CARD: UT Upper Deck 2011 Certified ACQUIRED: EBay, 2020
CAREER SNAPSHOT:
Kerry Cash played TE at Texas from 1987-’90.
He caught 71 passes for 979 yards and 10 TDs over 37 contests.
A 5th round pick of the Indianapolis Colts in 1991.
After a slow rookie year, 43 passes and 3 TDs in both 1992 and 1993.
Played for the Colts from 1991-’94 catching 103 passes for 1131 yards and 7 TDs.
Spent a season with the Raiders in 1995.
Caught 25 passes for 254 yards and 2 TDs in 10 starts.
Finished up his career in ’96 as a member of the Chicago Bears.
NOTES:
Hard to believe we’re now over 4 years from when COVID first broke out in the states. I made some shrewd moves in those early days picking up and solidifying sets and players I was after. EBay was the place to be for a lot of it initially and I was able to snag this autograph of Kerry for pennies.
Kerry’s brother Keith also played for Texas and in the NFL as well.
CARDS: Panini UT 2015, Panini UT 2015 S, SAGE Hit 2013, Bowman 2013, Topps 2013, Leaf Draft 2013, Topps Magic 2013, Razor 2009, Panini Rookies & Stars 2013, Score 2013, UT Upper Deck 2011 HACK ACQUIRED: IP, 2024
CAREER SNAPSHOT:
Local talent Alex Okafor decided to take his skillset to the University of Texas.
For the Longhorns, he played from 2009-2012 at defensive end.
In his Senior campaign he had 54 total tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, 12.5 sacks, and 4 forced fumbles.
During his final game in burnt orange, he set an Alamo Bowl record with 4.5 sacks, as UT defeated Oregon State 31-27.
Drafted in the 4th round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals.
His rookie season was a wash- as a biceps injury sidelined him for the vast majority of the season.
In 2014, he flew under the radar, recording 8 sacks, 30 tackles, 3 pass deflections, and an interception.
Signed with the New Orleans Saints in 2017.
Had a career high 43 total tackles, 4 pass deflections, and 4.5 sacks- before an Achilles injury ended his season after 10 games.
Signed with the Chiefs in 2019.
Finished on IR after tearing a pectoral muscle that year, but not before he tallied 22 tackles and 5 sacks.
Suffered a hamstring injury in 2020- but still managed 21 total tackles and a forced fumble.
Retired after the 2021 season.
NOTES:
These events that Texas Sports Unfiltered has been hosting at the Bee Cave Covert GMC have been a real treat. We’re served lunch. A player comes in and signs a bunch of autographs and answers any questions that we may have.
Alex was extremely cordial and friendly to all the fans in attendance. He labored to sign each and every one of our items. In my case, I had traded one of the extra HACK UT UD 2011 cards I had created. It caught his eye when he was signing it for the guy in front of me and he wanted to know where he could get one. They pointed to me.
When he got to me I told him, “I’m more than happy to give him one if he wouldn’t mind signing all my cards for me.” He responded with a very thrilled, “YES!” (There were much more than the 11 here. He signed quite a few dupes so that I could again reward my friends and major participants on our TTM Facebook group.)
He then proceeded to horse trade with other fans who were there for additional cards to fill out his collection he was missing. -I love it when players collect their own cards!
He then answered a bunch of questions for us. One fan asked us who was easiest, hardest, and thrilling to sack. He answered that Tom Brady was the most thrilling to sack as he is such a legend. Alex noted he got to him twice in his career. The hardest was Lamar Jackson. When Lamar gets to the HoF some day, Alex said he’d be on Jackson’s highlight reel. The easiest to sack was Kirk Cousins. He’s just so immobile in the pocket. (Coincidentally, Alex made his first two career sacks on Kirk.)
I asked him about his monster grill facemask, (that you can see on his Bowman and SAGE Hit cards). What was his plan? Would he eventually have a grill going up the entire mask? When would it end? He laughed and said at the previous Super Bowl he was inspired by Justin Tuck of the Giants who led the d-line and had that multi-bar facemask.
He asked the equipment guy if he could get one for him from Riddell. Their response was, “I dunno…” but come Spring in 2012 it was ready to roll. Suddenly the multi bar facemask became all the brief rage. You had guys going all out (See Tavaris Barnes). Then as quickly as it happened, the NCAA and the NFL put an end to that form of expression. No explanation given. I’m sure they would have cited, ‘player safety’ but within 3 seasons it was over. No more multibars.
It’s always good to meet fellow collectors- especially card nuts like myself. While Mark G. was there to keep me grounded and provide me with a few cards I didn’t have, I met his friends Josh (an absolute monster UT collector) and Andrew (a collector with a solid depth of cards).
After discussing with Josh for a while our fandom, I had mentioned how I missed out on Alex Okafor’s UT Panini 2015 Parallel card. He offered to trade it to me for something else. -I know he really, really wanted my UT Hack, but I didn’t have anymore extras. He ended up trading me for a Panini Prism Okafor that I had gotten in exchange for the other Hack I traded to someone else- so it worked out! An absolute banger of an event.
Since retirement, Alex has pursued his passion: Teaching, improving education, reducing bullying, and reading. During his time in Kansas City he started a program that brought players into local classroom to read to kids at public schools. Currently he’s on the school board in his local hometown.
CARD: UT Upper Deck 2011 HACK ACQUIRED: 2024, Future Considerations
CAREER SNAPSHOT:
Marcus Tubbs played DT for the University of Texas from 1999-’03.
In 48 games (36 starts) he tallied 207 tackles, 41 tackles for loss, 15 sacks, and 5 forced fumbles.
A first round pick of the Seattle Seahawks in 2004.
Over a 4 year career ravaged by injuries, Marcus had his best season in 2005, when he recorded 40 total tackles, 6 sacks and 2 forced fumbles.
He had microfracture surgery in 2006 after 6 games.
In 2007, Marcus was placed on IR during the preseason but did not see the field again.
With his playing career cut short, Marcus retired back to Austin, Texas to work for the University of Texas Athletic Department.
In 2016 he joined the University of Houston Athletic Department.
Later he’d go on to work in the medical field.
NOTES:
I love the UT Upper Deck 2011 set but there’s a lot of missing names so I decided to ‘hack’ out the set for a few more players- which turned out to be about 100. As I was going along I wanted to turn it into a living set, and in conversation, Marcus’ name came up.
Apparently Mark’s daughter plays volleyball with his daughter, so it was easy to get, if I came up with the card. Mark and him were pretty impressed by my choice of card. It was a bit on the dark side, and for some reason the orange horizontal lines are missing or too thin to see, but otherwise it came out nicely.
Celebrating the game, the players, the cards, and the autographs for over 25 years.
