Monday Morning Quarterback #54 Rob Johnson 1999 Collector's Edge

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 Jaguars took Rob Johnson in the 4th round out of USC in 1995. He sat on their bench behind Mark Brunell for three seasons before moving on to Buffalo and there he was an on again-off again starter for four years. He led the Bills to a playoff berth in 1999. Often injured he battled Doug Flutie for playing time during tenure there. He finished his career with a couple of bench-warming years in other places. He currently coaches high school football in California.

Fantasy Impact: I had Johnson rostered for a time in 1999. With Steve Young starting and a rookie named Manning waiting his turn I never had the need to use Johnson.

The Card: very busy, gold foil enhanced front. Pretty nice picture of Johnson running for his life (which he did a lot of). But there is just too much 'stuff' here. Two logos, two wordmarks, two bars containing the player's name....it's all too much. Add in the big clunky team logo boz and it's just a mess. I actually like the back more with it's simple stat lines and bare minimum vitals. But every football card has to include the player's college, don't you think?

Like Johnson on my roster in '99 this card is here to fill a spot, nothing more.

Monday Morning Quarterback #53 Chris Miller 1991 Pro Set Platinum

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: Oregon Duck Chris Miller spent ten seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Falcons and Rams. He held the Atlanta starting job for five seasons beginning with his NFL sophomore year, 1988. He made the ALL Pro squad in 1991 but was injured and being phased out in 1993 by Jerry Glanville. He moved on to the Rams for a couple of seasons as the starter and a then was the Bronco's back up for a year before retiring to the college and NFL coaching ranks. He was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

Fantasy Impact: In 1991 I opened the season with Jim Everett as my starter. I sat patiently was he failed to score a single point in the first five weeks of the season (TD-only league back then) and I muddled along at 1-4. I finally got sick of Everett, hit the waiver wire hard, and went through three other quarterbacks over the next month. I was 4-7 when I decided to roll with Miller over the final weeks and he had the two best QB weeks I had that season. I still missed the playoffs but I gained a little self respect. LOL

The Card:  I love everything about this card except the fact that the player's name isn't on the front. I know that some of the classic sets of the past had no-text fronts but if you're going to put the set logo there you might as well put the player's name there as well.

But that's a small quibble. I like both photos Pro Set used and the card has a decent layout on the reverse. No stats but stats are for base cards anyway. Swap out the huge Pro Set and NFLPA logos for team ones or helmets and this card is even better.

I'll always say Pro Set is the least appreciated card company ever.

Monday Morning Quarterback #52 (Tuesday Edition) Mark Malone 1988 Topps

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. 

NFL Info: Coming out of Arizona State Mark Malone was the Steelers' first pick in the 1980 draft. He's one of very few (I'd guess) NFLers that were pursued by the USOC as a decathlete. He watched from the Steelers bench for a couple of years until grabbing the starters job away from Cliff Stoudt in 1984. He held the job, except for some injury time lost, for four seasons and accumulated mostly middling numbers. He did however get the Steelers to the 1984 AFC Title game where they lost to the Dolphins.

Malone was dealt to the Chargers for 1988 and started eight games during his one season there in San Diego. He retired after spending 1989 with the Jets as a reserve. He has been a broadcaster with many different roles since his playing days. He currently works for NBC, Westwood One and a few other outlets.

Fantasy Impact: Malone started a game for me in 1986. My regular starter, Ken O'Brien was coming off a four TD game and yet I, in my infinite fantasy wisdom, sat him for Malone in Week 4. I won that game, and the next four with O'Brien sitting on my bench, but I really can't imagine why I did what I did. I went 11-3 that year and had one of my best seasons but with bonehead moves like that, I have no idea how.

The Card: I happen to like the 1988 Topps design. They obviously had the NFL license after many years in the airbrushed logo desert  and as a result the Steelers' helmet is front and center. The colors mimic the uniform, the picture is decent and the back provides the necessary stats and player data. All in all Id give it a fairly solid thumbs up.

Monday Morning Quarterback #51 Joe Ferguson 1984 Topps

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. 

NFL Info: Joe Ferguson was a third round pick by the Bills in 1973 out of Arkansas. He has handed the Bills starting job from Day One and held it for twelve years. He took them to the playoffs three times but only once made it past the first round. It would remain for Jim Kelly to get the Bills to the Super Bowl. Ferguson left Buffalo in 1985 and spent five more seasons as a back-up in three other towns. He currently works in real estate in Arkansas.

Fantasy Impact: I had Joe Ferguson in 1983 and I stuck him into my lineup midway though the year after a couple of other guys sputtered. He did very well but outside of Eric Dickerson the rest of my team was awful and I went 6-7-1.

The Card: I'll give Topps credit, they were moving away from the conservative designs of the previous decade by 1984. I can't think of a previous football set that had the 'tilted' orientation given the '84 Topps football cards. Not the world's best color combo but it's sure stands out. The back is standard stuff, full of stats vital details and a cartoon. That green number is tough to read though. I'd hate to have to sort a case of these.

Monday Morning Quarterback #50 Steve Young 1998 Upper Deck

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. 

NFL Info: A lot of people think of Steve Young as a quarterback for the 49ers. They forget (or never knew) that after his days at Brigham Young he played in the USFL and for the Tampa Bay Bucs and a couple of seasons backing up Joe Montana before his 'glory days' in San Francisco.

Wikipedia lists his career records and awards:

NCAA

• Davey O'Brien Award (1983)
• Consensus first-team All-American (1983)
• College Football Hall of Fame inductee (2001)
• NCAA Silver Anniversary Award (2009)
• BYU Cougars #8 retired

NFL

• 7× Pro Bowl selection (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998)
• 3× AP First-Team All-Pro (1992, 1993, 1994)
• 3× AP Second-Team All-Pro (1995, 1997, 1998)
• UPI Second-Team All-NFC (1996)
• 3× Super Bowl Champion (XXIII, XXIV, XXIX)
• Super Bowl XXIX MVP
• 3× NFC Champion (1988-1989 1994)
• 1992 NFL MVP (AP, PFWA, SN, MX)
• 1994 NFL MVP (AP, PFWA, NEA, SN, MX)
• AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1992)
• 2× UPI NFC Player of the Year (1992, 1994)
• 2× Kansas City Committee of 101 NFC
• Offensive Player of the Year (1992, 1994)
• San Francisco 49ers #8 retired
• Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee (2005)

His post-football playing career includes work in philanthropy, private industry and as a talking head on ESPN NFL shows.

Fantasy Impact: I had Young rostered in 1988 (bench, no starts), 1989 (bench, one start and a playoff start which I won) and then again a decade later in 1998. That year he started the maximum number of games for me and helped me make the playoffs. He was outstanding that year, averaging just about three TDs a game.

The Card: Upper Deck had some really nice cards back in the day. I like this one a lot. May be a bit busy design wise but the grey side borders, the clear pictures and full stat section all are good. I don't know if the 'Game Dated' designation marks a subset, a separate set or what. Who knows if the photo is really from the stated date but in any case I like the card.

Monday Morning Quarterback #49 Joe Germaine 1999 Topps Finest

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. 

NFL Info: Joe Germaine had a nice college career at Ohio State including a Rose Bowl MVP. He was drafted by the Rams in 1999 and won a Super Bowl ring as Kurt Warner's back-up. He played in three games that year off the bench. He kicked around with several NFL teams for a few more years, mostly as a taxi-squader/third teamer but never saw anymore game action. After a shot with the Arena League he went into high school coaching and then became involved with a personal football training company called Axon Sports.

Fantasy Impact: I had Kurt Warner in 1999 (maybe the best 15th round fantasy pick ever) and I took Joe Germaine as Warners back-up in 2000. He was cut early in the season so I didn't use him. I grabbed Trent Greene who was Germaine's replacement behind Warner and rode him to a division title when Warner got hurt.

The Card: Hey, it's the late 90s so shiny, chrome junk was expected. The front of this is just terrible. But I suspect that Topps Finest was supposed to be a bit over the top.

On the other hand the reverse isn't bad at all. Not a lot of info there but the picture is different from the one on the front and the colors have been matched to the Rams' scheme.

Monday Morning Quarterback #48 Matt Cassel 2012 Score

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. 

NFL Info: USC alum Matt Cassel was drafted by the Patriots in 2005 as a seventh rounder. That meant the club had sixth (Tom Brady of course) and seventh round choices as their quarterbacks. Pretty unusual in this day in the NFL. Cassel kicked around on the bench for a couple of seasons until Brady got hurt in the 2008 opener, ironically (or maybe not so) against Kansas City. Cassel had a nice year in relief of Brady and wound up with a big free agent deal with the Chiefs.

His career never again reached the level of those first two years he had as an NFL starter and he's spent the last couple of seasons in Minnesota in and out of the line-up.

Fantasy Impact: Fantasy tale of woe alert.....I drafted Cassel as a back-up to Peyton Manning in 2012. After he had out performed Manning in the first two weeks, and with Manning going up against my Texans (Two Fantasy Rules Broken...'Never let emotions dictate choices' and 'Never bench your studs') I stuck Casell into my line-up. I remember driving back from Austin that Sunday and listening to the Texans handle Manning pretty easily in Denver for about a half or so before he started racking up points late in the game. Meanwhile Cassel was terrible and in the end I lost my game. I ended up missing a division title and a playoff bye by half a game and got knocked out. Matt Cassel is not my favorite player (although I can't blame anyone but myself for all that).

The Card: Wow, talk about 'phoning it in'! The front is decent enough, not a bad picture and the team helmet always scores points for me. The picture could have been made larger though. Maybe they could have extended the photo to the top and overlayed the Score wordmark. This one looks like something that could a Topps Total design.

The back is just terrible. It's one step above the junk I do in MSPublisher for players that don't have an actual card. Bad news.

Monday Morning Quarterback #47 Joe Montana 1992 Sky Box

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. 

NFL Info: Not much I can say about Joe Montana that people don't already know. Here is the summary of his achievements and awards from Wikipedia:

• 4× Super Bowl champion (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV)
• 3× Super Bowl MVP (XVI, XIX, XXIV)
• 8× Pro Bowl (1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987,1989, 1990, 1993)
• 3× AP First Team All-Pro (1987, 1989, 1990)
• 2x NFL MVP (1989, 1990) (AP, PFWA, NEA, SN,MX)
• 2× AP Second Team All-Pro (1981, 1984)
• 1989 NFL Offensive Player of the Year (AP, PW)
• 4× NFC champion (1981, 1984, 1988-1989)
• PFW NFL Comeback Player of the Year (1986)
• UPI NFC Player of the Year (1989)
• 1989 Sportsman/Athlete of the Year (AP, SN)
• 1990 Sportsman/Athlete of the Year (AP, SI)
• 1977 NCAA Division I National Champion
• Cotton Bowl Classic MVP (1979)
• NFL 1980s All-Decade Team
• NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team
• San Francisco 49ers #16 retired
• Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee (2000)

I spent probably the most miserable day of my life watching Joe Montana lead his Fighting Irish to a win in the 1979 Cotton Bowl over my Houston Cougars with a last second TD pass. I've been to more football games than I can count but I've never been involved in one with such incredibly awful conditions. It was bitterly cold, the wind blew the whole game, the field was frozen (they used rock salt on it... bad idea) and the stadium, every inch of it and all of the rest of Dallas, was covered with a coating of ice.

I'll never forget how crappy the whole ordeal was. Blowing a big lead to Notre Dame just made it worse. This segment of the CBS broadcast captures the surreal ending. I check to make sure the video works, but I can't bear to watch it.

Fantasy Impact: I had Joe Montana in 1989 and he had a typical Montana year. He helped me go 9-4-1 in the regular season and got me to the championship game, which I lost.

The Card: I was fan of Sky Box football sets and this '92 set in particular. I thought the photography was first rate and the cards are attractive without being overly busy. The back has a different picture, stats and a box that highlights the player's position. I guess they were aiming at younger collectors. All in all this is a nice card from a decade of over produced look-alikes.

Monday Morning Quarterback #46 Mark Brunell 1997 Pacific

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. 

NFL Info: Lefty Mark Brunell was drafted by the Packers in 1993 in the fifth round after his college days at Washington. He sat on the bench and watched Brett Favre for a couple of years and then got his break when he was traded to Jacksonville. He wrestled the starting job away from Steve Beuerlein early in the '95 season and held it for nearly a decade. He teamed with Jimmy Smith and later Fred Taylor to bring much success to the Jags including a couple of AFC title game shots.

After his days as The Man in Jacksonville he played for Washington where he had one year as their starter, the Saints with whom he won a Super Bowl ring as Drew Brees' back-up, and Jets. He currently works for ESPN as an analyst and is the head coach at Episcopal School of Jacksonville.

On a side note his daughter Caitlin was Miss Alabama last year and finished in the Top Ten in the Miss America competition in September.

Fantasy Impact: This is the card I was looking at when I discovered my need for a Jose Cortez card. I was combing through my Excel spreadsheets very closely because I had no listing of when Brunell graced my fantasy team's roster. He has no no entry in my scoring logs so I know I never started him but I thought I kept pretty good records of guys who I picked up but never used. But there is no Brunell to be found on any season's roster. But I had this card of him in my binder and there is no reason for me to believe I put it there by mistake. So I think I must have picked him up on waivers at some point and had him sitting around. I've been known to claim a guy on Wednesday, quickly change my mind about his value and replace him on Saturday when our next waiver claims are run. Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And this Brunell card is staying in my binder.

The Card: Pacific sure likes gold. And that sort of 'machined' gold at that. A really nice good card photo is reduced by the huge helmet and thick, blocky name text. Maybe a real Jags helmet as a front adornment with smaller, lighter name would have made this a better card.

The back is busy, crammed with a bunch of elements but that just seemed to be Pacific's style. I like the fact that the text paragraph is not just a bunch of generic platitudes. Someone actually had to do some homework.

Monday Morning Quarterback #45 Brian Griese 2006 Topps Total

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. 

NFL Info: Brian Griese, son of Hall of Famer Bob Griese, was drafted in the third round by Denver in 1998 out of Michigan. He spent over a decade in the NFL, never a star but for the better part of a decade he was a very serviceable starter in several organizations. His most productive stretch was a four season run as #1 in Denver. During that time he made his only Pro Bowl appearance. With the exception of a 3-3 record in six starts with the Bears he had an above .500 record with each team he played for. After retirement he's worked as a Broncos radio voice and as a college analyst for ESPN.

Fantasy Impact: I had Griese twice as a back-up and bye week starter, in 2000 behind Kurt Warner and 2006 behind Brett Favre. He had two starts for me each season and did very well in three of them.

The Card: Another 'meh' Topps product design. Nothing special. In fact it is soooo 'nothing special' that I don't even care one way or another. I had a couple of Griese cards but I stuck this in the binder for variety.

Monday Morning Quarterback #44 Tommy Kramer 1984 Topps

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. 

NFL Info: Tommy Kramer was a high school star in San Antonio and went on to play at a high level at Rice University in Houston before being drafted by the Vikings in 1977. He played for 11 seasons with the Vikes having two separate stints as their starter. He's a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. He also had a reputation as a guy who liked living life to the fullest, if you know what I mean.

Fantasy Impact: Tommy Kramer is one of my favorite players ever. I got a chance to meet him back in January of last year at a card show and had him sign a photo with a unique inscription. This post describes that day and what Kramer has mans to me in terms of fantasy football.

The Card: Topps' football designs of the era tend to all run together so when I say I like this one it's probably me allowing my Tommy Kramer fandom override my critical eye. Honestly the front is just sort of...there. It has the team logo so there's that.

The cardback is a bit hard to read with the green blocks and brown type on dark cardboard but all the usual elements are there: vitals, stats, blurb and cartoon. Overall if I was grading the Topps 1984 football set it would get a big fat solid "C".

Monday Morning Quarterback #43 Steve Walsh 1995 NFL Experience

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:  Jimmy Johnson coached Steve Walsh at the University of Miami for a couple of seasons and then drafted him for the Cowboys in 1989. That was the same year the Cowboys drafted Troy Aikman so you know how that worked out for Walsh. He was traded to the Saints a few weeks into the 1990 season and started 11 games for them that year and seven the next. He was dealt to the Bears in 1994 and was their primary starter that season. He bounced around the NFL for another five years and then retired to coach high school ball in Florida. His record as a starter was 20-18. Walsh is the uncle of New York Ranger defenseman and captain Ryan McDonagh.

Fantasy Impact: Steve Walsh sat on my bench during both the '94 and '99 seasons. He was backing up my teams' backup Erik Kramer in Chicago in '94 and backing up my teams' starter, Peyton Manning of the Colts in '99. I never used him.

The Card: The copyright line on the back of the card says 1994 but this card is considered part of the 100 card 1995 Classic set. The bio reads as if the card was issued late in the 1994 season...("Through 11 weeks....") so it appears to be a set that came out at the tail end of the '94 season. A bit of research might uncover the truth but I'm not interested enough to dig into it.

The card itself isn't awful but neither is it attractive. I like that the color scheme echos the Bears colors and the fact that there are two different pictures used front and back. The back is among the least informative cards I've come across. No stats at all and nothing in the way of info at all other than the one paragraph blurb. If the card was, as it seems to be, issued late in the season I guess I can understand the lack of a stat line or lines.

Monday Morning Quarterback #42 Brad Johnson 1997 Pacific

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:  Brad Johnson was a ninth round pick of the Vikings in 1994 after a career at Florida State that saw him play both basketball and football. I was very surprised to read that Johnson had a 17 year NFL career. Just doesn't seem like he was around that long. But he was. Of those 17 seasons he was a starter for a total of six full seasons and parts of some others. He bounced around quite a bit after a couple of years as the Vikes go to guy. He spent a season as the Redskins starter, the Bucs had him under center for their 2003 Super Bowl title season. After that he was back in Minnesota and then Dallas, mostly as a reserve.

Fantasy Impact: I picked up Johnson late in the 2005 season and started him a couple of times down the stretch in place of my regular quarterback, Brett Favre who was having an un-Favre-like stretch. Johnson won me a couple of games and had a nice day for me in the playoffs. I switched to Mike Vick for my championship game and won it. So Johnson has two championship rings, and NFL one and an Ed Hughes League one. I hope he appreciates them both.

The Card: Two things would vastly improve the front of this card...first of all eliminate the 'echoing' helmet visual, just put the Vikes helmet there, and not in gold, thanks. Second, make the players name smaller. The back is very very busy. Did I mention that it's busy? Does it need the manufacturers logo twice? And a copyright line noting the company... and a card number with the company name surrounding it? No.

Monday Morning Quarterback #41 Kordell Stewart 1995 Topps

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: He was known as 'Slash' because of his many roles on the field as a young NFL player. Myron Cope, longtime Steelers broadcaster gave him the nickname. Stewart could be found at qb, receiver, return guy and even as primary runner from his qb  position. As his career evolved he became a more standard qb with the ability to run. He wasn't used as a receiver after his second NFL season.

Stewart carved out an 11 year career, winning and losing a starters job many times over in Pittsburgh, Chicago and briefly in Baltimore. He currently work in radio in Atlanta.

Fantasy Impact: I had Stewart his rookie year briefly and again for a week or two when he took the Bears starting job in 2003. I didn't use him then either.

The Card: Crappy. I don't like the way Topps used the fake 'torn' border on the pics, or the funky font, (in gold no less which makes everything hard to read) or the added stars and Draft Pick logo. All in all the front is a mess. And the back is boring. Other than that, this is a perfect football card.

Monday Morning Quarterback #40 Tom Brady 2004 Upper Deck

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: LOL, are you kidding.... he's Tom Brady.

• 3× Super Bowl champion (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX)
• 2× Super Bowl MVP (XXXVI, XXXVIII)
• 2× AP NFL MVP (2007, 2010)
• 9× Pro Bowl (2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
• 2× First-team All-Pro (2007, 2010)
• Second-team All-Pro (2005)
• 5× AFC Champion (2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2011)
• 2× NFL Passing Yards Leader (2005, 2007)
• Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year (2005)
• Sporting News Sportsman of the Year (2004, 2007)
• AP Male Athlete of the Year (2007)
• 2× AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year (2007, 2010)
• 3× AFC Offensive Player of the Year (2007, 2010, 2011)
• AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year (2009)
• PFWA NFL Comeback Player of the Year (2009)
• Most Career Playoff Starts For Quarterback (26)
• Most Career Playoff Wins For Quarterback (18) 
• New England Patriots All-time leader (Passing Touchdowns,Passing Yards, Pass Completions, Pass Attempts, and Career Wins)
• NFL 2000s All-Decade Team

Brady came out of Michigan as a sixth round(!) draft pick in 2000. He sat a season behind Drew Bledsoe and then in 2001 he took the job when Bledsoe was hurt. He never looked back.

Fantasy Impact: I had Brady in 2004 after a late season trade and used him as my starter for the last four weeks of the season. He had two decent games and then two stinkers as I faded from 6-3 (second best in the league) to end up 6-7 and missing the playoffs.

I drafted Brady this season and he was part of what I thought was one of my best teams ever post-draft. His sluggish start hurt me early and by the time he found his stride I was having other issues with injuries to key players. He's making his final start for me this week and it's also likely my final week as an active fantasy player. My interest in the current NFL is waning and after running my league for 35 years I'm pretty sure I'm going to hang it up. We'll see.

The Card: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a split decision." The front of this Upper Deck card is just fine. Good picture of Brady filling the frame, a picture taken during the previous Super Bowl which the Pats won in Houston. I love that SB patch. The silver chromey typeface at the bottom is hard to read on the scan but it's not as obscure in hand.

The back however is another story altogether. All that empty space! I suppose four seasons of stats are not going to fill the card but there are dozens of guys in the set with similar experience. They all have that field of nothingness. Crappy design.

Monday Morning Quarterback #39 Joe Theismann 1986 Topps

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: Joe Theismann had a standout college career at Notre Dame before his played professionally with Toronto of the CFL and the the Redskins. With Washington he was an NFL MVP and Super Bowl winning QB. He played for 12 seasons before a horrific leg injury he suffered in a Monday Night Game versus the Giants ended his career. He's a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and currently works for the NFL Network. He owns a restaurant in the D.C. area and other interests.

Fantasy Impact: I drafted Theismann as my 2nd or third QB in 1980, our league's first season. A week later, after seeing Dan Fouts in action and watching Theismann stink up the joint in a Monday night loss to the Cowboys I packaged him in my very first fantasy football trade. The deal brought me Mike Pruitt and Ken Anderson (who I never started either).

The Card: The 1986 Topps football set isn't the greatest set ever but you can count me as a fan. Something about the green striped layout appeals to me. The back is pretty mundane and the color combos of the front can be a bit much but overall I'm good with it.

Monday Morning Quarterback #38 Jim McMahon 1989 Pro Set

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: Jim McMahon may be the most 'un-Brigham Young-ish' guy to ever play for BYU. But he did and he's in their Athletic Hall of Fame. In the NFL he was best known for his part in leading the  Bears to the Super Bowl win during the 'Shuffle' season of 1985. During a career that covered 15 seasons for six different clubs he was the full time starter in about half of those. While he never led the NFL in any significant categories and only made one Pro Bowl squad he did accumulate one impressive stat: he had a winning record of 67-30.

He is currently involved in litigation with the NFL over the effects of the concussions he suffered throughout his career.

Fantasy Impact: For me...none. I had him in 1989 during his one season with the Chargers and he didn't play. I had Joe Montana as my starter that season and I lost in our championship game. McMahon was one of six quarterbacks I had roster-ed that year. Back then, before the 'net made fantasy football so easy, our league had very big rosters (as did most others). Waivers were problematical. Once or twice a season we'd sit down at the local ice house (that's Texas talk for beer joint, usually with garage door style open front) after our city league flag football games and hold waivers. Out of town guys had to send me wish lists and hope they'd get a guy or two. So we had 18 or 19 player rosters to be sure we always had enough players.

The Card: Pro Set football sets are the butt of lots of jokes centered around errors and the over-production the company was guilty of back than. But I never let that lessen my enjoyment of them. The '89 set, while not as nice as the same year's Score offering, is pretty sweet. Maybe I was just happy to see someone giving Topps some competition.

They certainly packed a lot of info onto the back of the cards. Color photos on the backs were new then. And the fronts beat most of the Topps sets that appeared around that time.

Monday Morning Quarterback #37 Chris Weinke 2002 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: Chris Weinke spent six seasons playing baseball in the Blue Jays' organization before enrolling at Florida State and playing quarterback there. He won a National Championship and a Heisman and then was drafted in 2001 by the Panters. He served mostly as a backup to Jake Delhomme and spent his final NFL season with the 49ers in 2007. He has worked in the financial arena and co-owns a football camp.

Fantasy Impact: In a word...none. I picked him up on waivers in 2003 immediately after the draft as a 'handcuff' for Jake Delhomme but dropped him after Week One of the season. Why I bothered with him in the first place is a mystery to me now. I drafted four QBs in that draft. Greedy I guess.

The Card: Not bad at all actually. I like the front photo and design in general. I might have done something different with the player name/team helmet area. I'd try deleting the blue element and using the team logo instead of the helmet but all-in-all I'm good with it. The back has what a card back requires, a different photo of the player, career stats (Weinke had only one year to list), his vitals and a short highlight blurb. I've certainly seen worse cards in this era.

Monday Morning Quarterback #36 Matthew Stafford 2009 Donruss/Score Hot Rookies

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: Matthew Stafford was a high school star from North Texas who had a standout career at Georgia. He was the first pick of the 2009 NFL draft and has put up some impressive numbers since walking into the starting line-up on Day One. He was hurt for a couple of months in 2010 but otherwise has been able to hook up with Calvin Johnson to keep the Lions' offense rolling.

Fantasy Impact: I took Matthew Stafford in the 14th round of my leagues' 2009 draft. He was a rookie that season and I didn't use him.

The Card: If I were to pick the worst 'modern' card in my fantasy binder this might be it. Random colors done in large swatches and oversize fonts. Ugh. As bad as the front is...the back is worse. Different random colors and a black-and-white crop of the same photo. I'm not sure why I replaced this with a better card of Stafford. I usually won't replace a card in my fantasy football binder unless it involves taking out a 'homebrew' and inserting a legit card or finding a vertical card to replace a horizontal one (I dislike horizontal cards in my binder). At least this card falls into the 'unique to my binder' and 'from the correct year' conventions that I loosely stick to.

I don't keep up with the 'politics' of card companies so I was thrown a bit by the fact that this card has a 'Score' designation on the front, a Donruss logo on the back and a Panini America copyright line.

Bonus Unrelated Story: The Billy Sims reference on the back reminded me of the fact that many years ago I had a dentist who had Billy Sims as a patient. The dentist said Sims was the biggest 'chicken' he'd ever had in his chair. He said Sims was so nervous that he broke the footrest of the chair by becoming stiff as a board.

Monday Morning Quarterback #35 Ed Luther Homebrewed/Internet card

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: Ed Luther played for San Jose State and then backed up Dan Fouts for five seasons in the first half of the 80s. He got six starts in 1983 and three more in 1984 when Fouts was out with an injury. In 1985 he was signed to a large contract by the USFL's Jacksonville Bulls to replace the injured starter, Brian Sipe. He was back in the NFL in '86 as property of the Colts but never saw the field.

Fantasy Impact: I made a trade for Fouts midway through the 1984 season. It was one of my leagues biggest blockbusters as I traded away Eric Dickerson to get him. I picked up Luther as insurance behind Fouts. Fouts helped me win three straight after I made the deal but he, and my team, cratered and I missed the playoffs.

The Card: There are no actual cards of Ed Luther available. I was able to find this image that was made by a guy who homebrewed USFL football cards and I made a card of it for my fantasy football collection. I made the back in MS Publisher as I did with all my homebrews and printed it out on sticker paper. I wish I had the graphics skills that so many other bloggers have.