Football '13 Week 18: Wild Card.

       A couple of times this year, I posted very early on Sunday morning going on and on about how the Saints were going to destroy that week's opponent.  That was a poor choice of blurbs as both times the Saints ingloriously lost on the road to lesser foes.  So I learned my lesson for the playoffs and decided to hold off any pregame braggadocio and let the games take their course.  This course of action worked well as the Saints beat the (hated) Eagles in Philadelphia for the first road playoff victory in team history.  Sticking it to the awful Philly fans was just a bonus. 

In celebration of the Wild Card victory, let's look at a couple of player pages with a different player stuck in as a, um, wild card.

Here is a page of Superstar Jimmy Graham with a Chrome Kenny Stills rookie card in the lower right.  Stills showed great promise as a fifth round pick this year. 

This is a page of unsung receiver Marques Colston.

There are some great inserts on this page and in the lower right, a rookie card of Nick Toon.  Sadly, Nick got hurt before last season and has not returned.  I am rooting for him not just because he is the son of Jets great Al Toon but because he has one of the great simple wonderful names in recent memory.

OK, that whole idea is a little silly, so let's just look at some cards instead.  I grabbed the first two fancy cards on top of my Saints pile and scanned them for your enjoyment.

The first one is a manu-patch of Drew Brees from the Super Bowl season.  Those last two things way overcome that first one.  The second is a great autographed patch rookie card of Kenny Stills.  I believe that swatch is from the '8' from the TV numbers on the shoulder.  That or Kenny is a much smaller guy than we are lead to believe.

Oh, and look, a team set.  I always liked this design and Topps used it across the sports that year.  I think it actually works better for football than it did for baseball.

In case you were wondering, these are from 2010 Topps...

...and we all know what happened that year...

Next stop Seattle.  Revenge is a dish best served piping hot.

Football Week 1: Praise Breesus.

       My autumn Sundays are a marvelous blur of pajamas, fried food, and football.  This morning, practically on cue, the morning was crisp and leaves were on the ground.  It was beautiful.  I have a pot of homemade chili all ready to go and a sixer of Sam Adams Octoberfest to wash it down.  My last post about football was a little, um, harsh, so I will try and keep it a little more positive this time around.  As most of you who read this blog may know, I am a New Orleans Saints fan - if you did not know that or are wondering how someone from New Jersey who lived in Boston for a dozen years becomes a Saints fan, click here.  The player that makes the Saints go is a man by the name of Drew Brees.


       I have a hard time throwing the word "hero" around when talking about sports stars.  Not to sound overly cliche here, but people who run into burning buildings are heroes, not quarterbacks.  But some men ingrain themselves into the community with such altruism and grace that you could consider them at least good role models and one of those rare players is Drew Brees.  The Saints took a chance on him in 2005 when no other team did and Brees has returned the favor by not only doing so much for the city after Hurricane Katrina but also leading the team to a Super Bowl title when most people never thought the team would return to New Orleans, much less succeed. Plus he is a decent fellow, a family man, and even my mom has a crush on him.



I thought about doing 11 cards for football, rather than nine, but it didn't look right, so at least for now, I am doing eight to break it up a little.  This also might be because I haven't organized all my football cards yet and put them into pages.  I'll let you sort that out for yourselves.  These last two scans feature all my shiny inserts and such of Drew Brees.  I especially like the 2007 X-fractor up top, the run of three different 2009 Topps cards, and the mini Allen and Ginter mini with his son.  If you're gonna have your infant on a card, it makes sense to have it on a mini.



And finally, to cover the concept of "team" let's look at one of my favorite Saints cards.  It features the aforementioned Mr. Brees with two of his favorite weapons, the gone-but-not-forgotten Reggie Bush and the velcro-handed Marques Colston. (and just for Night Owl, look at how crooked the back is scanned - the horror!) I do like cards that incorporate different players and game used jerseys, which explains why I love this card so much, but also, take a good look at those jersey pieces.  I think they were going for the shape of a fleur de lis.  I think.  I do like cards that make me laugh, too.