Panini Playbook

This is something i have never thought of buying in the past and will not buy in the future.  For me, this was a high risk, low reward box and something that i bought because i got whipped up in the Panini hype machine and my pursuit of pulling an RG3 auto from a box.  As you will see, that did not happen.  With all that negative energy out, these cards are pretty cool and it’s difficult to have any kind of criticism of the cards themselves.  They are quite beautiful and definitely pieces of art…for the cardboard connoisseur.

As you may know, Playoff gives you 4 cards in a box with some autos and some jersey cards.  You always see the great 1/1’s on the websites out there, but I never actually pull them myself.  I do love the booklet card idea and had hoped to pull any kind of Redskin card… instead i got a freakin’ Cowboy.  A very young and talented cowboy no less…but a Dallas Cowboy.

The other booklet card i pulled was a guy that i strongly remember from Hard Knocks that barely made the team and seemed lost quite a bit.  Michael Egnew.  He played in two games last year and put up some goose eggs.  I wonder if he even ran the right routes?  It’s kind of crappy that this is the box ‘hit’.  A guy that will probably be out of the NFL in a year or two.  No disrespect to Mr. Egnew, but Panini should do a better job of making these box hit booklet cards of guys that will have some type of impact in the NFL.  I realize they don’t have crystal balls, but if they did, it would be awesome…crystal balls.  If i pulled a single card of Egnew, I would have been cool with that, but not the booklet.

The next two autos were of the Bears Rookie Brandon Hardin…

…and Casey Hayward from the Green Bay Packers.  Casey had a pretty good rookie season with the Packers, picking of 6 passes.  Seems like the kind of guy you want to keep an eye out for in the future…would love to have received a booklet auto of THIS GUY!

After re-reading this post, it sounds really negative an filled with varying levels of disappointment.  That’s not totally the case.  I knew what i was getting in to.  It was a gamble and in all honesty it was a fun gamble that i enjoyed taking part in.  I probably won’t buy another box of these in the future, but I really do like the look and feel of them.