NFL's dress code apparently applies on football cards, too

Ever have one of those times where you open a pack of cards, notice something weird and it bugs the crap out of you enough that you just have to drop everything you're doing and research your enigmatic find?

This is one of those times -- and you can blame T.J. Yeldon and his 2018 Score football card.

That exact card you can see above. Keep reading to see if you, too, can spot what I noticed.

Getty Images' Zach Bollinger captured this frame of T.J. Yeldon running for a 58-yard touchdown in the game.

Take a look at the image above. Do you see it? It's not the exact play but compare the two ...

It's his socks. (Look again if you didn't ... I'll wait.)

I'm 99.9 percent sure that the photo on the card comes from his 58-yard touchdown run you see in the photo above just from a different angle -- it's a play that I know well after spending a ton of time researching every photo I could find as well as the video of the play because, well, I own the exact ball he's carrying. (That story is here.)

When I first saw the card, I thought "Sweet, that's my ball!" and I went to the Getty Images app to see if that frame was matched anywhere among the photos I had seen. It wasn't ... and then I noticed the socks and played The Price Is Right failhorn mentally. I figured that it may not be from my touchdown play (I still think it is) but I moved on to sort the cards and post a Buzz Break.

But then I opened another box of 2018 Score heading into this weekend and noticed something as I scanned through my 132 cards of affordable new NFL goodness ... nobody's socks are anything less than perfect in the set -- except the college guys' cards. (That's not NFL trade dress -- who cares about them.) At first I thought I was imaging things. But ... Every. Guy's. Socks. Are. Perfect.  The QBs getting smacked around? Perfect socks. The DBs delivering big hits and headaches? Perfect socks. The kickers? Perfect socks.

And it's not an accident. It's all cleaned up in Photoshop when necessary.

There's nothing wrong with that as I'm sure there's a lot that gets tweaked for optimal hero status -- you don't want your star's card looking stupid with a scabbed knee taking away from his glory. And I'm sure that would be the general gist of any statement from anybody along the developmental food chain (Panini America or the NFL) if I were to ask about such a trivial but important-to-me-because-I-want-my-Yeldon-to-match situation.

So I got to researching ... and I learned something else. It's not all Photoshop as a number of players have clearly opted for compression shorts, tights, long socks (whatever you want to call them) to avoid the issue of potential fines over socks. (Yes, that has happened.)

I compared a few players' cards to Getty Images photos from the games last season where it was obvious who they were playing and found a few where I'd bet money on their 'Shopped Socks but couldn't be 100-perent sure. But then I searched one card specific to an exact moment where I knew I could lay big money down.

Sure, it's not the same angle in both photos, but there you go. And you get his teammate's socks fixed, too. Kareem Hunt's nap-time touchdown celebration last fall is among several cards in the Celebration insert set in Score this year. It's a smart inclusion that celebrates some fun moments now allowed in the league -- that has perfect socks that, well, weren't.

My sanity was saved -- though maybe not as I lost a couple hours Friday night researching this ... photo-matching is a sickness you must have if you collect game-used memorabilia.

And then I started searching all of the cards in that set as well as the All-Hands Team cards, another set with specific plays from the season. And that's where I matched seven more situations where those socks got lifted (or obscured by card elements). The angles aren't the same, but those socks definitely been pulled up with pixels -- check out the gallery below and see if you can spot the tweaks to their threads.

It's interesting to note that the tears and stains of jerseys aren't cleaned up digitally -- that would be bad, very bad, for those who really do love seeing their pieces of memorabilia in action -- but all those perfect socks are an interesting and odd thing that I'll never not notice now.

In fact, it makes me appreciate the steps that the NFL and its licensees go through to bring you the best cards they can -- a process that likely includes way more clean-ups and approvals than you may have imagined.

I had no idea on this one ... until I noticed T.J. Yeldon's socks on his career-high 58-yard touchdown run. High socks or not, that's my ball and I'm sticking to it.

Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

>> Click here to buy cards on BlowoutCards.com