Monday Morning Quarterback #7 1990 Pro Set Steve DeBerg

In this ongoing (weekly?) 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: Steve DeBerg was drafted in 1977 by the Cowboys who cut him at the end of camp. DeBerg was signed by the 49ers and went on to play though 1998 with six different NFL clubs. In '98, as a Falcon, he became the oldest qb to start an NFL games and the oldest player ever to appear on a Super Bowl roster. That was his last season. Among his highlights: He led the NFL in completions in 1979 and he set NFL single-season record for lowest interception percentage in 1990.

Fantasy Angle: I had DeBerg on my roster on four separate occasions spanning 1980 to 1998. He started the third game in my teams' history in '80 while playing for the 49ers and had two touchdowns. I drafted him in 1985 but traded him before the season started for the Cardinals' Neil Lomax who got me to the playoffs. He rode my bench during last season of his in '98 as a Falcon. But it was in 1990 that, as a KC Chief, he played a big part in one of my most successful seasons. He made five regular season starts for me that year and went 4-1 including the final two games that got me a division title. He threw for five scores over that two game span. Then I used him in my semi-final game and he helped me win again with a 12 point effort. I started Dan Marino in the title game and won my first championship.

The Card: 1990 Pro Set is one that I hold near and dear to my heart. I was bailing out of the baseball card hobby but along had come Pro Set football, available nearly everywhere in pack form. I could grab a three pack sleeve at the grocery store or get one at Stop-and-Go when I filled up. Putting the set together card by card, trading with the kids at my school. It was a lot of fun. People can bash the set all they want but I love everything about it.

Football 100 Card Re-pack

I don't remember whether I picked this up at a Target or WalMart. I do know that I was thinking that for $4 I pretty much couldn't go wrong. This isn't a Fairfield product as far as I can tell. The package looks like this:

As advertised there were 100 cards in the pack. If I was going to summarize it I'd say I got a little bit of a lot of different things. Since I do so little football card collecting lots of this stuff was new to me. 

I'm a big fan of Andre Johnson of the Texans. He's a quiet warrior who does everything the right way on and off the field. I don't have any collections of current players but AJ comes closest. The card at the top is a nice shiny Upper Deck card of my favorite current player. Here's hoping for a big year from him. 

I was very happy to get a Gale Sayers card. Sayers remains the most exciting player I've ever seen. He played only five full NFL seasons (and bits of two more) but his short career was pretty dynamic. He played as a tailback and as a kick returner and he was one of those players that was literally a threat to score any time he got the ball. On December 12, 1965 Sayers scored six touchdowns against the 49ers. In the first quarter he caught an 80 yard TD pass for a score. In the second quarter he ran for TDs of 7 and 21 yards. He caught his breath at halftime and in the third quarter he ran for scores of 1 and 51 yards. He capped off his day with an 85 yard punt return touchdown in the fourth quarter. Yikes!

I also got this Bradshaw from the same Mayo Cut Plug throwback set.

The 1990 Pro Set football cards have a lot of nostalgic value for me. I put the set together a pack at a time and through trades with my students. It was a ton of fun. I was surprised to see one lone representative of the set in my repack. It's not miscut, just 'mis-scanned'.

I had not thought about the Pacific football set in a long time. The Vikes have always had issues matching their purples.

There were 95 other cards in the pack and, while a lot of them were run-of-the-mill, some were interesting and I'll toss them out in posts during the football season. Other than picking up cards of my fantasy team players and maybe a vintage pick up or two, I'm done with buying football cards for 2013.

Fuji asked again... (and again!)

...and this time the question that Fuji asked was:

"What are your all-time favorite products to collect in each sport?"

By 'products' I assume that he is looking for a 'card set' so I'll stick to that. That makes a difference because my favorite things to collect are not necessarily cards.

Anyway in baseball my favorite product would be the Topps 1960 set. I have mentioned that and did so just the other day in a comment on Fuji's blog:

I loved that 1960 set. It was very colorful and I really dug the rookie cards and the manager cards. There was something about the backs that drew me in, too. The gold and white color scheme and the 'Season Highlights' were fascinating to me. I'll NEVER forget a kid at school whose parents had bought him a whole box of packs of the 1960s. I couldn't get over how lucky he was.

 In football it would be the 1990 Pro Set. Easy to buy by the pack at my local grocery, cheap so the kids at my school could buy 'em as well. I put together the set a card at a time. Had a lot of fun doing it. Plus, they are nice looking, at least I think so. This set got me back into collecting football.

Hockey? I collect that, too. But I don't have many cards. Most are vintage Rangers I've sniped off eBay here and there. No hockey cards survived my childhood. The only ones I even remember having were late 60's post expansion Topps cards. I do have the 77-78 WHA set. It's pretty crappy but I was a huge Aeros fan back then and the set was fun to put together a few months ago. 

Here is the Frank Mahovlich card from the Topps OPC* 68/69 set. Most gawdawful thing, isn't it? They stuck his head on another player's body and hoped no one would notice. 

edit...Fuji's next question was "What is the ugliest set you've ever seen?"  This is it. The Topps 68/69 Hockey. Poorly cropped posed shots, generic sketched backgrounds. It's worse than the 1990 Topps baseball set (although not by much).

*=thanks for the correction 1967ers