Category Archives: AAF

AAF, CFL, NFL, XFL

Williams, Marquise (2)

Cards: Panini Contenders Draft Picks 2016, Panini Prism 2016, Topps AAF 2019, Topps XFL 2020
Acquired: 2020, Private Break. 2020, COMC
See Also: Marquise Williams

Marquise Williams played for the San Antonio Commanders in 2019. A dangerous scrambler with great pocket presence and a great touch on the ball, Williams was a great change of pace for the Commanders from starter Logan Woodside. Initially moonlighting on 2 point conversions, Williams saw his play time increase as injuries, and a porous offensive line plagued Woodside over the season. After the Alliance collapsed in April of 2019, Marquise was spotted at the XFL tryouts.

Williams was selected by the New York Guardians in the XFL 2020 draft. He’d back up Matt McGloin at quarterback as the Guardians traded for Luis Perez from the Wildcats. With McGloin melting down early in the season, Williams saw some gametime action in relief against the Defenders and the Battlehawks, but by late February Luis Perez was named starter for the Guardians. Two games later the XFL ceased operations due to COVID.

Marquise has some great authentic autographs, so I wanted to pick these up since I was never able to get them while he was with the Commanders. The XFL certified was a pull, and much like its AAF predecessor, showcases just a simplified, nice, wholesome press photo of Marquise. Panini Contenders was doing some interesting stuff at the time of this evolutionary cycle of design with an image of Marquise on a design focused canvas. I am not much for the gaudiness of the Prism sets, but I really liked how Williams’ blue uniform pops from this silver background.

AAF, NFL

Hilliard, Kenny

Card: Panini Contenders 2015
Acquired: 2020, COMC

Kenny Hilliard comes from strong football bloodlines, being the nephew of former LSU and Saints RB Dalton Hilliard. Kenny followed in the footsteps of Dalton to LSU, where he averaged a healthy 5.2 yards per carry over his four years there while scoring 27 TDs on 302 carries. He’d be selected in the 7th round of the 2015 draft, as the Texans were looking to shore up their RB committee.

Kenny spent most of the next two seasons honing his craft, on and off the franchise’s practice squad. He’d sign with the Redskins in mid 2017 and again be on Washington’s practice squad through 2018.

Afterwards Kenny joined the Alliance of American Football in 2018 as one of their first recognizable name pickups. He’d play for the Memphis Express during the AAF’s lone 8 game season in 2019- seeing action in only the final game rushing 4 times for 6 yards, including an 11 yard burst, while catching 2 passes for 7 yards.

AAF, NFL, XFL

Johnston, Daryl ‘Moose’ (4)

Cards: Topps AAF Certified Player Issue 2011, Upper Deck College Legends 2011 Bowl Game Heroes
Acquired: TTM 2020, C/o Home
Sent: 4/22/20 Received: 4/29/20 (7 days)
See Also: Daryl Johnston, Daryl Johnston (2), Daryl Johnston (3)

I really hustled hard for Daryl Johnston this time around. I had seen on a few sites that he was giving away his player issue version of his certified Topps AAF 2019 card- that I did not have, and along with the fact that he was GM of the Commanders, and it was super expensive on the secondary market, I really wanted to get my paws on that card. I wrote a solid 9 page letter talking about how our lives had intertwined over the last- 30 ish years or so. It was the longest letter I’d ever written to a player.

Daryl has been very good to the TTM community, and as a whole has been a gracious signer outside of those rare instances. Instead of flooding him with cards, I just sent this one Upper Deck College Legends card and asked him for the certified one, since I was a season ticket holder to the Commanders. I was very happy when he responded in no time flat and added the tag #Swords Up! giving the Commanders card a bit of personalization. It gave me a nice bounce in my step for the day.

I had high hopes that he’d pen an inspired response to me about his AAF experience, but the stories that I had read led me to believe that he was caught just as flat footed as the rest of us, even though he was fighting in the trenches everyday for the league. After his AAF experience, Daryl went on to join the XFL 2020 Dallas Renegades, and despite the boasted money behind it, the league folded only after 5 games due to COVID concerns.