Tag Archives: ttm football autograph

NFL

Jackson, Michael (1961-2017)


Cards: Action Packed Rookies 1991, Pro Set 1991, Game Day 1991
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 4/25   Received: 5/9  (14 days)

Michael Jackson went to Southern Mississippi where he was the primary benefactor of future NFL great Brett Farve‘s throws.  They would both be drafted in 1991 and while Farve would go to Atlanta, Jackson would have to wait to be drafted near the top of the 6th round by the Cleveland Browns. A speed merchant and track star since high school, Jackson would establish himself as a long bomb threat for the Browns and also wear  the #1 jersey, further endearing him to the fans as a superstar for his unique choice of jersey for a wide receiver. (Of course, his name happened to be the same as a little known pop star named Michael Jackson).  Michael would grab 17 receptions his rookie season while adding his first two touchdowns to his resume. 1992 would see Jackson become an incumbent at receiver where he’d make 755 yards receiving and 7 touchdowns. In 1993, he’d almost duplicate these statistics, changed his number to 81, (due to uniform number requirements,) and briefly changed his name back to Michael Dyson. An injury shortened 1994 would clear Jackson’s return for 1995 where he made 714 yards receiving and 9 touchdowns.

The Browns in 1996 enraged the city of Cleveland by moving to Baltimore in the middle of the night. While the team had a very bad season, Jackson became quarterback Vinny Testaverde‘s favorite target, with a career high 1201 yards on 76 receptions and a league high 14 touchdowns receiving.  With another 900 yards in the book after 1997, Jackson saw his 1998 shorted by injury and only have 477 yards. He’d retire after the season due to injuries, and move back to Louisiana, where served briefly as mayor of his hometown. Certainly Jackson was the find of the 6th round of the 1991 draft and if he hadn’t have had his career ended prematurely due to injury, he would have been a steal.

At first glance when I got Michael’s autograph through the mail, I was a bit upset because the initial thing I saw was the giant slash going across the card. I thought he had just marked through the card. To my relief it was part of his very unique signature.  (As with many other players, I have begun to give players the duplicate cards that I have floating around in my collection to thank them for their time.) Another group of really nice cards here. I even considered adding in his Score Supplemental 1991 but thought that would be a bit over the top. ProSet was technically beaten to the punch by Hi-Pro Marketing, who released a rookie card of Michael Jackson in their Action Packed Rookies series a few months before anybody else. (Ironically they also had the first Brett Favre card on the market too.) I very much liked all three of these designs, -in particular the GameDay card stands out with its very unique squared shoulders pose of Michael, who looks like a quarterback in this image. ProSet once again delivered very solid photography on their card with an exciting action shot of Jackson sprinting down the field, while Action Packed (as noted above) provided us his first true rookie card on its embossed surface with a nice clean view of Jackson looking for the ball.

G/Gs  114/92      Rec 353     Yds  5393     Avg 15.3       Td 46    Lg 86t

*UPDATE* 5/12/17- Michael Jackson’s motorcycle was traveling at a high rate of speed around 1 a.m. Friday when it crashed into a car that was backing out of a parking space and into both lanes of the highway. Both he and the driver of the car were killed.

NFL

Mitchell, Brian

Cards: ProSet 1990, ProSet 1991, GameDay 1992
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o home
Sent:  4/25    Received: 5/5  (10 days)

Brian Mitchell was a quarterback originally at Southwest Louisiana. An amazing athlete, he owned virtually all the quarterback records when he left the college and was the first NCAA player to throw for over 5,000 yards and rush for over 3,000 in their career. After graduating from college, he was drafted in the 5th round of the 1990 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins. The Redskins were deep at quarterback so the team decided they’d throw him back there as a return specialist, runningback, and as emergency quarterback. Brian would rack up the return yardage playing for the Redskins through 1999. An electric returner, Mitchell led the league in punt return yards with 600 in 1991,  and was a ProBowl selection in 1995 for the team. In 10 seasons with the Redskins Brian left holding virtually all the Redskins special teams records, racking up over 16,000 yards from scrimmage and 7 punt returns for touchdowns.  After leaving the team, he’d play for the Eagles from 2000-2002 and continued his assault on the record books, setting a league record at the time with 206 kick return yards in a single game.  Brian would play one final season for the New York Giants in 2003, before retiring as a member of the Redskins.

When I initially started this project, Brian was one of the players that I really wanted to honor. Incredibly upon retirement, Mitchell was ranked 2nd all time in yards from scrimmage, had 4 seasons of over 2000 yards, and holds the NFL records for kick returns (607), combined return yards (19013), punt return yards (4999), career kickoff return yards (14014), career fair catches (231), fair catches in a season (33), and punt returns (463). Still most people are unaware of the legacy Mitchell left upon the game and he probably won’t see the Hall of Fame, because of the lack of respect for special teamers. In the meantime, he was inducted into the Redskins Hall of Honor in 2009, works on his foundation (Brian Mitchell Foundation), and has been involved in broadcasting. I was pleased to get Brian’s autograph in 10 days flat from his home in Louisiana.

Great cards of Brian here. ProSet really did their homework and had a card of him before the end of his rookie season in their 1990 update set which was far and ahead of anything anybody produced by at least a year.  Oddly he’d appear in both of Pro Set’s 1990 and 1991 update as the last card in each set. (Sure there were additional inserts after him, but he was the last actual player card.) Mitchell was pretty decent in the first Tecmo Super Bowl, but by Final Edition, he was a dangerous threat in the game. Much like Mel Gray, Brian was a threat to return the kickoff every time he touched the ball and the secret to utilizing him correctly was basically to put him in the starting lineup.

G/Gs 223/16      Rush 388     Yds  1967      Avg  5.1     Td  12     Lg 85t   |
Rec  255      Yds  2336       Avg 9.2      Td  4       Lg 69  |
Kr  607   Yds   14014    Avg  23.1     Td   4       Lg   101t  |
Pr  463     Yds   4999     Avg  10.8     Td   9       Lg  84t

NFL, Pro Football HoF

Moon, Warren (2)


Cards: ProSet 1990 MotY, Score 1990 Hot Gun, Pro Set 1990
Acquired: TTM 2011, C/o Home
Sent: 4/2  Received:  5/4   (32 days)
Previous Posting: Moon, Warren 12/12/10

When I was a kid, I got Warren’s autograph at training camp one year. While not afforded the opportunity to attend nearly everyday (such as in the case of Cowboys Training Camp in Austin,) I did make the best of it when I went to Oilers’ camp in San Antonio. The players were also kind enough as well and I would typically haul in 15-30 autographs a day when I’d go. I never held it against Warren that I couldn’t get his autograph more than once, but resisted sending out again in 2011 (-for fear that I wouldn’t get it).  I noticed a lot of multiple successes recently from the former Oilers great, and since I had gotten a lot of autographs from other members of the team, I thought I’d give it a shot. I sent out to his address in Kirkland, Washington but heard a week or two later that he had moved back to Southern California. With a lot of these successes happening in under 2 weeks, I got discouraged that I’d ever get the cards back.  It did take a bit more longer than usual, but postmarked from Santa Ana, Ca (lending creedance to the rumor he was indeed living here) I got Warren’s autograph on these 3 additional cards in a still brisk 32 days. He also included a business card for Warren Moon Enterprises- Sports 1 Marketing. You can follow him through Twitter at twitter.com/WMoon1, Facebook at facebook.com/HWarrenMoon1 or go to his website at www.sports1marketing.com where you can locate his physical address if you wish to get his autograph as well.