Monday Morning Quarterback #26 Troy Aikman 1995 Fleer Ultra

In this ongoing series of posts I am going to feature cards from my fantasy football player collection, specifically the 117 quarterbacks I've had on my team's roster since 1980. I have one selected card for each player in my All-Time Flyers binder. Through the years I've tried to use as many different card varieties as possible while holding on to my preference which is: a card issued in a year I owned the player showing him in the proper team uni in a vertical format. Card availability and my whims have had a big impact on that standard as we will see. 

NFL Info: Troy Aikman played 12 seasons for the Cowboys after being the overall first pick in 1989 out of UCLA. He has a long list of NFL (and NCAA) accomplishments:

• Consensus All-American (1988)
• Davey O'Brien Award (1989)
• 6× Pro Bowl (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996)
• Sporting News First-Team All-Pro (1993)
• 3× UPI Second-Team All-NFC (1994, 1995)
• 3× Super Bowl champion (XXVII, XXVIII, XXX)
• Super Bowl MVP (XXVII)
• 3× NFC Champion (1992, 1993, 1995)
• Walter Payton Man of the Year (1996)
• Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor inductee (2005)
• Dallas Cowboys All-time leader in Passing Yards (32,942 yards)
• Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee (2006)
• College Football Hall of Fame inductee (2008)
• NCAA Silver Anniversary Award (2014)

Of course among fans his biggest plus is three Super Bowl crowns. Currently he works as the lead color man for Fox NFL telecasts and I think he does a great job, especially considering he has to work with blowhard Joe Buck.

Fantasy Impact: Aikman wasn't much help in the 1997 season for me. He made two starts in place of Jeff Blake during the first ten weeks of the season and although he got me a touchdown in one game and two in the next I lost both games. I switched to Chris Chandler down the stretch and he led me to my second straight title and third overall. So Aikman has a Hughes League championship ring. I'm sure he's thrilled.

The Card: In my never ending quest to include as many different 'type' cards as possible in the good ol' fantasy binder I included this rather over-the-top Fleer card. I'm not a huge fan of the artsy 'double pic' effect but overall the card is OK. The stats are so scrawny I don't know why they bothered. That ornamental initial and the gaudy gold 'Extra Stars' logo take up too much space. On the plus side, it's got team logos front and back and I sort of like the one-off Cowboy jersey that Aikman has on.