Tag Archives: eric metcalf

NFL, University of Texas

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.

NFL, University of Texas

Metcalf, Eric (2)

pset89 metcalfap90 metcalfsco90 metcalf HC

Cards: Score 1990 Hot Card, ProSet 1989, Action Packed 1990, Fleer 1995

Acquired: TTM 2014, C/o Home
Sent:  4/4  Received: 4/21  (17 days)
See Also: Eric Metcalf
Failure: TTM 1992, C/o The Cleveland Browns

With these four cards, I pretty much have knocked Eric Metcalf’s cards off my list- that is his Browns cards. Getting Eric’s autograph in any other uniform other than a Browns uniform would be like asking for Brett Favre on a Jets card to me. When I ran out to get Eric at Third Base a few years ago, I grabbed as many cards as I could, but didn’t have these, since three of them were lost in the mail all those years ago.  I had forgotten how nice these cards that I missed out on were.I reloaded and waited for a suitable time to shoot these cards out. Eric is very good to TTM fans- at least since I scolded him about it a few years ago. He’s one of my favorites from my childhood, so it was fitting I come around for a TTM hit.

Eric’s been busy in Seattle since returning there. He’s been involved in coaching track and field, most recently joining the staff at Washington as a volunteer assistant for horizontal jumping. Eric had an amazing track career at UT, winning the NCAA Championship in the long jump in 1986, and again in 1988.  A four-time All-American and that still holds the Texas school record for the outdoor long jump with a best of 27-8.25, Eric qualified for the finals of the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials, placing eighth. 

 

NFL, University of Texas

Metcalf, Eric

pset90 metcalf pset91 metcalf stclub93 metcalf sco90 metcalf
Cards: ProSet 1990, UD UT 2011 Icons, UD UT 2011, SkyBox 1992, GameDay 1992, ProSet 1991,Fleer 1990, Stadium Club 1993, Score 1990, Score 1991 90+ Club

Acquired: In Person 1/30/2012, 1300 The Zone 3rd Base Appearance
Failure: TTM 1992, C/o The Cleveland Browns, TTM 2010 C/o Home

gday92 metcalfThird time is a charm right? Well Eric Metcalf has been an idol of mine since I was a kid, and I had tried twice before -and failed to acquire the elusive runningback/return man/wide receiver out of the University of Texas. Meeting Metcalf in person was a treat for me as he had been on my list obviously for a long time.

I believe that the first college football game that I attended at Darrell K. Memorial Stadium, was a game with the Longhorns against the Arkansas Razorbacks. While the Longhorns lost, amidst their late 1980’s slump, Metcalf dominated doing everything for the Longhorns and by the time he graduated, Eric was the school’s all time leading receiver. Metcalf finished his career as a local Longhorn athletic legend playing even baseball and running track.

The Cleveland Browns became enamored with his athleticism, and Eric was drafted in the first round, during one of the greatest modern era drafts of all time -1989. Metcalf provided a speedy spark for the Browns on offense. The do it all back lined up at runningback or receiver and provided incredible mismatches for linebackers in the flat. He also returned kicks too, and then flr90 metcalfafter the departure of Gerald McNeil to Houston, as a punt returner as well. Spending his first 6 seasons in Cleveland, there were some spectacular highlight reels of Metcalf in action during a Monday Night Game against the Bengals where he made 3 players miss before  galloping into the endzone untouched, or his famous one man army against the Raiders in 1992 when he scored all 4 of the Browns touchdowns to beat LA. Eric finished his career in Cleveland with 9108 combined yards, 5 punt returns and  2 kick returns for touchdowns, 11 tds rushing and 15 receiving.

In 1995, Eric played for the Atlanta Falcons, under the Red Gun of head coach June Jones and gunslinger Jeff George. He’d fit right in under the Run ‘N Shoot variant, recording 104 receptions for 1189 yards and 8 touchdowns. After a down year in 1996, Eric would be traded to the San Diego Chargers where he spent one year with Kevin Gilbride. He’d lead the NFL with 3 punt returns for touchdowns that season and earn his second All Pro honor. He’d go one and done with the Chargers and head out to Arizona after San Diego traded him and 2 first round choices in 1998 to grabsky92 metcalf Ryan Leaf during the draft. Eric finished the season with 1837 yards from scrimmage. 1999, Eric spent with the Carolina Panthers, recording 456 YFS, and 2001 with the Washington Redskins setting the NFL record after returning his 10th career punt for a touchdown. After a short stint with the Packers in 2002, Eric decided to hang up the cleats. At the time of his retirement Eric Metcalf, the do-it-all back from the University of Texas had 17230 all purpose yards in his NFL career which was good for 5th all time.

I had recently been complaining to Josh about there not being enough player appearances for autographs around town. The newspapers used to run aggressive advertising about player appearances but I was fretting that times had changed and this was no longer the case. While reading the sports page that day I had seen that Eric was making an appearance at a local bar with 1300 -The Zone ( AKA The Longhorn Station). I went out of my way to get out to the event so that I could meet Eric. I walked in at 5 where the radio team and Rod Babers were set up, only to find Eric Metcalf and Charlie Ward sitting off by themselves away from the hooplah. utud2011 metcalfAfter confirming that- those were indeed both of those players and that they were not being mobbed for autographs, I proceeded to meet Eric, and acquire his autograph on as many of his cards that I could. Disappointingly, I didn’t have another ProSet 1989 card of him, and even stopped on the way into town to cull one from the local card dealer. When I spoke to Eric, I told him that I had tried multiple times in the past to write him but had not had any success. He shrugged his shoulders and said that he was normally pretty good about that, and he offered to sign as many cards as I’d like. (- I had 11.)  I sat there for a while and shot the breeze with Metcalf. When I told him that I felt that the 1989 draft was probably one of the best modern day drafts of all time- his eyes lighted up in agreement. We talked about the numerous HoFers from that draft, and I told him that his numbers were deserving to be among the hall. I told him how I remembered his shellacking of the Bengals on Monday Night Football, and we talked about his career in glorious retrospective. Among the laughs he got out of it was how he returned a kickoff for a TD against the Oilers, even though I had told him that I had hoped they would kick it nowhere near him. He sco91 metcalfchewed the Oilers up for some 200 yards returning that day, but the Browns lost 41-17 or something horrendous like that.

Eric was the honorary captain of the USA v. The World Football game held annually in Austin. As the girls who were trying to inform fans of the event approached the table to talk to us, I acted as though I had no clue what was going on and that Eric was not the ‘MC of the event’. I let her do her spiel and then asked her if she knew who I was. I then told her that, “I, was Eric Metcalf.” I then told her all about Eric’s illustrious career, and even got up to try to imitate one of his moves. All the time Eric was laughing at me, and told the poor girl not to listen to me.  She still had no clue who Eric was, but said that we didn’t look old at all. Eric and I sat there for a few minutes more and talked until more fans started arriving. He quipped to me that he didn’t need to say anything and that I should just be his publicist, since I knew everything about him already. I even recounted the teams he had been on in his career. (We both casually forgot his Green Bay and Carolina stints.) After about 20 minutes of bantering around and then meeting the subdued Charlie udut2011icons metcalfWard, I got a photo with Eric and hit the road, a very happy camper. It was indeed a very successful experience.

Eric enjoys coaching track now in the Seattle area. I asked him if he ever thought about coaching football, and he told me that, “Coaching track is much easier than football ever was,” And then laughed. Frequently Metcalf comes to the area, 3-4 times a year for alumni and other events around town. He is extremely approachable and very kind to fans.

In entertainment and media, Eric was a dominating running back in Tecmo Super Bowl for the Browns. I IMAG0473enjoyed playing as the Browns because I built the offense to work around him. I’d start him at both return man jobs, and at runningback. If I was unable to rush for very many yards, I’d stick him out at receiver. Among the plethora of players that they got wrong on that game, Metcalf sticks out as one they completely nailed.

Here is Eric’s exhaustive statistical line:
G/Gs 179/77     Pr  351   Yds  3453  Avg  9.8    Td 10   Lg 92t
Kr 280   Yds 5813   Avg 20.8   Td 2  Lg 101t
Rush 630  Yds 2392   Avg 3.8    Td 12   Lg 55
Rec  541   Yds  5572   Avg 10.3  Td 31   Lg 69

Part 1 of 4 from Eric Metcalf’s highlight reel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wafxQ63iwMg&feature=related