Tips
Custom Football Cards for Kids and Teams
Real trading cards for a youth football team: every player's photo, name, number, position, and stats, in your team colors, printed on thick glossy cardstock in the USA.
- 5 star rating on Google
- 50,000+ cards delivered
- Designed and printed in the USA
What a custom football card is
A custom football card is a standard 2.5 by 3.5 inch trading card with your player on the front instead of a pro. The front has their photo, name, number, position, and team in a design that looks like a real card. The back has whatever you want: rushing yards and touchdowns, a favorite NFL player, a season highlight, or the full roster.
Pennant Cards makes them for teams. A coach or team parent builds the set once, parents add their own kid's photo through a form, and every card comes out matching. Helmets and pads are no problem: action shots from the sideline and posed shots in uniform both work, and the app removes the background. Most teams order 20 to 25 copies per player, enough to trade with every teammate and keep a stack for relatives.
You design for free and pay only when you print. Printed cards start at $1.25 each and get cheaper with quantity, with an 18-card minimum. See the print specs for the cardstock and turnaround, or get a digital download to print locally.
How it works for a football team
1. Add the team
Type in the roster, paste it from a spreadsheet, or import a file. Add coaches and a team photo card if you want them.
2. Collect photos and stats
Send parents a link. Each family uploads a photo and fills in the number, position, and answers you chose. Posed shots in pads with the helmet off photograph best, and action shots work if they are in focus.
3. Pick a design and colors
Choose from 12 designs, set your team colors, add your logo, and switch the ball icon to a football. Every card updates at once.
4. Order and hand them out
Cards print on 16pt gloss cardstock in 4 to 5 business days and ship FedEx to one address. Each player gets a stack of their own card to trade.
What goes on the card
Every field is optional. Pick the ones that fit the age group and the season you had.
Their photo, cleaned up
Upload any phone photo. The app removes the background automatically and lets you adjust exposure and crop, so a kid against a chain-link fence ends up on a clean color.
Name, number, and position
QB, RB, WR, OL, LB, or whatever they played most, with the team name and season year.
Team colors, logo, and a football icon
Primary and secondary colors apply across the whole set. Swap the ball icon to a football so nothing on the card says baseball.
Football stats on the back
A stats table with the columns you choose: GP, TD, rushing or receiving yards, tackles, sacks, interceptions. Or questions like favorite NFL player and pregame song.
A roster on the back
Optionally print the full roster, with numbers and coaches, on the back of every card.
Coach and team cards
Add a card for each coach and a landscape team photo card so the set feels complete.
Programs that order football cards
Youth tackle leagues
Pop Warner, AYF, and town leagues ordering a set per team at the end of the fall season.
Flag football
NFL Flag and rec flag leagues, spring and fall, with smaller rosters and a lot of trading on the sideline.
Middle and high school
JV and varsity programs, booster clubs, and senior night keepsakes with a full stat line.
Travel and 7-on-7
Tournament teams that want a card for every player and a team card for the trophy case.
When football teams order cards
End-of-season banquet
The most common football order. Photos are collected in September and the cards are handed out at the banquet in November or December.
Senior night and playoffs
A card for each senior, or a set for the whole team heading into the playoffs.
Trading at practice
Ordering 20 to 25 copies per player gives every kid a card of every teammate, with extras for grandparents.
Booster fundraisers
Programs sell packs to families and sponsors. We can seal cards into foil or glassine packs for larger projects.
What parents and coaches say
"Easy to customize, great communication. Our team loved them!"
"Cards were great and very good quality of material and printed images. Highly recommended"
"We had an amazing experience working with Pennant Cards, the staff was extremely accommodating and quick to respond to any and all questions we had. We received our cards very quickly and they were amazing quality. We are extremely pleased with the final products and would recommend Pennant cards to any team looking to get a set of cards made!"
"Andrew was wonderful to work with! This was my first time making team cards and I had a lot of questions, and he answered every one of them in a very timely and helpful manner. The quality and designs of the cards exceeded my expectations. So many ways to personalize the designs! Fun to make and fun to hand out to some very deserving kids! I'll definitely be a returning customer in the future. Highly recommend!"
"This is my second time ordering cards from Pennant Cards and they came out even better than the first order. Great work and highly recommended."
"Fairly intuitive and easy online card designing process. Cards turned out nicely. Reasonable price."
"I ordered for the entire team, each player had a team pack, and enough extra to share with their family. The design process was easy, and the cards are great quality and very affordable. Our team players and parents were very impressed! Customer service was great when I had a question. I will be ordering again for future seasons!"
"I cannot recommend this company enough! It was the perfect option for making custom baseball cards for our team! The website is very user friendly, and once I submitted the project a representative from the company reached out via email with recommended design changes. The cards arrived in a timely manner, and the quality exceeded my expectations. The kids loved seeing themselves on the cards when I gave them out, and the parents were ecstatic. I received numerous messages from parents about how awesome the cards are and how excited their kid was about them. I have already recommended Pennant Cards to other teams/coaches, and will certainly be using them again for future teams!"
"From creating the cards to speaking about shipping, this was by far the most perfect experience I could have asked for. Our entire soccer team was amazed at their surprise end of season gift. Thank you so much Pennant Cards!!"
"Great cards at a good price. Design and set up was easy and user friendly."
"Made some cards for a few 8u teams and the kids loved them. Process was easy and they came out great"
"The cards turned out great. Great quality with a quick turnaround. The best part was the customer service! A representative reached out with a few suggestions on how to make the cards even better. Resulted in cards the whole team were excited for."
"I've ordered custom baseball cards for my son's baseball team from multiple companies over the last few years and Pennant Cards has been the best by far in every aspect: 1. The site is extremely user friendly. It's so easy to build your cards. 2. The quality is the best I've seen. They clearly use a great printer and do a great job of maintaining the color and brightness of the photos submitted. 3. Cost - I got more cards from Pennant for substantially less money than I did with another company last year. Will definitely use Pennant again and excited to play around with the different card templates."
"Best baseball player gift ever! The process is very easy and fast. I sent in my order and they reached out to me immediately with a couple of suggestions to make to cards look better and fixed them for me right then. I will definitely do this again."
"Cards were as advertised. Design phase was easy and shipping was quick. Thanks"
"These cards are awesome! So excited to bring these to the end of the year party tomorrow"
"Ordered a 'team' of cards for our wedding as my fiance loves sports and card collecting. We used photos of friends and family, and made 'packs' to hand out. Very customizable, easy to use site, reasonably priced and they came out great! Thank you!"
"This is the BEST site for custom baseball cards. The design process was so simple - I was able to easily design cards for a team of 24 kids. And the cards look amazing! They are really high quality and look and feel just like real baseball cards."
"Everything was so easy to do and turned out great. The cards were a big hit with the kids and families. Thank you for being helpful and responsive to make the whole process perfect."
"I LOVED how easy your app was to create these cards! This was a project I've wanted to do for the last 3 seasons but could never get anything to look great. Your site was simple to use and the cards look GREAT!"
"The whole process was awesome from start to finish - ease of the site, the design options, and level of service. I am especially grateful that they cared enough to reach out with a design recommendation to ensure ultimate satisfaction."
"Our team cards came out AMAZING and the entire team was beyond thrilled! We can't wait to order a new deck next season!"
"The cards were beyond AMAZING and all the kids loved them!"
"The customer service with this company is outstanding! I had many questions and they were answered very quickly, and the baseball cards they made for me are such great quality!!!"
"These cards far exceed my expectations!! Thank you so much!!"
"These cards are such good quality - and the process to create them super simple with great communication from the Pennant Team. Will definitely be ordering more!"
"My daughter's team lost their minds over the cards, thanks again!"
Pricing for a football team
Volume discounts apply automatically. Change the players and cards per player to match your roster.
$12.00 per player $25.00 Save 52%
$264.00 for 22 players + shipping 550 cards, $0.48 per card
Frequently asked questions
Create a free account, start a project, and add your player. Upload a photo, pick a design, set the team colors, switch the ball icon to a football, and type in the name, number, position, and any stats for the back. The card previews live as you edit. When it looks right, order printed cards or a digital download.
Printed cards start at $1.25 each and get cheaper per card as the order grows, so a whole team costs far less per card than one or two players. The minimum order is 18 cards and $100, with at least 18 copies of each player. Shipping is added at checkout. Use the calculator above for an exact quote.
Every design works for any sport. The ball icon switches to a football, the stats table takes football columns, and the position field takes QB or OL as easily as SS. The Jumbotron and Minimal designs, with a full-bleed photo, are the most popular for football action shots.
A posed shot in uniform with the helmet off or tucked under the arm, taken outdoors in daylight with the player filling most of the frame. Sideline action shots work too if the face is visible and the photo is in focus. The app removes the background, so the bleachers behind them do not matter.
Standard printing takes 4 to 5 business days, and rush printing takes 2. FedEx Ground delivery is 2 to 5 business days and FedEx Express is 1 to 2. For a banquet, order about two weeks ahead to be safe, or ten days with rush.
Standard trading card size, 2.5 by 3.5 inches, with square corners. They are printed on 16pt C2S cardstock with a UV gloss coating on the front and fit standard penny sleeves and top loaders. See the print specs.
Yes. Each project has a form link you can text or email to families. Parents upload the photo and answer the questions you chose. You review everything before ordering.
Guides for team managers
How the printing options compare, how to hand the cards out, and how one league ran cards for every team.
Make cards for your football team
Sign up free, add your roster, and see your first card in a few minutes. No credit card needed until you order.