Tag Archives: san fransisco 49ers

NFL

Willis, Patrick

Card: Score 2009
Acquired: TTM 2016, C/o Work
Sent: 7/11     Received: 7/30   (19 days)

Patrick Willis played collegiality for Mississippi from 2004 to 2006. Over his final two years at the school, he posted a whopping 265 tackles, 21 sacks, 6 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, and 7 pass deflections.

Considered the complete package entering the 2007 NFL draft, he was drafted 11th overall by the San Fransisco 49ers.  During his career with the ‘9ers, Willis played a combination of middle linebacker and right linebacker through the majority of his starts.  A highly durable linebacker, Patrick earned All Pro and Pro Bowl honors in 5 of his first 7 seasons in the league.  It’s hard to agree on what season serves as Willis’ best year. During his rookie year he had a career high 135 tackles.  Later in 2009, Patrick had 3 interceptions for 33 yards and a TD, and then in 2010 he posted a career high 6 sacks.

After an injury shortened 2014, Patrick elected to retire from the sport after years of wear and tear on his feet.  He went into business where he joined a Silicon Valley startup. I wrote him in 2016 through his company, where he signed this card for me and included a nice metal business card.

G/GS  112/112       TAC  732        SAC  20.5           FUM  5
INT   8         YDS 131         AVG   16.3         TD  2         LG 86T

NFL, University of Texas

McCoy, Colt (2)

utud11 mccoy mmCards: UT Upper Deck 2011 Memorable Moments, Panini Absolute 2011,  Playoff Prestige 2012
Acquired: IP 4/17/2015, Sam’s Wholesale Lakeline Grand Opening
See Also: Colt McCoy

I had long debated going to the second day of the Sam’s Wholesale Grand Opening, but with a perfect storm of days I had to take off anyway, it made sense that I go ahead and dive in for the former Longhorn signal caller. I had 5 or 6 cards of him, but outside of the Longhorns card here, I really wasn’t that jazzed about anything I had. Thankfully Spoodog offered me a fairly nice Playoff 2012 to get autographed.

pres11 mccoyColt’s career has been… bumpy… since getting traded from the Browns in 2013 to the San Fransisco 49ers for low end picks. He didn’t look all that spectacular in the preseason, but still managed to do mop up duty in 4 games behind Colin Kapernick. After the season Colt signed with the Washington Redskins. The collective brains of the NFL yawned at the signing. (I myself had hoped he’d be brought in by the Texans.) Most pundits had written McCoy off and now going up against RGIII and Kirk Cousins, Colt managed to claw his way onto the roster and patiently bide his time as the best 3rd string quarterback in the NFL. McCoy eventually got his shot as injuries and inconsistency plagued the Redskins at quarterback. He’d lead the team to back to back exciting victories over the Titans, and then the heavily favored Cowboys.  Injured late in the season, his performance was good enough to earn him a new contract with the Redskins.

Amem11 mccoyThe first few people through the line got way too many multiples signed. This ruined it for the rest of us. Colt’s signature is not a quick one, taking roughly 15 seconds to complete for each card. With a decent line building, this caused the gatekeepers to ask us to limit our requests to two a person. It was not unreasonable at all- but with them not patrolling the fans at the front with McCoy, people abused it anyway. I decided 3 was not unreasonable for me to get signed as that was my original thought. When I spoke to Colt, I told him that his heroics in the Redskins Cowboys game was the stuff of legend. He grinned from ear to ear and told me it was one of his fondest memories in the NFL. He also told me that he prefers Colossians 3:23 as his testament verse of choice.

NFL

Davis, Eric

pset90 edavisaprks90 edavis

Cards: Proset 1990, Action Packed Rookies 1990
Acquired: TTM 2015, C/o Home
Sent:  11/19/15   Received: 1/15/16   (57 days)

Eric Davis played college ball for Jacksonville State.  He was drafted in the second round by the San Fransisco 49ers in 1990.  At 5’11”,  185, Davis was considered undersized for the cornerback position, but quickly found himself chomping at the bit for a starting role.  Underrated, Davis was overshadowed by the bigger names in the 49ers secondary, that needed to be rebuilt after the departure of Ronnie Lott. Tim McDonald, Deion Sanders, and Merton Hanks all had impressive seasons in 1994, but it was Eric Davis that propelled the team to their Super Bowl win with his impressive playoff run- a season in which he had an NFL record interception in 5 straight playoff contests (spanning 93/94).  He’d have his best year in 1995, a year in which he won Pro Bowl and All Pro Honors.

For 1996, the 49ers made Eric Davis a free agent. Eric signed with the young Carolina Panthers team. He’d play for the Panthers for 5 years. During that run, Eric had 5 interceptions in each season.  He played for the Broncos in 2001,  and then moved to free safety for the 2002 season for the Detroit Lions.

Davis transitioned to the booth and into media seamlessly. He’s done color commentary for preseason games, and worked on early morning AM sports TV and radio shows.

Action Packed 1990 was one of my favorite sets of that era. Everyday after school my mom used to stop at 7-11, and I’d get a $2.25 pack- a stiff price to pay at the time.  I slowly bought a whole box out of the convienience store, only to find that the only card I hadn’t received was this Eric Davis card. I wrote Hi-Pro Marketing, (the company behind AP at the time) and they responded in a few weeks, enclosing 2 copies of Eric Davis and including a cool prototype/  test card of Barry Sanders from their 1992 set.

G/GS   188/150          TAC 593              SAC 2.0               FUM  14
INT 44          YDS  442        AVG 10.0            TD  4            LG 86T