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NFL

Jeffires, Haywood (5)

gday93 jeffiresgda93 jeffires GBCards: Gameday 1993 Gamebreakers, Gameday 1993, Action Packed 1991, Score 1992.
Acquired: IP 7/11/15, Houston Oilers 25th Anniversary Party
See Also: Haywood Jeffires, Freakwood, Haywood Jeffires (3), Haywood Jeffires (4)

Well the Houston Oilers 25th Anniversary Party got off to a slow start. I expected to be able to recognize a lot of them, but to be kind, it has been a long time.  The first guy I was able to nab was Jeffires. True to form he wore his staple long shirt, and sported an epic grizzly Kimbo Slice beard. He was in an incredibly good mood, and signed these cards for me. Sure I am slowly running out of cards for him to sign, as I won’t pursue the Saints or ‘Tennessee Oilers’ cards of him, but still, he remains one ap91 jeffiressco92 jeffiresof my favorite players in a bizarre footnote of my otaku-like obsession. I shot the breeze a bit with him and shook his hand. I stopped him and said, “I can’t believe your hands are so baby smooth after all these years!” We both laughed heartily about it for a minute. I later told him that if he needed to leave, I could stand in for him and tell people that I was Haywood Jeffires.
Still I am hitting some pretty nice cards here. Somehow this Action Packed 1991 gem slipped through the cracks up to this point. Otherwise, by 1992 I had stopped collecting many of the brands of cards, and in 1993 I was done with the hobby for a while. I did not pick up Score 1992 or Gameday 1993. While Gameday seemed to respect the evolutionary process- Score’s 1992 effort was looking more and more like a children’s activity book. The redeeming quality of this particular Jeffires card is the great action shot, something that as the manufacturers’ solidified their desperate hold on the soft market- began to slide off a precipice and into the sideline/ warmup gutter.

 

NFL

Jeffires, Haywood (4) “Freakwood”

ap92 jeffiresud92 jeffirestosc93 jeffiresto90 jeffires to92 jeffiressp93 jeffiressky92 jeffires hisco91 jeffirespset92 jeffires pb pset92 jeffires LL pset92 jeffires 100pline92 jeffires 3 pline92 jeffires 2 pline92 jeffires 1
flrult91 jeffiresflr91 jeffires
pset92 jeffirespset91 jeffiresud91 jeffiresJeffires and meCards: Topps 1990, Topps 1992, Topps Stadium Club 1992, SkyBox 1992 LL, ProSet 1992, ProSet 1992 PB, ProSet 1992 LL, ProSet 1992 Milestone, Upper Deck 1992, Upper Deck SP 1993, Fleer 1991, Fleer Ultra 1991, ProSet 1991, Proline Portraits 1992, Proline Profiles 1992, Proline Profiles 1992 #2, Score 1991, Upper Deck 1991.

Acquired: In Person, 10/26/14 GMC Monday Night Football Tour
See Also: Haywood Jeffires, Haywood Jeffires (2), Haywood Jeffires (3)

When I heard that Haywood Jeffires was appearing with Ernest Givins at the GMC Monday Night Football Event in Houston I penciled it on my itinerary for that weekend. Held at the Katy Mall, it was pretty much a straight shot once I got to the 10. Unlike previous events and the Austin event held the previous year there was a limit on the vouchers to prevent multiple autograph requests. This was not announced before the event. If that had been the case, I may not have gone. Ernest was a last second cancellation- replaced by another member of the Fab 4, Curtis Duncan. Still I planned ahead in case of a problem and things worked out great.

Oh and the insane amount of cards that Haywood signed, I just used my autograph mind control powers on the handlers. After talking to them for a few minutes, they just let me ask Haywood directly when there were no more fans waiting in line. I mean the worst he could say was, “No”, right? I offered him any card that he wanted, but he just opted to sign everything I had instead. He loved my Houston Oilers hat, to which I explained to him it was classic, not vintage since it was actually an Apex hat from 1992. We talked about the preseason game against the Cowboys when Bucky Ricahrdson flipped a last second pass to his left hand and tossed a TD in the end zone, and about how long I’d been a fan of his, bringing up how I wrote him in the past for his autograph, when he used to shorthand his autograph to “H. Jeffires”. He asked me how I knew that, and I said that I was a real fan, remember? He tossed in the final photo with all the cards as a final send off. By far abashedly this was my biggest single player haul ever, beating out a previous in person appearance by Eric Metcalf by 8 or 9.  I’m sure I’ll dig up a few more cards of Jeffires for next time, even though he’s already zoomed to the top of my most acquired autograph player list.

mem14 jeffiresWhen I asked Haywood about who was the toughest matchup he faced, he first said the Browns with Minnefield and Dixon, then Pittsburgh, and finally just said the whole AFC Central because the teams all faced each other twice a year and they all knew one another so well. Jeffires was unaware of his status on Tecmo Super Bowl and had not played the game. Haywood and Curtis hugged when Duncan arrived. Apparently they hadn’t seen each other in quite a while and it was a nice reunion of sorts.

 

NFL

Jeffires, Haywood (2)

Cards: SkyBox 1992, SkyBox 1992 Major Impact
Acquired: In Person, 6/10/12, 610 Houston Fan Fest III
Failure: TTM 2010
See Also:  Haywood Jeffires

Well another former Oiler that I was trying to get is off the list. Haywood Jeffires is known in autograph circles, at least TTM as a very difficult autograph to acquire.  On many websites that post autograph percentages through the mail, he rates at a fat 0%.  Unfortunately I sent off 5 cards to him in 2010- and never saw them again.  So when I got word that Ernest Givins and Haywood Jeffires were going to be at the same table for Fan Fest this year, I immediately penciled them near the top of my list to get.  I had many more that I intended to get autographed, but with a limit of one per person, I was fortunate to get two from him. To get the additional card signed, I cited his zero percent signing rate, to which he coyly admitted that he does not sign anything through the mail. Haywood looks almost the same as he did when he retired, and he still wears those turtlenecks, even if it is 90 degrees outside. I told him he was always my favorite player when he joined the team when I was a kid because we shared the same birthday. He tested me and asked the date which surprised him. In order not to scare him any further, I quickly thanked him for his time, shook his hand and was on my way,  pleased with my acquisition on these two very fine cards.