Why aren't there more football card collectors?

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

It's also hard for most positions to get a sense of how good players were, and compare them, the way you can with all the baseball metrics. What can I look up, for example, that isn't anecdotal/testimonial that's going to give me a sense of Bob Lilly, or Jim Parker, or Jack Lambert?

Related to this is the fact that the NFL only recently (during Reggie White's era in the '90s??) started keeping up with sacks and sack records and such. Without sacks, the defensive lineman and linebackers do become a bit more difficult to distinguish from one another unless a collector is a die hard collector of say the Bears, Cowboys, Packers, Steelers, etc. In baseball all position players eventually come to the plate and are seen. If you play football but not a glamour position, it is hard to get noticed by a collector unless that player just happens to be above average or better on a dynamite team. That being said, I enjoy collecting those sets!

[Kurri17]

Interesting topic and a lot of good points made. My first thoughts on the topic are in regards to connection. In addition to the visibility points made earlier, baseball is played every day and in modern times fans can see their favorite, or any, teams regularly if not every game. While that level of exposure wasn't always the case, baseball fans of old followed their teams on the radio daily, and pored over box scores for stats. Football is obviously played just once a week, per team of course, and plays over a shorter season. This increased level of availability may have something to do with it, along with simple fact that football came into prominence nationally much later than baseball. Personally, I collected both equally as a kid in the '70s, eagerly awaiting the arrival of both sport's packs in my local stores and have a fondness for their place in my childhood that is at the very core of why I still collect.