Tag Archives: Jacksonville Jaguars

NFL, University of Texas

Cosby, Quan

  

ud09 cosbymem cosby

Cards: Score 2009, Upper Deck 2009, Press Pass 2009, Press Pass 2009SE, Donruss Rookies & Stars 2009, Upper Deck Star Rookies 2009, Playoff Prestige 2009, Pacific 2009.

Acquired: 2/16/2013, Longhorn Neighborhood Foundation Bowling Tournament, GMC Texas NFL Tour 2013. 3/15/2014 Longhorn Neighborhood Foundation Bowling Tournament.
See Also: Quan Cosby (2)

dor&s09 cosbypp09 cosbyQuan Cosby had some great seasons for the Longhorns as one of Colt McCoy‘s go to targets at receiver. He also had a habit showing up when it counted, making the winning TD grab in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.  He finished his career at UT with 212 catches for 2,598 yards and 19 touchdowns.

At 5’9″, 196 many teams felt he was a bit undersized and he went undrafted. He quickly found a home with the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals offensive system was predicated around their superstars, Carson Palmer, Cedric Benson, and Chad OchoCinco. He was able to pac09 cosbypp09 cosbygrab a roster spot as a return man for the franchise while he honed his receiving skills buried on the depth chart. Over two seasons he grabbed 6 receptions for 71 yards. Cosby was very valuable at punt returner. In his rookie season Quan had 40 punt returns, (2nd in team history at the time, since surpassed,) for 474 yards. Both numbers led the NFL. In 2010 Cosby had 30 punt returns for 225 yards, but the team had been building up the receiver depth chart with guys like former Longhorn teammate Jordan Shipley. Quan was simply caught in a numbers game and was made a free agent after the season. He split the 2011 seasonudstar089 cosby poff09pres cosbywith 2 franchises: the Colts and the Broncos, where Denver put him back to work again as a punt returner. He signed with the Jaguars in 2012, where he was reunited with Shipley.

Again, Cosby was another player I got from the LNF Bowling tourney. I was very lucky to get him as he was walking out the door at the end of the day and he was kind enough to sign these two cards for me. Of note, Cosby is apparently a talented Baseball player, and spent a few years in the Angels farm system before joining the Longhorns in Austin.

sco09 cosbycosbyI decided on a whim to go a bit early and try to get him at the GMC Texas NFL tour that was going on in November of that year. The prize of the day was VY but I thought a nice consolation would be another Quan card. Why not? With little or no line for Cosby’s early start time, this allowed for him to chat with each and every fan. He was very accommodating and took a photo with me. Much to my surprise he also asked me about my thermal, and asked me where I had gotten it, telling me that he, “Liked my style.” He also gave me this pretty nice autographed photo to boot.

Cosby was also just penciled in by the Texas Longhorns to replace Rod Babers on their sideline reporting. Quan told me he had originally found out through Twitter because he had started receiving congratulations about the job. He said he was nervous because his interview was going to happen the day after the event we were currently at! I told him not to worry and that he’d do a great job. When I asked him how badly the Sooners were going to beat Texas, Quan said that he, “Had ultimate confidence in Case and that the Oklahoma team was young. We’d stand a good chance at winning.” I brushed it off as homerism, but you know what- he was right. I look forward to seeing Quan at future events around town now that I have restocked on his cards.

Overall, the GMC event was fairly well run. I did get the autograph of every player that attended that I wanted and to boot, the quality of the photographs were outstanding and on good Kodak photo paper.

I went to the 2014 Longhorn Bowling Tournament, hoping to – well… sneak in, utilizing one of my contacts from the 2013 event, but unfortunately he wasn’t there, so I felt my time there was inappropriately spent. On the way out I decided to spam Quan with a bunch of cards. After patiently waiting for him, he signed all my cards, and told me he hadn’t seen many of them before. He also broadly smiled when I told him he was right about the Longhorns beating Oklahoma.

CFL, NFL

Hill, Kahlil

Card: SP Authentics 2002
Acquired:  Target Authentic Autograph Memorabilia

Kahlil Hill was a 2002 6th round draft choice of the Atlanta Falcons from the University of Iowa, where he displayed consistency, tallying at least a catch in all 35 contests he was active for. At the end of his career for the Hawkeyes, he recorded 152 receptions, 1892 yards, and 15 touchdowns and also received the Mosi Tatupu Special Teams Player of the Year Honors in 2001.  Hill provided quarterbacks a large, slender target, at 6-3, 195, but his 40 speed didn’t  showcase his game speed that well, so he slipped to the Falcons as the 16th best rated receiver. Unable to crack the Falcons squad in ’02 after playing in one game, he spent his time on the rosters of the Saints, Lions, and Bills through 2004.   Kahlil experienced some mild success when he went to the CFL to play for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2005 and 2006 as a punt returner and back up receiver. A brief off-season with the Jags later in 2006, returned him to the CFL this time as a member of the Roughriders in 2007, and finally the British Columbia Lions in 2008 before he retired.

NFL, NFLE, Super Bowl MVP, ufl, usfl

Williams, Doug

sco89 dwilliamsCard: Score 1989
Acquired: Trade 2013
Failure: TTM 2010, C/o The Buccaneers

One of the first Super Bowls I vividly remember watching was Super Bowl XXII between the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins. After spotting John Elway and the Broncos 10 points, Doug Williams came onto the field and guided the Redskins to 42 unanswered points. It was the first time a black quarterback had started in the Super Bowl, -and people were making a big deal about it, but as a kid this didn’t really seem to be the biggest storyline. The best thing to me about the game was Williams’ receivers, Clark, Monk, and Sanders who had really great celebrations. I wasn’t really aware of what Williams had been through to that point to get him to the Super Bowl, little less win and become its MVP. Really it’s pretty legendary.

Well, Doug Williams’ career started way, way back in 1978 when he was drafted out of Grambling State by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he was under the tutelage of offensive coordinator Joe Gibbs for that one season. Although his numbers were pretty atrocious, especially his completion percentage early on, Doug showed marked improvement every season from 37.6 in 1978, to 53.2 in 1982. As the team progressed into the playoffs for the first two times in the team’s history, Williams got embroiled in a contract dispute with owner Hugh Culverhouse after the 1982 season.  Unable to reach terms with the Bucs, Doug bolted for the upstart USFL in 1983. Some would say that the Buccaneers were cursed after Williams left, as they slipped into the doldrums of the NFC Central where they’d languish for nearly 15 years going through a revolving door of quarterbacks (13) that included names such as Steve DeBerg, Vinny Testaverde, Craig Erickson, Chris Chandler, Steve Young, and Trent Dilfer, before they got it right and then later won the Super Bowl in 2001. (Note that both Young and Dilfer also won the Super Bowl after leaving Tampa, and Young was also MVP. Ironically Chandler and DeBerg showed up on the same team but did not win for the Falcons.)

Doug was selected by the Oklahoma Outlaws. He then moved on to play for Arizona when it merged with Oklahoma as the USFL began imploding the next season.  The team didn’t make the playoffs either season, and Williams’ penchant for being an inconsistent passer began to take hold in the media once again. He finished his career in the USFL and it appeared that Williams career was at a standstill as a starter, but an old friend had a roster spot for him on the Washington Redskins- Joe Gibbs.

With Joe Theismann’s career winding down in Washington, the Redskins needed new blood behind Jay Schroeder at quarterback. Familiar with Doug all the way back from his brief stay in Tampa, Gibbs nabbed Williams off the street in 1986. While Doug didn’t really see any playing time that season, it’d be in 1987 that he’d cement his legacy as a historical quarterback of the modern era. Taking over for the injured Schroeder that season, Williams commanded the team and the offense with 11 touchdowns to only 5 picks. He’d also set a then NFL record with the most yards passing in the Redskins’ Super Bowl victory over the Broncos, a game that he won MVP honors for. With Schroeder leaving the Redskins the following season for the Raiders, Doug took over as uncontested starter for the Redskins, but unfortunately Doug could not stay injury free. Instead, he became backup to the next quarterback to win a Super Bowl for the Redskins, Mark Rypien. He retired after the 1989 season, due to lingering back issues. Despite his limited playing time for the Redskins, and 5-9 starting record, Doug is considered legendary by many of the Washington faithful. He was inducted into the Washington Redskins Ring of Fame, and was named one of the team’s 80 greatest players.

Williams jumped into coaching and front office roles with equal vigor, enjoying stops at the US Naval Academy (1994), Scottish Claymores (1995), Jacksonville Jaguars (1995-1996), Morehouse College (1997), Grambling (1998-2003), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2004-2010), Virginia Destroyers (2010-2011), and then returned to become head coach at Grambling where he has remained through 2012.  It’s very easy to say that Williams legacy as the first black starting quarterback in the modern era cemented leadership roles for future players such as Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham and on into the modern era of quarterbacks today.

G/Gs 88/81   Att 2501     Comp 1240    Yds 16998     Pct 49.5      Td  100    Int 93     Rat 69.4  |
Rush 220     Yds 884      Avg  4.0       Td  15    Lg 29