First-Look Gallery: 2009 Upper Deck Football

I just spent quality time with an early box of 2009 Upper Deck Football – that’s 16 20-card fat packs for those counting at home – and all I’ll say is this: If that doesn’t get you fired up for the rapidly approaching NFL season, you need to check your pulse.

Due out everywhere Sept. 1, the product is punctuated by the brilliant, full-bleed photography and accommodating design that are the cornerstones of most base-brand Upper Deck releases.

(Find a sweet first-look gallery after the jump.)

But there’s also a magnetic simplicity and quaint throwback appeal to this product that makes a box must-bust material for fans and collectors looking to experience a piece of football collecting’s compelling past.    

This particular box yielded three memorabilia cards (Adam Vinatieri, Hines Ward and rookie Glen Coffee), one autograph (rookie Josh Freeman) and two 3D Stars, something of a next-generation Sportflix.

The real beauty of this box, though, was the splendid imagery, the most compelling of which I’d like to share with you beginning . . . now.

– Tracy Hackler