Tag Archives: philadelphia eagles

Vick, Roger

Cards: Proset 1989, Score 1990
Acquired: In Person 1992, San Antonio Riders v. Orlando Thunder
See Also: Roger Vick (2)

 

I knew that Roger (who had played collegiately locally at Texas A&M) had a really nice ProSet card in 1989, so when he signed with the Orlando Thunder of the WLAF, I dug the card out of my collection and stumbled upon the Score 1990 card as well. After the Thunder throttled the Riders in San Marcos I would get Vick’s autographs on these cards as he left the dressing room.

The offensive MVP of the Aggies for the 1987 Cotton Bowl, Roger Vick was a strong fullback with a nose for the end zone, who was selected in the first round of the 1987 draft by the New York Jets. The blocking back primarily for underrated Freeman McNeil, he’d play for them through 1989 scoring 12 touchdowns, and then briefly with the Eagles in 1990- before sitting out a year in 1991.

In 1992, he was drafted by the Orlando Thunder, which ran a spread offense- (so to me he was a head scratcher on their team,) but Vick came out firing on all cylinders, finishing second on the team in rushing behind teammate Darryl Clack on the league’s #2 rushing offense.

Unfortunately the league would fold North American operations after 1992.  Since retirement, the consensus is that Roger Vick is Texas A&M’s best fullback in the college’s storied history. 

NFL

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664697.1223

WL

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Goebel, Brad

Cards: WildCard WLAF 1992, Pinnacle 1991
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 3/12/10     Received: 4/25/11 (409 days)

Brad Goebel sets the new standard for the longest wait, clocking in a mere 409 days, hence why I hesitate to cross players off my list when I’ve waited a particularly long time.  (I’ve heard of collectors waiting almost 2 years for autographs in some cases.)

Brad Goebel was another great quarterback to come out of Baylor in Waco, Tx. (The other recent quarterback being Houston Oiler Cody Carlson). Brad’s strengths were that he had a quick release, a good arm, and a tremendous amount of focus. The Philadelphia Eagles, under coach Rich Kotite would note his performance at Baylor, where he’d finish first in attempts (790) and completions, (375) and second in school history in career total offense upon graduation in 1990.  The Eagles would sign Brad to a free agent contract where he’d compete in camp for a backup job. After a scintilating performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the preseason where Brad would lead the Eagles back engineering 2 game winning drives in the 4th quarter, he’d unseat Don McPherson for 3rd string on the Eagles roster. In fact, the buzz around Brad was so strong that fans were suggesting that he should start at quarterback for the Eagles over Randall Cunningham.  They wouldn’t have to wait that long as the quarterback of the future plucked from the ranks of free agency would be forced into the lineup in 1991.

A series of bizarre injuries would befall the Eagles quarterback rotation, as starter Randall Cunningham would go down for the season in week 1. Jim McMahon would step in and lead the team but he’d go down to injury too forcing the Eagles to go ahead with Pat Ryan, who forced Philadelphia’s hand with his poor play to start Brad in week 5. The team would narrowly lose against the Saints, and then the next week as well against Tampa Bay before McMahon would return to the lineup. Goebel throughout the remainder of the season would see a bit of garbage time, but would not throw a touchdown.

In 1992, the NFL agreed to allocate 4 players from each team as ‘future stars’ to the WLAF for the season. The Eagles requested to have Brad placed with San Antonio due to its proximity to his home in Cuero, Tx. With Jason Garrett no longer with the franchise,  Brad would compete against  incumbent  quarterback Mike Johnson. He would throw for a touchdown and 408 yards during the season, starting against the Machine, Fire, and Knights before Johnson would return to the starting lineup. At the conclusion of the 1992 WLAF season, Goebel returned to the Eagles.

Caught in a numbers game, the Eagles were not able to provide Brad enough reps in camp, so before the 1992 NFL season even really began, the Eagles quarterback of the future would be traded to the Cleveland Browns for a 7th round choice.  Brad would make the roster of the team playing sparingly over the next 3 seasons before retiring after the 1994 season.

Brad since retirement has become a successful real estate developer and rancher back in his hometown of Cuero. He also hosts a football camp in Horseshoe Bay, Tx.

This would be the only WLAF card printed of Brad, and the Pinnacle card was one that I found a few weeks after the 1992 season had concluded.  The Pinnacle card is quite a nice layout with copious amounts of space on it. Unfortunately the Wild Card just looks ugly. The large ‘stamp’ and numbers on the side just don’t complement this otherwise very nice looking photo of Brad that well. The back is even more repugnant. Regardless I was glad to get these two signed. Below are his statistics from the WLAF.

G/Gs  N/a     Att  66     Comp  40    Yds 404   Pct 60.6    Td 1      Int 2       Rat  64.5 |
Rush 6    Yds 18      Avg  3.0      Td  2     Lg 7

Fuller, William

Card: SkyBox Impact 1992
Acquired: In Person 1993, Houston Oilers Training Camp

Defensive end William Fuller would leap to the NFL after playing two note worthy seasons for the Baltimore Stars of the USFL. After leaving the USFL he would report to the Rams, but they subsequently traded his rights to the Houston Oilers as part of the trade that sent Jim Everett to Los Angeles. At first it appeared that the Rams got the better end of the deal, as while Jim Everett passed for good numbers and established himself as a top end quarterback Fuller’s sack numbers were slow to increase. Despite his slow production by 1988, Fuller tied for a team high with 8.5 sacks under coach Jerry Glanville. His 1989 and 1990 seasons would also show marked improvement.  1991 would be his best season as a pro as Fuller would finish 2nd in the NFL in sacks with 15, and be named to the ProBowl for the first time. After a down year in 1992, Fuller would return to double digit form again in 1993 making 10 sacks but Bud Adams made good on breaking up the Oilers, and let the venerable defensive lineman go via free agency to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1994.

William would pick up where he left off, making 35.5 and 7 fumble recoveries over the next 3 seasons for the Eagles. Each season he’d also be named to the Pro Bowl, but after 1996 he’d leave via free agency again for the San Diego Chargers, and retire after the 1998 season.  At the time of his retirement his 100.5 sacks ranked him top 25 all time.

Since retirement Fuller has been named to UNC’s sports HoF, the 50th Anniversiary team, and has is active in programs to help prevent diabetes.  He has donated time to coach at the local high school in Virginia Beach and is a real estate developer.

SkyBox too attempted to create a premium line of football cards in 1992. While Stadium Club was impressive, and Fleer was lowering the bar, Skybox’s Impact was just- well confusing. You just didn’t get which brand was actually the premium brand of SkyBox’s football line with a Primetime and Impact line that were both pretty nice looking. The real problem was Skybox didn’t trade for a year or two before they came out with a the premium line, so the market just got muddled down. While their team MVP cards and special mini poster insert cards were amazing, Skybox’s general design for their Primetime cards left much to be desired- much as in the William Fuller card above. It’s strictly okay by design standards with a generic shadow on a gray-silver plane, but what is up with the | | | | in the background? Skybox also had this penchant for gigantically displaying their logo on their cards, which was equally distracting, especially with the background isolated in a single color. The team name “Oilers” goes up the side on the right which is a complete design gaffe. Take one moment to look at your DVD collection. Do you notice on the spine of every DVD the type goes down the right?  It’s just easier to read that way and it has always been sort of an unspoken standard for many years. I like how they added the number, but it’s turned into a disastrous tangent with his fist slightly obscuring the 9 on the 95. William’s name is tracked out, which is maybe a bit much, but the other tangent as his name almost taps the top of his helmet is equally annoying. I wasn’t a big fan of this line of Skybox cards in the end, but the “Impact” series that they debuted earlier that year was cutting edge at the time.

G/Gs  194/160   Tac  483    Sac  100.5   Fum 19   Int  2     Yds 9     Avg 4.5   Lg 9   Td 0