Tag Archives: Minnesota Vikings

NFL

Talley, Darryl ‘Spider-Man’

Cards: Action Packed 1991, SkyBox Colors 1993/94, ProSet 1991
Acquired: TTM 2016, C/o Home
Sent: 12/6/16 Received: 7/30/18    (599 days)

A second round pick of the Buffalo Bills in 1983, Darryl Talley never missed a game in 12 seasons for the Bills. The unusually injury immune linebacker was also a model of consistent play over his long career- that spanned in the end, 14 seasons and 4 Super Bowl appearances. Talley is the Bills’ all-time leading tackler with 1,137 takedowns, to go along with  38.5 sacks, 14 fumble recoveries, 12 interceptions and 2 touchdowns.  After the 1994 season, Talley hit the open market and signed with the Falcons, playing 1995 with them and 1996 with the Vikings before retiring.  He was inducted into the Bills Wall of Fame in 2003, and named to the Bills 50th Anniversary team in 2009.

Darryl has battled severe depression and financial hardship since his retirement, however he’s worked hard to conquer his demons, partially in part due to his wife and children. As of 2018 he acts as a football ambassador for the NFL Legends community of players. The goal is to reach out and help as many former players and let them know of the different programs that are available to them from the league. Here’s hoping things continue on the up and up for Spider-Man.

Darryl Talley had some fantastic cards over his years in the league. I was pleased to add these 3 interesting designs and/or dynamic photos to the Encyclopedia. His Action Packed 1991 card embodies everything I want to see in an exciting solo shot of a linebacker, with Talley in full pursuit about to pop a ball carrier. The card itself on the front is minimally designed, and this appeals to me, and Darryl inked this card in the right spot to accent it perfectly. – High marks indeed. Skybox had a smart debut with their base set in 1992. Their subsequent releases, not-so-much. It didn’t help that they along with their counterparts flooded the market with so much content it was impossible to stay loyal to any card company and follow a release schedule. Mind you this was the high days of adventure before the internet!

The ‘Colors’ 1993-1994 Skybox set was a really slick look but by the time this set came out, I had already had my bank account plundered regularly by the discovery of girls. Both this card and the ProSet 1991 showcase Darryl’s nice arm sleeves, that intentionally were in a webbed pattern to harken to his nickname- Spider-Man.

ProSet set the standard from 89 to 92 really. (Nobody talks about ProSet 93.) That was also their problem. I felt the cards were the minimum I’d expect from a company to show me, even though what ProSet showcased with the minimal design was really outstanding for its era before Photoshop. Great photo of Darryl. It is too bad that ProSet ate itself out of the market. I wonder what their brand would look like today if it still existed.  Overall though Darryl signed 3 of 4 cards, and has a great signature. I think I sent him a donation but honestly it was so long ago I can not recall.

G/GSTACSACFUMINTYDSAVGTDLG
216/187119038.5141218915.7261T
NFL

Jones, Cayleb

sage16 cjonesCard: Sage 2016 #120/250
Acquired: 2016, Hobby Box Break

The son of former Cowboys LB Robert Jones and nephew of former Saints QB Jeff Blake, Cayleb Jones played High School ball in Austin, Tx at Austin High School. The wide receiver was recruited by the University of Texas, but in the wake of the change over from Mack Brown to Charlie Strong and being charged with misdemeanor assault in 2013, Jones elected to transfer out of UT to Arizona. Jones, at 6’3″, 215 finished his college career with 130 receptions for 1,958 yards and 14 TDs. He played in all 13 of the Wildcats’ games in 2013, including a 45-37 win over New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl.  Cayleb Jones was considered a sleeper in the 2016 NFL Draft with all the puzzle pieces of a complete receiver- that hasn’t completely put it all together yet.

After the NFL draft he signed a free agent contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.  He made it all the way to the final cutdowns before being released. Later in the year he signed with the Minnesota Vikings but was cut during preseason, after seeing limited time on the field dur to injury. He resigned with the squad at the end of the year on a futures contract, but was later suspended the first 4 games of 2018 for violating the league’s PED policy. He was again released by the team at the end of the preseason.

NFL

Rosenfels, Sage

Card: Upper Deck SPx 2001  (129/500)
Acquired: 2017, EBay

Sage Rosenfels was a quarterback for Iowa State from 1997-2000.  Although only a two year starter, he put up 306 completions (52.1%) for 4,164 yards and 18 TDs. Sage always seemed to have big numbers when the lights were the brightest, such as in the Insight.com Bowl, where he guided the Cyclones to a victory over Pittsburgh.  After a pretty solid combine, Rosenfels’ name began to climb in the view of many scouts. Still Rosenfels was considered a prospect without the big name glitter.

He’d be the 9th quarterback selected off the board- taken by the Washington Redskins with the 109th pick (4th round) of the 2001 draft. In 2002, the Redskins felt that they had their quarterback situation well in hand under Danny Wuerffel, Shane Matthews, and Patrick Ramsey, so Steve Spurrier traded Rosenfels to the Miami Dolphins for an undisclosed 2003 selection. Sage started only 2 games over the next 4 years, and was primarily only seen in mopup duty.

In 2006, the Houston Texans were in full rebuild mode under new head coach Gary Kubiak, but they wanted to give incumbent starter David Carr another year to develop at quarterback before they pulled the trigger. The team signed Rosenfels via free agency to back up Carr. Sage came in again during mop up duty and had a pretty decent effort throwing for 265 yards and 3 TDs in 4 games of relief of Carr.

During the off-season of 2007 the franchise traded for Falcons’ backup quarterback Matt Schaub. Unwilling to backup Schaub or take a paycut, Carr was cut.  With Schaub off-injured over the next two seasons, Sage got some starting time in playing 10 games and posting a 6-4 record. Sage had his best season in 2007- a year in which both Schaub and Andre Johnson were hard hit by the injury bug. It was a fun season- watching the team come together under Sage from a bunch of scrappy role players to a really dangerous offensive unit. Rosenfels was 154/240 for 1684 yards with 15 TDs to 12 interceptions.  Teams quickly became interested and envious of the Texans sudden rags to riches situation at quarterback.

Sage returned in 2008 but didn’t have as much luck posting 6 TDs to 10 interceptions on 174 attempts. While his yardage per game increased as he was relied on to carry the team a bit more over a 5 game period (1431 yards), Sage is instead known as the butt of a joke to many outsiders for an incident known as the ‘Rosencopter’.  With the game on the line against the Colts, he decided to scramble for the first down. Facing down three defenders, Sage heroically decided to go airborne, but got spun in the air like a helicopter….  and fumbled the ball… and the game away. (Despite this Sage has been relatively easy going about the incident, even going so far as to poke fun at himself on Twitter.) As a Texans fan however, I was more forgiving as you could tell that Sage just wanted to win.

In 2009 the Vikings finally consummated the trade for Rosenfels they wanted to do in 2008 for a 4th round pick. (Initially I was very worried about the deal because Matt Schaub had done nothing to prove that he could remain injury free- but my fears would be allayed.)  Sage never found the starting quarterback job long term- as fate intervened again with the Vikings soon thereafter signing Brett Favre.

Sage was traded again in 2010- this time to the New York Giants, where he’d backup Eli Manning. He’d be on the roster of the Giants through 2011. When starter Chad Henne was injured, Rosenfels rejoined the Dolphins for some mercenary action. Later in the year Sage made his final stop again with the Vikings, but was among the franchise’s final cuts in 2012.

He currently lives in Iowa, and is an active Twitter presence. When I posted this card to his profile with a ‘Blue Steel’ reference to Zoolander, he and a few other media personalities got a good laugh out of it. In 2017 he also attended Andre Johnson’s induction into the Houston Texans’ Ring of Honor.

G/GS 43/12     Att 562      Cpd  351        Yds  4156
TD  30            Int 29        Rat  81.2

Rush 38     Yds   95        Avg 2.0            TD 1