Tag Archives: cleveland browns

NFL, Pro Football HoF, wfl

Kelly, Leroy

to70 kellyCards: Topps 1971, Topps 1973
Acquired: TTM 2012, C/o Home
Sent: 12/4  Received: 12/14     (10 days) *
* Signing fee $10.00 per card

Topps classic 1971 effort remains one of my favorites that the company ever did. It’s simplistic design layout along with classic shots of players, really has always caught my eye. Kelly was iconic in his Browns poncho style jacket of the era, that epitomized the grit and elements that his opponent faced in Cleveland, but he excelled in.

Leroy Kelly played in the shadow of runningback Jim Brown for the Cleveland Browns. Not to be outdone by the exiting Brown, Kelly went on to notch many team and league records in his own stead. A bruising runningback in his own right, Kelly was in command on the sloppy Cleveland Browns’ Stadium grass/mud, and carved up many teams of the day. Before he ran the gridiron for the Browns though, he was a standout back for Morgan State Bears and a Black College Football All-American. There he did everything and seldom left the field as a runningback, defensive back, punter, and return man- (after he showed up initially at Morgan St. as a quarterback.)  He helped the Bears win a CIAA title. The Browns amazingly nabbed him in the 8th round of the 1964 draft. (No AFL team bothered to draft him at the time.) The knock on Kelly was that he was too small to be playing RB at the time, as most teams featured big backs, so Kelly set out to bulk up to 200 and prove to the league that he would be a wisely invested draft choice.

to77 kellyLeroy rushed for 7,274 yards during his career, -rushing for over 1,000 yards his first three years after becoming the starter.  He won NFL rushing titles in 1967 and 1968 and was a two-time punt return champion as well.  His numbers stand up well in league history with a  combined 12,329 all-purpose yards and 90 touchdowns over his career.   Injuries took their toll on Kelly, and by 1973 it was the end of the road for him. In 1974 the Browns waived Leroy, and he signed with the Oakland Raiders, but soon thereafter was on the roster of the Chicago Fire of the WFL, but that league folded mid-season. At the time of his retirement, he ranked No. 4 all-time in rushing and combined net yards. As a ‘smaller back’, you can point to Kelly as a prime example of a player who helped revolutionize the thinking regarding the intricacies of the the position of runningback versus halfback or fullback and so on. Leroy was enshrined in the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1994.

I got really interested in writing Leroy after being tuned into his legacy by another fan who has a site dedicated to Leroy and the Browns. I myself, have always sympathized with Cleveland. Just like the Oilers, the city had their team yanked out from under them. They also have shared similar paths to modern day glory and tragedy.  Thus I decided to write Leroy, since he fits the mold of the players I like to get autographs from: Underrated and unappreciated (,well at least by modern day fans).

NFL      G/Gs  136     Rush 1727      Yds 7274     Avg 4.2     Td  74    Lg  70   |
Rec 190    Yds  2281      Avg 12.0     Td  13     Lg  68
KR 76      Yds  1784     Avg 23.5     Td 0    Lg  51
PR 94       Yds  990      Avg 10.5     Td 3    Lg  74t

WFL     Rush 77      Yds 315     Avg 4.1      Td  n/a
Rec 8        Yds 128    Avg 16.0    Td  n/a

 

NFL

Slaughter, Webster

gday92 slaughterCard: GameDay 1992
Acquired: 11/23/2012, Fiterman Autograph Event
Failure: TTM 2010, C/o Home

Webster Slaughter was one of the players on the Browns that I loathed and hated the most when he played against the Oilers back in the 80’s. I also equally respected him for his skills and ability to take the ball to the house when it counted most. Many times when I turned on the TV and saw him line up against the Oilers Man to Man defense in the days of Schottenheimer versus Glanville, I’d see Slaughter take a wobbly pass out of the air from Kosar, and streak up the sidelines leaving either Patrick Allen or Steve Brown in his dust.

The Browns made him their second round choice of the 1986 draft out of San Diego State. The draft was notable with having some consistent receivers in it. Tim McGee and Ernest Givins were taken off the board a few picks before Slaughter’s card was rushed to the podium by the Browns, while Hassan Jones and John Taylor were taken afterwards. Slaughter was taken under the recommendation of HoF Brown WR Paul Warfield, whom was acting as a non-defacto scout for the franchise at the time. With deceptive speed and an amazing frame (6’0″, 175) Slaughter quickly found a bond with quarterback Bernie Kosar. The two formed a great duo to keep teams honest against the run when the ground and pound would come to a halt.

His best season came in 1989 with the Browns. Slaughter had a career high 1236 yards, averaged a franchise high 19 yards per reception, and 6 touchdowns, one of which went for 97 yards against the Bears.  Against the Oilers that year he had a 77 yard and an 80 yard touchdown en route to a 184 yard performance.

Webster became embroiled in a contract dispute with the Browns- something he had done with frequency as early as 1988. Unhappy with second year head coach Bill Belichick’s offensive system, Slaughter held out. Although Plan B was the current status quo, Slaughter felt he was a top dollar receiver and wanted to be paid like it. Unable to negotiate with the Browns, he sued the team and became a landmark plantiff that helped bring about the retooled Free Agency System that went into effect during the 1992 season. With the Oilers hunting for a replacement to departed Drew Hill, they immediately snapped up Webster to go alongside Curtis Duncan, Haywood Jeffires, and Ernest Givins in their Run ‘N Shoot receiving corps. That season as he worked into the lineup, Slaughter spent the majority of his time fielding punts.

He’d earn Pro Bowl honors for his 1993 season, starting in 14 games (904 yards, 77 receptions and 5 touchdowns). Slaughter was content with the Oilers, but with the departure of Warren Moon after the 1993 season and the team rebuilding, Webster knew it was a matter of time before he was done in Houston. While his numbers in 1994 were slightly down, the team opted not to resign him. Instead Webster made a move to KC, turning down richer suitors to play for his former head coach in Cleveland, Marty Schottenheimer. While the reunion would last only one season, Slaughter managed to average 15.4 YPR on 34 catches and 4 touchdowns with quarterback Steve Bono at the helm. He’d sign with the Jets in 1996, but the horrendous team finished at a dismal 1-15.  After a season out of the game, Webster played for the Chargers, closing out his career in 1998. He dabbled with playing again as late as 2001 with the Redskins, but finally embraced retirement fully.

Slaughter is a difficult player to obtain TTM. He’s another guy I sent to, and failed miserably to get an autograph from. It is now common knowledge that Webster refuses to sign TTM because he does not want to confirm his address. I was more than happy to pay to get this elusive member of the Browns and Oilers finally into the collection, but still have quite a few more that I’d like to get autographed at a later date since he has so many great cards. Webster is a fairly popular member of the Cleveland Browns and has been seen at many alumni functions.

G/Gs 162/127   Rec 563     Yds 8111     Avg  14.4     Td   44     Lg 97t
Pr  38     Yds 256     Avg  6.7      Td 0     Lg 20

College Football HoF, NFL

McMahon, Jim (2) “Jimmy Mac”

Cards: ProSet 1989, ProSet 1989 Update, ProSet 1991, Fleer 1990
Acquired: TTM 2012, C/o Home
Sent: 10/12   Received: 10/24  (12 days)
See Also: Jim McMahon

So I had gotten Jim almost 20 years ago on a card during a golf tournament, and decided after reading about his recent struggles in “Sports Illustrated” to write him. It was really striking to read about his battles with confirmed early stage dementia from blows to the head that he suffered from over the years playing football. His situation has gotten to a point that his short term memory sometimes gives out. For example, he will know he is going to the airport, run into somebody and have a conversation with them. Two minutes later he’s already asking himself who that person was.  In other words he has little short term memory. Over Jim’s time playing for the Bears, Chargers, Eagles, Vikings, Cardinals, Browns (only in the preseason), and Packers, he suffered at least 3 concussions. On one vicious hit against the Packers, he was picked up and piledriven into the turf. Jim never was taken out of a game for a concussion, and in fact, in a game against Detroit, doctors said his concussion, “Cleared up by halftime.”

Jim is open about his time, and said that if he could do it over- he’d have done baseball instead, but he ultimately knows that football paid his bills through college, as a professional and then on into retirement. McMahon lends some ‘star power’ to the concussion lawsuit group that has greater than 2,500 players as plantiffs against the NFL and helmet makers for knowingly risking head trauma to former players.  Looking at McMahon now, you can see the brash, punky, cavalier image is still there, but clearly he has been worn down as the concussions and the 18 surgeries have taken their toll. He’s granted numerous interviews to media outlets and radio stations, even doing a candid piece for ESPN’s “Outside the Lines”.

He tries to spend a lot of time golfing, and working charity events. He’s involved with design of his apparel line, “SwangWear”, which focuses on quality, functionality, and fun, for the golfing enthusiast.  Jim also gives a percentage of the profit to his sister’s memorial fund, The Lynda McMahon Ferguson Memorial Fund, to help promote literacy. McMahon continues to give time back to the community by being involved with St. Jude as an ambassador and the Wounded Warrior Project.

I am very interested in the lawsuits and the further medical research. I myself suffered 4 concussions before I was 18. I suffered one from heading a soccer ball as a child, one from Scouting where I blacked out for 10 seconds, one from fighting, and finally one from football from constant hitting. I hope that something can be done, as I worry about my own short term memory.

These are some great cards of Jim here. I really wanted to get at least one Bears card signed of his though. I realized that I had not included any of them to send out and had to remove some other great Eagles cards I had to get this ProSet 1989 in. Still getting two of him on these great Chargers cards, just doesn’t do him justice, as his stay was so short there in San Diego. The ProSet 1989 Chargers card would be rushed out so fast that this one is an error card missing the ‘traded’ corner strip. (Still it is worthless because of the sheer overprinting the Pro Set Corporation did of their card lines.) The Fleer 1990 card was the first one from the manufacturer to hit the market since the 1950s. It is generic, but something about it is original in the framing of Jim and how he breaks the picture plane into the yellow. The helmet seems thrown on there arbitrarily along with the hideous shine, but in a sense this added to the naive fun of the product. Again another Eagles card with the ProSet 1991 card. By then McMahon was a full time devotee to the helmet eye shield and still wore the headband, but I like the ‘standing tall’ in the pocket look here.  A great card of on the field action with just the right distance and cropping on the image. Pro Set’s 90 and 91 sets design-wise really run fairly seamlessly together into the 92 series 1 set, before a complete and confusing departure from their design struck the 1992 series 2 cards and ran the company off the tracks.