In the latest NFL rumors, Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys allegedly used a special machine to provide autographs on his trading cards, rather than his own John Hancock. The report comes during the NFL offseason as Prescott and the Cowboys will soon be preparing for their 2017-18 campaign. Apparently, this latest incident is not the first time within the past several months that trading cards didn't contain the actual signature of the professional football player either.

Signature unverified?

In a recent ESPN report, it's noted that Beckett Grading Services is refusing to verify Dak Prescott's signature on a recent set of trading cards.

Apparently, the belief is that a special autopen machine was used to provide signatures for the signed Prescott cards that appeared in collector's 2016 sets.

The principal authenticator at Beckett, Steve Grad, said the signatures had a "machine-like feel" to them, which his why Beckett is refusing to authenticate the Cowboys QB's signature. Grad added that he hasn't ever heard of a modern-day athlete using an autopen to do this. The machine is often used by politicians to sign many copies of a document, but rarely by athletes to pass off their autographs.

The interesting aspect of this is that when the Panini company sends memorabilia to an athlete for autographs it requires the athlete to return the memorabilia along with a signed affidavit that their signature is authentic on the items.

A previous incident?

It was also said that a similar incident may have occurred this past May. The Atlanta Falcons first-round draft pick Takkarist McKinley apparently did not provide his actual autograph on sports cards sent to him by Panini.

However, the good news in that situation was that the company told anyone who had received these McKinley cards to return them and they'd provide authentic autographs in exchange for them.

It's unknown as of this report how the company will handle the Dak Prescott unverified autographs. One would have to think they'll give customers a similar exchange situation as they did with the McKinley cards, but one also has to wonder if Dak Prescott might step up and provide his real autograph to make things right.

Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys begin NFL training camp around the middle of this month, with the NFL season officially set to start on Thursday, September 7th and Dallas playing their first game on the night of Sunday, September 10th against the Giants.
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