Football Binders: The Keepers

Looking at the few things I kept from the Goodwill football binder. 

I'm not a big football collector, but as many of you know, I do have a stash of Oregon Ducks alums that I'm still working on cataloging. I also kept some Eagles cards, a team I don't usually make a huge deal out of around here. The years that these cards came from (first half of the '90s), however, is right in my sweet spot of Eagles appreciation. I miss the old kelly green unis, basically.

Mark Bavaro finished his NFL career with the Eagles. This is a Special Effects parallel, but unfortunately the "effects" were mostly lost in the scanning process. You can see that his name is shiny, though.

This is apparently a Colors parallel of Byron's 1993 SkyBox Impact card. The only difference I could tell between this and the base card is the foil "impact" stamp.

Here's a pair of rookie year Charlie Garner cards. Garner spent the first half of his NFL career with the Eagles, usually playing behind someone else, before going on to spend his two best seasons with the 49ers.

Former Duck Chris Miller, who now coaches in the Portland area, was featured on one of those early '90s Fleer insert sets which focus on a single player. I am quite sure I didn't have any of these before. I just need to find the rest of the set.

Apparently, the Collector's Choice football answer to baseball's "silver sigs" parallels are just slapping a foil team name on the card and calling it good.

One of several Fleer All-Pro inserts I kept, this one prominently features the NFL logo (aka The Shield).

Clyde Simmons was also featured on the 1993 design.

Former Cal QB Dave Barr was apparently drafted by the Eagles, though he never played a regular season down with them.

This is old enough to be in my collection already, but I had to keep it just in case. My Eagles cards just sit in a box, aside from Randall Cunningham, of course! (Sadly, there were no Randalls in the binder.)

Another Fleer All-Pro design, with a superhuman Eric Allen.

Fred Barnett was my favorite go-to target in Tecmo Super Bowl, which is where a large chunk of my Eagles fandom came from.

In between his lengthy stay with the 49ers and his better known Broncos career, Bill Romanowski stopped off in Philly for a couple of seasons. This is a strange practice photo.

In case you missed it, here's more about this Goodwill find.

Nick Foles: Super Bowl MVP

Congrats to the Eagles, and Philadelphia - if there's anything left of you.

Stunning! I don't even know what to say.

Super Big Game Day

#FlyEaglesFly 

It's hard for me to know now if I've been an Eagles fan since I first played Tecmo Super Bowl, or if it all started when I first gorged myself on $5 boxes of 1990 Pro Set. In any case, somewhere around that time, I declared myself for House Eagles and have watched (and sometimes not watched) all the ups and downs since then.

NFL has always come in a distant third in terms of my professional sports fandom, but I have memories of watching every Super Bowl going back to 1982 (coincidentally, the first one after the Eagles first one.) Technically speaking, I listened to most of Super Bowl XXXVII on the radio on a drive back home on I-5, but I caught some of it on the air at least. Still, I really didn't delve into actually paying attention to the league as a whole until Randall Cunningham came along and made me root for sports played largely on the opposite coast.

I'm excited about today's game. I rarely have a rooting interest in this game, so my usual witty banter will probably be kept at a minimum today as a I actually get excited and/or cringe at each play. I won't be devastated or surprised by a loss, but I'll be rooting hard for Nick Foles, Fletcher Cox, Malcolm Jenkins, Jay Ajayi, Alshon Jeffery and (Ducks!) LeGarrette Blount and Kenjon Barner. And a lot of other players I didn't mention! Like... Jake Elliott! He kicks bombs! Hey, I named a bunch of football players. Look at me.

Enjoy the game. Enjoy the nachos. Enjoy Justin Timberlake, I guess. Go Eagles!

Eagles!

The Eagles are playing in the NFC Championship (is a very strange thing to say). 

It's shocking how quickly this Philadelphia Eagles team came together. It was 9 years ago that the Eagles were last here, in what would prove to be Donovan McNabb's final game in a Philly uniform. It feels like a lifetime ago. The franchise has gone through some dark days since then, including a stretch where I refused to watch any of the games when Michael Vick was under center. The team quickly turned around from the Chip Kelly experiment, finding themselves a win away from their first Super Bowl appearance since 2005. They face the same franchise they beat in 2005 (Vikings), and would likely face the same team they faced in the Super Bowl (you know the one). Of course, all of the faces have changed, except the dastardly Brady and Belichick, of course.

But we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. Let's relax for a minute and check out a few 2017 Panini Prizm cards I picked up on Listia. This was basically a mini-team set purchase for a small amount of credits. I just checked, and am now just missing Torrey Smith and a bunch of rookies (well, all of them.)

Zach Ertz has been Carson Wentz's go to guy since Wentz came into the league. Ertz has started chewing up yardage the way he chewed up yardage in the Pac-12 at Stanford. The long and mostly successful run of offensively skilled Eagles tight ends has continued throughout various coaching changes.

I feel like it's every Eagles receiver's responsibility to be at least a little disappointing, and it was easy to feel that way about Alshon at times this season. He's starting to grow on me, though.

And then, of course, we have Carson Wentz. Wentz was the odds-on favorite to win MVP this season until he went down with a season ending ACL injury. This is pretty much what happens to everything and everyone I root for in this stupid sport people call football (but mostly only in this country). Wentz was essentially the perfect player for the Eagles sometimes suspect and always injury-plagued offensive line, as his ability to scramble and improvise were keys to some huge wins all season long. Now the offense is under the direction of the capable pocket passer Nick Foles. You could certainly do a lot worse for a backup quarterback than Foles. I wouldn't trade him for some team's starters. But his stationary style combined with the Eagles fairly conservative play-calling has shifted the focus dramatically towards the running game. Of course, it was the defense that bailed the Eagles out time and time again last weekend, and it will be needed to come up big again against Minnesota.

This isn't an Eagles card, per se, but it was included in the lot I purchased as Jay Ajayi was the rare midseason acquisition that bolstered the Eagles season which ultimately led to their #1 seeding throughout the playoffs. In fact, trades in the NFL are so rare, let alone midseason trades, that Ajayi is the first player to rush for more than 300 yards for two different teams in the same season*.

All in all, no matter the results of Sunday's game, it was an extremely successful season. Did anyone see this coming?

*Source: Me. This is probably a completely made up stat, but I swear that I heard it during a game broadcast recently. And Ajayi actually topped 400 yards this season for both franchises.

Other Sports

Cards from all flavors from Canada.

It's hard to root for anything in professional American football these days, but I am ostensibly an Eagles fan. I don't mind getting Eagles cards since I pretty much never buy football packs, so it's always nice to get a look at something new, like these cards sent to me from buckstorecards. I like that Topps used a different design rather than copying the baseball template, but they still retained some of the flavor of this year's baseball release by giving it a colorful border.

Wow, Photoshop! In another universe, I could probably do an Airbrushed Fridays feature for football cards considering that Topps still has a license (or has one again.) I think they are losing it soon, actually. DeMarco Murray was the league's rushing leader last season, but he's been disappointing this year as the Eagles have struggled to find a consistent offense and have divided carries among several talented backs. With a win last night over their rival Cowboys, I'm hoping the Eagles can find their way to take a very weak NFC East.

I also got some ex-Ducks in the deal which I am saving for a future Ducks post, but this Mariota card was too choice to pass up for a scan tonight. This card apparently was given out at The National. Mariota plays for a dreadful Titans team, but he's had some bright moments and looked really impressive in his team's, er, two victories.

I also snagged a healthy pile of 2010-11 Donruss NBA cards for the set that I'd love to complete someday. Did anyone remember that Shaq played for the Celtics at one point? I certainly forgot!

Keen observers may have noticed that the Hamm Count also increased, but we're not going to see much of Mr. Hamm until that count reaches 9. I have to be careful how much Hamm I let loose on the blog, you know.

A Cavalcade of Ex-Eagles

Forgive me for wanting to talk about something other than the Cardinals tonight, 19 strikeouts and 1 hit later.

Finally, we've arrived at the stack of Eagles cards in the big box of fun that Jaybarkerfan sent me earlier in the year. I'm admittedly way behind on my end of the trade, but I am amassing a weird collection of certified autos to send his way that will hopefully be something interesting to look at. I have no real ties to Philly or any football team, but I became an Eagles fan during the heyday of Randall Cunningham and Tecmo Super Bowl and have sort of supported them by default ever since. I've made exceptions, of course, like when a certain canine abusing chump was giving the keys to the offense. What a chump.

This card is actually from way before my time as an Eagles fan, but I've always been a little fascinated with these early Fleer NFL issues. These are somewhat like the unlicensed cards of today in reverse. Instead of having the rights to the players but not the teams they appeared with, apparently Fleer held the rights to the league and teams but not to any individual players. They managed to take this and put out sets year after year of horizontal team-based action photos and were (I guess?) quick to cover up or crop any photos with player names appearing. Strange.

Nick Foles is a pretty good quarterback as far as I can tell, but he was recently exiled to St. Louis in Chip Kelly's own version of this classic Kids in the Hall sketch.

Great quarterback. Don't let anyone tell you different. He seems to have graduated to Complete Moron status in his broadcasting career, however.

T.O. was hardly my favorite player, but he was the catalyst to an Eagles team that made the Super Bowl. They would ultimately lose to a team that cheats on the regular. Aren't pro sports fun?!

Happy Thanksgiving

Fly, Eagles Fly!

And have a happy #BirdDay

Tons o' Fun

Another massive pile of cards from... I bet you can guess.

Before I start, here's one more reminder that I'm holding my 6th annual March Radness contest. You have to join (evil) forces with ESPN to enter, but they've proven themselves to be less obnoxious than those fiends at Yahoo this year. Presently, I have 25 entrants that have signed up, but there's still a few days left before the games start and the contest closes.

Howard has struck again with another large package of goodies. I put the call out recently for Philadelphia Eagles cards, and he responded in kind with a bunch of players from somewhat recent years. I only briefly collected football cards before regaining my sanity back in the early '90s, mostly because they were extremely cheap, so the bulk of my Eagles collection is printed on thin Pro Set stock.

Brian Westbrook was a jack-of-all-trades, an under appreciated back in a very efficient Donovan McNabb-led offense. They're best known for making a Super Bowl appearance against the Patriots where McNabb sort of choked (it's debatable). They threw to their tight ends a lot, which reminded me of the pre-Chip Kelly era Ducks. I really became a fan, though, back in Tecmo Super Bowl's heyday when Randall Cunningham was running and gunning at will.

LeSean McCoy is the real star of the current team and arguably the best all around back in the game. Shady's rookie card can apparently be had for less than a buck on the open market, which is kind of sad. I don't understand football cards at all so I'm not going to try to figure this out.

I really liked McNabb, but he did seem stubborn and I can at least listen to his detractors to a point.

There were Cardinals cards a plenty in this package, and they included a bunch of cards from an early Topps Opening Day effort. How long has Topps Opening Day been around? I know that they skipped a year (2009) but don't know when it actually started.

Speaking of early, here's an early Matt Holliday card! Yes, he used to be a third baseman if you can believe that.

A bunch of cards in the package were from the 1975 SSPC set. I don't see too many of these and they were mostly in fantastic condition.

It's been awhile since I've posted a Darryl Kile card. I need to work on getting my Kile collection accounted for.

Lance Lynn has been having a great spring so far. Once again, he's proving himself to be a very key member of the Cardinals rotation despite some of his detractors.

This is a weird insert design that I haven't seen before. I really don't understand the capitalization.

This is from the inaugural SP set, which was home to history's greatest Derek Jeter rookie card, apparently. This stuff (and Flair) was way out of my price range when it came out, and I had already begun scaling back from collecting by 1993.

This scan is really funny.

Howard joined the halls of the immortals when he sent me this card from my 10 Most Wanted list. It's sad that I actually needed 3 of these, but I believe I am set now. If you have some free time, please consider checking out the want list. I tried to keep it affordable.

Cloyd Boyer has a better known relative in longtime Yankee Clete, but Topps was likely looking for someone available to sign that appeared in the '52 Topps set when they were putting together 2011 Topps Lineage. In any case, I am more than happy to have a certified autograph from a '50s Cardinal player. This is great!

Topps Lineage was the spiritual predecessor to the current Topps Archives reboot. I was lucky enough to receive another autograph, this time of the current Cardinals TV broadcaster who appeared in 2013 Archives.

And there was one more auto... Josh Pearce? Pearce seems to have been one of those players who merely existed to sign baseball cards as I am pretty sure I have a couple more of his autographs somewhere in my collection. I like the die cut idea, but I am not so keen on the metal sticker business.

Thanks again to Howard! I should mention that this package also contained a bunch of Blazers cards of a specific size and shape, but I am going to hold those out for another day.

This Week in Small Deals

Some cards from some guys who like to send me cards.

It's another installment of my latest dealings in plain white envelope trades and other single card deals! Huzzah! First off, I'll start with some cards that The Junior Junkie sent. I love getting random envelopes out of the blue, and this one was certainly random.

I have a number of hand-signed cards that other collector's have sent me over the years. I can't verify their authenticity, and I'm guessing in many cases that neither can the person who traded it to me. (If you got something signed in person, you'd probably keep it, right?) But I like to think of myself as an optimist on my good days and treat these cards like I would any so-called certified autograph and slap them into a top loader for safe keeping. I actually didn't have this card from the 1982 Topps Traded set (I only have the expensive Ozzie Smith card) so this is a nice reminder that I should track down a fresh copy for my binders.

Here's Joe Torre, looking a wee bit creepy.

2011 Topps Lineage was an interesting product in hindsight. I don't remember it getting much buzz when it was coming out, but it now seems like the testing grounds for a couple of recently established trends. You see a lot of the stuff they did with this set in the past two Topps Archives sets, and these '75-style minis carried on as a base set insert, paying homage to other years' sets.

Longtime friend of the blog Thoughts and Sox dropped this shiny surprise on me. It's a brilliant serial numbered refractor from the dearly missed All-Time Fan Favorites set. I love it.

Finally, a few of you seem to have noticed my random outburst about NFL Football on Superb Owl Sunday. I became an Eagles fan in the Tecmo Super Bowl era (high school) and still follow the team, though I more or less shunned them when Michael Vick was behind center. Scott Crawford had some tantalizing '80s football trade bait on his blog and I just had to own this Reggie White rookie card. I bought my first packs in 1986 when I was 10 years old, and they were nearly always baseball. I did talk myself into a few football packs and those cards, like the baseball ones from those days, were pretty dog-eared. Even though I seem to remember loving the design, I didn't know nearly enough about the NFL back then to buy more than a few. I'm sure they would have ended up with rounded corners and random blotches on them anyway.