30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, January 30, 2012

Damaged Card HOF #1: Kurt Warner & The Other Guy


Remember this card?


Twelve years ago... on January 30th, 2000... Kurt Warner threw for over four hundred yards and added on two touchdown passes to take home his first Super Bowl MVP award. At the time, I worked at a local card shop to supplement my income... and remember how suddenly this piece of cardboard became one of the most sought after cards in the hobby.

Warner went on to lead the Rams to two Super Bowls in three seasons (1999 & 2001)... as he became the field general to The Greatest Show on Turf. In 2008, he took the Arizona Cardinals to their first and only Super Bowl appearance.

But what ever happened to the other guy?

Tony Horne was developing into one of the game's elite returners and led the league in yards per kick return. Unfortunately he suffered a career ending knee injury which limited him to only three NFL seasons. According to Wikipedia, he currently works as a strength & speed coach for some company... but who knows how accurate this information is.

As of now... the 1999 Pacific #343 rookie card of Kurt Warner (& 2nd year card of Tony Horne) has sort of lost its lustre among collectors.

Regardless... I thought I'd pull it out of my binder and let it see some daylight... while I tried to figure out who the heck Tony Horne was.

Okay... time for y'all to debate on Kurt and the legacy he left on the gridiron.

Do you think Warner deserves to be enshrined in the Football Hall of Fame?

Whether or not Warner makes it into Canton will have little affect on the value of my particular copy... since it's pretty beat up. However in honor of Mr. Warner and his career accomplishments, I'd like to enshrine him into my personal Damaged Card Hall of Fame.


As you can see... there's a crease directly under the "t" in "Kurt". Believe it or not... it's actually a lot worse in person, than in the picture.


Plus there's a ton of chipping on the left and right edges.


And to top it off... the upper right corner is dinged.

Congratulations Kurt... whether or not you make it into Canton... at least you can go to sleep knowing you're a HOFer in my (damaged card) book.

Happy Monday everyone... and have a wonderful week! Sayonara.

6 comments:

Alfredo Ortega said...

quick question if i told you i could get you a chris mullin autographed jersey all you had to do would be send me the jersey and get one for me too would you do it? And it had to be in the mail and get to my house before friday? I would send you the money for the jersey of couse.

hiflew said...

Well, I can't offer you an autographed jersey of an NBA Dream Teamer, but I can answer the question. :P

I tend to look at Kurt Warner the same way as I look at Terrell Davis. Great for a handful of years, but not nearly the longevity required of a Hall of Famer. People tend to gloss over that in between the two Super Bowl appearances during his "prime", Warner was a back up. He did great things in St. Louis (although I give more credit to Marshall Faulk and Dick Vermeil) and Arizona (Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin).

He had a great career, especially for how and where he started, but he just wasn't great enough to be a Hall of Famer.

Fuji said...

wicked ortega - i just read the post on your blog.

if i had more notice, i'd be all over that (actually, i'd probably just want a photo)... but there's no way i can get the jersey & ship them out, so they can reach you by friday. best of luck, bro.

hiflew - yeah... his "longevity" definitely hurts his cause. class act regardless.

Josh D. said...

http://www.checkoutmycards.com/Cards/Football/1999/Pacific/343/Kurt_Warner_RC_Tony_Horne/917690

Looks like it is still a $5 card. Not too shabby.

Synchronicity...I just finished a Kurt Warner post then saw yours here.
http://royalsandrandoms.blogspot.com/2012/01/warner-on-way.html

Fuji said...

yeah... and you can still get them for around $3 on eBay. headed over to read your post right now!

Martyn said...

@ Don sent you an email about the Snider auto, get in touch!