Cards: ProSet 1989, Score 1989, GameDay 1992
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 7/19 Recieved: 11/5 (109 days)*
*Slight delay. Forwarded from old address
Brian Blades, along with his brother Bennie were members of Jimmy Johnson‘s University of Miami squad during the late 80s. Brian would be drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the second round of the stacked wide receiver 1988 draft that included such names as Tim Brown, Sterling Sharpe, Anthony Miller, Wendell Davis, and Willie “Flipper” Anderson being taken off the board before Blades’ name would be called near the back end of round two. The Seahawks were looking for a compliment or replacement for long in the tooth, Hall of Fame shoe-in Steve Largent.
A bit undersized at 5-11, Brian made up for it with his route runnning and hands. He would make a nice fit for the ‘Hawks, and put in decent numbers his rookie season starting 7 games and making 40 receptions. In 1989, he’d have his best season as a pro earning AP marks with 77 receptions for 1063 yards and 5 TDs. The torch was effectively passed, as Largent retired after the season. A disappointing 1990, with teams easily double teaming Blades would shut him down, halving his numbers. (It also didn’t help that quarterback Dave Krieg had an increasingly short amount of time to function in the pocket.) The Seahawks would decide to rebuild drafting signal-caller Dan McGwire in the first round of the 1991 draft, jettisoning Krieg to free agency. In the meantime the team would go through a series of coaching changes and a quarterback carousel. Despite everything Blades would break the 1000 yard barrier again that season, before an injury plagued 1992 took his season after 6 games, but he’d quickly returned to form posting 2 back to back 80+ catch seasons, and a 77 catch season in 1995.
Over the next 3 final seasons, Brian’s career would be consumed by personal tragedy, after a gun discharged accidentally fatally injuring his cousin in 1996. He’d be placed on trial and be found guilty of manslaughter, but the charges would be dismissed by the judge, within hours based on lack of evidence. His numbers would decline due to injury, and he would retire before the 1999 season.
Blades played his entire 11 season career with the Seahawks and the team would honor him with an induction into the team’s 35th anniversary team. I always got he and his brother Bennie confused but none the less, you could always count on Brian on Tecmo Super Bowl to come through in a pinch for the punchless Seahawks. I got Brians autograph in about 100 days on these 3 dynamic cards.
G/Gs 156/124 Rec 561 Yds 7620 Avg 13.1 Td 34 Lg 80t
The London Monarchs, fresh off of their World Bowl I victory, had their work cut out for them – reassembling the team from coaches to players as much of their staff had been picked clean for NFL and CFL rosters. They’d make the move and Shaw would provide valuable depth to a depleted Monarchs team notching .5 sacks during the season. After the season the WLAF would reorganize and Ricky would return stateside.
Well this is the first one I got back TTM after moving with my forwarding address on it. I’m assuming it went back to my old address in California from Chris’ place in Georgia then came back to me here in Texas in a round about sort of way. Still I am happy to add him to my collection. Chris’ Action Packed Rookies card from 1990 was another example of Hi-Pro Marketing doing their due diligence at the time as this would be one of the earliest of his rookie cards by 4 or 5 years. His Topps Finest gives you a good idea of what the card industry was doing during the late 90s as it was losing traction and attempting to feel out its market. Using a similar metal process to Playoff, Topps produced this shiny metal format for a while, before returning to a much more flat style. I was surprised that the card also took the ink as well as it did. Here are Chris’ final statistics: