2009 Upper Deck Icons Football

Let's open a pack of football cards. I've had a retail pack of 2009 Upper Deck Icons lying around for years. Let's see if this will be a crystal ball into this weekend's future. Let's say the likelihood of a team winning is increased by the presence of a card in this pack. The chances double if the player is still active for that team.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
61 Eddie Royal
The Broncos gain a slight advantage, but Royal played with the non-playoff Chargers this year.

89 Andre Johnson
The Texans are guaranteed victory over the Patriots on Sunday. Andre Johnson pulls in 26 catches for 417 yards.

44 Earnest Graham
Retired. The Buccaneers never make the playoffs again.

7 Brandon Jacobs
The Packers dodge a huge bullet here, with Jacobs being released by the 49ers this past New Year's Eve. Jacobs reportedly celebrated the holiday by retrieving a box of noisemakers from the basement and eating three Banquet brand pot pies, alone. The Giants insignia on this card ensures that for the 2013-14 NFL season, Eli Manning will squeak a 6-10 team into the playoffs and then tear through them by an average victory margin of 39 points.

5 DeMarcus Ware
No prognostication from this card, other than the offseason strangling of Tony Romo by a defensive teammate.

Well, the pack had little to say other than predicting the Texans' upset of the New England. Have fun this weekend. If you get a chance, build a time machine so UD can make their '09 Icons baseball cards look as good as the football brand.

2009 Upper Deck First Edition Football

2009 Upper Deck 1st Edition Football

50 Calvin Johnson
28 Lance Briggs
177 Shonn Greene
102 Domenik Hixon
89 Wes Welker - silver parallel
CT-5 Ed Reed - Crunch Time insert
72 Rashean Mathis
56 Greg Jennings - Lambeau Leap
199 Josh Freeman
129 Frank Gore

2009 Score Football

Being a baseball guy, I actively ignore other sports cards, because it is more simpler to focus on one sport - impulsively, I guess I'd grab cheap base cards of stars from other sports as well as a few of the most cheapest packs [maybe a dollar each] of football and basketball, just so I can casually keep up with the names of the game.

2009 Score Football

177 Ted Bruschi
232 Troy Polamalu
138 Maurice-Jones Drew
280 Barrett Ruud
153 Chad Pennington
387 Ramses Barden
281 Albert Haynesworth - glossy

2009 Topps Magic Football

When opening this pack, I felt a few too many "Who?" moments. This is a combination of not being extremely knowledgeable about football personnel and not being able to see a player in his NFL uniform. For the sake of the readers, I've included the college team of each player (which the backs of the cards do state) as well as his professional team(s) (which is nowhere to be found on the cards themselves).



235 Kenny Britt (Rutgers/Titans) *Drafted 30th in 2009 first round

AD-BE Alumni Tom Brady/Braylon Edwards (Michigan/Patriots, Browns)

191 John Carlson Mini (Notre Dame/Seahawks)

198 Joey Galloway (Ohio State/Seahawks, Cowboys, Buccaneers, Partiots)

49 David Anderson (Colorado State/Texans)

152 Drew Henson (Michigan/Cowboys, Vikings, Lions, current free agent)

The Big Ten (11) was well-represented in this pack. Interesting idea for a set, but hard to take seriously when you get a QB with only 20 all-time NFL passing ATTEMPTS in a pack. I understand the focus is on collegiate performance in this set, but greater emphasis needed to be placed on professional achievements when choosing players.

Oh, and in the interest of synergy, I've chosen what I think should have been the official song of 2009 Topps Magic Football. Others have had their say, but as anyone who watched a lot of daytime syndicated TV in the mid-1990s ( hourlong blocks of Wonder Years reruns, if I was lucky enough), a better song choice for this brand has to be something from the ubiquitous 1970s disco/pop compilation CD commericals that played at nearly every break. With further ado...


Oh, and if you want to get in on a great contest with a pretty nice payoff...

2008 SP Rookie Edition football

Stopped by Target yesterday (on company time....sssssh!) and picked up a blaster of these. I had been to my local shop last weekend and had seen some of the base cards to this set in a monster box I was digging through. So I figured I'd try a blaster to see how much I liked them.

It's a nice looking set, but they repeated the "rookies in retro designs" concept from UD Timeline baseball. Blaster contained seven packs of six cards and a clear cello pack of six Legends (also in foil retro designs). Got my Bo Jackson for my player collection at least. The base cards are all horizontally oriented photos with the name, position and team info at 90° across one end (or the top depending on your point of view). In about half the packs, the first card had a bashed or layered corner.

For your enjoyment, the packaging and the best pack....

The box panel:


and the uncrumpled wrapper:

The base cards:

#92 Anquan Boldin - will he or won't he be traded?

#42 Derrick Johnson - not Brooks (formerly of Tampa) or Thomas (passed away 2000)

#64 Brian Urlacher - Kinda overrated, at least when I've seen him.

#77 Roddy White (back of card) - Teamed with Matt Ryan, did pretty well for the Falcons (and my fantasy team).

The Rookies:

#109 Jake Long (left) and #116 Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (right). Long is Howie's son, and Dom wins the Jarrod Saltalamacchia Nameplate Stitcher's Wristcramp award (NFL version). These cards are the "New SP design". Gold foil didn't scan so well.

Inserts and Legends appear in the 1993, '94, '95, and '96 SP designs.

Jury's still out on building this set. Even that will probably be only the base cards, since I'm a contrarian and don't care about rookies that much. But the horizontal design almost commits you to storing these in the eight pocket sheets (that they'll fall out of), but since the other info is at a right angle, it makes them a little awkward to really view as a whole. Maybe I'll browse EvilBay for a cheap base lot....

1992 Action Packed Football

1991 Action Packed Football was the best football set ever. So when I found this sealed box of 1992 Action Packed on the 'bay for $1.75....... I pounced. Yes. Someone my size pounced. Quite the visual.
Remember Kids!!!

Shiny wrappers!

First card

John Elway QB Broncos

Erik Kramer QB Lions

Nick Bell RB Raiders

Terry Allen RB Vikings

Mark Ingram WR Giants (and we hate the Giants)

Rickey Reynolds CB Bucs (the popsicle uni's!!!)

I'm breaking the rest of the box over on Waxaholic... stop by and check it out.

Alright, Get Me Hamm on 5, Hold the Mayo...

There has been a lot of griping about this set so far, and there's also been a lot of praise. I decided to see what all the fuss was about and picked up a retail pack.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
105 Sterling Sharpe (Great, a Packer right off the bat. It's interesting to see that the artists left in the little strap thingy that kept Sterling's head from bouncing forward too far. I actually got to see this in use this weekend when the NFL Network replayed Favre's first game as a Packer when he came in for the injured Don Majkowski against the Bengals. Good stuff.)

1 Drew Brees (Good QB. I'm shocked to see the back of this card and recall that he slipped to #32 in the 2001 Draft as only the second quarterback picked after #1 Michael Vick.)
120 Heath Miller (SP)

231 Kevin Walter Mini (My fantasy team sucked so bad last year that Walter was getting major playing time from Coach Thorzul.)

205 Jabar Gaffney
216 Ernest Graham

Kind of a "meh" pack. Actually, I got the Sharpe I had seen before and really wanted, so no more of this for me.

2005 Topps Football

Several years ago, when I first succumbed to the allure of buying sports cards again thanks to your local big box retailer, I picked up a couple of football packs and a basketball pack and promptly forgot about them. I discovered them tucked away in a box recently and thought Super Bowl Sunday would be a good time to bust out this 2005 Topps rack pack. Unfortunately, I completely ran out of time Sunday and now no one cares about football anymore. Anyway, it's time to put football to rest until the fall, with one last gasp from the past.

This came out around the time the 2006 Topps baseball rack packs came out and came with 3 "vintage" cards in them. This pack also followed the same scheme in celebration of 50 years of Topps football. The base set design apparently does not follow the lead of 2005 Topps baseball. I actually think it's one of the nicer modern Topps football designs.

378 - Brandon Jacobs (RC) (I'm pretty sure I had no idea who Jacobs was when I got this pack, so this was a bit of a surprise. As an Eagles fan, I see plenty of him now.)
325 - Joe Namath Golden Moments (Looks like there's plenty of retired players in this set, which is always nice.)
248 - Quincy Morgan (Completely forgot about him. 2005 was his last real season.)
1977 #90 - Dan Dierdorf (I love the picture. I grew up with Frank, Al and Dan on Monday Night Football. He doesn't quite have the same impact as a CBS announcer, but I think CBS football broadcasts in general are really boring.)
237 - Brett Favre (Favre was 0-5 with 2 INT in his Falcons career.)
178 - Kenechi Udeze

56 - Jerricho Cotchery (Cotchery had a nice season for the Jets in 2008. He's also got a notch in the Cool Name Dept.)
410 - Reggie Brown (RC) (Terrible looking posed photo which I just couldn't bring myself to take a picture of, even though he's an Eagle. Brown didn't do much this year. NFL rookie cards are the worst looking things.)

337 - LaDainian Tomlinson All-Pro (Being a dominant running back in the NFL is a fickle thing. Just ask Shawn Alexander. Tomlinson's numbers in 2008 were the lowest in his career, though he hasn't quite fallen down Alexander's path just yet.)
39 - Drew Bennett (Crappy Pac-10 QB turned one-year-wonder NFL wide receiver.)
299 - Nate Clements

1977 #303 - Charlie Davis (I don't know who Davis is, but he sure looks mean.)
234 - Joe Horn (Horn was a star with the Saints, but he's been out of action since an ill-fated 2007 with the Falcons.)
85 - Antwaan Randle El (I kinda like the Steelers when they had several former QBs playing other positions and would run lots of trick plays. I'm not much of a Ben Whats-his-face fan though.)

1977 #504 - J.V. Cain (Complete with authentic wax stain!)
195 - Marc Bulger (Ick.)

324 - Lawrence Taylor Golden Moments (There's only one LT.)
295 - Mewelde Moore
263 - Derrick Mason
115 - Simeon Rice
140 - Robert Gallery (One of many questionable Raiders draft picks, as he was chosen #2 overall in 2004 and has yet to develop into a Pro Bowl player.)

I also have a 2005 Topps Total pack, but I might save it for next year. As usual, all of these cards are up for grabs if anyone wants them.

Pack Prognosticator: Super Bowl XLIII

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl, so I thought I'd open a really old pack of football cards, sort of as a prediction as to who will win the game. There's been a pack of 1991 Score Series I lying around my house for the better part of two years. I can't really bear to let is sit for another season, so today's the day.

The Rules:
Since this will determine the winner outright, we have to lay some ground rules.
1. Any Cardinal or Steeler is worth 5 points to that team.
2. Any card of a team the Cardinals or the Steelers beat during the regular season is worth 3 points to that team.
3. Any card of a team the Cardinals or Steelers beat during the post-season is worth 4 points to that team.
4. Any card of a team the Cardinals or Steelers lost to during the regular season costs that team a -2 penalty.

I'd say that these are pretty even odds. The Cardinals lost more games this year, but they played one more playoff game than Pittsburgh. Plus the Ravens didn't exist in 1991. Then again, the Panthers didn't either. (On a related note, I'm calling it that teams who moved but kept their name, such as the Rams, will count, but teams who changed their name, like the Oilers/Titans, will not.)

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
267 Leo Goeas - Chargers (+7 to Steelers via one reg. win and one playoff win; Steelers 7: Cardinals 0)
273 Todd Bowles - Redskins (+3 Steelers (W), -2 Cardinals (L); Steelers 10: Cardinals -2. Looks like a good old fashioned ass whupping in the making.)

287 Daniel Stubbs - Cowboys (+3 to both teams for regular season victories; Steelers 13: Cardinals 1)
293 Jeff Bostic - Redskins (Another dagger to the Cards, +3 Steelers, -2 Cardinals; Steelers 16: Cardinals -1)
307 J.B. Brown - Dolphins (+3 to the Cardinals for an early-season victory over Miami; Steelers 16: Cardinals 2)
337 Albert Lewis Dream Team - Chiefs (No change, K.C. played neither team)
105 Anthony Bell - Cardinals (+5 to the underdogs; Steelers 16: Cardinals 7)

10 Gerald McNeil - Oilers (No change, defunct in Houston.)
15 Emmitt Smith - Cowboys (+3 to both again; Steelers 19: Cardinals 10)

30 Tim Harris - Packers (No change, neither team dared face this 6-10 juggernaut)
35 Eugene Lockhart - Cowboys (+3 to both; Steelers 22: Cardinals 10)
115 Anthony Munoz - Bengals (+6 to Pittsburgh for two regular season wins. I don't think the Cardinals can recover from that knockout blow. Steelers 28: Cardinals 10)
130 Bart Oates - Giants (-2 to Arizona, though I'm tempted to give both teams 400 points because of the love Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force has for this man; Steelers 28: Cardinals 8)

135 Joey Browner - Vikings (Another team the Cardinals lost to, so -2; Steelers 28: Cardinals 6)
150 Erik McMillan - Jets (The slide continues with another two-point penalty to AZ; Steelers 28: Cardinals 4)
155 Robert Delpino - Rams (The Cardinals salvage some pride with the last card, having beat the Rams twice this season; Final Score - Steelers 28: Cardinals 10)

I'm surprised how well that turned out looking like an actual football score. I was worried for a second that the Cardinals were going to have to pull off two safeties in a losing effort. Have fun watching the game, everybody. And don't forget to bet on Pittsburgh to cover and go with the under. You can all thank me later.

"That pack was totally kick-ass! Reminded me of the time I saw Whitesnake at the Meadowlands in '89!"

2008 Topps Mayo Football

Just got this pack today, $5.50 at Champion Sports Cards in Kennesaw. I'll let the cards speak for themselves and do a more detailed dissection on my own blog one I've been able to examine them more thoroughly.

24 Matt Cassell

274 John Harvey Kellogg

267 Maurice Jones-Drew

40 Marcus Smith RC

227 Derek Anderson mini

SB39-B Super Bowl XXXIX thick insert

76 Muhsin Muhammad

101 Jerry Porter

To sum up: Topps spent a fortune in black ink. The photos ranged from pretty good (Cassell, Porter) to dreadful (Smith). I'm not impressed by the Pro Set throwback thick Superbowl insert. The mini card is kickass as always, but Derek Anderson? Eecch. I would eat cornflakes for every meal if I could get my mustache to grow the way Kellogg's does. I'm glad I didn't drop $100+ on a Hobby box, but you can bet your sweet bippy that Blasters Shall Be Bought.