Tag Archives: indianapolis colts

NFL, ufl

Rhodes, Dominic

Card: Top Notch UFL  2011
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o The Virginia Destroyers
Sent: 10/25/11   Received 2/2/12 ( 100 days)

A seemingly ageless runningback, Dominic Rhodes has seen stints with the Colts, Raiders, and Bills, since going undrafted in 2001 out of tiny Midwestern State. In his first season he ran 1104 yards, setting an NFL record for undrafted rookie runningbacks. Dominic also played in Superbowl XLI for the Colts, rushing for 113 yards and a touchdown against the Chicago Bears. After 6 seasons, Rhodes would play one season for the Raiders, and a preseason with the Bills.

In 2010 Rhodes signed with the Florida Tuskers of the UFL. He responded by leading the league in rushing with 547 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 919 net yards. His 260 yards on 12 kick returns were second in the league as well.  After the season he’d play for the Colts again briefly in 2010, before returning to the Tuskers in 2011, (who had moved to Virginia and been rechristened the Destroyers,) under the leadership of Marty Schottenheimer. Playing in his famous ‘Marty-Ball’ offense, Dominic ran for a league record 217 yards and 3 touchdowns, against the Sacramento Mountain Lions. After the 5 game season in which Dominic ran for 410 yards, he’d be named league MVP and also rush for 96 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries in UFL Championship Game III. At this time in 2012 he is the career leading rusher for the UFL.

I wrote Dominic courtesy of the Virginia Destroyers late last season. He responded in a flat 100 days and said that, “He’d love a copy of this card I designed.” I’ll shoot him out another high quality copy of the card in a few weeks when I have a bit more time.

Arena, NFL, WLAF

Simmons, Stacey (2)

 Cards: Pacific 1991, Wild Card WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2010, C/o Stacey Simmons Sports Training
Sent: 6/11/10   Received: 1/11/12  (579 days)
See Also: Simmons, Stacey

A track man, Stacey was part of a team at Florida that set the nation’s fastest time in the 4×200 relay with 1:26:31.  The first pick of the Colts in the 4th round of 1990 that played both receiver and punt returner, Stacey saw playing time also with the Buccaneers, before heading over to the Orlando Thunder in 1992.  After a short off-season with the 49ers, Stacey found a home for 8 seasons in the Arena Football League playing for the Tampa Bay Storm, winning two AFL Championships.

I have to give credit to Sotl for this find, as I had given up on this one some time ago. Seeing his name on the website, I easily recognized him as a member of the Orlando Thunder and nudged him a bit for those autographs and amazingly they arrived a bit over a year and a half later setting a new record at a fat 579 days.
He also included a nice note for it taking so long and welcomed me to check out his site at www.staceysimmons.com. It’s amazing looking at these autographs from the two posts gotten some 20 years apart, and realizing that the autograph is authentic, because the signature is still the same.

NFL, NFLE, ufl

Gray, Quinn


Cards:  UD MVP 2003, Topps 2008
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Florida A&M Rattlers
Sent: 11/8   Received:  11/21   (13 days)

A strong armed quarterback that resembled Daunte Culpepper, (6’3″, 246) Quinn Gray set benchmarks at Florida A&M with 7368 yards passing and 57 touchdowns. Undrafted, Gray would be signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2002, and then be allocated to NFL Europe to play for the Frankfurt Galaxy in 2003. While with the Galaxy, Quinn would have a good season (58/131, 1099 yards, and 11 tds to only 5 picks) playing alongside former Texas Terminator and Texas Longhorn James Brown, leading the Galaxy to a World Bowl victory (XI). He’d return stateside, and not throw a pass in the NFL through the 2004 season.

Gray in 2005 saw some cleanup action, and again in 2006, earning a reputation as a solid backup. With the Jaguars jettisoning Byron Leftwich, Gray slid into the backup position behind incumbent David Garrard in 2007. He’d hop into the starting role near the end of the season as the injury bug would sideline Garrard. Quinn started 4 games, completing 80 of 144 passes for 966 yards and 10 touchdowns, including a head stomping of the Houston Texans. At the end of the season, Gray became a free agent and ironically signed with the Texans. Facing stiff competition, Gray would lose out on the backup job to Matt Schaub against Sage Rosenfels. Quinn later saw time also on the rosters of the Colts and Chiefs before being named the starting quarterback of the New York Sentinels of the UFL in 2009. The team would finish a woeful 0-10 and relocated to Hartford. In the meantime, Quinn has gone into coaching in what he calls, “A dream come true,” with his former Alma Mater, Florida A&M where I got his autograph in under two weeks via the school.

This Upper Deck MVP card is one of the ugliest I’ve seen and lacks any subtly to its design and texturing. The flagrant abuse of the jersey stock, not only on the front but the back as well, renders much of the type distracting and illegible, especially when there is use of thin black 6pt type on a gray backdrop. How did this get past QC? The Topps card, -probably the only one of Quinn in a Texans uniform, is a conservative yawner attempting to capture a look from years past in the use of the type. The framing and insistence of having the Topps logo front and center is ugly and makes me feel like I am looking at a one toothed monster, but I digress. I am none the less happy to add Quinn to the collection with his illustrious NFLE, NFL, and UFL careers behind him. Below are Quinn’s shockingly good limited NFL statistics:

G/Gs  12/4    Att  188     Comp   108      Yds 1328      Pct   57.4     Td  13      Int   5      Rat  91.4
Rush 25    Yds  111   Avg  4.4    Td  2    Lg 27