Tag Archives: detroit lions

NFL

Brooks, Michael

flr90 mbrooksCard: Fleer 1990
Acquired: TTM 2016, C/o Home
Sent:  3/16    Received: 4/23    (34 days)

One is better than none- I always say as Michael Brooks returned only this Fleer 1990 card from among the four cards I sent. You never know why he decided to only send one back, but I will assume that it is because he didn’t have the other cards in his personal collection.

Michael Brooks was a 3rd round pick of the Denver Broncos from the 1987 draft.  His draft stock plummeted after Michael had a major knee injury during his final year at LSU. It took Brooks some time to recover, and the Broncos brought him along slowly his rookie year.  Michael eventually made a really nice compliment to Karl Mecklenburg in the linebacking corps. From 1989 to 1992 Michael logged at least 120 tackles in each season, including 2 seasons with over 170 (1990- 175, 1992- 170).  He earned his only Pro Bowl appearance for his 1992 season.

Brooks career continued with the New York Giants in 1993, where he put together 3 more solid 90+ tackle seasons. He’d play 4 games in the 1996 for the Lions, retiring after the season. Brooks is immortalized in Tecmo Super Bowl, and was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

G/GS   138/113        TAC   962              SAC 7.0               FUM   9
INT 4          YDS  34          AVG 8.2          TD 0            LG 17

NFL

Davis, Eric

pset90 edavisaprks90 edavis

Cards: Proset 1990, Action Packed Rookies 1990
Acquired: TTM 2015, C/o Home
Sent:  11/19/15   Received: 1/15/16   (57 days)

Eric Davis played college ball for Jacksonville State.  He was drafted in the second round by the San Fransisco 49ers in 1990.  At 5’11”,  185, Davis was considered undersized for the cornerback position, but quickly found himself chomping at the bit for a starting role.  Underrated, Davis was overshadowed by the bigger names in the 49ers secondary, that needed to be rebuilt after the departure of Ronnie Lott. Tim McDonald, Deion Sanders, and Merton Hanks all had impressive seasons in 1994, but it was Eric Davis that propelled the team to their Super Bowl win with his impressive playoff run- a season in which he had an NFL record interception in 5 straight playoff contests (spanning 93/94).  He’d have his best year in 1995, a year in which he won Pro Bowl and All Pro Honors.

For 1996, the 49ers made Eric Davis a free agent. Eric signed with the young Carolina Panthers team. He’d play for the Panthers for 5 years. During that run, Eric had 5 interceptions in each season.  He played for the Broncos in 2001,  and then moved to free safety for the 2002 season for the Detroit Lions.

Davis transitioned to the booth and into media seamlessly. He’s done color commentary for preseason games, and worked on early morning AM sports TV and radio shows.

Action Packed 1990 was one of my favorite sets of that era. Everyday after school my mom used to stop at 7-11, and I’d get a $2.25 pack- a stiff price to pay at the time.  I slowly bought a whole box out of the convienience store, only to find that the only card I hadn’t received was this Eric Davis card. I wrote Hi-Pro Marketing, (the company behind AP at the time) and they responded in a few weeks, enclosing 2 copies of Eric Davis and including a cool prototype/  test card of Barry Sanders from their 1992 set.

G/GS   188/150          TAC 593              SAC 2.0               FUM  14
INT 44          YDS  442        AVG 10.0            TD  4            LG 86T

NFL, WLAF

Miller, John (2)

wcwlaf92 jmiller ultwlaf92 jmiller
Cards: Wild Card WLAF 1992, Ultimate WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2015, C/o Work
Sent:  12/9/15       Received: 1/7/16   (29 days)
See Also:  John Miller

Okay- John took a lot of work to track down, because John Miller is a pretty common name. Eventually using the power of Google, cross referenced with the data off of Miller’s 3 cards, I was able to locate leads off of a networking site and sent these cards out. John was kind enough to respond, personalizing these cards, including a small note, and his business card. John apparently still keeps in touch with many of his Birmingham Fire from his days in the WLAF.  His son carries on his legacy playing at John’s Alma Mater, Michigan State.