Since i’ve been getting back in to the whole blogging lifestyle, i thought it would be cool to show off some of the purchases i’ve picked up over the past few months…mostly summer pick ups.
This week i wanted to focus on the graded Redskins rookie cards. Obviously, i didn’t want to blow my budget on all of these cards but wanted something really nice to add to my collection. Initially i wanted to shoot for 9+ cards but realized very quickly that most of those cards were a little ridiculous in price, so as i’ve done with most things in my life, i lowered my expectations.
The first card is of one of my most favorite football players, John Riggins aka Riggo aka Diesel. My very first jersey was of John Riggins and his #44 when i was 7. Now, you have to understand that i grew up in San Antonio and this was the early 80’s. A time when the Cowboys rivalry with the Redskins was serious and fierce. Both teams seemed to meet in the playoffs each year and there was a lot of hatred for the Redskins where i grew up. But i didn’t care. I loved the Hogs and the Diesel.
This little gem is in pretty nice shape although the centering is off just a tad. The 8.5 seems to be a little high maybe? I’m not card grader and i was happy with the price on this one, so I couldn’t pass it up.
John Riggins was one of those players that was kind of a bad ass that would plow through the defensive line and sway defensive back away like annoying gnats. Kinda like what Marshawn Lynch has been doing in recent years. Riggo has managed to take great care of himself after retirement and stays busy. Still a little crazy and an off beat personality but he’s doing well for himself.
The Redskins suck. I get it. They are a terrible football organization owned by a man who cannot make a good, sound football decision to save his fans lives. Each time they try something that seems like a good idea, it bottoms out and the wheels fall off way too often. One beacon of hope is the hiring of a legitimate, talent finding General Manager (Scot McCloughan) that has been highly involved with two, currently, well run organizations (Seahawks and 49ers…also Packers). They guy is an apparent scout savant. I’ve always wanted to be a savant at something. But my talent is limited and my skill-set has not reached great levels in anything of relevance. I am a pretty decent collector of things and at one time a great organizer of said things…but those days have been altered by life and the responsibilities of being a grown up.
Collecting cards and organizing them is a huge stress relief for me. I can get lost in them at times and love looking at the dated styes of the card design, jerseys and equipment. As i’ve finally gotten around to organizing my Redskin team sets and realized i have a gigantic amount of duplicates, i thought what better way to organize them then to make a Redskins Frankenset! Yes! A Frankenset. I will take all of the duplicates and numerically add them to a new binder filled with ultra pro platinum sheets purchased from my favorite LCS The Sports Room! Wonderful!
I’ve come up with a couple of basic rules:
1. no duplicates of the same set on each page, don’t be fooled by some of the images here, those are just cards behind missing spots in the binder.
2. all time favorites will get their card numbers, i.e. Art Monk get #81 and John Riggins gets #44. this may be tough as it could be difficult for some players…or not?
3. a unique player on each page, so no duplicate sets or players on the same page.
These are fairly generic as of now and i’ve still got quite a few cards to go through before i can add anything to the Frankenset, but it’s a start.
At some point, i will create a spreadsheet and track all of this wonderful stuff.
side note…Rickey went to Buffalo Wild Wings today for lunch but didn’t really want to make an appearance, Rickey doesn’t like wings apparently…
So, with each of the card shows i go to here in Portland, OR, I tend to notice the same dealers at each event. They tend to have the same stuff. There is the vintage guy, the mcfarlane figurine guy, the supplies guy and the guy selling 80’s junk wax. There are also guys that bring loads of stuff in $1 and nickel boxes. These guys are the ones with all the hidden gems, but require so much of your time. Typically i quickly look through a row, maybe two of these boxes but just don’t have the time or motivation to peruse through thousands of cards i have no interest in. This past Saturday though i made a point to stop and look. I had a list of items i was looking for and since the show was closer to my home i could use the extra 30-45 minutes that would have been dedicated to travel and devote them to looking through a million cards.
The great thing about these boxes for me is that i see cards from the period where i didn’t collect and think, ‘when the hell did this come out?’ Plus you always manage to find a few gems in these boxes. The guy at the Portland show that has the best boxes to pick through comes up from Salem which is about an hour away and somehow has tons of new stuff each show. I have no idea how he gets these cards or where he puts them when he gets home, but there are at least 20 boxes that are laid out on his table.
If you have the dedication to go through them you can always find stuff you are looking for and will never walk away disappointed.
My goal with this search was to find some Redskins that are missing from my binders and anything else i thought i could use. Here is a peek at some of the good stuff.
These two guys were well before my time, but research tells me that they were great Redskins and immortal football players that are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Charley Taylor and Slingin Sammy Baugh (who apparently is from the same area in Texas where RG3 grew up) Full circle.
Ken Houston was a dominant player in his day and played a major role in a few big games with the Dallas Cowboys back in the day. I remember when that rivalry was an actual rivalry. It’s hard to call it that when one team is the doormat of the division, but that is changing now with ‘ol Bobby Three Sticks. Remember the double bar face masks and airbrushed logos on the helmets? We’ve come a long way since 1979.
The thing that’s great about these two cards is that they are pretty similar. These photos are from the era when it was good to be a Redskin fan and when people hated to go against them in RFK. The Hogs, The Diesel, The Fun Bunch…and Joe Theismann with the single bar and both legs fully operational. The next couple of cards has a special place in my little black heart. 1985 was the very first year I purchased a pack of cards and they were the 1985 Topps Football cards. The landscape cards with black borders. Black border cards are the absolute worst possible design for 9 and 10 year old boys. At one point I had this complete set, but for some reason decided it needed to be beaten to shit and all the corners should be rounded rather than square. Needless to say, i’ve been recollecting them once again, but with the care of a 37 year old man with an addiction to cardboard. I have always loved this set and it it right up there with the 1986 Topps baseball set as one of my all time favorites. It could be due to the fact that these were the first two sets i completed and what got me in to it, or it could be that they are timeless designs…you can never go wrong with black, any architect knows that.
One list I’ve always wanted to put together was my all-time favorite Redskins. Each month I will list a new player until the end of the year when I name my favorite Washington Redskins player of all time. Coming up with twelve names isn’t really that easy when you start to break it down, so I did the best I could and had very few rules for the list. The first one being that they had to be playing when I became a fan in 1982. There are many legendary players like Sammy Baugh, Sonny Jurgensen, Chris Hanburger, Charley Taylor, Bobby Mitchell and so on. All of these guys are legendary Redskins and I love the history they bring to the organization, but I never saw them play…so I can’t really sort them out for this list. The other rule was that they have to been a part of the Redskins at least three years…so for now that means no RGIII or Alfred Morris.
That’s it, two simple rules…I like to keep things as simple as possible.
So, for January, my #12 All-Time favorite Washington Redskin is…are The Hogs. First name on the list and I’m bending my rules…guess I’m a little scatter brained sometimes. I’m sticking with The Hogs on this one though. They are the main reason for the name of the blog and a major reason why I became a fan of the Redskins in the first place. As a kid, I loved the name…but couldn’t really figure out why they were called The Hogs if they played for a team with a (racist) Native American moniker as their mascot…until I understood that it was due to their nastiness and scrappiness on the offensive line. Ah yes, Pigs…Hogs…mud…getting dirty, I get it now. This makes total sense. This group of men was led by Joe Bugel and played as a unit from 1982 to 1984 as the first iteration of The Hogs. As players retired and other guys came in, they remained The Hogs but the core of guys I remember were a part of the back to back NFC Championship teams in 1982 and 1983.
They lined up from Left to right as…
LT Joe Jacoby
LG Russ Grimm
C Jeff Bostic
RG Mark May
RT George Starke
RB John Riggins – an honorary member
TE’s Doc Walker and Donny Warren – honorary members
Working on my team sets, I’ve come to realize that most card companies don’t have offensive lineman cards since they don’t typically collect stats and they are mostly unnamed guys. I guess if you hear the name of an O-Line guy than he’s probably not doing a very good job…right? They seem to appreciate that as well and love the lack of attention and working as one unit rather than being pieces on a team. The great thing about the O-Linemen is that they seem to develop a bond tighter than any other team on the field since they have to work in unison each and every play and be aware of what is being run behind them. They set up the skills guys to have their spotlight and rarely get a light for them to stand under…but that comes with the territory I guess.
Sadly Russ Grimm is the only Hog to be inducted in to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010. Joe Jacoby has been on the list many years, but just can get enough votes to get in…which is sad. If the Redskins had won Super Bowl XVIII against the Raiders I believe Jacoby would be in and possibly Bostic and May…unfortunately that just didn’t happen. All Redskin fans know these guys and appreciate what they brought to the team and the glory days of Joes Gibbs I, RFK and Jack Kent Cooke. Hopefully a new Hog chapter will develop with Trent Williams, Josh LeRibeus, Adam Gettis, and Erik Cooke.
Although The Hogs carried on until the early 1990’s, they were the core and the #12 favorite Redskins for me. –HTTR!
As a lifelong Redskin Fan, “Dallas Week” has numerous meanings and memories.
Growing up in Texas I developed a passionate disliking for the Dallas Cowboys and their fans…so i figured what better way to show my negative passion towards them than to choose the Washington Redskins as my Football Team. I was only 6 at the time and it was 1982, but i was already singing the words to Hail to the Redskins and wishing i could meet one of The Hogs or The Fun Bunch. A lifelong obsession was born.
One vivid memory I have of being a Redskin fan in enemy territory was wearing a John Riggins jersey to school and being told i was not allowed to wear it again, ever, by my gym instructor…this was of course after the Redskins had thumped the Cowboys in the NFC Championship 31-17 and headed to their first Super Bowl victory against the Dolphins. Being young and impressionable, this stuck with me…and i have never wavered in my love for the Washington Redskins!
In the years since I have been lucky enough to go to Redskins vs. Cowboys games in person. I was at the Thanksgiving game in 1990 when Emmitt ran all over the Redskins front 7. I was also at the Monday night Miracle with Santana Moss catching two late touchdown’s from Mark Brunell. The last game was the first showing of the Donovan McNabb era which i will discuss some other time.
With all of that said, i have been waiting patiently for the game Sunday night…and will be ready for RG3 to deliver the fans a NFC East Championship for the first time since 1999.
Since this is my first real post on this new blog, i wanted to note that this site will be dedicated as much as i can update it to the collection of Washington Redskin Cards. I have been a card collector for over 20 years and finally decided that the only thing I really care to collect anymore is Redskin cards; past, present and future. The initial plan is to have an original posting once a week outlining what cards i have, am looking for or wishing i could find or afford.
I’m hoping this can become a great outlet for a die hard fan and collector to connect with other Redskin collectors out there. I have been secretly following many other blogs in the blogosphere and decided I too have something to offer and willing to share…my love for the Redskins. -HTTR!
