Tag Archives: post football injuries

College Football HoF, NFL, WLAF

Williams, Reggie (LB)

Cards: ProSet 1989, Action Packed 1990, Action Packed Whizzer White Award 1991, ProSet 1991 WLAF Inserts
Acquired: TTM 2020, C/o Home
Sent: 10/5 Received: 10/17 (12 days)

Reggie Williams played college football at Dartmouth, and was a 3 time All-Ivy League selection from 1973-1975. Reggie was so dominant that he caught the attention of pro scouts, parlaying his efforts to become a 3rd round selection of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1976.

Over the next 14 seasons, Reggie went on to become one of the Bengals best draft picks. He played in an unheard of 206 games (one short of Ken Riley for the franchise record), and virtually owned the entire Bengals record books at linebacker for every statistical category including: career tackles, sacks, interceptions, and fumbles. He also earned the Whizzer White Award in 1985, the NFL Man of the Year Award in 1986, and SI’s Sportsperson of the Year in 1987.

Reggie made waves next as he went on to work in the front office of the World League of American Football‘s New York-New Jersey Knights franchise in 1991, becoming one of the first African American General Managers in any pro capacity.

He’s been at the frontlines of visionary ideas leading sport and NFL initiatives and then working with Disney overseeing their recreational and sports divisions since then. In the final years of his time with the Bengals he also served as a city councilman, and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007.

Still despite all this, and being virtually an icon with Cincinnati, Reggie has been largely unheralded by his former franchise. A true warrior, he’s had over 25 knee surgeries since his career concluded, and it has taken its toll on his leg. He’s written a book about his life, ‘Resilient by Nature’, where he gives a great wealth of insight into his life, and shares his dedication and willingness to overcome whatever obstacles he faces.

I had wanted to get Reggie’s autograph for sometime. He is the epitome of who I like to get an autograph from and for whom I like to write about. He has had an interesting journey both in and out of the sport- and I feel that he is someone who doesn’t get enough accolades for all he’s done. I wrote him an email through Facebook and he was kind enough to respond to me. We talked briefly about his foray into the World League- where he told me, “He loved the travel.” I sent him some old photos of magazine clippings from Gametime magazines as well that he enjoyed very much. He was doing a book signing in the area, so I sent him a stack of extra cards for his personal collection and to hand out to fans. A man of his word, Reggie signed these cards in no time flat for me.

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College Football HoF, Heisman Trophy Winner, NFL, Pro Football HoF, University of Texas

Campbell, Earl “Tyler Rose” (3)

mem campbell 2Photo Memorabilia
Acquired: IP 2013, GMC Texas Tour November
See Also: Earl Campbell, Earl Campbell (2) “The Tyler Rose”

Well Earl Campbell puts the saying, “You can’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”, to the test with this autographed photo. While I was happy to once again get Earl on something I would have been a bit happier if it was on a card. I had even ordered a couple thinking I might have a chance at getting him, but when I arrived at the event, the promoters and handlers for the event made it clear he was only going to sign the stock photo memorabilia. Still when Earl was chauffeured up in his signature black GMC with a handicapped placard I couldn’t help but feel slightly sorry for the guy. He’s been through a heckuva lot, and people just keep heaping more on him, in addition to treating him like a demigod. A woman in front of me said he had a responsibility to sign autographs, and basically make people happy because of his celebrityship. I really disagreed and tried to be more diplomatic about it. We are all human after all.

IMAG0531When Earl emerged from the passenger side of the vehicle, I’m sure many fans were surprised to see what condition their hero of lore was in. (It’s hard to live in an information vacuum, but it’s much easier if you are only a casual fan of sports and did not see the 30-30 ESPN presentation on him.)  Earl was clearly using a walker, and had to be helped to the table.  While I had heard differing tales of his stubbornness at events, such as when he only signed “E Campbell” at the Fan Fest in 2012, or how he both refuses to allow for personal photos with him or outside personal items now at non-paid signings, Earl for the most part seemed in good spirits. While I was not going to poke the bear, I noticed that on a few larger families of autograph seekers at the beginning, he simply penned “Earl”.

First his legs. Now his hands. As the line coiled through the queue and out into the street, I realized how thankful and fortunate I should be to even get an autograph. A few people who were there went up and complained to his hapless son about how they had driven from here or there and wanted to get Earl’s autograph on some sort of memorabilia they had packed, but they really had no excuse, especially after receiving a charity autograph from a Texas and NFL great, clearly doing this out of the kindness of his heart and for some pocket change.

Again, the GMC event was very mechanical. When I said to Earl: “Luv’ Ya HOUSTON OILER Blu’ “, he was too busy talking and smiling at his handlers, that were interfering with the whole mystique of the event. I doubt he even heard me.  It was a poignant end to an uneven event.

 

College Football HoF, Heisman Trophy Winner, NFL, Pro Football HoF, University of Texas

Campbell, Earl “Tyler Rose” (2)

utud11 campbellCard: UT Upper Deck 2011
Acquired: 11/23/2012, Fiterman Autograph Event
See Also: Earl Campbell, Earl Campbell (3)

I could not pass up the Fiterman Autograph Event in 2012, which included Heisman winners Earl Campbell and Billy Cannon and a lot of Oilers I had TTM woes with. The price was expensive, but cheap when prorated out in bulk, averaging out to under 20.00 an autograph. Earl Campbell’s alone typically goes for $100.00 per item, making it all a worthwhile deal.  While there was hiccups in shipping due to overwhelming demand, I did indeed receive all the cards back that I had wanted signed, including this gem. I skipped over Earl at the 610 event back in August, because I anticipated the long lines. He also was signing items shorthanded, with ‘E Campbell’  and no inscriptions. This set off a lot of collectors who screamed murder about the shortened sig. I really didn’t care, but to get this one back with the full signature and his number certainly made my day.

The Tyler Rose was the 43rd winner of the Heisman Trophy, and part of the 1991 NFL HoF class. He’s become a prominent businessman around Austin, slowly building a meat products enterprise under his name. He also has a restaurant in the ABIA airport as well.

Exerpt from Bum Phillips, NFL HoF presentation speech: Thank you. If ya’ll were looking into this sun, you’d know why I’m wearing a hat. I’d like to thank the Hall of Fame for giving me the opportunity to come back up to this part of North Texas. [This isn’t Texas.] Oh, it’s not? There’s a whole lot of people that deserve congratulations — the Hall of Fame, the enshrinees — but I want to send a special congratulations to the people of Canton, Ohio and the state of Ohio for that parade this morning. That was — That was outstanding. That’s the best think I’ve ever seen.

I’ve had some tough jobs in my life, but believe me, this is one of the toughest: Introduce a guy that made almost 10,00 yards, a guy that’s been in every newspaper and on every TV camera for the last 30 days, a guy that’s the best running back that I’ve ever seen in my life — and they tell me to do it in less than four minutes. Some of his runs lasted that long.

Earl and I’ve been — Earl and I’ve been friends a long time. He came down — one thing I appreciate about him is his loyalty — he came down — he’s a great hunter, great outdoorsman, great sportsman — and he wanted to go quail hunting. So, I told him, “Okay, I’ll take you over to Orange and let you go on my grandpa’s place.” We get over there and drive up to the ranch house. There’s a whole bunch of dogs in the yard, and course they knew me and didn’t know Earl. So I said, “You’re gonna have to sit in the car.” So I went inside and talked to my grandpa and he told me where everything was. And I got out and got back. Just as I was getting ready to go out of the house, he said, “Bum,” he said, “would you do me a favor?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “On your way in,” he said, “you saw that old white barn down there?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “Well, that old gray mule standing out there is 29 years old.” And he said, “I’ve raised that thing since she was a baby.” And he said, “The vet told me to have to put her down, and she’s really in misery and I don’t have the heart to do it. Would you stop by there and put her out of her misery?” I said, “Yes, sir.” So I get back in the car and we go on down the road and Earl said, “What did he say?” I thought well I’ll just kind of mess with him a little bit. I said, oh so and so said we couldn’t hunt. Well, he swelled up. I mean he got mad and we’re going along there. We get about even with that mule. I said, “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: I’m going to go shoot his mule.”

So I — I stop and I get out and I go over there and of course put the mule out of her misery and come back — no Earl Campbell. About that time I hear “Boom! Boom!” and I look and here come Earl running across the hill — said, “Bum, let’s get out of here; I got his horse and his dog.” And if that ain’t loyalty, I don’t know anything about loyalty.