The Football Shoebox Part 3: Falcons to Oilers

With college football season starting up and NFL season about to start, I figured there's no better time than now to jump back in to the football shoebox. If you're not familiar with this concept, then here's how it works. Last spring, I purchased a literal shoebox full of football cards. I've since sorted them, set aside the ones to keep, and am now showing them off in groups of six teams. Here's the next six:

Atlanta Falcons

As you can clearly tell, there weren't many Falcons cards I felt were worth keeping. I did, however, hang on to a couple Deion Sanders cards (that Wild Card card scanned like crap), one Jeff George card, and one Andre Rison card. 

New York Giants

Again, not many cards from the Giants that I felt like keeping. The ones I did keep gave me a nice variety though, especially when the batch includes both Eli Manning and Amani Toomer. Although I'm not so sure who Dave Brown is, I kept his card as it's from the late 90s, an era I don't have much from of any sport.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Mark Brunell was probably one of the best known Jaguars from the early days of the team. He's really the only one I remember. 

New York Jets

The Jets were one of those teams where I had a tough time finding cards I wanted to keep. I've never really followed them and really have no knowledge of who used to be a star for them. The only reason I kept these cards are because they are names I know, with Neil O'Donnell being the one I'm most familiar with since he's an ex-Bengal.

Detroit Lions

Something I have to admit here ... the only time I watch a Lions game all season in when they are playing on Thanksgiving. Other than that, unless they're playing the Bengals, I never see them. On a related note, I read that their old stadium, the Pontiac Silverdome, is going to be demolished this year. 

Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans

I'm going to lump the Titans in with the Oilers here since they have the lineage of the Oilers and I've only got a few Titans cards. Anyway, I set a lot of these aside to eventually go into a binder full of defunct teams. Yes, there's a whole bunch of Warren Moon cards but there's also some representation by Frank Wycheck and Yancey Thigpen. 

Speaking of Houston, normally I wouldn't do this, but if you haven't made a donation in some shape or form for the disaster in Houston, please consider doing so. Donations of all kinds help, either monetarily to a charity or by giving food to your local food bank to give to those in need down there, every little bit helps.

That's it for this round of the shoebox. Hope everyone enjoyed the start of college football and the beginning of the NFL season this coming week.

You've Got Mail #65: Cardboard Collection

At one time or another, everyone has to do a card purge. That's what Colbey of Cardboard Connections is currently doing and he's offering up some quality pigskin cardboard currently to be claimed, no strings attached. While I'm not really a football collector and I'm trying to pare down my football collection, I couldn't resist some old school vintage cards. I laid claim to this lot and a few days later they landed in my mailbox. I've never heard of any of these guys so let's so through them one by one and see how their careers went down.

Bob Baumhower played his entire career for the Dolphins and was a 5-time pro-bowler and was a first team All-Pro in 1983. This is a 1978 Topps card and I really like the design with the team name down the side and the player name up top. Baumhower looks a bit disgusted or annoyed in the photo, not sure which, but perhaps he needs to go have a beer with Hank Hill and his buddies (and that's my obligatory Boomhower joke).

David Logan was a nose tackle for 9 years from 1979 to 1987 mostly with the Buccaneers and one season with the Packers. He was a three-time first team All-Pro and had 137 career fumble return yards. While I don't really consider 1987 Topps vintage, it's still a nice simple design. It's interesting that Topps didn't use the 87 baseball design for this, that would have been a really neat set.

Here's a 1973 Topps card featuring Mel Tom, who played 10 years for both the Eagles and the Bears. That's about all that can be said.

1975 is one of the more fun designs of 70s football with the color banner for the team name and the helmet featuring their position. Mike Tilleman was in the midst of his third season with the Falcons here, having joined them in 1973. He also played for the Vikings, Saints, and Oilers during a 10-year career.

1974 Wonder Bread

Paul Warfield is smiling. Heck, if I was featured on a Wonder Bread card, I'd be smiling too! At first I though this was any other standard run of the mill card from the 1970s but when I flipped it over, nope! It's from the 1974 Wonder Bread All-Star series! 1974 was Warfield's last season with the Dolphins, having accumulated 27 receptions for 536 receiving yards. He was also a member of the Pro Bowl that season (having also done so seven other times). All totaled, he played 13 years for both the Browns and the Dolphins.

By the way, here's the back of the card which I just couldn't resist showing off. I like the picture and instruction on showing the proper way on how to catch a pass. Also, note that the card number is in a slice of bread. How cool.

Anyway, thanks to Colbey for offering up these cards. I've definitely learned some new things about some otherwise forgotten players.