When Panini first started to bring back Score to the main football calendar, I think a lot of people were excited that the product from their youth was being revived. What they didnt know was that it was going to be as bad as it has been over the last few years. Poor design and even worse content are not even worth the small price tag on the box.

Last year’s Score was about as horrendous as it gets, even though it was trying to mirror the iconic 1989 set:

2013 Score Cordarrelle Patterson HOT Rookies Auto

2013 Score Eddie Lacy 1989 Auto Throwback

2013 Score Geno Smith Hot Rookies Auto PSA 10

Here is the thing. Back in 1989, football cards were still trying to model themselves in some capacity after baseball. Similarly, because there was no rookie premiere, there was no way to get on field action shots for the new rookies. Well, 1989 was 25 years ago, and we have come a LOOOONG way in pre-season card design. We do not need these goofy sideline shots of rookies taking a break from playing the game. We need action photography, and if that means retouching some college shots along the way, DO IT.

They did get off their asses to do some retouch work on the HOT ROOKIES, which were one of the worst subsets of recent memory the way they were done last year. Gone is the bright orange and stupid looking design elements, replaced with a cleaner white design. BUT OH WAIT! The 349 point text size is back, because its obvious that Panini cant put text on a card without covering 50% of the surface area. Either way, its still about 100000x better than 2013, and doesnt look as horrid as in the past. As obsessed with obnoxiously sized text as they are, Panini seems to be more obsessed with the Hot Rookies “brand” if you will. They seem to think its worthy of making into its own set, which is a bit troubling on its own. Hot rookies is about as good a card brand as Fiesta is to Ford.

One thing that was great about Score last year was the veteran insert sets, which look pretty good again this year. This is a rookie themed set, but still very well done on the veteran side. I love the Franchise subset, as well as the field generals set which uses imagery and gimmick to sell the cards quite nicely.

Here are some beauties from last year:

2013 Score Andrew Luck Auto Logo Patch

2014 Score Alfred Morris Inscriptions Laserview Throwback Auto

2014 Score Frank Gore Auto Patch Franchise Fabric

Score has history, and I get that, but you dont have to give up on good looking cards to relive it. Its okay to go a different direction as long as the cards are done right.