holds the league record for the most 150+ scrimmage yard games: 46
Set info
• modern artists features 25 players with four parallel colors
card back
• “When God created Barry Sanders, even He didn’t know what He made.” – unknown
2023 Topps Composite Football Resurgence White Surge #90 Jim McMahon /125
player info
• part of the legendary 1985 Chicago team, which went 15-1 and won the league championship
• 1991 comeback player of the year
set info
• 450 base cards featuring 14 insert sets
card back
• vitals, career stats, and a writeup about McMahon’s memorable career in which he won two league championships and was a force on and off the field
Thanksgiving Day Game 2: Dallas vs. New York
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2024 Topps NOW® Football Card #4 Malik Nabers
Player info
• youngest wide receiver in history to record at least two touchdown receptions in a game: 21 years and 56 days old
• first player in league history to have at least 25 catches and three touchdowns in his first four games
Set info
• print run of only 7,092 – includes autos
card back
• name, city, position, and a recap of his week 4 game in which he was a “man on a mission” hauling in 10 catches for 124 yards and his first career touchdown
2023 Topps Composite Football Midnight #315 Emmitt Smith
Player info
• Holds the league record for career rushing yards: 18,355
• holds the record for rushing tds: 164
set info
• topps midnight features eight parallels
What they said
• “He would be the first to say he’s a product of the people in front of him, but they can only gain you so many yards. He did the rest.” – Marcus Allen,
Thanksgiving Day Game 3: Miami and Green Bay Football Cards
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2023 Topps Composite Football Portrait Gallery Green #PG-12 Dan Marino /250
Player info
• holds the record for the Lowest sack percentage in a season: 1.0% (1988)
• holds the record for the Most seasons leading the league in pass attempts: 5
set info
• portrait gallery set features 25 players with four parallels
What they said
• “I don’t believe that there is anyone who has made more of an impact than Dan Marino in his 17-year career. He has all the passing records and is one of the winningest quarterbacks in the history of the league, and those accomplishments are how players should be judged.” – don shula
1970 Topps Football #55 Ray Nitschke
Player info
• five-time league champion
• 1960s all-decade team
set info
• 263 card set originally printed in two series
card back
• “The toughest guy I ever played against was Ray Nitschke … he was a physical, tough guy, and he was a great football player.” – Mike Ditka
Black Friday Game: Las Vegas vs. Kansas City
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2023 Topps Composite Football #442 Howie Long
Player info
• 1980s all-decade team
• Three-time First-Team All-Pro
set info
• Topps composite football features 13 insert sets
card back
• name, city, position, vitals, and a look back on his sacking prowess, notching 7.5 sacks as a rookie despite not starting a game and putting up three consecutive seasons of double-digit sacks
1991 Topps Football #3 Derrick Thomas
Player info
• holds the league record for the most sacks in a game: 7
• 1990s all-decade team
set info
• 660 card base set featuring league leader inserts
What they said
• “People always ask me the hardest I’ve ever been hit in my life and I tell everybody it was by him in that game. We were constantly worried about Derrick.” – all-pro running back brian mitchell
