Tag Archives: ttm football autographs

NFL

Watt, JJ “Swatt” (2)

sco11 jjwattCards: Topps Inspiration 2013, Score 2011
Acquired: TTM 2013, C/o Home
Sent: 8/20 /13   Received: 2/14/14       (174 days)
See Also: JJ Watt

Well you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth. JJ Watt is a great signer through the mail, so much so he receives a mail bag full that he’s rumored to take with him into the off season and into bye weeks to sign. I don’t blame him for short handing his autographs to ‘JJ 99’ at this point, though I fault the fans who abuse his charity, and the companies that own the rights to his autograph signings. I doubted I was going to get the opportunity to get JJ again, in person, so I thought I’d take a stab at him TTM before it was too late. I thought that this one was gone. His response time has really atrophied over the past year and I fully expect that he will peter out of the TTM business in the next few years.

JJ since his rookie season has really cemented himself as an impact player in the league. A fearsome pass rusher and special teamer, Watt is a team leader that leads by example for the Texans. During the playoffs in 2011, Watt intercepted an Andy Dalton throw at the line, and returned it for a touchdown. Over the next season, Watt sparked a revolution on the defensive line, as other players became more aggressive about blocking passes at the line of scrimmage. In 2012, JJ led the NFL with 20.5 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries, and an unheard of 16 passes defensed- a number higher than even most defensive backs. Even more impressive was the fact that Watt did this all in a 3-4 alignment. After the season Watt earned NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Pro Bowl, and All Pro Honors.

to12insp jj wattWhile the Texans planned to go deeper into the 2013 playoffs, about everything that could go wrong did for the team, with disastrous results. After winning their first 2 games in exciting comebacks, the team imploded and lost 14 straight. Free agency and injury had stripped the Texans of much needed depth on defense and on the offensive line. The quarterback rotation fell apart, and finally head coach Gary Kubiak had a mild stroke. Still Watt despite facing constant double teams and new schemes specifically designed to frustrate him, was able to come through with another 10.5 sacks and 65 tackles. Again Watt earned NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Pro Bowl and All Pro Honors for his efforts.

The Texans cleaned house after the 2013 season. Even beloved defensive coordinator Wade Philips was sent packing. With a new coordinator in Romeo Crennel joining the staff under rookie head coach Bill O’Brien, and the #1 pick in the 2014 draft, who knows what’s in store for JJ Swatt? A thoughtful and caring individual JJ gives much of his time to charity and to his youngest fans.

CFL, WLAF

Alexander, Andre

ultwlaf92 a alexanderCards: Ultimate WLAF 1992, Wild Card WLAF 1992
Acquired: TTM 2014, C/o Private
Sent: 1/4      Received: 1/25  (21 days)

A Facebook dispatch that actually paid off, I had written Andre sometime last year, but as we all know if you don’t know somebody it gets put in that pesky ‘other’ folder, so I threw out a friend request also to see if it’d catch his eye. Along with a batch of other WLAFers that I had found but had never been able to peg down, I just chalked it up as a loss and moved on. Lo and behold about 3 or 4 months later, he accepted my friend request. It took me a few months, but Andre one day was reminiscing about the past, posting photos of his days in the CFL and Fresno State, so I scanned in the two cards here, and posted them up telling him not to forget his roots. At his request I then put one up of his college teammate Dwight Pickens, and then we started talking. He not only agreed to signed the 2 cards I enclosed, he also got Dwight to sign his as well. As an added bonus, I sent him a few of his cards and other teammates cards from Fresno St to keep.

wcwlaf92 a alexanderAndre had a pretty solid Senior season for the Bulldogs in 1988. While the team had issues at quarterback, the other offensive playmakers were solid. Alexander finished as the #1 receiver on the team that year with 33 receptions for 703 yards and 3 TDs. A long bomb threat, he averaged 21.3 yards per catch. Undrafted, Alexander made the transition over to the CFL where he played for the Calgary Stampeders. The small statured Alexander made 19 receptions for 311 yards and 2 TDs.  Andre decided to join the WLAF and was a perfect fit for the Run N Shoot offense of Mouse Davis and the New York- New Jersey Knights. He hopped right into the starting lineup as the Knights’ punt returner. Alexander returned to the team in 1992 and hauled in 14 receptions for 256 yards and a TD. The WLAF went on hiatus after that year, and Andre returned to NorCal where he lives today.

While people tout the quarterback lineage of Fresno St, which certainly challenges Maryland on a level of college acclaim in that department, its really at receiver that there have been quite a few players that have made the jump to some sort of professional level.  The school became well known as the ‘WLAF connection’ and even had an article in GameDay magazine touting its pipeline. Along with Alexander, Dwight Pickens, Myron Jones, Malcolm Floyd, Kevin Sweeney, Mike Withycombe, and Gene Taylor were all guys who made the puddle jump to the WLAF.

Rec 18   Yds 319    Avg 17.1      Td 1     Lg 43t    |
Kr  1     Yds  21      Avg 21.0       Td 0     Lg 21      |
Pr 20   Yds 143    Avg 7.2         Td 0      Lg  18

NFL, University of Texas

Metcalf, Eric (2)

pset89 metcalfap90 metcalfsco90 metcalf HC

Cards: Score 1990 Hot Card, ProSet 1989, Action Packed 1990, Fleer 1995

Acquired: TTM 2014, C/o Home
Sent:  4/4  Received: 4/21  (17 days)
See Also: Eric Metcalf
Failure: TTM 1992, C/o The Cleveland Browns

With these four cards, I pretty much have knocked Eric Metcalf’s cards off my list- that is his Browns cards. Getting Eric’s autograph in any other uniform other than a Browns uniform would be like asking for Brett Favre on a Jets card to me. When I ran out to get Eric at Third Base a few years ago, I grabbed as many cards as I could, but didn’t have these, since three of them were lost in the mail all those years ago.  I had forgotten how nice these cards that I missed out on were.I reloaded and waited for a suitable time to shoot these cards out. Eric is very good to TTM fans- at least since I scolded him about it a few years ago. He’s one of my favorites from my childhood, so it was fitting I come around for a TTM hit.

Eric’s been busy in Seattle since returning there. He’s been involved in coaching track and field, most recently joining the staff at Washington as a volunteer assistant for horizontal jumping. Eric had an amazing track career at UT, winning the NCAA Championship in the long jump in 1986, and again in 1988.  A four-time All-American and that still holds the Texas school record for the outdoor long jump with a best of 27-8.25, Eric qualified for the finals of the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials, placing eighth.