1948 Bowman Football	1948 Leaf Football Leaf issued this classic 98 card set in 1948 - the first of the modern football card sets. Following in the mode of their baseball set, the crudely cropped and colorized black and white cards featured most of the major rookies of the period. Key rookies include Luckman, Layne, Conerly, Bednarik, Nomellini, Van Buren, Waterfield, and Sammy Baugh.	1950 Bowman Football After a one year absence, Bowman returned with a 144 card set designed in the same style of the company's baseball issue. The card fronts contained a color drawing of the player with no other identification. Given the status of the fledgling NFL at the time, the set contains rookie cards of many of the league's greats - YA Tittle, Otto Graham, Lou Groza, Joe Perry and Elroy Hirsch.
1951 Bowman Football	1952 Bowman Football Large How ironic that the two benchmark sets in the hobby came out in 1952. Much like the classic 52 Topps, the 52 Bowman Large FB set is the benchmark for all football cards. Featuring an incredible selection of rookies, impossible short prints, and large, beautifully drawn images, the 52 Bowman FB is a classic!	1953 Bowman Football The scarcest of all 50's football, this sharp 96 card set features beautiful multi-color cards of many HOFers. The very difficult short print cards are on most advanced collector wantlists. Primary rookie cards are Eddie LeBaron (also the tough #1 card), Ray Renfro and Ted Marchibroda.
1955 Bowman Football Bowman's last football issue before selling out to Topps was a 160 card effort that added sharper photos and multi-colored backdrops to the previous years' design. As Topps 1955 release was a combination of College players and All-Time Greats, Bowman monopolized the Pro rookie market. The set features the rookie cards of Pat Summerall, Alan Ameche, Mike McCormick, Jim Ringo, John Henry Johnson and Bob St. Clair.	1955 Topps AA FB The 1955 All American was the third and final football release by the company featuring college players. The set also features many single printed cards which makes it a challenge to complete and a collector's favorite. The 100 card All American set also included many of the game's All Time Greats including Red Grange, Knute Rockne, the Four Horsemen and Jim Thorpe.	1956 Topps Football This set of 120 cards plus an unnumbered checklist was Topps' first football release to feature only professional players. Topps included Team cards in the set for the first time of any football issue. The set is notable for the short printing of the Chicago Cardinals and Washington Redskins, including the very difficult #1 card.
1957 Topps Football Topps landmark issue was the first standard size football set. The set's horizontal design allowed for two color photos, one a portrait and one "in action." The sets sharp photography and color makes it the benchmark set for the decade. The inclusion of three All Time Great rookie cards - Johnny Unitas, Paul Hornung, and Bart Starr, along with rookies of Raymond Berry, Earl Morrall and Dick Lane, make this possibly Topps most popular football release until 1965.	1958 Topps Football This 132 card set features an oval photo of the player on the front, in the style of the company's 1959 baseball issue. Printed on similar stock to the 1958 baseball issue, high grade examples of this issue may be very difficult to find. The set features the rookie card of All-time great Jim Brown, possibly the key rookie card for the decade, along with the rookie card of Sonny Jurgensen.	1959 Topps Football This 176 card set featuring alternating blue and red letters for the player names was issued in two series by Topps in 1959. Team cards included numbered checklists on the reverse and team pennant cards were also included. The set features the rookie cards of Sam Huff, Alex Karras, Jerry Kramer, John David Crow and Max McGee among others.