50-Year-Old NFL Legend Cardboard

Last week I was on eBay looking for an affordable box to break, since I'm not really buying any retail right now. I found one (which will be saved for a later post), and in my customary way, searched around for other items the seller had for sale. I came across a "U-Pick" lot of 1970 Topps football and saw there were some pretty good players available and add it to my purchase. With the shipping included, these 10 cards came out to about a dollar apiece.

The highlight of this purchase was knocking off two players from my NFL All-Time Team Project. For this project, I'm collecting one card from each player who was chosen for the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team this past season. My criteria for these cards is that they must fill one of these criteria: 1) a Hall of Fame rookie, 2) a vintage card (defined as pre-1982 for this purpose), or 3) a serial-number of 500 or lower. I was able to pick up two new cards for this project.

And Gale Sayers is a big one for a dollar. This alone made the purchase worth it to me. It's off-center, but otherwise in great condition. The same can be said for John Mackey. It's even more off-center, but its condition is great.

I also tried to pick out a few other Hall of Famers. Robinson, Wilcox, and Bethea are all enshrined in Canton. My favorite card of these four is Elvin Bethea because this is his rookie. Again, an average of $1 per card got me a Hall of Fame rookie from 1970. I'll take it. Gary Garrison is a name I recognized from recent years' Hall of Fame finalists. I don't know much about him, but I know he was a finalist or semi-finalist for the Hall in the past year or two, so I went ahead and selected my first card of him for my lot.

And, of course, I took whatever Packers he had available from the set, too. This is my first Doug Hart card. Up to this point, the only card I had of Gale Gillingham was an All-Pro card he shared with John Hannah. It's a great card--with a Packer great and a Hall of Fame great on the same card--but it's nice to have one of Gillingham flying solo.

NFL 100 All-Time Team

Last month, Rosenort mentioned on his blog that the NFL has done a poor job of commemorating the 100th anniversary of the league. I agree. Maybe it was just because I was a kid and it was exciting, but I remember very clearly the 75 Seasons book that my parents got me for Christmas that year. That book has had a gigantic influence on my collecting habits, as I was introduced to the All-Decade teams and players that I was too young to remember for myself. I remember how cool it was to see the designated throwback weeks. I can still identify a 1995 card set in a heartbeat just by the big "75" patch on the jersey. Maybe the possibility of throwback jersey games has been undone by years of teams doing that anyway. But there is not even a patch for the 100th season. It feels like the biggest thing the league has done was to make a Super Bowl commercial and try to get as much traction out of that as they can get on NFL.com.

Now, the league has compiled an All-Time Team. They unveiled the final cuts one position group at a time, after giving the fans a week or so to predict the team. This, I like. It's the kind of thing that I live for: making lists and rosters of the best of the best. Since the 75 year anniversary indirectly led me to my current collecting tastes, I felt the need to do something with this new All-Time Team. I wasn't sure what at first. Most of my collecting projects consist of an entire page of each person on the team. But with so many repeat names (like Jerry Rice or Reggie White on two All-Decade teams  and the All-Time Team) and guys from the 1930s, I didn't want to try to tackle that big of a project.

This is what I decided to do: one card to represent each player. However, that card must be a) vintage, b) serial-numbered to 500 or less, or c) a Hall of Fame rookie. I'm defining vintage as older than I am, so 1982 or earlier. I think these criteria will provide enough challenge and value to the project to make it fun to complete. As evidenced by the COMC watermark on some of these photos, they are in my pending shipment, but I don't have them in hand yet.

I'm also providing a page on this blog that will track my progress. As you can see, I'm not too far. But here are the cards that I have already added. I'm hoping to upgrade some of these in future, as well. (I'm looking at you, overproduced rookie cards.)

As for the selections themselves, the task of creating this team is far too big for an armchair quarterback like me to criticize. You're looking at a century's worth of players, who come from all different eras and rules and evolutions of the game. Numbers alone can't tell the story. Neither can size or strength, because so much has changed. However, there were a few changes that I, personally would make to the team.

QB: Drew Brees in, Brett Favre or John Elway out. I'm a die-hard Packers fan. I grew up watching Favre run ridiculous plays. But I also recognize his limitations as a player. He did win three straight MVPs, though, so there's that. I believe Elway is romanticized a bit because of his back-to-back Super Bowls as he rode off into the sunset. If I wanted to start a team, I think I'd take Brees over either one of them. There may be other quarterbacks that could be removed, but I would want to have representation from as many eras as possible, and the the 1980s-1990s already has Favre, Elway, Marino, and Montana. So it's one of the first two that I would exchange.

RB: It's a shame that no more modern running back was chosen. I'd like to try to squeeze Marshall Faulk, LaDainian Tomlinson, or Adrian Peterson in there. I don't know who would get the boot, though. Maybe Marion Motley with his only 2 All-Pro selections.

WR: The selection of Larry Fitzgerald caused some hubbub. I don't have a problem with it. Maybe Calvin Johnson, Cris Carter, or Terrell Owens could replace him, but I think I'd keep him there.

TE: Shannon Sharpe for Rob Gronkowksi. Gronk was dominant. His size, strength, and athleticism at the position are unequaled. I get that. But I have a hard time placing a guy who played only 115 career games on the All-Time Team. Give me Shannon Sharpe and his athleticism, instead.

DE: Doug Atkins was a weak selection, in my opinion. Well, maybe weak is a bad word to describe an 8-time Pro Bowler. But I would have taken Carl Eller, Willie Davis, or Michael Strahan over Atkins. Given another season, JJ Watt would probably be on the list of alternatives, too.

It's hard to argue with many of the selections. They might not have been I would have chosen, or even predicted, but when I think of the players I would put on the team, I struggle to see whose spot they would take.