CARDBOARD POLICE

Rex's Card Shop opened Panini's 2026 Absolute Football Countdown Calendar on camera this week, under the title "2026 Absolute Football Countdown Calendar! First Look & Full Rip!" It is Panini's holiday football calendar, a pack behind each door, and this year it arrives without the NFL.

A Holiday Box Without the League

Panini's NFL license expired on April 1, 2026, and Topps now holds the exclusive NFL and NFLPA trading card rights, as CASE #0419 laid out when Panini's first unlicensed Donruss Football arrived in October. Panini can still print football cards. It cannot use NFL team logos, and the current NFL stars went with them.

The illustrated box art in the video's thumbnail shows who Panini put up front instead. Calvin Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald carry the retired side. CJ Carr, Julian Sayin and Trinidad Chambliss, three of the college names that also lead Donruss Football, carry the other. OTIA's August preview expected exactly that mix of retired NFL players and college athletes.

The Chase

Previews from OTIA and FireHand Cards name the Kaboom Horizontal and Solar Eclipse Horizontal as the rare chase, along with White Snow base parallels numbered to 299. The holiday touches are the calendar's own: Red and Green base parallels and a Holiday Suit memorabilia card, a relic line that has become a fixture of Panini's countdown products, according to OTIA.

The Channel

Rex's Card Shop has spent the last few weeks on holiday football. On Oct. 26 the channel posted a first look at 2026 Topps Holiday Football, and on Nov. 3 it ripped eight Topps Holiday Football boxes under the title "Did I Make MONEY?!" The Panini calendar followed.

Analysis: That puts both sides of football's license split on one channel within three weeks: holiday football from Topps, which now holds the NFL license, then Panini's calendar without it. For what came out from behind the doors, watch the video.

Watch directly on YouTube

Channel: Rex's Card Shop