The NFL is coming back to Topps as both the league and the iconic company look to capitalize on the trading card boom.

The league, Topps’ owner Fanatics Collectibles and the NFL Players Association announced on Thursday that the league is once again making Topps its exclusive trading card licensee. It’s the first time since 2016 that Topps will be designing and developing trading cards for the NFL, serving as a major win for a company that has long been one of the top names in the trading card industry.

“I feel like we’ve been getting ready for this moment for four years now, and it’s finally here, and it’s really exciting,” Fanatics Collectibles CEO Mike Mahan told CNN Sports. “It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work, and we feel very enthusiastic about the products we have coming and how it’s going to be received by collectors and fans. And so that’s very gratifying.”

The trading card industry is currently enjoying a boom period that Mahan and others attribute to the sudden search for new hobbies amid the Covid-19 lockdowns. But unlike other industries that saw a receding of the tide as life returned to normal, the business for trading cards has only grown and rare cards are regularly being bought and sold for thousands – and sometimes millions – of dollars.

The renewed partnership between the NFL and Fanatics aims to not only capitalize on that increased interest in one of America’s longest sporting-adjacent industries but take it to new places. Among the immediate innovations will be a series of one-of-one cards that are sure to be highly sought after by collectors.

When the 2025 Topps Chrome Football set is released on April 15, Topps and the NFL will debut the new Rookie PREM1ERE Patch Autograph Cards and the NFL Honors Gold Shield Autograph Cards.

The PREM1ERE series will include patches worn by the 2025 rookie class – including players like Jaxon Dart, Cam Skattebo, Cam Ward and more – on their jerseys when they first took the field in the 2025-26 season. The NFL Honors Gold Shield series includes the gold shields worn in games by 2024 AP award winners like MVP Josh Allen, Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley, Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II, Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels and Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse.

“As we sat down and, you know, we made this change, and as we talked to Topps, I think one of the things they pushed us on was really product innovation,” said Casey Collins, the NFL’s senior vice president of consumer products.

“We are one of the few leagues that really has not brought in game-worn merchandise or game-worn uniforms or game-used items into our collector trading card space. You know, traditionally, the 30 teams have kind of done that on their own, and we wanted to make sure that we heard the Topps loud and clear. And I think you’re going to see that with the first two initiatives we have.”

That promise puts a little bit of pressure on folks like Mahan and Fanatics to keep upping the ante when it comes to unique cards and collectibles that are going to pique fans’ interest.

One of the words he used the most when speaking to CNN Sports was “storytelling.” The goal of Fanatics Collectibles and Topps will be to tighten the connection between the NFL’s fans and the game that’s being played on the field.

That means finding new ways to bring the game off the field and into packs of trading cards that are increasingly being opened in unpacking videos on social media. And that does bring a certain amount of pressure.

“I think about it all the time,” Mahan said.

“You have to continue to innovate, you have to continue to transform. You have to continue to tell new stories,” he added. “And I think we were going to do that, and I can tell you with some of the things we have planned over the next couple of years, I don’t think collectors are going to be disappointed about the lack of innovation.

“Now, I’ll say this – you don’t want so many new products all at once that it becomes schizophrenic, right? So, we do want to pace our innovation, so to speak. But I will tell you, we have a very robust and healthy pipeline of new products and new ideas coming. And, you never know, but I feel highly confident that they will resonate and connect with collectors.”