Tag Archives: football players who retired from concussions

NFL

Reed, Jordan

ACQUIRED: 2019, Future Considerations

CAREER SNAPSHOT:

  • Jordan Reed played TE at Florida from 2009-12.
  • Moved from QB to TE after the 2009 season.
  • Caught 78 passes for 938 yards and 6 TDs.
  • Selected in the 3rd round of the NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins.
  • Played the next 6 seasons for the Redskins, in a career marked by leaving it all out on the field, but ultimately ending in multiple injuries.
  • Never started a full 16 game slate, but still managed to catch 45+ passes in 5 of his seasons with the Redskins.
  • Had a career high 87 catches for 952 yards and 11 TDs in 2015.
  • Followed that up with a solid 66 catches for 686 yards and 6 TDs in 2016.
  • After an injury sidelined him for the entirety of 2019, played one final season in San Fransisco in 2020.
  • Retired primarily due to injuries with 7 concussions and multiple hamstring injuries factoring into decision.

ACCOLADES:

  • All-Rookie Team 2013
  • Pro Bowl 2016

NOTES:

My buddy Lance surprised me with this really nice photo of Jordan. It’s not a card, but it’s a JSA Certified photo, so I’ll take it. Jordan was a stroke of free agent genius for me during my 2016 Fantasy Football season. Unfortunately I missed the playoffs that year by tie breakers.

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NFL

Miller, Chris (2)

Cards: Action Packed 1990, Score 1990, ProSet 1989, Fleer 1990
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o The Arizona Cardinals
Sent: 7/5  Received: 8/2   (26 days)
See also: Chris Miller

I got Chris’ autograph way back in 1993 at the CGA Youth Golf Tournament when he was a member of the Atlanta Falcons. I noticed that he was now on the staff of the Arizona Cardinals as their quarterbacks coach, and wanted to add him to my collection on a few more cards.   After I had recent success with former Falcons runningback John Settle, I decided to give Miller another shot after all these years, where he graciously signed all 4 of these cards for me in 26 days.

Really pleased with these 4 cards. They actually represent a good sampling of my favorite cards to collect during that time period, with Fleer, ProSet, Action Packed, and Score. I loved this classic 80s look of the Falcons, and miss this rich red color that they used back then. All of these cards had excellent action shots of Chris, with the Action Packed and Score cards really standing out with their dynamic poses. Design wise as you can see, near the end of the 80s nearly all the brands were framing all of their players in around all sides with a border. Fleer would become one of the first brands to ‘break the border’ as you can see with Chris’ helmet on his Fleer 1990 card.

NFL

Miller, Chris

Cards: Pinnacle 1992, Upper Deck 1991, Skybox 1992, ProSet 1991,ProSet 1990,ProLine 1992, Proline Profiles 1992, Upper Deck 1992.
Acquired: In Person 1993, CGA Youth Golf Tournament
See Also: Chris Miller 2

Out of the University of Oregon, the Atlanta Falcons drafted Chris Miller with their first round pick of the 1987 draft under head coach Marion Campbell. A solid, traditional drop back passer with great mechanics, Chris was also a talented pitcher who threw for the Bellingham Mariners and Salinas Spurs in 1986.

He’d be slowly brought along by the team, but by his second year, Chris established himself as the starting quarterback of the Falcons. In 1989, despite the team’s bad record, Chris led the NFL with the lowest interception ratio at 1.9%. Oddly Miller is one of those strange quarterbacks who had a good touchdown to interception ratio, but had a losing record.

It wouldn’t be till 1991 when head coach Jerry Glanville took charge and installed the Red Gun offense that Miller would take fire, leading the team to the playoffs, posting his best record and statistics as a professional. He’d also go to the Pro Bowl after the season- one of the major highlights of his career.  He’d leave the Falcons and sign with the Rams, staying there for two seasons in 1994 and 1995, before retiring due to a concussion.

He would heroically return in 1999 to play for the Broncos- but once again he’d suffer another concussion and retire for good.

Since pro ball, Chris has coached at the High School level back in Oregon before he was hired to be the Cardinals quarterbacks coach in 2008. I met him at the CGA youth golf tournament where he signed every card I had on me in exchange for the 17×24″ drawing I did of him. He was really impressed by the likeness that I did of him.

G/Gs 98/92    Att 2892     Comp 1580    Yds 19320   Pct 54.6
Td 123   Int 102   Rat 74.9