Category Archives: CFL

AAF, Arena, CFL, FXFL, NFL

Okine, Earl

Card: Topps AAF 2019
Acquired: 2019, EBay

Earl Okine is a giant of a physical specimen clocking in at 6’8″, 290. He played defensive end and tackle for the Florida Gators from 2009-2012. Over that period he managed 27 tackles and a sack. He’d go undrafted in 2013- later signing with the Houston Texans, and then briefly joining the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL. In 2014, Earl played for the Orlando Predators of the Arena leagues, where I saw him play against the San Antonio Talons that year. He notched 28 total tackles, 5.5 sacks, 3 pass blocks, and a forced fumble. Later he hopped over to the FXFL to join the Brooklyn Bolts.

Earl finally found a home in the NFL with the Colts in 2015, spending nearly the entire season on and off the Colts regular season roster and practice squad. He then spent the next year on the Kansas City Chiefs on the bubble of the roster as well at OLB. After a short stay on the Lions, he’d spend the entire 2017 season on the practice squad of the Cardinals.

He’d join the Alliance of American Football in 2018- signing with the Orlando Apollos. The Apollos decided to put Earl’s strengths to best use at outside linebacker. Earl started 7 games for the 7-1 Apollos. He finished with 26 tackles, 5 sacks, and a critical tipped ball interception that he made to seal the win against the Memphis Express in Week 8.

CFL, College Football HoF, NFL, NFLE

Ware, Andre (3)

Card: Fleer 1990, Action Packed 1991, GameDay 1992
Acquired: TTM 2020, C/o Home
Sent: 3/17 Received: 4/5 (18 days)
See Also: Andre Ware, Air Ware

Andre sure got in a lot of great cards in his short amount of time on the starting stage in the NFL. Even after this third stab at a few more autographs, there are a few more cards I could probably nab him on.

I loved Action Packed and GameDay’s sets. Action Packed 1991 was a pretty well designed set, with that simple swoosh that goes through the left side of the image- it maximized the canvas area to focus on the player image. I also really liked the flat helmet image at the end. It’s a really underrated set, and despite the slight smudging is great to get autographed. Most of the images are indeed- action packed. This Gameday image is really nice, however one of the set’s design flaws comes forward a bit when the silver blends against the gray, the image looks a bit more flat. The Fleer 90 card was one of 4 (technically) that had a college photo of Andre in it. (The others being Topps, ProSet, and Score.) We always laughed at the fact that Fleer didn’t find a shot of Andre actually throwing the ball- but instead chose to get a shot of him pitching the ball out. All of these cards were distant set needs for me in my never ending autograph quest.

About the time that Coronavirus broke loose and some stay at home notices were put into place, Andre started signing his TTM mail after a 5-6 year absence from the game. He was initially playing catchup and then started signing some newer requests. I always liked Andre, and I hadn’t TTMed him since 2012, I decided he was ripe for the picking.

As of 2020, Ware remains the steady voice as the color commentator for the Houston Texans game day radio show.

AAF, CFL, NFL

Ross, Alex

Card: Topps 2019 AAF Certified
Acquired: 2019, EBay

Alex Ross put up some solid numbers at quarterback with Coastal Carolina from 2012-2015. He finished his college career with 72 touchdown passes and 9,918 yards while completing 64.7% of his passes. He was not selected in the 2016 draft, and saw time in camp with the Atlanta Falcons. He then saw time in the CFL for the British Columbia Lions (2017) and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2018).

In 2019, Alex signed with the Alliance of American Football. He was allocated to the Memphis Express., however during the Pick or Protect QB Draft, he’d be selected with the final choice of the draft by the San Diego Fleet. The Fleet had issues from the get go at quarterback. With Josh Johnson signing with the Redskins, and Mike Bercovici inconsistent, Philip Nelson stepped in, but he too was injured.

During Week 4, Alex came in to replace Nelson at quarterback against the Memphis Express. He’d toss a score on 8 of 18 passes, going for 80 yards on the day, but threw an interception and lost 2 fumbles. He’d back up Bercovici for the remainder of the season. Currently Alex is a free agent.