Topps Announces 2026 Topps Flagship Football Cover Athlete, Release Date
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For the first time, we now have information on the first release of the 2026 Topps Football calendar. We also have the cover athlete, although it isn't much of a surprise that No. 1 pick, QB Fernando Mendoza of the Las Vegas Raiders, will be the face of 2026 Topps Flagship Football.
This is the rookie’s first-ever time on the cover, an honor in the hobby equal to other NFLers being named the cover athlete for Madden.
2026 Topps Flagship Football Details
2026 Topps Flagship Football hits retail on Friday, August 21st, with the launch marking Topps’ first Flagship Football product since it regained the NFL license in April. Pre-Orders will start on July 20th.
The 2025 Topps Football sets omitted Flagship and went straight to Topps Chrome before diving into Topps Finest, Cosmic Chrome, and more.
Even more impressively, the 2026 sets will kick-off before the season!
From the extremely limited details we have, which mainly come from the photos provided via Topps, but we do have a few details.
The format looks to be a standard Flagship format with one relic or autograph per box. It also looks like we'll have short-print insert chases of "Touchdown," "Struttin,'" and "Billboard Material." As the featured chases on the box, we can assume these will be among the top chases from the product.
Fernando Mendoza and The Hobby
At the recent NFL Draft, Fernando Mendoza appeared in Topps NOW cards, a print-on-demand program that commemorates significant sports moments. Mendoza’s card was released minutes after the Raiders selected him and amassed a print run of over 126,000 over 48 hours, with one select collector receiving a card that Mendoza inscribed with “My 1st NFL Auto.”
Mendoza himself has become a collector, recently with Topps that he owns the 1-of-1 2025 Bowman Chrome Superfractor of himself at Indiana University, a card which he acquired via trade with a fellow Indiana classmate in exchange for tickets to Indiana’s College Football Playoff games and a jersey.
Fernando Mendoza reveals that HE OWNS his greatest trading card in existence... 🔥👀 pic.twitter.com/jIHlFfbXQn
— Topps (@Topps) May 22, 2026
Mendoza has also embraced Las Vegas with inscriptions in his trading cards, recently signing one from a different product, 2026 Topps Inception Football: “Viva Las Vegas.”
Raiders superstar quarterback Fernando Mendoza signs his Topps playing cards with "VIVA LAS VEGAS" 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6M6GatPlGO
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) July 7, 2026
Mendoza is a superstar in the making and was the natural choice to be the cover athlete for 2026 Topps Flagship Football as the top pick in the draft. His embrace of the hobby mirrors that of one of the part-owners of his new team. Tom Brady will surely have an outsized influence on Mendoza's career as long as the two are in Las Vegas, but we're off to a strong start with his embrace of the hobby and working on inscriptions.
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Brendan has worked for various platforms, including The Washington Post, SB Nation, NBC Sports Washington, and more, covering everything from college basketball to fantasy football and betting. An avid collector as a kid, he got back into collecting in 2021 and is a dedicated soccer, football, and basketball collector.
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