Card: ProSet 1990
Acquired: In Person 1991, Dallas Cowboys Training Camp
Jim Jeffcoat played 15 seasons in the NFL after being drafted in the first round by the Dallas Cowboys out of Arizona State in 1983. He’d immediately replace Harvey Martin in the lineup and Jeffcoat would pick up where Martin left off, -harassing opposing ball carriers and quarterbacks of the NFC East opposite “Too Tall” Jones. Over 12 seasons with the Cowboys, Jeffcoat became recognized as one of the best finess rushers in the league recording 5 seasons of 10 or more sacks and 5 seasons of 70+ tackles. As time wore on, and with the eventual arrival of Charles Haley, Jim would share time at left defensive end with Tony Tolbert. He’d oddly sign with the Buffalo Bills in 1995, playing 3 more seasons with them before his eventual retirement, after 15 seasons.
Jim’s 102.5 sacks rank him in the career top 25 for the NFL, and while he was nominated in 2008, Jeffcoat has not made the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Considered one of the finest defensive linemen to come out of Arizona State, he was inducted into their hall of fame in 1994. Since retirement Jeffcoat has worked for the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Cougars as a defensive line coach and at the time of this post he was working for the San Jose State Spartans in that same capacity.
G/Gs 227/129 Tac 709 Sac 102.5 Fum 18 Int 2 Yds 91 Avg 45.5 Td 2 Lg 65
same as a little known pop star named Michael Jackson). Michael would grab 17 receptions his rookie season while adding his first two touchdowns to his resume. 1992 would see Jackson become an incumbent at receiver where he’d make 755 yards receiving and 7 touchdowns. In 1993, he’d almost duplicate these statistics, changed his number to 81, (due to uniform number requirements,) and briefly changed his name back to Michael Dyson. An injury shortened 1994 would clear Jackson’s return for 1995 where he made 714 yards receiving and 9 touchdowns.
At first glance when I got Michael’s autograph through the mail, I was a bit upset because the initial thing I saw was the giant slash going across the card. I thought he had just marked through the card. To my relief it was part of his very unique signature. (As with many other players, I have begun to give players the duplicate cards that I have floating around in my collection to thank them for their time.) Another group of really nice cards here. I even considered adding in his Score Supplemental 1991 but thought that would be a bit over the top. ProSet was technically beaten to the punch by Hi-Pro Marketing, who released a rookie card of Michael Jackson in their Action Packed Rookies series a few months before anybody else. (Ironically they also had the first Brett Favre card on the market too.) I very much liked all three of these designs, -in particular the GameDay card stands out with its very unique squared shoulders pose of Michael, who looks like a quarterback in this image. ProSet once again delivered very solid photography on their card with an exciting action shot of Jackson sprinting down the field, while Action Packed (as noted above) provided us his first true rookie card on its embossed surface with a nice clean view of Jackson looking for the ball.