A Short Break from Baseball

The 2024 NFL Draft is finally over.  No.  I didn't watch it, but I did keep an eye on who the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers drafted.

Let's face it.  As much as I love baseball (my favorite sport)... neither of my teams are doing well.  In fact, I've been following the A's and Padres more closely this year than last year... and neither have winning records.

That's why today is a good day to take a short break from baseball and focus on some football cards and memorabilia that a few fellow bloggers sent my way.

Let's start off with this cool postcard featuring my all-time favorite football player:

Rod over at Padrographs included this in his latest care package.  At first I thought that it was signed on the front.  But while trying to figure out the history behind this postcard... I discovered it's a facsimile signature.

There's also another facsimile on the back:

It's printed on the left side with the Bible verse.  Steve did sign his first name when he responded to Rod's question.

At one point, I climbed into the #1 spot in the TCDB rankings among Largent collectors.  I've slid back down to #3 and was hoping this postcard would help me out.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find it on their site.  No worries... it's still a cool collectible for my collection.

I received another Largent autograph from another Pacific Northwest blogger:

1997 Upper Deck NFL Legends Autograph #AL-8

Kevin (aka The Diamond King) included this with some Japanese MLB cards (that I'll show off in another post).  The signature is a tad bit faded, but if you look closely you can see he signed it across his legs.

I actually have a copy of this card for my Largent collection, but this card is a huge addition to my Damaged Card PC.

Next up are some Seahawks and Packers rookies and inserts from Woody over at Sports Card Forum:

I don't open up a lot of football, so it's nice to add rookie cards of guys like Boye Mafe and newer inserts of Brett Favre:

2022 Donruss Press Proof Blue #368

2022 Score First Ballot #FB-BF

Woody also tossed in this sweet rookie card of Kam Chancellor:

2012 Topps #157

I've always been a huge fan of hard hitting safeties... and Bam Bam is one of my all-time favorites.  A member of the Legion of Boom, he was selected to the Pro Bowl four times in his first eight seasons.  Sadly his career was cut short with a severe neck injury.  However it's only a matter of time before he becomes a member of the Seattle Seahawks Ring of Honor.

Moving along, let's check out this jersey of the #2 pick in the 1993 NFL Draft that Chris, The Collector sent me last year:

Before Russell Wilson wore #3 for the Hawks... Mirer did.  Although he's remembered by many fans as being a bust, I'll proudly wear this jersey during the season.  I'm sure there will be a ton of kids who are scratching their heads wondering who this guy is.  But it'll give some of my coworkers a chance to reminisce (and probably laugh).

Chris also sent me some cards... including this rookie card of Seattle's leading rusher the past two seasons:

2022 Panini Chronicles #PA-13

And some cool San Jose Sharks cards:

2018-19 UD MVP NHL Player Credentials Access #NHL-JP

2021-22 OPC Platinum Red Surge #298

Don't really have enough new Sharks to justify it's own post... so I figured I'd lump it into this one.  Sadly... I haven't been following the San Jose Sharks as closely as I did when Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, and Joe Pavelski were teammates.

In fact there are only a handful of guys I can name on the current Sharks roster... and William Eklund is one of them.

Let's wrap things up with two more football items: 

1993 CARDZ Team NFL The Flintstones Set

The first is a complete set of Flintstone NFL cards from John over at Johnny's Trading Spot.  Last Christmas I found a partial set of these in my office.  I started purchasing singles on Sportlots, but now it looks like I don't have to anymore.

I'm sitting on a bunch of cards that need to be scanned from Johnny.  He sent me several care packages dating back to last year that I'm still organizing.  Not going to be able to fit them into today's post, but I will wrap things up with a baseball card he sent me that's related to the gridiron:

2019 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP151

I know the Broncos and their fans wish they could forget Russell's tenure in Denver... but I'm still a fan of him.  There was part of me that was secretly hoping he'd be traded back to Seattle this past off season.  Hopefully he can lead the Steelers past the Wild Card round this upcoming season.  If he does... I'll quietly root for him unless he ends up facing his old team or the Packers in the Super Bowl.

Hope at least a few people out there appreciate this football post as much as I appreciate the bloggers who sent me these cards and collectibles.

Thank you Rod, Kevin, Woody, Chris, and John!  Happy Saturday and sayonara!