Sports fans will struggle during the season on COVID, both because of cancellations and because attendance options may be limited. To really get into the game from quarantine, football fans will need to embrace the nostalgia of pre-recorded games or even start a card swap.
The History of Sports Cards
The original sports cards were produced with images of baseball players and inserted into tobacco pouches as a way to increase sales. In the 1930s, cards were moved over to gum packs and became popular with children. Baseball cards have long been sought by collectors and are still popular among baseball fans.
One of the big draws of baseball cards was that kids could hear the game on the radio and see the faces of their sports heroes at the same time. Now that we can see games on television, the cards are less necessary but no less interesting or worthy of collection.
Celebrating Our Favorites Now
Because of COVID-19, sports fans are losing out in two ways. Firstly, it may not be safe for fans to gather in large arenas, especially indoor facilities. In addition, players are at greater risk of moving the virus from team to team each time they meet on the field. If fans find a source of great historical games to enjoy on the weekend, adding football cards from an online sports card shop could be a great way to increase the fun.
Digging Into the Stats
Fans of games of every sort will enjoy digging into the stats of players of yesterday. Often, it’s just a few degrees of expertise that separates a minor league player from a major league success. How have individual players changed over the years, and what stats haven’t changed much over the generations? Understanding the science behind sports can greatly increase the fun of the game by studying the changes over time.
From College to the NFL
Sports cards can also give dedicated football fans the chance to track their favorites from college thru their NFL career. What positions did they play, and who coached them? How has their physique changed, and what was their training regimen? For fans looking to improve their own physique or build a training regimen of their own, the ability to track a single player from time on a college team to NFL success can be extremely inspiring.
Build Fantasy Teams
Once you have your card collection started, you can start creating teams of your own. Because college football season will be limited by the risk of virus spread, dedicated football fans may not get to see their favorite teams meet on the field. While this will hurt, having cards that provide detailed stats of a player’s ability will allow fans to build imaginary teams of tremendous detail. Once games start up again, dedicated fans may actually get to see some fantasy player matchups play out in real life.
Safety First
COVID-19 is nothing to mess around with, and many healthy young people have had their futures either wiped out or severely limited by the damage of this illness. While it may seem that worrying about football season is low on our list of concerns, the real fans don’t feel that way. Protecting fans and players by canceling games seems harsh, but it doesn’t have to be the end of football fun.
Cards can be a great way to study up on the history of players. If you have a favorite college player, start tracking them. Just because you won’t see them on the field this year doesn’t mean you’ll never see them play in real life, and the chance to follow them through the NFL draft and into the pros will make your card collection habit all the more fun.
