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.
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’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.
