Tag Archives: topps xfl 2001 promo

Arena, NFL, XFL

Brohm, Jeff ‘J Bro’

Cards: Topps XFL 2001, Topps XFL 2001 Promo
Acquired: TTM 2019, C/o Purdue
Sent: 8/6/19 Received: 6/11/20 (311 days)

Jeff Brohm played quarterback for his hometown Louisville Cardinals from 1989-1993. Early on he honed his game behind future NFL quarterback Browning Nagle. Brohm took over the starting gig in 1991. After an injury ended his season early on, Jeff returned with a vengeance in 1992 throwing for 2008 yards on 297 attempts (9 TD). He’d eclipse virtually all his personal season best passing statistics in his senior campaign, going 184/304 (60.9), for 2626 yards, and 20 TDs to just 9 picks and lead the Cardinals to a victory in the Liberty Bowl over Michigan State.

He’d not be selected in the 1994 NFL Draft, but signed a free agent contract with the San Diego Chargers, winning the 3rd string job. Jeff then saw free agent stops with the Washington Redskins (1995), and 49ers (1996-1997). With the ‘9ers, Jeff saw his only significant playing time in the NFL throwing for 353 yards and a TD over his stop with SF. Jeff then was on the rosters of the Bucs (1998), Broncos (1999) and Browns (2000).

Jeff’s football career took an unexpected turn in 2001, when he was selected to play in the upstart XFL by the Orlando Rage with the 4th overall pick. Although Jeff had a particularly successful season, going on to be the XFL’s best rated quarterback, and being named to the league’s first team squad, the offensive lines in the XFL were particularly bad, and Jeff like many other quarterbacks suffered from unnecessary sacks and quarterback hits.

During one of those games against the Maniax, he was brutally taken down, and knocked out. The hit was so brutal, his helmet was turned and he had to be taken to the hospital. Amazingly though he returned near the end of the game with a neck brace on and watched from the sidelines. He amazingly started 6 days later and was asked by a sideline reporter his reaction to playing that day. Brohm had an epic and fiery response.

Let me answer that question by asking you two questions – One, is this or is this not the XFL? Yes, it is. Two, do I or do I not currently have a pulse? Yes, I do. Let’s play football.

-Jeff Brohm

A shoulder injury however near the end of the season, ended his career and potentially a return to the NFL. After that lone season in the XFL concluded, Jeff moved into the coaching ranks, starting with his hometown Louisville Fire of the Arena Football League. He then quickly joined his Alma Mater the following season, staying with them through 2008 as a quarterbacks coach, and then later as a passing game coordinator, offensive coordinator, and assistant head coach. Jeff then honed his skills at various stops at Florida Atlantic (2009), Illinois (2010-2011), UAB (2012), and Western Kentucky (2013) – where he earned his first head coaching job from 2014 to 2016.

With his bang up job with the Hilltoppers in the books, Jeff left for greener pastures, and was hired as head coach of the Purdue Boilermakers in 2017. Jeff has been linked many times since then to more prestigious jobs with Tennessee and Nebraska, but going into 2021 remains the head coach at Purdue.

I had sorta given up on these cards after seeing some quick and recent returns, but in reality I was just probably at the bottom of Jeff’s mailbag.

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8/0583735363.81179.2
G/GS XFLATTCPDYDSPCTTDINTRAT
7/71196899358.09399.9
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2140.125

CFL, NFL, NFLE, XFL

Barnes, Pat (2)

Cards: Topps XFL 2001, Topps XFL 2001 Promo, Bowman NFLE 2000
Acquired: TTM 2019, C/o Home
Sent: 4/18 Received: 5/28 (40 days)
See Also: Pat Barnes

Before the XFL 2020 season began, I started to reminisce about the XFL 2001. A few of the players who played in the XFL had fished in NFLE waters, so I thought it was time to revisit a few of them including the venerable Pat Barnes. Pat had a really nice chrome Topps card from his NFLE days that I liked, as well as the 2 Topps XFL cards. The design, sans the photos used, are almost the same. The only difference is the lower case typeface is used on the promo card. In this case, I liked the look of the promo card a bit more, just based on the photography used.

As of 2020, Patrick Barnes is a Principal with Avison Young who specializing in investment sales within Southern California marketplace for the last 15 years.  His expertise is in understanding the capital markets, creating value in an investment transaction, knowing and accessing investors and developing marketing strategies for commercial investment properties in Southern California on behalf of institutional clients, publicly traded companies, high net worth ownership and foreign Investors. Patrick excels in all facets of the real estate asset cycle including identifying target assets, rigorous financial modeling & analysis, entitling, marketing, leasing, and selling investor and occupier assets.

Patrick’s diverse experience covers a wide range of properties and deal size, ranging from $1M to over $50million. Over the course of Patrick’s career, he has sold over 300 properties and over $1 Billion in consideration.

Patrick Resides in Westchester California with his wife Summer and three children. Patrick enjoys being a husband, father, spending free time in the outdoors, fly-fishing, camping, hiking and hunting.



Arena, CFL, NFL, NFLE, XFL

Puleri, Charles

Cards: Topps XFL 2001 Promo, Topps XFL 2001
Acquired: TTM 2019, C/o Home
Sent: 8/6 Received: 8/16 (10 days)

Charles Puleri played ball at New Mexico State and saw action in both 1991 and 1992. Playing in 17 contests Puleri completed 257 of 456 passes for 3634 yards, and 21 touchdowns to 17 interceptions as a traditional dropback passer.

He joined the CFL in 1993 and played briefly for the Sacramento Gold Miners- attempting 2 passes, and then riding the bench for the Shreveport Pirates in 94. In 1995 Puleri joined Arena Football League. He played for the Miami Hooters that year and then the Texas Terror in 1996 throwing 3 TDs. Charles then went overseas and played in the NFLE for the London Monarchs. Seeing more mop up duty he threw for 488 yards and 2 TDs. Afterwards he again tried his hand at Arena football playing for the Iowa Barnstormers in 98. He saw his best season as a pro throwing 11 TDs on 67 attempts that season. In 1999 he played sparingly as a backup for the New Jersey Red Dogs, and then was in the camp of the Dallas Cowboys in 2000 but did not make the squad.

Charles is perhaps best known for his time in the XFL in 2001. Selected by the New York/ New Jersey Hitmen, Puleri was the starter for the squad entering the season, but was benched in favor of Wally Richardson during week 2. The league was… different than the NFL. They scripted some of their events including a fake controversy between Puleri and Richardson.

After the end of the XFL, Charlie returned to the Arena Football League, playing two more seasons for the Detroit Fury (2002) and the Buffalo Destroyers (2003).

Since football, Puleri has worked his way into mortgage finance. He signed these two cards for me, wrote me a nice note and included a few business cards.

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257128160449.82014
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