Tag Archives: ttm autographs

NFL, WLAF

McKenzie, Reggie

Card: Wild Card WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM C/o The Green Bay Packers
Sent: 7/26  Received: 8/6   (11 days)

Reggie McKenzie played collegiality for the Tennessee Volunteers and was taken in the 10th round of the 1985 draft by the then Los Angeles Raiders. A long shot to make the team, he’d make the roster and in fact start at right inside linebacker for the Super Bowl squad, making a sack and a fumble recovery in a respectable rookie season.  Reggie would again start all 16 games in 1986, and 5 in the strike shortened 1987 season. After only starting 3 games in 1988, McKenzie would sign with the Phoenix Cardinals in 1989. He would remain with the franchise through the 1990 season.

After sitting out a season where he coached high school football in the interim, Reggie signed with the Montreal Machine of the WLAF in 1992 and started alongside Ray Savage at linebacker. He would have a strong season, making a sack and an interception, which he returned 29 yards for a touchdown, but despite the team’s strong defensive efforts, the Machine finished a distant 2-8 at the end of the season. The WLAF reorganized after the season, but Reggie was not without a home for long, signing with the San Fransisco 49ers.  He retired after that season.

It didn’t take long for McKenzie to find himself working again in football serving as an assistant at Tennessee in 1993. In 1994, Ron Wolf, (architect of the Packers’ rebirth during the 90’s), hired Reggie to work in the front office, where he has climbed to the rank of Director of Football Operations in 2008. His Raiders Superbowl ring was unfortunately stolen a few years ago, but the Packers replaced that with their 2010 championship.

One of the strategies I use is poaching the coaching and staff lists of professional franchises for players that are on my lists, as typically they receive less autograph requests than their current player counterparts. Reggie definitely fell under this category and was also a member of the WLAF to boot which always makes it extra special to me as I received his autograph in a short 11 days care of the Packers organization. Below are his WLAF statistics:

G 10    Tac  N/a     Sac  1.0    Fum 0    Int 1     Yds  29       Avg  29.o       Td   1    lg 29t

UPDATE- 1/6/12  The Oakland Raiders, (under a recommendation from Packers Architect Ron Wolf,) hired Reggie McKenzie to become general manager of the franchise. Reggie becomes only the second General Manager in the history of the Raiders franchise, replacing deceased owner/GM Al Davis.

NFL

Carroll, Wesley

Cards: Score 1991, Star Pics 1991, Action Packed Rookies 1991, Topps 1992, ProSet 1991.
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home.
Sent: 7/19   Received: 7/25  (6 days)

Wesely had apparently fallen behind on his TTM autographing. As from what I had researched he had not been signing anything in roughly a year, when all of  a sudden sports collectors.net started registering some hits that got progressively smaller in date range. I went ahead and took a stab at Wesely, partially because he was on my list for Action Packed Rookies to get signed, and also because he was a member of the Miami-FL team that handed the University of Texas one of its most embarrassing bowl losses. I sent him 3 cards to sign, and 2 additional cards to keep. He ended up signing all of them and returning them in a scant 6 days.

A fifth year player, Carroll played 3 years at Mississippi Junior College before transferring to UM in 1989. A fine all around athlete with good size, Wesely made a good slot receiver due to his willingness to block and also fearlessness over the middle. In his senior season at Miami he registered 952 yards and 6 touchdowns on 61 receptions. At the time of his departure from the college he ranked second all time with 114 catches.

The Saints would make Carroll their second round choice in the 1991 draft and he’d be one of 11 from Miami taken that year. A modest rookie season would leave Carroll with 18 receptions and a touchdown in 12 games in 1991. He’d follow that up with 5 starts in 1992, grabbing another 18 balls for 292 yards including a 72 yard bomb for a TD. This would be statistically his best season. In 1993 Carroll would sign with the Bengals via free agency adding 8 more catches to his resume,- but racked up a heavy injury bill over his short playing time and retired before the 1994 season.
Further investigation reveals a workers compensation claim that Carroll won against the Saints and Bengals for his injuries in 2010 that covered industrial injuries to his cervical spine, lumbar spine, left upper extremity, both knees, left lower extremity, left thumb, and hypertension, causing 46% disability and need for further treatment. It is with this, that I hope that Wesley is enjoying as restful a retirement as physically possible.

G/Gs  40/5    Rec 42     Yds  557       Avg  13.3     Td 3      Lg 72t



ufl

Bond, Jy


Card: TNT Cards 2011
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 8/15   Received: 8/25 (10 days)

So I created a whole set of trading cards and put them under the Top Notch banner. A few United Football League players of late have taken notice of what I had been doing and wanted copies of their cards. I decided to handle this as a chance to explore a novel way to approach TTM autographs. In exchange for the file or the card, I ask that they send me an autographed copy of that card I created for my collection. Jy was the first of those experiments and successes at this. It solves a lot of things for me by allowing me to get some exposure and spread positive word for little cost, practice my trade, get an autograph, and do a small thing that counts a lot more for these players than people think.

It all started with a small set of UFL cards that I worked on in March. I didn’t put much thought to it as I was passing the time. With the days getting longer I posted a few up on the team Facebook sites. I really didn’t consider that  players might contact me for their card. Within a few days though, Jy contacted me and asked why I hadn’t made one of him yet, so I felt obliged and set to work on the second series of UFL cards, which brought the set up to over 100 profiles.

I sent him a small set of his card through ProShooterDirect that I created, and for 24 of them, it was quite a fair price.  He got it by the weekend and mailed me out the 2 cards, since I had no use for 22 more cards floating around my apartment, it would allow me to inspect the quality of the print and see how well the autograph took to their paper.
His autograph has a nice strength and loop to the signature, and looks very impressive in silver. Along with the two cards, he also sent me a nice thank-you note in Aussie offering to meet up whenever we get the chance and refer more players to me if I’d like.

I’ve sent out a set to the Mountain Lions, and also have been in contact with a few other players so far. I hope to be able to put together a comprehensive collection of UFL players autographs before the end of season 3. Unabashedly when coming up with the concept for this card, I wanted to aim for something that would be a card that would introduce fans to the teams and the league.  I framed the front of the card with a nice, classy, white border. I did some tweaks later to the cards after receiving the prints on the back where the type came out a bit small, but overall I was quite pleased with how these turned out.

Disclaimer: The photos and logos remain the properties of their respective parties. The designs, bios, and presentations, I do claim ownership over. I am not affiliated with the United Football League or any of its member teams and these are classified as ‘mock up’ demonstration fan art cards.