I mean- are there anymore cards that I can get signed by Haywood at this point that from a design point I like that are from his HOUSTON Oilers era? Probably a few, but there are only a few more left.
I decided to get a few more during the GTSM event in Houston in 2023. The Skybox Premium insert is the backside of a Thunder & Lightning with Warren Moon– that I’ll probably have to get at a later time, since Warren cancelled at the last second and GTSM was slow to notify everybody. It’s a great looking card. I wish I had a paint pen. I’d have had him sign in light blue.
After Haywood signed TTM back in 2020 I flipped back out this photo to Curtis I took from the GMC Showcase back in 2013. I was surprised not to get it back TTM. After 3 years of waiting I figured I’d just get him at the GTSM showcase.
I was the first person in line for Curtis. He was happy to sign anything. I think he recognized me from the last time we met at the Houston Texans game while he was still an ambassador for the franchise. He LOVED the #80 jersey I was wearing and told me he still had the GMC shirt from the photo below.
Well since the last time I wrote Ernest, he stopped signing TTM. Such is the life of the game. I had been fortunate to get him many times both in person and TTM, so I was fine with spending a little extra cash to get these last cards knocked out of him.
Action Packed All-Madden Team 1990, #34
Proset 1992, #510Fleer 1990, #127
For some reason my tickets weren’t popping up properly on the app. The gatekeepers were treating me like I was trying to cheat the system, but yes indeed I had 8 cards I wanted to be signed by Ernest. Since we couldn’t get it to work in time, they had to manually key it in for me. It almost completely ruined the experience for me, but I was able to go behind the curtains and meet the players that way and they gladly signed for me.
Ernest protested because Curtis and Haywood were excited I was wearing an original 1990s #80 Houston Oilers jersey, as at one point during Jeffires and Duncan’s careers they both wore that number, while Givins stuck with 81.
Playoff 1993, #242Playoff 1992, #8
I had enough time behind the magic curtain to ask him how it was going with tutoring his nephew and trying to get him into a league. He said he’s still at it. Curtis immediately chimed in and started talking about how Ernest was trying to teach his nephew how to drop his shoulder and juke off the LOS- something Givins excelled at doing in the slot. Givins then went on to mention that he was trying to get his nephew to pick up gymnastics, because that really helped Ernest as a receiver take his game to a new level.
Celebrating the game, the players, the cards, and the autographs for over 25 years.
