SET: TNT AFL 2014
STATUS: CLOSED
ACTIVE: 2014-2017
CARDS SIGNED: 33 / 54
PRODUCED 54/82

BACKGROUND:

During the 2014 Arena Football season, I attended most of the San Antonio Talons home games. The team, without an owner, and struggling in attendance was seized and run by the league. After each game, the Talons would set up tables and sign for fans.

Eventually the COO of the team, Keith Recine, discovered me, and asked me for a copy of the set. I presented it to him at the next game against Jacksonville and he upgraded my tickets to the 35 yard line next to the walls, and later caught a football I got to keep during the game. He gave me his business card and I hoped to land a job with the league out of it, but the Talons quickly folded after the season never to be seen again.

I continued to crank out cards for this set and bridged out into other teams, as I had a 3rd party benefactor who would take some of them to a game in Cleveland to get signed. Unfortunately I was going through some severe life changes and squandered that relationship.

DESIGN NOTES:

Not my favorite set, though I really enjoyed the spontaneity at the time. The canvas is so chaotic that it’s hard to read the autograph. The printer I was using didn’t have the highest quality card stock or printer either, and my photo choices sometimes weren’t the greatest and suffered from low resolution.

By the end of the time working with this set, it was coming together well, but most of them went unproduced. I then took a break from making cards as graphic design had become my full time job and my boss sucked the life out of me creatively.

A few players had variants made. I didn’t like Pierre Turner’s original card, so I made a new one. Shane Boyd didn’t like his original one so I printed a new one as well. I also found a nicer photo of Jamar Ransom.

UNPRODUCED:

SET: TNT AFL 2011 Test Set
STATUS: CLOSED
ACTIVE: 2011-2014
CARDS SIGNED: 11 / 14
PRODUCED: 14

BACKGROUND:

Back when I was gunning for a design set at Upper Deck I took some of these pieces in as a sample of my portfolio. I hoped to impress them. Instead they looked like ravenous dogs and asked if I had a contract with the Arena Football League to make cards.

DESIGN NOTES:

I reused the design style mostly for the AFL 2014 set that I did. I took samples of Chad Cook, Tim Cheatwood, and Aaron Garcia with me to Upper Deck. I sent off both the Cook and the Garcia cards TTM to them to be signed but never got a response. Cards 9, 11, 14-16 were not filled.

SET: AAF 2019 HACK Living Set
STATUS: OPEN
ACTIVE: 2020-
CARDS SIGNED: 11 / 29
PRODUCED: 29

BACKGROUND:

With the dissolution of the AAF unceremoniously during 2019, I felt that I could keep the memory alive by creating cards of players and coaches who didn’t get a card in the set or didn’t have a certified card.

I had used my super sleuthing skills to figure out that one of the major vendors on eBay was former AAF coach Andrew Weidinger. He and I had some great conversations about the league and that my website had inspired him. He made me some great deals over the weeks for my sets.

I made some cards for him and his son that I sent him, but during COVID we lost track of each other. -And that’s how this set got started….

I should’ve asked him for one back signed but time just has a way of passing you by. Last I checked he was doing a fantastic job coaching in the ELF. I think he would make a great coach in the UFL.

Anyway over the years as I’ve had a chance or seen a player I could get their autograph from their days in the AAF, I’ve managed to put something together for them.

DESIGN NOTES:

I experimented with the design at first giving the white border a larger area such as with Bill Polian, but in the end I settled on what you see on the majority of the cards. I switched printers officially as well and the quality went through the roof.

As this is a Living Set, I have quite a lot of cards that I hope to eventually get produced and signed. Quite a few of these guys produced for the league and never had a card made, so I hope it’ll be extra special for them. A lot of them are unproduced because I wanted to give every team some love when I made this set as an extension of the AAF shrine.

You’ll notice that there’s two mascot cards in here as well with No Limits Soldier and The Legendary Knight making guest appearances as ‘superfans’. I’ve kicked around the idea of inserting myself into this set, as I did make a Topps Now AAF card of myself, but I just couldn’t find the right framing to do so.

UNPRODUCED: