Tag Archives: Carolina Panthers

Proehl, Ricky

Card: Action Packed Rookies 1990
Acquired: 2020, Future Considerations
Failure: TTM, C/o Home 2011, 2018, 2019

I’m not really sure what’s up with Ricky Proehl. I’ve seen numerous successes for him, with some that even include the card pictured above, so after 3 failures over the years, where it looked like I was the last person out in the cold, a friend who I help out from time to time had this extra floating around that I could have. I would have liked to get Ricky on a card or two more, but after the 3rd or 4th failure- I routinely in the past look at other options, but for the time being I’ll stand pat with this one and will probably be a bit gun shy about trying him again. This card was a definite set need that I wanted to get out of the way for a while. I only got one when I broke a box years ago originally, so I’ve been out quite a few cards every time I wrote him.

Ricky Proehl gets no respect. He graduated from Wake Forest as virtually the school’s all-time leader in receiving yards (2,949 yards), and TDs (25), as well as ranking in the top five in receptions and receiving average.  He was selected in the 3rd round of the 1990 draft by the Phoenix Cardinals.

His rookie season was a solid debut, when he caught 56 passes for 802 yards and 4 TDs. These numbers were the best by a Cardinals rookie and the first to lead the team since 1950. He then played the next 3 years with the franchise, and set career marks in 1993 (65 receptions, 877 yards, and 7 TDs). Following the 1994 season, Ricky was traded to the Seattle Seahawks, where he played through 1995. In 1996, he rejuvenated his career playing with the Bears for a season, hauling down 58 receptions, for 753 yards, and 7 TDs.

In 1998, Proehl signed with the St. Louis Rams and became a member of ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’. He is perhaps best known for this time of his career, as he was clutch for the team, as a situational starter or when they needed him most. Ricky won two Super Bowls with the Rams over the next 5 seasons recording 207 catches, for 2590 yards, and 16 TDs.

At the grand old age of 35, Ricky still had a few miles left. He joined the Carolina Panthers in 2003, playing the majority of his sunset years with the squad. Over 3 seasons, he posted 1237 yards and 8 TDs for Carolina before one final season in 2006 with the Indianapolis Colts.

Ricky has been involved in coaching since retirement working with the Carolina Panthers from 2011- 2016. He also owns a sports park in North Carolina. His son, Austin followed in his footsteps and was most recently a WR for the Seattle Dragons of the XFL.

It should be noted that despite never posting a 1,000 yard season in his 17 season career, he finished with over 8,000 yards receiving in just 109 starts and recorded under 400 yards in only 5 seasons.

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244/109669887813.35478

Daniel, Darryl

Card: Playoff Contenders 2000 European Ticket
Acquired: 2021, Future Considerations

Darryl Daniel entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent, and was invited to training camp with the Detroit Lions in ’99, joining the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad late in the season. The Vikings allocated him to the NFLE in 2000.

He caught 16 passes for 258 yards with the Amsterdam Admirals and displayed enough potential to make it to the final roster cut with the Vikings. Daniel enjoyed an NFLE best 5 catches for 136 yards in a 41-7 drubbing of the Galaxy. After being released by Minnesota, he hooked up with the Carolina Panthers. He’d be on and off the team’s roster through 2001, eventually landing on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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1728516.8033

Metcalf, Eric (3)

Cards: Upper Deck 1991 Browns Checklist, GameDay 1993, University of Texas Upper Deck 2011 All-Time Alumni, ProSet 1992, SkyBox Premium 1993-1994, Upper Deck College Legends 2011
Acquired: TTM 2020, C/o Home
Sent: 1/6 Received: 1/14 (8 days)
See Also: Eric Metcalf, Eric Metcalf (2)

Eric Metcalf is one of my favorite players during the heyday of my childhood, so I was happy to make him my first success of 2020. With so many cards signed by him at this point, you’d think that I’d written him more than once (successfully) previously- but no- the last time he signed for me was way back in 2014. How time flies!

Eric had some stellar cards over the years, and with me still needing him on his All-Time Alumni card, and his College Legends card, I figured I could shoot out a stack to him and take a shot.

Eric is one of the few pros that actually follows me on Twitter- which is very humbling. I’ve always felt that YFS guys do not get the love from the HoF that they should, and although he has been nominated on a few occasions, Eric has not gotten in.

Eric’s cards from this lot no doubt are again, epic looking. They always seem to catch him slashing out of the backfield into the open field. I loved his Upper Deck Legends entry from 2011. In fact I am surprised that they didn’t use this as his main shot on his UT cards.

The Skybox Premium came out at a time when dropping a color across a background was novel. Unfortunately these cards commanded too high a sticker price for me as I was exiting the market. I have slowly picked up one or two here or there over the years.

ProSet was done in my mind after a few packs at Cowboys training camp in ’92. I did not like how they changed the card design midway through the set and found it confusing and disorganized. I liked this version of the set and how they moved the ProSet logo down by the player name, allowing the canvas to be more free to showcase the player.

Upper Deck was a late entry into the football card market. I didn’t really think too much of their initial NFL set, however I loved their artistic subsets- especially their checklists which focused on team MVPs. The design of this card is just superb, and in a sense very timeless. I love the circle behind Eric. What possessed this artist to put that back there? It blends nicely into his helmet, and then the horizontal lines across it lower on the canvas- It’s just so delicate and well thought out.