Tag Archives: skybox 1992

Green, Jacob

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Cards: Action Packed 1990, Action Packed 1991, Action Packed All Madden 1991, GameDay 1992, SkyBox 1992, ProSet 1989
Acquired: In Person 5/19, 610 Houston Fan Fest 2013

Wow, not really sure what to say here other than Jacob Green: A man of few words. At the Fan Fest, I love to pepper players with questions. Green seemed so low key, it was almost distant, and his answers consisted of: “I think so.” “Yes.” “Thanks.” That sort of thing. I tried really hard to engage him, but in the end I felt that he might be uncomfortable or not really happy to be there. Still he signed 6 cards for me. Of all the participants at the Fan Fest in 2013, Green probably had the most underrated resume. At the time of his retirement in 1993, Jacob Green was only behind Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, and Richard Dent on the All-time sack list.

A first round choice of the Seahawks way back in 1980 out of Texas A&M, Green was the 10th overall choice of the draft after Seattle traded up to grab him. While playing for the Aggies, Green set the school’s record for most career sacks with 37 (since surpassed by Aaron Wallace).  While sacks weren’t tracked until 1982, it didn’t stop him from actually sacking anybody for Seattle. In his rookie season Jacob posted 6.5 sacks and 58 tackles. He followed his rookie campaign up with a dominating 1981 season, notching another 12 sacks and 74 tackles before it became an official statistic. In 1983, Green posted a career high 16 sacks, while in 1985, he had 92 tackles. Over his 12 seasons with the Seahawks, Jacob posted double digit sacks 6 times, and narrowly missed the mark by 1 sack in two other years. He joined the 49ers in 1992, just in time to help the team win his only Super Bowl, but injuries only allowed him to play two games. Jacob retired in 1993.

A popular member of the Seahawks, Jacob is the team’s all time leading sacker and turnover maker at fumbles. His 176 games started ranks 3rd on the franchise only behind Steve Largent and Walter Jones, and Jacob was named to the Seahawks’ 35th Anniversary team.

G/Gs 180/176    Tac 716   Sac 116   Fum 17
Int 3     Yds  90    Avg 30.0    Td 2   Lg 73t

Metcalf, Eric

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Cards: ProSet 1990, UD UT 2011 Icons, UD UT 2011, SkyBox 1992, GameDay 1992, ProSet 1991,Fleer 1990, Stadium Club 1993, Score 1990, Score 1991 90+ Club

Acquired: In Person 1/30/2012, 1300 The Zone 3rd Base Appearance
Failure: TTM 1992, C/o The Cleveland Browns, TTM 2010 C/o Home

gday92 metcalfThird time is a charm right? Well Eric Metcalf has been an idol of mine since I was a kid, and I had tried twice before -and failed to acquire the elusive runningback/return man/wide receiver out of the University of Texas. Meeting Metcalf in person was a treat for me as he had been on my list obviously for a long time.

I believe that the first college football game that I attended at Darrell K. Memorial Stadium, was a game with the Longhorns against the Arkansas Razorbacks. While the Longhorns lost, amidst their late 1980’s slump, Metcalf dominated doing everything for the Longhorns and by the time he graduated, Eric was the school’s all time leading receiver. Metcalf finished his career as a local Longhorn athletic legend playing even baseball and running track.

The Cleveland Browns became enamored with his athleticism, and Eric was drafted in the first round, during one of the greatest modern era drafts of all time -1989. Metcalf provided a speedy spark for the Browns on offense. The do it all back lined up at runningback or receiver and provided incredible mismatches for linebackers in the flat. He also returned kicks too, and then flr90 metcalfafter the departure of Gerald McNeil to Houston, as a punt returner as well. Spending his first 6 seasons in Cleveland, there were some spectacular highlight reels of Metcalf in action during a Monday Night Game against the Bengals where he made 3 players miss before  galloping into the endzone untouched, or his famous one man army against the Raiders in 1992 when he scored all 4 of the Browns touchdowns to beat LA. Eric finished his career in Cleveland with 9108 combined yards, 5 punt returns and  2 kick returns for touchdowns, 11 tds rushing and 15 receiving.

In 1995, Eric played for the Atlanta Falcons, under the Red Gun of head coach June Jones and gunslinger Jeff George. He’d fit right in under the Run ‘N Shoot variant, recording 104 receptions for 1189 yards and 8 touchdowns. After a down year in 1996, Eric would be traded to the San Diego Chargers where he spent one year with Kevin Gilbride. He’d lead the NFL with 3 punt returns for touchdowns that season and earn his second All Pro honor. He’d go one and done with the Chargers and head out to Arizona after San Diego traded him and 2 first round choices in 1998 to grabsky92 metcalf Ryan Leaf during the draft. Eric finished the season with 1837 yards from scrimmage. 1999, Eric spent with the Carolina Panthers, recording 456 YFS, and 2001 with the Washington Redskins setting the NFL record after returning his 10th career punt for a touchdown. After a short stint with the Packers in 2002, Eric decided to hang up the cleats. At the time of his retirement Eric Metcalf, the do-it-all back from the University of Texas had 17230 all purpose yards in his NFL career which was good for 5th all time.

I had recently been complaining to Josh about there not being enough player appearances for autographs around town. The newspapers used to run aggressive advertising about player appearances but I was fretting that times had changed and this was no longer the case. While reading the sports page that day I had seen that Eric was making an appearance at a local bar with 1300 -The Zone ( AKA The Longhorn Station). I went out of my way to get out to the event so that I could meet Eric. I walked in at 5 where the radio team and Rod Babers were set up, only to find Eric Metcalf and Charlie Ward sitting off by themselves away from the hooplah. utud2011 metcalfAfter confirming that- those were indeed both of those players and that they were not being mobbed for autographs, I proceeded to meet Eric, and acquire his autograph on as many of his cards that I could. Disappointingly, I didn’t have another ProSet 1989 card of him, and even stopped on the way into town to cull one from the local card dealer. When I spoke to Eric, I told him that I had tried multiple times in the past to write him but had not had any success. He shrugged his shoulders and said that he was normally pretty good about that, and he offered to sign as many cards as I’d like. (- I had 11.)  I sat there for a while and shot the breeze with Metcalf. When I told him that I felt that the 1989 draft was probably one of the best modern day drafts of all time- his eyes lighted up in agreement. We talked about the numerous HoFers from that draft, and I told him that his numbers were deserving to be among the hall. I told him how I remembered his shellacking of the Bengals on Monday Night Football, and we talked about his career in glorious retrospective. Among the laughs he got out of it was how he returned a kickoff for a TD against the Oilers, even though I had told him that I had hoped they would kick it nowhere near him. He sco91 metcalfchewed the Oilers up for some 200 yards returning that day, but the Browns lost 41-17 or something horrendous like that.

Eric was the honorary captain of the USA v. The World Football game held annually in Austin. As the girls who were trying to inform fans of the event approached the table to talk to us, I acted as though I had no clue what was going on and that Eric was not the ‘MC of the event’. I let her do her spiel and then asked her if she knew who I was. I then told her that, “I, was Eric Metcalf.” I then told her all about Eric’s illustrious career, and even got up to try to imitate one of his moves. All the time Eric was laughing at me, and told the poor girl not to listen to me.  She still had no clue who Eric was, but said that we didn’t look old at all. Eric and I sat there for a few minutes more and talked until more fans started arriving. He quipped to me that he didn’t need to say anything and that I should just be his publicist, since I knew everything about him already. I even recounted the teams he had been on in his career. (We both casually forgot his Green Bay and Carolina stints.) After about 20 minutes of bantering around and then meeting the subdued Charlie udut2011icons metcalfWard, I got a photo with Eric and hit the road, a very happy camper. It was indeed a very successful experience.

Eric enjoys coaching track now in the Seattle area. I asked him if he ever thought about coaching football, and he told me that, “Coaching track is much easier than football ever was,” And then laughed. Frequently Metcalf comes to the area, 3-4 times a year for alumni and other events around town. He is extremely approachable and very kind to fans.

In entertainment and media, Eric was a dominating running back in Tecmo Super Bowl for the Browns. I IMAG0473enjoyed playing as the Browns because I built the offense to work around him. I’d start him at both return man jobs, and at runningback. If I was unable to rush for very many yards, I’d stick him out at receiver. Among the plethora of players that they got wrong on that game, Metcalf sticks out as one they completely nailed.

Here is Eric’s exhaustive statistical line:
G/Gs 179/77     Pr  351   Yds  3453  Avg  9.8    Td 10   Lg 92t
Kr 280   Yds 5813   Avg 20.8   Td 2  Lg 101t
Rush 630  Yds 2392   Avg 3.8    Td 12   Lg 55
Rec  541   Yds  5572   Avg 10.3  Td 31   Lg 69

Part 1 of 4 from Eric Metcalf’s highlight reel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wafxQ63iwMg&feature=related


Coleman, Marco

Cards:  Action Packed Rookies 1992, Classic 1992, SkyBox 1992
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 11/8   Received: 11/21  (13 days)

Nice acquisition here in the form of 1992 defensive rookie of the year Marco Coleman signing 3 cards in under two weeks. The SkyBox and Classic cards were hilarious as they are taken less than 5 seconds apart. You usually see cards where it is the same photo, but not one a few seconds apart. The Action Packed 1992 Rookies card is stellar though making up for it, as it’s well known I like getting these cards autographed.

Marco Coleman was a dominant linebacker out of college from Georgia Tech. He broke the school record of sacks previously held by sackmaster Pat Swilling (28).  At 6’3, 286, Coleman was considered slow for his position but undersized for defensive end. Certainly he was a forerunner to what is referred to sometimes as a ‘tweener’. The Dolphins needing new blood at the position drafted Marco #12 overall in 1992, and he was the second linebacker off the board behind Quentin Coryatt. Coleman would start both at linebacker and defensive end in his rookie season, finishing with 6 sacks and 84 tackles but after it was all said and done, Marco really took off at defensive end. He’d start there the rest of his career primarily playing on the right side, averaging 5.5 sacks over the next three seasons.
After a 3 year stint with the Chargers from 1996-1998, where he tacked on 9.5 more sacks to his career totals, Marco signed with the Redskins in 1999. Returning to his rookie form, Coleman made 6.5 sacks, 42 tackles and recovered a fumble that he returned 42 yards for a touchdown. He’d top that in 2000 lodging a career high 12 sacks and earning a Pro Bowl berth after being moved to left defensive end.  In 2002, he’d enter the journeyman phase of his career, and play for the Jaguars and Eagles one season a piece, before finishing out his career playing for the Broncos in 2004 and 2005.

G/Gs  207/185     Tac  520    Sac  65.5     Fum 18    Int 1     Yds 2     Avg 2.0      Td  0     Lg 2