Tag Archives: Tennessee Titans

NFL

Gado, Samkon

Cards: Playoff Contenders 2006, Leaf Rookies & Stars 2006 Longevity (87/249)
Acquired: TTM 2020, C/o Home
Sent: 2/24 Received: 4/4 (40 days)

Samkon Gado is one of those rare athletes who wasn’t really on the radar of scouts going into his final year playing college ball. In fact he was looking forward more to becoming a doctor than playing football, but as fate would have it, nearly the entire Liberty runningback corps was depleted, and Samkon stepped in and ran for 901 yards on 138 carries, scoring 11 TDs in 9 games.

It was all about being at the right place, at the right time for Samkon, and it seemed that scouts identified his intangible talent for rising to the occasion. After going undrafted in 2005, he was signed to the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad for a brief time. A month or two later, he was signed by the Packers. Then nearly the entire runningback stable went down one by one due to injury. First Ahman Green, then Najeh Davenport, and then finally Tony Fisher.

Gado saw extensive playing time in their absence after taking the starting runningback role. He’d have 3 100 yard efforts during the season, and set a franchise rookie record rushing for 171 yards against the Lions. Ultimately he too would end his season on injured reserve.

With new management in town for 2006, the Packers traded Gado to the Houston Texans after Week 1 of the season for Vernand Morency. The Texans were shoring up their runningback depth behind Ron Dayne and Wali Lundy. During the season he’d pitch back to back 60 yard efforts against Jacksonville and Buffalo.

In 2007, Ahman Green also joined the Texans runningback committee, and was the starter above Dayne. Gado beat out Lundy to make the final squad, scoring his first TD with the Texans in the season opener against the Colts.

He’d be cut at the end of October, and signed with the Miami Dolphins, after starting RB Ronnie Brown went down. Again, backup Ricky Williams, then himself also was fallen by injury, so Samkon had to step in again. He’d help contribute to the Dolphins only win on the 2007 season.

Samkon then played for the St. Louis Rams over the next two seasons, but saw little action outside of special teams. In 2010 he signed with the Tennessee Titans but did not make the final roster.

Samkon finished his medical degree and now is a doctor at Saint Louis University Hospital as part of the Otolaryngology program.

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CFL, NFL, University of Texas

Young, Vince VY (4)

Card: Panini Contenders 2018, Score 2010, Panini Contenders 2010*, Donruss Classics 2009-2010*
Acquired: In Person, 2018 Heisman House, 2018 Kicking it ATX
See Also: Vince Young, Vince Young (2), Vince Young (3)

Paired with Ricky Williams the day the Heisman House tour came to Austin was none other than UT’s very own Vince Young. It seemed like a no brainer to go to the event. While it’d seem odd that VY would be a guest at the event- it completely made sense for a variety of reasons. UT was playing USC, and while the rivalry from that great 2006 game has dimmed slightly, the comradely between the two storied schools has grown. Vince recently was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame, 10+ years after he became the only two time MVP of that game, (little less with one of them for a National Championship against USC). The final reason is because VY wanted to win the Heisman in 2006, but it was given to Reggie Bush instead. When Bush had to vacate the honor, the presenters tried to give it to Vince Young- but he declined the secondhand award. 

As usual Vince strolled in 20-30 minutes late, much to the chagrin of those standing in line for autographs. He was accompanied by none other than USC runningback LenDale White. I had no clue but apparently VY and White were very good friends. They had become close after their years on the Titans together. Vince did a short interview about his time playing at Texas and answered a few questions. He then donned a pair of shades and signed autographs for the fans in line. I didn’t really want to push it so I was quite happy to have him pen this Panini Contenders 2018 card. We talked for a second and exchanged pleasantries. He told me, “To be blessed!”, and I told him, “Hey, you know you have a choice. You can get up in the morning and be happy if you want or mad. I choose to be happy.” He then responded, “You know it.” This was probably my second best experience meeting VY. It’d be in stark contrast to his appearance at Kicking It ATX. 

I had high hopes for the Kicking It ATX event at the Domain. I had really bad luck the last few in person events, as very little had been scheduled and the cancellations kept rolling in. I got probably 9 or so cards of Vince ready to go and with him proclaiming on Twitter that there would be special guests, I got pumped that maybe there’d be a few other guest stars.

It was a total letdown. Outside of Vince, Aaron Ross and his wife just had a baby and had to make a last second cancellation. They basically walked in the door- and back out. Vince was pretty nice to fans, but when I asked him if he was going to watch the new football leagues (XFL, AAF), he told me essentially no, but with an f-bomb attached to it. He signed these three cards, for me, but I just felt like he wasn’t happy at all that I was there as he gave me and my friend the stink face while signing our stuff.

I know that I am an older fan and collector. Most players just don’t see that anymore. They see people like me as a threat to their brand or another white guy EBay-ing their autograph. I just left that event feeling introspectively defensive about my involvement in the ‘The Hobby’, and it maybe the end of the road for me getting VY’s autograph.  

I decided in the end to give away two of the cards I got from the event. Bryan is a good guy who just seems to have bad luck. He’s almost like John Candy from ‘Planes, Trains, and Automobiles’, and like John’s character, he has a giant heart for ‘The Hobby’. There’s nobody more deserving of one of these than him- so I gave him the Playoff Contenders 2010. The other card- the Donruss Classics 09/10, had been in my collection for a while. Eric and I have been chatting it up back and forth for sometime and he’s helping me on a super secret signing or two, so I felt it’d be nice to drop him the other one out of the blue as well.

AAF, NFL, XFL

Johnson, Steven (LB)

Card: Topps AAF 2019
Acquired: 2019, EBay

Looks like Steven was getting a bit tired of signing cards at this point. The autograph looks a bit shortened- but I’ll take it!

Steven Johnson is a great football story- as he’s managed to succeed against all odds. He didn’t receive any college opportunities out of high school, and after playing both ways at Wyoming Seminary, he suffered a devastating knee injury that tore it essentially from the socket. After rehabbing, he walked-on at Kansas and fought his way up the depth chart. By his Junior year he was an entrenched starter at linebacker. He finished his college career with 225 total tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 3 pass deflections and an interception in 35 games.

Undrafted, Steven signed with the Denver Broncos in 2012 and managed to make the 52 man roster playing primarily on special teams. He started 7 games in 2014 at middle linebacker, posting 39 total tackles, .5 sacks, and a fumble recovery. He’d then embark on a series on stops with the Titans (2015), Steelers (2016), Steelers and Ravens (2017).

He’d join the Alliance of American Football for the 2019 season and be assigned to the Arizona Hotshots. Steven had a banner season for the Hotshots. He’d lead the team in interceptions with 3, and finish 3rd on the team in combined tackles with 48.

After the AAF folded suddenly, Johnson was selected by the Seattle Dragons of the XFL 2020. Over the course of the 5 game season, Steven posted 48 tackles to lead all players in the league. Unfortunately due to the Coronavirus outbreak- the XFL cancelled the remainder of the season