Category Archives: NFL

NFL

Williams, Lee

ud93 lwilliamsCard: Upper Deck 1993
Acquired:  2014,  Albany Acquisition
Failure: TTM 2012, 2013, C/o Home

It appears that my namesake is a shaky TTM signer, and if you are lucky he signs about once a year- all in a batch. Well over a year passed between both my attempts, so I pretty much gave up on this one, and just took him out at auction. It’s a shame because he played for the Oilers, and has my same name, but those thoughts are not a realistic basis for disappointment.

Lee Williams had a pretty stellar career for the Chargers. There’s a lot of amazing talents from college who got to the pro level and fizzled out. Draft pundits now call it, ‘a lack of motivation’ or ‘takes off a few plays’. Williams was a great example of a player who had this knock on him, but did what he had to overcome that label. Coming out of Bethune-Cookman, the Chargers surrendered their 5th pick during the USFL/ NFL Supplemental draft to acquire Williams. It was a gamble at first, but Lee really paid off.  The defensive end came in his rookie season and intercepted a pass, returning it for 66 yards and atouchdown.  In 1986, he had a career high 15 sacks. He’d also hit double digits in 1988 (11) and 1989 (14), selected to the Pro Bowl in both of those seasons. Williams felt he got no respect however and wanted a raise and decided to hold out.

The Oilers were looking to get over a hump. Converting to the 4-3, defensive coordinator Jim Eddy preferred keeping the line fresh, subbing in and switching out players with extreme regularity to keep them fresh.  They just needed one more guy to do it, and with Sean Jones holding out every year or two for a new contract and putting the Oilers feet to the fire, Williams could just help this team get to the next level, while offsetting the future loss of Jones.  The Oilers finally bit on a trade. They offered a 1st and a 5th, but the Chargers settled for a 1st and wide receiver Shawn Jefferson instead. Williams was happy to join the Oilers, and the Chargers in exchange also decided not to go after Lee for the time he was not in camp.  At the time of the trade, Williams had 67.5 sacks, and needed just one more sack to become the Chargers’ All-Time sack leader. He joined the Oilers in 1991  -and promptly broke his forearm. Although he was able to rotate back into the lineup, eventually starting 5 games during the season, Williams had a paltry 3 sacks on the year. His lowest total since his rookie season. With a full 16 game slate under his belt in 1992 however, Williams was able to rack up 11 sacks as the team kicked him inside to defensive tackle. His 1993 season: Not so hot, as again Williams chipped in only 3 sacks, and had reconstructive knee surgery.  After the season with the salary cap looming, the Oilers were caught with their pants down. The salary cap hit them hard and the Oilers had to make hard and bitter decisions. They opted to cut Williams in the hope of resigning him at a reduced salary, but he failed his physical. Lee retired, and currently as of 2015 lives in South Carolina.

G/GS    140/107      TAC  N/a         SAC   82.5        FUM   7
INT 2       YDS  83      AVG 41.5     TD 1       LG   66t

NFL, University of Texas

Baab, Mike ‘The Baabarian’

sky92_mbaabudut11_mbaab
psetplat93_mbaabpset90_mbaabpset91_mbaabscosup90_mbaabCards: ProSet 1990, Pro Set 1991, ProSet Platinum 1993, Score Supplemental 1990, Skybox 1992, UT Upper Deck 2011
Acquired: TTM 2015, C/o Home
Sent: 2/16/15    Received: 4/3/16  (416 days)

Mike Baab was a fixture at center for the Cleveland Browns after being selected in the 5th round of the 1982 draft.   He is remembered perhaps most strangely for a film that he put together with his Browns teammates called “Masters of the Gridiron”, which was not only inspired by the Chicago Bears Super Bowl Shuffle, but also He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and the section of the crowd at the stadium that called themselves Baab’s Barbarians.

Mike played with the franchise through the 1987 season where he became a leader in and out of the locker room.  He then was unceremoniously traded to the New England Patriots one week before the regular season was to began in 1988.  (Apparently head coach Marty Schottenheimer wanted to start Gregg Rakoczy at center and Mike did not want to be a backup.) The move so angered Baab that he stormed out of the team facilities and players began to openly dissent- most namely starting quarterback Bernie Kosar who criticized the move.

While Baab toiled away in New England in 1989 and 1990 (which back then amounted to a Siberian prison camp) starting 28 of 32 games, the Browns offensive line suffered and the quarterbacks took a vicious pounding. Suprisingly he was left unprotected by the Patriots following the 1990 season, so Baab put his feelers out about returning back to the place he called home for most of his football career: Cleveland.

Mike returned to Cleveland and anchored the Browns line through the 1991 season.  He’d be lured to Kansas City for one final season before finally putting up his cleats and moving back to Central Texas.

Mike was inducted into the Longhorn Athletics Football Hall of Honor in 2008.  A letterman at Texas from 1978 to 1981, Baab was voted team captain for the Longhorns as a senior. That year, he helped Texas post a 10-1-1 record, including a 14-12 upset of then-No. 3 Alabama in the Cotton Bowl, en route to second-team All-America honors.

There were so many good past and present cards of Mike, I did abuse this one slightly.  Baab was kind enough to sign these cards for me, albeit after a long wait.

Some real solid cards of here of Mike. I think my favorite of this group is the Skybox entry. The framing element that they use with the last name, really gave these cards a nice poster effect.  At the time I was surprised that these cards didn’t get more traction in the market because they were very cutting edge. I have a soft spot for the ProSet 1991 card. It’s got a nice rough close up of Baab backing up and demonstrating some sleight of hand technique while his pad rolls up his hand.  These cards pretty much encapsulated the height of my collecting days and the rebirth of it with the Upper Deck UT 2010 entry.

 

NFL

Peat, Andrus

leaf15 peatCard: Leaf Draft 2015
Acquired: 2015, Box Breaker

At 6’7″, 313, Andrus Peat certainly has the frame to play in the trenches at the next level. A well decorated lineman, both nationally and at Stanford Andrus is considered an above average pass blocker and a fine drive blocker for the run game.  Scouts also praised his understanding of the pro game and felt that he was one of the most NFL ready offensive linemen to start game 1 of 2015.  He was selected with the 13th pick of the 2015 NFL draft by the New Orleans Saints.