Tag Archives: proset 1990

NFL, ufl

Glanville, Jerry

Cards: ProSet 1989, ProSet 1990, ProSet 1991
Acquired: TTM 2012, C/o Home
Sent:  2/19     Received: 2/25  (6 days)
See Also: Houston Oilers Official Autograph Souvenir 

Jerry Glanville certainly has earned a reputation for being controversial- from wearing all black at football games, getting bit by a rattlesnake before a game, to leaving tickets at the will call ticket booth for Elvis. Its these antics that earned Glanville a reputation in the media over his accomplishments as a coach primarily for the Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons.

After his college career as a linebacker ended at Western Kentucky, Jerry became a graduate assistant at the school alongside Joe Bugel. By 1974 the enigmatic Glanville had worked his way into the professional ranks with the Detroit Lions as an assistant coach. He’d join the Falcons as an assistant in 1978, and be promoted to defensive coordinator in 1979. He’d help the team win its first NFC West Division Title in 1980 behind strong defensive play, and remain with the franchise through 1982. Glanville briefly joined the Bills in 1983, before heading over to the Oilers to become their defensive coordinator in 1984. With the dismissal of Hugh Campbell after the 1985 season, Glanville secured the head coaching job from owner Bud Adams, and vowed to return the Oilers to glory- something they hadn’t seen since the Luv Ya’ Blu Era and Bum Phillips.

After a slow start in 1986, Glanville’s team began delivering on those promises in 1987. The team rolled to a 10-6 record and second place in the contentious AFC Central and advanced to the Divisional Round after beating the Seahawks in an overtime Wild Card contest. They’d get spanked by Denver. The Central at the time consisted of Marty Schottenheimer in Cleveland, Chuck Noll in Pittsburgh, Sam Wyche in Cincinatti and Jerry in Houston. The Oilers had been a disrespected doormat since the early 80s, but under Jerry’s leadership they transformed into a mean and dirty team. The Oilers gambling defense and special teams became the hallmark of the franchise and the Astrodome became known to other teams as: The House of Pain. The Oilers quickly became upstarts, and were rivals of every team in the division. Infamously after being skewered by the Oilers at the Astrodome, Noll approached Glanville at mid-field after the game and accused him of being dirty. Wyche and Glanville traded punches running up the score on each other’s home contests. The Oilers were also known as a ruthless home team, but a paper tiger on the road- that got in trouble making stupid penalties and errors.

Glanville also had a flare for implementing college style offenses, forcing Warren Moon to run the option, and quietly implementing portions of the Run ‘N Shoot offense, calling it the “Red Gun”. Glanville returned the Oilers to the playoffs in 1988, and again the Oilers came on late to beat the Browns in a snowy nail-biter at Cleveleand 24-23 advancing to the Divisional Round. Again the Oilers were beaten- this time by Buffalo. By 1989, Glanville’s schtick was beginning to wear, and the Oilers, were the prime losers in Plan B as many future players and stars left for greener pastures. Among the bigger names to leave during the Glanville years were offensive lineman John Davis and special teams demon Steve Tasker leaving for Buffalo, safety Keith Bostic heading for Indianapolis, and TE Jamie Williams headed for San Fransisco. Eventually this took a heavy toll on the Oilers’ depth. They’d scrape up enough elbow grease to enter the playoffs in 1989 and 9-7 but be bounced in the first round after losing an embarrassing contest to the Steelers. During the game, Jerry would kick an onside to Pittsburgh to show them how much he disrespected their offense. It only served to backfire in his face. It would be the end of the road for Jerry in Houston. Unable to get past the Divisional Round of the playoffs, Bud Adams demanded Glanville’s resignation after the season. It was sudden and unexpected for somebody who had guided the team out of the cellar of a hotly contested division and into the playoffs 3 straight seasons.  A tearful farewell by Glanville, only proved to be what amounted to crocodile tears between the two, as Glanville was quickly snatched up by Atlanta, while Houston went with the opposite of Jerry in Jack Pardee.

It appeared that Jerry was going to have the final laugh against Houston at first. He drubbed the Oilers 47-27  in his debut and then gave the gameball to SMU (-a team that had been trounced by Pardee’s Houston Cougars a year before 95-21). The Falcons embraced Jerry’s persona going so far as welcoming the franchise back to its black uniform roots. A full-time commitment to the Red Gun offense saw the transformation of Chris Miller into an All Pro quarterback, and the fleecing of the Colts in the Jeff George trade allowed the Falcons to get offensive tackle Chris Hinton and budding wide receiver Andre Rison from Indianapolis, in addition to a bevvy of draft choices.  He’d also sign cast off Oilers, grabbing Mike Rozier and Robert Lyles in 1990, and Drew Hill in 1991 via free agency. After a 5-11 mark in 1990, Jerry helped Atlanta return to the playoffs for the first time in roughly 10 years after the 1991 season posting a 10-6 record. The Falcons also played close to the fire like the Oilers, with an aggressive 3-4 defense, great special teams, and a bad attitude, but after taking a step back in 1992 and 1993 with duplicate 5-11 records, Glanville’s tenure in Atlanta would be up. He’d be replaced by his personal friend June Jones-which would initially chide Glanville.  Jerry was a notorious ‘doghouser’ and if you didn’t play the way he wanted, you were either cut, traded, or even worse- sat on the bench.  During his tenure in Atlanta, Glanville had the distinction of getting rid of not one, but two future Hall of Famers in the beginning of their careers. Brett Farve was be traded to the Packers for John Stephens, and future CFL HoFer Mike Pringle was cut but found greater glory in the CFL as their career leading rusher.

Glanville spent extensive time in the studio as an NFL broadcaster, a stock car racing owner, and then returned to college football in 2005 rekindling his friendship with June Jones at Hawaii. After 2 seasons there as the defensive coordinator, Jerry brought his style to Portland State to coach the Vikings, but after a dismal tenure there from 2007-2009, Jerry was dismissed. In 2010, the UFL hired Jerry Glanville to coach the Hartford Colonials. Assembling an impressive staff and then rallying fans, Glanville couldn’t understand why the UFL couldn’t work. Then the UFL ‘suspended’ the Colonials before they even took the field. Jerry was not without a job. The league reassigned him to color commentating games, and helping the league find new locations to play at. Glanville did not answer my question about if the UFL had folded.

Jerry Glanville was a character I grew up with. I really liked him. I just thought that his mouth and attitude got him in a lot of trouble with other teams and the media. While he’d always have something smart to say, he was always a target. I remember being very upset that the Oilers fired him- especially since he had guided the team to the playoffs those previous seasons. When people talk about the attitude of Rex Ryan, I always tell people he was nothing compared to the bravado that is Jerry Glanville.

W 63  L  73   Pct .463

NFL

Anderson, Alfred


Cards: Topps 1992, ProSet 1989, ProSet 1990, Score 1991, Fleer 1991
Acquired: TTM 2012, C/o Home
Sent: 1/25   Received: 1/30 (5 days)

I have over the past few years seen a few hits for fullback Alfred Anderson. As a Texan and a Baylor grad, he certainly earns my respect. Baylor up until the time of RGIII, had been a long suffering football program since the days of the SWC- but there was a  golden era, when guys like Mike Singeltary, Cody Carlson, Gerald McNeil, Walter Abercrombie, Ray Crockett, and big bam fullback Alfred Anderson roamed the land causing mass destruction for the Baylor Bears. A Waco, Texas resident, and the #1 ranked high school RB prospect in Texas, it seemed a no brainer for the local product to go to Baylor, where he helped the Bears make a Bluebonnet Bowl appearance in 1983. In his senior season Anderson rushed for 1046 yards and 10 touchdowns.

The Minnesota Vikings made him their 3rd round pick in the 1984 draft. Alfred after the season would be named to multiple All-Rookie teams, leading the NFL among rookies with 773 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns. He also notably completed 3 of 7 passes that season for 2 touchdowns. Alfred was utilized at fullback over the majority of his career, and blocked for players like Darrin Nelson and Herschel Walker, helping pave the way for 1,000 yard seasons. As a short yardage back, Anderson also had an ideal nose for the end zone, scoring 27 touchdowns over his 7 season NFL career on only 740 touches. He’d play for the Vikings through 1991 and retire.

Anderson was inducted into the Baylor athletic Hall of Fame in 1998 and remains a fan favorite of Baylor fans everywhere. His son, Tony, also played for Baylor as well. I met Alfred through Sotl.com, as I love talking to members of the NFL from ‘that era’ of football from my childhood. He and I began chatting back and forth about Baylor, and as I tend to lean Longhorns on everything, (and on the advice of Josh,) I took the Horns over Baylor in 2011 in football. Thankfully there was no money on the line, as Texas came out flat and got destroyed by RGIII. Anderson was a good sport however, and I was glad that in the end RGIII won the Heisman. As of late also the Bears from those glory days of Anderson, have finally gotten some press, and had a reunion this last season during one of the Bears home games.

I had a lot of Alfred’s cards when I was a kid. It used to be every other pack I’d find a common of his ProSet 1989 card. It’s a great card really, and that and his Score 1991 are probably his most solid. On the other hand, we have the Fleer 1991 entry, which stands in my mind as some of the most poorly designed cards in history. I was a fan of Fleer after their 1990 rebirth, but their 1991 entry certainly was an: “Are you kidding me?”, type effort. It’s a shame because this is a really good action shot. I never bought a pack of Fleer again after that.

I sent off for Alfred near the end of January and was really surprised to get  5 cards signed in a break neck 5 days.  I also gave him a stack of extras to keep as well.


Below are Anderson’s NFL statistics and a video of him rumbling through BYU in 1983:

G/Gs   108/70    Rush 626   Yds 2374    Avg 3.8    Td  22   Lg 29   |    Rec 114    Yds 1042    Avg 9.5   Td  5   Lg  54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3CGKHB0O1Y

NFL, University of Texas

Metcalf, Eric

pset90 metcalf pset91 metcalf stclub93 metcalf sco90 metcalf
Cards: ProSet 1990, UD UT 2011 Icons, UD UT 2011, SkyBox 1992, GameDay 1992, ProSet 1991,Fleer 1990, Stadium Club 1993, Score 1990, Score 1991 90+ Club

Acquired: In Person 1/30/2012, 1300 The Zone 3rd Base Appearance
Failure: TTM 1992, C/o The Cleveland Browns, TTM 2010 C/o Home

gday92 metcalfThird time is a charm right? Well Eric Metcalf has been an idol of mine since I was a kid, and I had tried twice before -and failed to acquire the elusive runningback/return man/wide receiver out of the University of Texas. Meeting Metcalf in person was a treat for me as he had been on my list obviously for a long time.

I believe that the first college football game that I attended at Darrell K. Memorial Stadium, was a game with the Longhorns against the Arkansas Razorbacks. While the Longhorns lost, amidst their late 1980’s slump, Metcalf dominated doing everything for the Longhorns and by the time he graduated, Eric was the school’s all time leading receiver. Metcalf finished his career as a local Longhorn athletic legend playing even baseball and running track.

The Cleveland Browns became enamored with his athleticism, and Eric was drafted in the first round, during one of the greatest modern era drafts of all time -1989. Metcalf provided a speedy spark for the Browns on offense. The do it all back lined up at runningback or receiver and provided incredible mismatches for linebackers in the flat. He also returned kicks too, and then flr90 metcalfafter the departure of Gerald McNeil to Houston, as a punt returner as well. Spending his first 6 seasons in Cleveland, there were some spectacular highlight reels of Metcalf in action during a Monday Night Game against the Bengals where he made 3 players miss before  galloping into the endzone untouched, or his famous one man army against the Raiders in 1992 when he scored all 4 of the Browns touchdowns to beat LA. Eric finished his career in Cleveland with 9108 combined yards, 5 punt returns and  2 kick returns for touchdowns, 11 tds rushing and 15 receiving.

In 1995, Eric played for the Atlanta Falcons, under the Red Gun of head coach June Jones and gunslinger Jeff George. He’d fit right in under the Run ‘N Shoot variant, recording 104 receptions for 1189 yards and 8 touchdowns. After a down year in 1996, Eric would be traded to the San Diego Chargers where he spent one year with Kevin Gilbride. He’d lead the NFL with 3 punt returns for touchdowns that season and earn his second All Pro honor. He’d go one and done with the Chargers and head out to Arizona after San Diego traded him and 2 first round choices in 1998 to grabsky92 metcalf Ryan Leaf during the draft. Eric finished the season with 1837 yards from scrimmage. 1999, Eric spent with the Carolina Panthers, recording 456 YFS, and 2001 with the Washington Redskins setting the NFL record after returning his 10th career punt for a touchdown. After a short stint with the Packers in 2002, Eric decided to hang up the cleats. At the time of his retirement Eric Metcalf, the do-it-all back from the University of Texas had 17230 all purpose yards in his NFL career which was good for 5th all time.

I had recently been complaining to Josh about there not being enough player appearances for autographs around town. The newspapers used to run aggressive advertising about player appearances but I was fretting that times had changed and this was no longer the case. While reading the sports page that day I had seen that Eric was making an appearance at a local bar with 1300 -The Zone ( AKA The Longhorn Station). I went out of my way to get out to the event so that I could meet Eric. I walked in at 5 where the radio team and Rod Babers were set up, only to find Eric Metcalf and Charlie Ward sitting off by themselves away from the hooplah. utud2011 metcalfAfter confirming that- those were indeed both of those players and that they were not being mobbed for autographs, I proceeded to meet Eric, and acquire his autograph on as many of his cards that I could. Disappointingly, I didn’t have another ProSet 1989 card of him, and even stopped on the way into town to cull one from the local card dealer. When I spoke to Eric, I told him that I had tried multiple times in the past to write him but had not had any success. He shrugged his shoulders and said that he was normally pretty good about that, and he offered to sign as many cards as I’d like. (- I had 11.)  I sat there for a while and shot the breeze with Metcalf. When I told him that I felt that the 1989 draft was probably one of the best modern day drafts of all time- his eyes lighted up in agreement. We talked about the numerous HoFers from that draft, and I told him that his numbers were deserving to be among the hall. I told him how I remembered his shellacking of the Bengals on Monday Night Football, and we talked about his career in glorious retrospective. Among the laughs he got out of it was how he returned a kickoff for a TD against the Oilers, even though I had told him that I had hoped they would kick it nowhere near him. He sco91 metcalfchewed the Oilers up for some 200 yards returning that day, but the Browns lost 41-17 or something horrendous like that.

Eric was the honorary captain of the USA v. The World Football game held annually in Austin. As the girls who were trying to inform fans of the event approached the table to talk to us, I acted as though I had no clue what was going on and that Eric was not the ‘MC of the event’. I let her do her spiel and then asked her if she knew who I was. I then told her that, “I, was Eric Metcalf.” I then told her all about Eric’s illustrious career, and even got up to try to imitate one of his moves. All the time Eric was laughing at me, and told the poor girl not to listen to me.  She still had no clue who Eric was, but said that we didn’t look old at all. Eric and I sat there for a few minutes more and talked until more fans started arriving. He quipped to me that he didn’t need to say anything and that I should just be his publicist, since I knew everything about him already. I even recounted the teams he had been on in his career. (We both casually forgot his Green Bay and Carolina stints.) After about 20 minutes of bantering around and then meeting the subdued Charlie udut2011icons metcalfWard, I got a photo with Eric and hit the road, a very happy camper. It was indeed a very successful experience.

Eric enjoys coaching track now in the Seattle area. I asked him if he ever thought about coaching football, and he told me that, “Coaching track is much easier than football ever was,” And then laughed. Frequently Metcalf comes to the area, 3-4 times a year for alumni and other events around town. He is extremely approachable and very kind to fans.

In entertainment and media, Eric was a dominating running back in Tecmo Super Bowl for the Browns. I IMAG0473enjoyed playing as the Browns because I built the offense to work around him. I’d start him at both return man jobs, and at runningback. If I was unable to rush for very many yards, I’d stick him out at receiver. Among the plethora of players that they got wrong on that game, Metcalf sticks out as one they completely nailed.

Here is Eric’s exhaustive statistical line:
G/Gs 179/77     Pr  351   Yds  3453  Avg  9.8    Td 10   Lg 92t
Kr 280   Yds 5813   Avg 20.8   Td 2  Lg 101t
Rush 630  Yds 2392   Avg 3.8    Td 12   Lg 55
Rec  541   Yds  5572   Avg 10.3  Td 31   Lg 69

Part 1 of 4 from Eric Metcalf’s highlight reel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wafxQ63iwMg&feature=related