Cards: Action Packed 1991, Score Supplemental 1989, GameDay 1992
Acquired: TTM 1993, C/o The Houston Oilers
See Also: Lorenzo White (2) , Lorenzo White ‘Lo’ (3)
Wow… Lorenzo White had these suckers stamped.
Unlike the Jeff George cards that I had in 1992 that had suffered the same fate, (that I later replaced with real autographs) I was unable to replace these in time for this post. The ink didn’t pool at all on these cards. It is obvious though because the signatures are all at the same angle and there are articles of missing ink across each signature. I dislike stamps. I don’t mind autopens if they look legit. I compared this one to others and while there are some of these floating around, it’s obvious in comparison that this was lifted from his contract as opposed to his ‘natural signature’. I’d rather have a player return a card unsigned than stamp them, as it just ruins these cards for me.
Lorenzo White played with names such as Bobby McAllister, Willie Bouyer, and Andre Rison at Michigan State, during one of the team’s last heydays. He was drafted in the first round by the Houston Oilers in 1988 and had some exciting highlight film and some longer nicknames such as the “Great White Hope from the Green and White”. Lo was also an excellent receiver out of the backfield with deceptive speed at 5’11”, 222.
The problem was Lorenzo was a fumbling machine that rarely double cluched the football with both arms. In about 200 touches in 1990 he had 7 fumbles. The game Tecmo Super Bowl infamously memorialized this by giving him some of the worst ball control in the game. He was almost guaranteed to fumble the ball once a game, and I’d always run out of bounds instead of take the hit with him. While his numbers improved and he became a pretty surehanded back after that, White never could completely erase those memories from fans.
With a new coach in place in Jack Pardee, he’d begin to thin the herd in 1990 after a conversion to the Run N Shoot offense. Gone were Alonzo Highsmith, Mike Rozier, and eventually Allen Pinkett. Lo would be one of the survivors and would produce a career high 1226 yards rushing and 641 yards receiving in 1992 starting for the team. His 1992 season would earn his one and only Pro Bowl moment. He also gobbled down over 1,800 yards from scrimmage- the most by a runningback probably since Earl Campbell.
My best memory of Lo was that season when he made a 69 yard grab on a screen against the Cleveland Browns in the final minutes of the game to help the team engineer a comeback. He’d be injured during the 1993 season, clearing the way for Gary Brown to take the starting job.
In 1995, White signed via free agency and played for the Cleveland for one final season, but not before going down in Super Tecmo Bowl history as a member of the Browns.
Rush 1062 Yds 4242 Avg 4.0 Td 30 Lg 44
Rec 192 Yds 1738 Avg 9.1 Td 6 lg 69
