Monday Morning Quarterback #13 2003 Fleer Showcase David Carr

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: The Texans chose David Carr with the first pick of the 2002 draft. That made him the first pick in the history of the franchise. He never had a chance. He spent most of the season looking up at the sky or Reliant Stadium roof while being sacked a record amount of times in his rookie season. He had plenty of talent but it was difficult for him to progress while running for his life. Too many times during his five seasons he was the leading rusher in a Texans game.

After being run out of town he was able to parlay his talent into jobs with the Panthers, Giants and '49ers as a back-up through his last year 2012. Me? I'll always remember that first Texans game ever, a win over the Cowboys on a Sunday night. I've never been in a stadium that loud for that long. David Carr went from 'hero to zero' in Houston, but we'll always have that night.

Fantasy Angle: I picked up Carr in 2002 as an option when Kurt Warner's career went south for the Rams early that season and I scrambled to find a replacement. I rotated between Carr and Warner's replacements Marc Bulger and Jamie Martin. I'm not sure how I was able to fashion a 7-6 record that year given the dregs I used as a lineup each week. I made the playoffs but got a well deserved early exit.

The Card: I had a 2002 card of Carr in my binder for a long time before I decided that I liked this one a lot. It has two things going for it. It's kind of 'artsy' and it show Carr running for his life which is how I'll always remember him.

Heeeeey...Get your Pink Thing.....Get your Pink Thing here!!

I used to make it up to the old Arlington Stadium a couple of times a year to catch the Orioles as they rolled through North Texas to play the Rangers. Those were fun trips. I had college friends who lived up there so I always had a place to stay if I wanted it and sometimes I scored free tickets (great seats, too). But usually I'd head up with John, a fellow Orioles fan/collector who I met at Houston card shops and became great friends with over the years. He had a black Pontiac Firebird and drove like a madman but somehow always avoided getting a ticket. Considering how many radar units would hang out on I-45 between Houston and Dallas that's nothing short of a miracle.

Games up there were always fun. I saw some of the most ominous storm clouds I can remember rolling across the skies over Arlington Stadium. I only recall a couple of rain-outs though. Behind home plate the screen extended straight up and it lacked the usual section that angles back over the top of the seats behind home plate. Foul balls hit straight back would frequently hit the wall behind those seats and ricochet down into them with tremendous velocity. Seasoned Arlington Stadium goers who sat behind the plate knew they had to instantly 'duck and cover' when a batter nicked one back over the screen. You knew the rookies. They were the ones who turned to see where the ball was going. Ouch!

You could take your own beer into the stadium in those round thermos jugs like this one:

A stop at 7-11 on the way to the ballpark for a couple of quarts of Miller High Life or Coors was always on the to-do list. One of the many unique things about Arlington Stadium was a frozen ice cream novelty that vendors sold in the seats which was called a 'Pink Thing'. I never got one but they were pretty popular. Turns out they were unique to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and mainly associated with the Six Flags Over Texas amusement park. That makes sense since Six Flags was literally next to the stadium.

We liked to get to the park early and hang out in the lot between the stadium and the nearby hotel which was where the Orioles (and other visiting clubs I suppose) stayed. Players would walk through the lot and were easy pickings for autograph hunters (of which John was one for sure). That's also the lot in which I heard Eddie Murray speak for the first time. Up until the moment he answered John's request for a signature with an "OK, but just one" I had been nearly convinced that he was a mute.

All of this is a long roundabout way of getting to the card I posted up top. That's a pink Jared Crick chromey, shiny-type Topps card. I collect pink cards, I'm a Texans season ticket holder and Nebraska is my son's school so the card was a nice pick-up.

Here's a picture of the Pink Thing ice cream 'treat' from the link above. And yes, that's exactly how I remember it. Looks pretty nasty.

Your 2013 Baltimore Flyers!!!!

I had my fantasy draft last Wednesday. I only participate in one league, my league. I've tried one or twice to play in another league but I can never give it the effort I put into mine.

This is our 34th season. As far as I can tell there is only one league in the US that has played continuously since before our first year, 1980. That league is one year older, founded in 1979. Every year I hope they disband. One other group has been around since the mid 70s but for many years they were more of a football 'pool'. At least that's all I can find using the internet and believe me I've tried.

Our draft is always fun. We get together in the Houston Medical Center where one of our owners is a tech director and gets us a big room full of tables laden with computers. It's a lot like the NFL's war rooms.

I have a collection of cards of the players I've had on my team since Day One. Adding my new draftees is Job One the day after the draft and the cards I needed arrived today. So my opening day line-up is complete in my binder. I am willing to overpay to get cards of players quickly rather than wait until more common cards are available. I'm quirky that way.

So, without further ado, here are my '13 Baltimore Flyer starters:

My quarterback is Matt Ryan. I had Peyton Manning last season but dealt him for Ryan a couple of weeks ago. Ryan plays in better weather and is more likely to still be standing later this season. That, plus I was able to move up in a middle round of the draft as part of the trade. Ryan become one of my three allowable 'keepers'.

Here are my other two 'keepers. Both Arian Foster and Ray Rice have been on my club for several seasons. Runningbacks are gold in my league (and most leagues) so having two studs has been very beneficial. Foster has been a health concern this summer and frankly I considered my options with him. But I couldn't get value in a trade and I wasn't about to risk letting him go and regretting it later. So I'm rolling the dice and he's still my guy. Plus, I get to see him play every week, in person or on TV. There is something to be said for that.

The Foster card at the top of the post is my favorite card of his but it will not go into my Flyer binder because it is a horizontal card and in my hierarchy of cards vertical cards of a player in the correct uniform trumps a horizontal one.

Having kept a QB and two RBs I knew I'd have to concentrate on receivers early in the draft. We use three and we combine wide-outs with tight ends (we are a dinosaur league after all) so I grabbed the best guys on my list with my three first picks. Randall Cobb, Torrey Smith and Hakeem Nicks each bring some sort of issue with them but I'm satisfied if not overly happy at the receiver spot. 

I always avoid the 'kicker panic' that seems to grip my fellow owners starting around Round 11 or 12 when someone will grab the highest ranked kicker and most of the other guys start grabbing others from the top tier. I can show you stats that say the #1 kicker is worth only a point a game more than the #12 kicker so I'm usually going to take one with my last pick. And I did again this year. Cowboy kickers are usually a safe bet and I'm OK with Bailey. besides, this gives me another reason to root for the @#$%^&*()(*&-ing Cowboys to stall out just inside the red zone several times a game. 

There seemed to be only a couple of Dan Bailey cards available and they had a premium due to being autographed or being some fancy-assed chrome thing. This one didn't cost much, about $6 shipped but I still hate paying more for my kicker's card than any other one. Oh well. 

Our rosters are 15 players and I won't show every guy but here are my top reserves. 

My tip for late drafting fantasy player who may be reading this.... take a late round flyer on Alshon Jeffery. You can thank me in November.

Watching the Combine on TV.... really?!?

I got an email the other day extolling me to watch the last day of the NFL combine on the NFL Network. Now I'm as big an NFL fan as the next guy, but I simply can't find a single reason why that would be a fun way to spend a day or evening.

Watching guys in spandex shorts and tank tops get weighed, run 40s and take elevation tests is my idea of a slow death. Do they show dudes taking the Wunderlich test? That might be interesting.

Then again I don't understand how some people can spend days or weeks analyzing the upcoming draft in the first place. Now watching the draft, at least the first round, I can see that I guess. I took my boys to a Texans Draft Party once and it was sort of interesting. But I'm not a draft-nic.

For one thing there is a lot more to what makes up a player than those 'measurables'. Take Case Keenam up there at the top. He's one of those guys who probably will never be an NFL star. Likely he'll never be a starter. But he has a ton of heart and desire and a boatload of 'smarts'. He is currently the #3 QB for the Texans (as an an undrafted free agent last spring) after a record setting college career at the University of Houston.

He had to overcome 'too small', 'weak arm' and 'system QB' labels and did well in NFL scouting days on campus. And he's an A-1 totally great kid. Texans' coach Gary Kubiak loves the guy. I think Kubiak sees a lot of himself in Keenam. Case can be seen, home and away, just steps from Coach Kubiak with a clipboard and headset. I know he has designs on being a coach himself one day.

I have a bunch of cards showing Keenam in a UH uni. This is my only one in Texans' gear. It's a sticker auto job but I think the card is terrific. Maybe one day Keenam will defy the odds and get a starters job in the NFL. I hope it's for my Texans and that I'm there so see it.

Big Day at Reliant Stadium

It wasn't all that long ago I spent my Sundays hoping that the Texans would escape embarrassment on the football field. Sitting up in Section 641 or watching from the couch (when I could stand to watch) I always said I just wanted to get to a point where the Texans were playing meaningful games in December.

Well those days finally arrived last season and now we are at a point where a win today clinches home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Standing (or rather running) in the way is the remarkable Adrian Peterson and his Vikings. They've got playoff intentions themselves and may have even more than the Texans to play for.

I'm letting my sons go to the game. My Nebraska grad hasn't been to a game since last season and he and his brother should have some fun. I'm missing my second consecutive home game. I never thought that would happen but I'm glad my guys will get a chance to be together at a game.

I sure hope they get to see a Texans win!

Oh, What a Night!!

Last night was pretty cool. The Orioles tied up their series with the Yankees. Another tense, exciting game of course. Nice effort by Wei-Yin Chen. I didn't pull any Orioles in Gint-A-Cuffs but Night Owl and a couple of others supplied me with the O's out of the set. I've kind of become jaded to the A&G set after only two years of messing with it. Last summer I thought the 2011 set was the coolest thing ever. But after the 2012 set I have kind of lost interest. Unless there are some really kick ass subsets next year I think I'll pass on it.

I nearly had to treat my remote button pushing finger with an ice pack because:

And up in Jersey, while the baseball game was on, across Route 3 from my aunt and uncle's Secaucus home, my Texans beat the Jets. It wasn't very pretty but it's a win and that's all that matters. 

And last, but not really least, Arian Foster slashed his way to 22 fantasy points to give me a win. At 4-1 I trail my sons (damn newbies!) by one game in our division. I like this Foster card even though I don't really know one set from another. I buy random Texans cards off the web as they catch my eye. 

The night wasn't perfect though. Brian Cushing went down with a season ending injury. That's gonna hurt. But, as the Texans said (many times) last season.."Next man up!!" Here is another great looking football card. Same brand/set logo, different year maybe?

Game Day 2012

I've got big expectations for the Texans this year. I've poured a lot of money, time and emotion into this team as a fan and season ticket holder. It started to pay off last year. Ready for more.

I'm on the way to Reliant for a tailgate breakfast and hopefully a win today. Arian Foster is iffy for the game. No matter.

Next man up!!

Case Keenum

I'll be at the Texans preseason game tonight. I hate preseason games and resent having to pay full price as part of the package but not enough to quit being a season ticket holder. I only go because I want to keep my seats filled as they have been for every game the team has played. But nothing good usually comes of NFL preseason games. Usually nothing, but not always nothing.

In a preseason game in 2010 Arian Foster ran all over the Cowboys. I mean he looked super. At the time he wasn't a lock to play over Steve Slaton. He had finished the '09 season before with a 100 yard game against New England but that was a game the Pats seemed to sleepwalk through on their way to the playoffs. But that night against the Cowboys I decided that I'd grab Foster for my fantasy team as early as possible. Lots of eyebrows were raised when I drafted him in the third round.

Tonight Case Keenum, like myself a University of Houston alum, is supposed to get significant work at the qb spot. He's in a battle with John Beck for the #3 slot. I suspect he'll end up on the practice squad (just like Foster did in 2009) but I've seen enough of Keenum to never sell him short. He has a lot of heart and desire.

This will be one of the few exhibition games that I don't doze through from my seat upstairs.