Tag Archives: florida tuskers

Hairston, Carl ‘Big Daddy’

Cards: ProSet 1991 Legends, Score Supplemental 1989
Acquired: TTM 2018, C/o Home
Sent: 10/20   Received: 10/27   (7 days)

During the Jurassic Period of football, there were some absolute beasts of defenders that took the league by storm in the 70s. One of them was Carl Hairston, a little known defensive lineman prospect out of UMES or (University of Maryland Eastern Shore). He played on some terrible teams during college, which allowed him to really hone his game. Hairston was named to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference team 3 times. In his final year with the team, he posted 147 tackles and 15 sacks, good enough to get noticed by the Philadelphia Eagles, who selected Carl in the 7th round of the 1976 draft. 

He’d make the squad and in fact lead the NFL in sacks in 1979 (unofficially) with 15. Then in 1980, he’d help champion the defense that got the Eagles to Super Bowl XV.  Injuries began to slow Hairston down in 1983, and soon thereafter he’d be traded to the Cleveland Browns, where he’d be a mainstay on the line until 1989. He’d finish his career in Phoenix the following season. 

Carl has an extensive coaching resume at the Pro level, and has seen stops in the NFL (Phoenix, KC, St Louis, and Green Bay), UFL (Florida, Omaha), and CFL (British Columbia). He earned a Super Bowl ring as the defensive line coach for the St. Louis Rams (Super Bowl XXXIV). 

Carl is another one of these players who should probably be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A dominant lineman during his time, unofficially he has 1,141 tackles and 94 sacks to his name in 184 starts. 

Both of these are really nice cards of Carl. I almost feel like they are nods to him out of respect- like these card companies knew he was long in the tooth but they still wanted to pay him respects with their brand of card. The ProSet Legends 1991 card is an absolute gem. Merv Corning can make a player standing on the sideline look exciting, and this highly detailed image is no different with its nicks and bumps. It’s a fine card with excellent minimal design- which screams classy. The Score Supplemental 1989 had always been floating around my doubles box, so I had been kicking around the idea of getting it autographed for sometime. It’s unique because it’s obviously a special teams shot, but he’s just sort of popping up in a sea of helmets.

G/GSTACSACFUMINTYDSAVGTDLG
224/184114194.0N/A14040.0040

Greisen, Chris

tntufl11 greisenCard: TNT UFL 2011
Acquired: TTM 2015, C/o Work
Sent: 7/18     Received:  8/29   (42 days)

In the short lived history of the UFL, no quarterback was more prolific than the Florida Tusker and Virginia Destroyers quarterback Chris Greisen.

Long before the signal caller played in the UFL, Chris was a 7th round pick out of Northwestern Missouri, of the Arizona Cardinals in 1999. A two time All-American after leading the Bearcats to their first ever National Championship, Greisen held numerous records upon leaving the school.  He played sparingly for the Cards over the first 3 seasons, and was released in 2002, only to latch on to the Redskins roster by the end of the year. Eyeing more experience, Chris joined the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe. He had a pretty solid season playing in Germany, throwing for 10 TDs, and 843 yards in only 131 attempts.

Following his time in the NFLE, Greisen entered the Arena Football League 2 and played for the Green Bay Blizzard. After a successful debut for the team in 2004, Chris was quickly signed by the Dallas Desperados and became the primary backup.  Signing with the Georgia Force in 2007, Chris was finally able to take over the reigns as the starting quarterback.  The Force posted a 14-2 record as Greisen threw a league record 117 TD passes. He’d continue to enjoy success with the AFL until it suspended operations in 2009.

Wanting to continue his career, Chris pursued a shot with the UFL Florida Tuskers in 2009, backing up former NFL pro Brooks Bollinger. With the return of the AFL in early 2010, Chris decided to split his time in both leagues. He signed with the Milwaukee Iron and then went on to throw an AFL record 5,139 yards.  Back to the Tuskers after the season, Chris ended up starting for the team after Bollinger went down due to injuries.  He’d lead the team to the Championship game and throw for 346 yards while rushing for 2 scores in a loss to the Las Vegas Locos.  He signed with the Dallas Cowboys after the UFL season.

With the UFL still clinging to life in 2011 and the Tuskers moving to Virginia, Chris returned to play for the Destroyers under Marty Schottenheimer. He’d complete 21 passes for 174 yards as the Destroyers vanquished their arch rival Las Vegas Locos 17-3 in the Championship Game. Greisen played in the final season of the UFL’s existence in 2012.

Since then he’s opened up a passing academy in Wisconsin, where he trains and counsels future professional quarterback prospects. I had made this great card of him and decided to see if he’d sign it for me and enclosed extras for him to keep. A month or two later I got a response from him thanking me for the cards, and asking for a few more of ‘these awesome cards’.

NFL    0/5        ATT  16       COMP 7       YDS  69         PCT  43.8%
TD 1        INT 0       RAT 77.3
RUSH 1       YDS 1       AVG  1.0     TD 0     LG 1

NFLE       ATT 131        COMP 76        YDS 843         PCT 58.0%
TD 10        INT 5       RAT 86.8
RUSH  24      YDS  171      AVG  1.7      TD  1    LG  9

AFL          ATT 1695        COMP 1185        YDS 15108         PCT 69.9%
TD 324        INT 40       RAT 127.23
RUSH  46     YDS  70     AVG  1.5      TD  16

Rhodes, Dominic (2)

sco09 rhodesCards: Score 2009, TNT UFL 2011
Acquired: TTM 2014, C/o Home
Sent:  4/11        Received: 4/17   (6 days)
Failure: TTM 2013, C/o Home
See Also: Dominic Rhodes

Dominic had signed previously TTM for me, and asked for a copy of the UFL customs I had done. It took me a while to get around to printing them out and I sent to Rhodes back in June of last year. The problem was Dominic had moved and the UFL had gone on indefinite ‘hiatus’. I tried contacting him both through Twitter and his foundation, but had no luck. It finally took me getting a new Meiselman list to track down Dom’s latest address in North Texas. Since I was having to go a bit out of my way to find him, I enclosed an extra or two to get signed. He responded in about a week personalizing the cards and wishing that the cards found me well, and quoted Bible scripture to me:

Phil 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

tntufl10 rhodesPretty cool, I just wish that the inscrpition was underneath his autograph. -Instead he wrote it on the card sleeve. While not the most pious or religious person, I do like it when players put scripture on their autograph. It tells me a bit about what they are thinking or what is going on in their lives.

Dominic returned to the UFL for the league’s swan song in 2012.
With the league imploading after 4 games, Dominic finished as the unquestioned career leading rusher of the UFL. He completed the season with 63 carries for 219 yards and a TD. Rhodes has been working out agressively and staying in shape, hoping for another shot with another team, but the odds of him getting the chance, at the age of 35 are now are slim.  It’s a shame because there is little wear and tear on the former Super Bowl Champion’s legs at all.

Unfortunately the UFL didn’t do a good job of tracking the numbers of their 2011 and 2012 seasons, however here are both Dominic’s NFL and UFL statistics I was able to cobble together:

NFL:  G/Gs 99/33   Rush 814     Yds 3286    Avg 4.0    Td 26    Lg 77   |
Rec 147    Yds 1027   Avg 7.0    Td  4   Lg  29
Kr 147     Yds 3374   Avg 23.0  Td 2    Lg  88t
UFL:  G/Gs 18/18    Rush 269     Yds 1180    Avg 4.4    Td  16 Lg  65t
Rec 12          Yds  115           Avg 9.6         Td  1      Lg 22
Kr 12            Yds  260         Avg 21.6        Td 0      Lg N/a