1972 Topps Football Singles

The 1972 Topps Football card set would be the first and only time that a football card set was issued in three series. However, the decision to include a third series seems to have been made at the last minute. There were no checklists for the new series as there had been in previous years, and the final series has long been a very scarce issue. In the end, the set contained 351 cards, which made it the largest football card set ever released up until that time.

The key rookie cards of the 1972 Topps set belongs to Roger Staubach (#200) and John Riggins (#13). Other notable rookies include Archie Manning (#55), Lyle Alzado (#106), L.C. Greenwood (#101), Charlie Joyner (#244), Gene Upshaw (#186), Emmitt Thomas (#157), Larry Little (#240), Rayfield Wright (#316), Ron Yary (#104), Ted Hendricks (#93), Jim Plunkett (#65) and Steve Spurrier (#291). One of the more elusive and expensive cards in the set is Joe Namath's Pro Action card, which is part of the third series.

For the first time in several years, the 1972 Topps Football card release was produced with subsets including:

  • Conference Leaders - #1-8
  • Playoffs - #133-139
  • All-Pro - #264-287
  • Pro Action - #119-132, #250-263, #338-351