Category Archives: WLAF

NFL, WLAF

Smith, Roland ‘Paddy’

Ultimate World League 1992, #71

CARD: Ultimate World League 1992
ACQUIRED: TTM 2023, C/o Work
SENT: 1/17 RECEIVED: 2/6 (20 days)
FAILURE: TTM 2015, C/o Work

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

  • Roland Smith played DB for the Miami Hurricanes during their heyday as a National power (1987-90)- winning two championships.
  • During his senior campaign in Miami, he had 52 total tackles, 2 picks and 2 forced fumbles.
  • He was selected in the 8th round of the 1991 NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins.
  • In 1992, he’d be a first round choice of the London Monarchs of the World League.
  • He went into HS coaching where he built an incredible resume, winning 7 HS State Championships between Northwestern and Miami Central.
  • In 2022, returned home to the Hurricanes, where he now serves as the school’s Director of High School Relations.

NOTES:

Roland Smith was a name I’d been after for a while, but after he started receiving hate mail, he stopped signing shortly before I sent out to him in 2015. I thought I’d take a shot in the dark to him once he moved to the Hurricanes and it worked out nicely.

This card is confusing, because the image subject feels like its more the Thunder player as opposed to Roland who’s barely on the card. In fact for the longest time I thought that Roland was a member of the Thunder. It also doesn’t help that fellow DB Irvin Smith has an almost identical card photo, same last name, and appears just two cards previously in the set.

WL

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N/a0.00100.000
AAF, Arena, WLAF, XFL

No Limits Soldier

CARD: Topps AAF 2019 Certified Hack
ACQUIRED: IP, 2022

NOTES:

Stephen and I go back in football heritage to the very beginning of my Spring fandom. It all started with the Hail Storm game back with the San Antonio Riders in the World League in 1992. As the teams were driven from the field by the wind and hail just seconds before halftime, the field was flooded, and we were left with no halftime show. Enter Stephen.

He ran down onto the soggy field and grabbed a football and ran for the end zone, dodging security along the way. As we cheered him on, he built up a head of steam, grabbed a football and hydroplaned in for a score. As the security finally nabbed Stephen, the crowd grew angry and started booing his apprehension. He’d be escorted off the field, where he got a stay of execution from none other than Rider owner Larry Benson. According to legend Larry claimed that there was no reason to escort Stephen from the stadium, as he saved the team money, and was the best half-time entertainment they had all season. -High praise considering the frisbee catching dog came back twice that year for halftime.

Stephen and I didn’t see each other again until 2014, when he was a flag waving fan at Talons games that I attended that year in SA at the Alamodome. At that point, he’d sat through all the San Antonio teams that had come and gone.

But, it wasn’t until 2018, when Stephen and I finally came full circle. With former Riders head coach Mike Riley being named coach of the San Antonio AAF team, I thought it’d be great if I broke out my San Antonio Riders hat. As I entered the Alamodome for the AAF San Antonio franchise’s grand revealing, I ran right into Stephen also wearing his Riders hat! We immediately started chatting and realized we had a lot in common and he was surprised I remembered the Hail Storm game.

From there, he invited me to his tailgate, and then he revealed himself to me as superfan NO LIMITS SOLDIER! He was front row on the home side end zone, and got a lot of love from the team, most notably when the Joey Mbu recoverd a fumble for a TD in the endzone.

After the AAF folded, I made this card of him, thinking about the old times with the Commanders. Stephen loved it, and after I sent it to him, he signed one for me when we caught up at the San Antonio Brahmas Fan Meet & Greet in 2023. He moved on, and is now a founding member of the BRAHMAS DESTRUCTION CREW.

NFL, WLAF

Koonce, George (2)

Topps Finest 1995, #178
Ultimate WL 1992, #132
Fleer 1995, #138

CARDS: Ultimate WL 1992, Fleer 1995
ACQUIRED: TTM 2019, C/o Home
SENT: 10/28 RECEIVED: 11/6 (9 days)
FAILURE: TTM 2010, C/o Work

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

NOTES:

I had picked up George previously, but didn’t realize he was on this Ultimate World League TV Schedule card, so after a few years, I grabbed a few extra cards and sent it back out. The Fleer 95 is such a Frankenstein set of design, which was different- by team. This one is obviously on the terrible side of things. The Topps Finest is a great example of the over the top style that trading cards were starting to embrace as far as refractors were concerned.