Upper Deck opened its 1998 football set, 255 cards in a single series, with forty-two Star Rookies, and put Peyton Manning first. The rookies were short-printed, one in every four packs.
Forty-two Star Rookies, and Upper Deck put him first.
NFL STAR ROOKIE runs down the right side. Manning, in the Colts' blue, the ball cocked at his ear, is set against a mottled bronze ground like an old photograph, with his name in lowercase on a nameplate at the foot, his number 18 beneath it, and a round COLTS qb medallion in the corner.
There are Bronze parallels numbered to 100 and a Gold version made one of one.
The set has a quirk of its own: there is no #55. Eric Swann's card was printed as a second #98, sharing the number with Terrell Davis.
The Colts had taken Manning first overall that spring. Nine seasons later he was a Super Bowl champion. On February 4, 2007, in the first Super Bowl played in the rain, the Colts beat Chicago 29–17 and Manning was the game's Most Valuable Player.
