Jordan Thomas was a highly touted recruit, and signed with Oklahoma in 2014. He was roughly a 4 year starter at the school, posting some eye popping numbers in his Sophomore year, with 46 total tackles, 4 pass deflections, and 5 interceptions for 153 yards and a TD. Jordan struggled to meet those numbers in his final two years at Norman- although he did manage to produce 17 pass breakups in his 2016 campaign.
JT was not selected in the 2018 NFL draft, but did manage to land with the Philadelphia Eagles. After being cut, Jordan signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and then later that year with the San Antonio Commanders of the fledgling AAF. JT made the Commanders, recording 2 tackles and a pass deflection during the preseason, but with a surfeit of talent at the CB position, he rarely saw action. JT saw playing time primarily in two contests, Week 2 against Orlando and Week 6 against Atlanta. He’d record 5 tackles in 8 games for San Antonio.
After the league disbanded, Jordan signed with the Columbus Destroyers of the Arena Football League. He’d put together 17 total tackles and 3 pass breakups in 2019.
Cards: Topps XFL 2001, Topps XFL 2001 Promo, Bowman NFLE 2000 Acquired: TTM 2019, C/o Home Sent: 4/18 Received: 5/28 (40 days) See Also: Pat Barnes
Before the XFL 2020 season began, I started to reminisce about the XFL 2001. A few of the players who played in the XFL had fished in NFLE waters, so I thought it was time to revisit a few of them including the venerable Pat Barnes. Pat had a really nice chrome Topps card from his NFLE days that I liked, as well as the 2 Topps XFL cards. The design, sans the photos used, are almost the same. The only difference is the lower case typeface is used on the promo card. In this case, I liked the look of the promo card a bit more, just based on the photography used.
As of 2020, Patrick Barnes is a Principal with Avison Young who specializing in investment sales within Southern California marketplace for the last 15 years. His expertise is in understanding the capital markets, creating value in an investment transaction, knowing and accessing investors and developing marketing strategies for commercial investment properties in Southern California on behalf of institutional clients, publicly traded companies, high net worth ownership and foreign Investors. Patrick excels in all facets of the real estate asset cycle including identifying target assets, rigorous financial modeling & analysis, entitling, marketing, leasing, and selling investor and occupier assets.
Patrick’s diverse experience covers a wide range of properties and deal size, ranging from $1M to over $50million. Over the course of Patrick’s career, he has sold over 300 properties and over $1 Billion in consideration.
Patrick Resides in Westchester California with his wife Summer and three children. Patrick enjoys being a husband, father, spending free time in the outdoors, fly-fishing, camping, hiking and hunting.
A transfer from Cerritos, Jim Zorn played at Cal Poly-Ponoma, where he set multiple passing records for the school from 1973 to 1974 as a dual threat quarterback. He was not selected in the 1975 NFL Amateur Draft, but he signed a free agent contract with the Cowboys. Jim did not make the squad, but made enough of an impression that he was brought in by the brand new Seattle Seahawks franchise the following year (1976) to compete in camp.
Jim ended up winning the starting quarterback job outright, and was named rookie of the year in 1976, leading the league with 439 attempts- and interceptions with 27, while rushing for 4 TDs. In 1977 he started 10 games, but posted a gaudy league leading 16.2 yards per completion on 104 passes. By 1978 it was obvious that Zorn to Largent was becoming a household name, as the franchise posted back to back 9-7 records under his leadership. Jim’s penchant for scrambling was in full effect, as he carried the ball 59 times for 290 yards and 6 TDs. He’d have all career single season passing highs in the latter year (1979) throwing for 3661 yards (285/505) and 20 TDs to 18 interceptions. It seemed that Jim’s best games where when he was on the run and improvising. As his rushing stats decreased over the following seasons, so did his passing stats, and win/ loss record. In 1983 he’d be benched in favor of Dave Krieg. At that time, Jim, had been the only quarterback pretty much in the history of the franchise, and owned virtually all the franchise passing records.
Jim signed with the Green Bay Packers in 1985. He posted a 3-2 record for the team, passing for 794 yards and 4 TDs. In 1986, Jim traveled to Winnipeg where he backed up John Hufnagel and Tom Clements, on the Blue Bombers. After his lone season in the CFL, Zorn returned to the NFL in 1987 where he played one final swan song for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, beating the Minnesota Vikings 20-10, before retiring.
Jim has an extensive coaching resume. He started shortly after retiring from football in college, taking stops in as an assistant coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach at Boise State (1988-1991), Utah State (1992-1994) and 1995-1996 at Minnesota. He quickly joined the NFL as an assistant with his former team- the Seahawks in 1997. Afterwards it was off to the Lions from 1998-2000, where he began to really develop a reputation as a great quarterback whisperer. He then returned to the Seahawks in 2001. He remained QB coach for the franchise until 2007, where he made the jump to head coach with the Washington Redskins.
Jim Zorn’s Washington Redskins tenure was shortlived. Embarrassing moments were not in short supply unfortunately. First the Redskins broke the hapless Lions 0-16 streak dating back through 2008. Then, during a game in 2009 against the Giants, Jim called a ‘swinging gate’ formation (which is reliant on the element of surprise to make mismatches)- so the Giants wisely called a timeout. The Redskins not only stuck to the play- it resulted in an interception, and caused the team to get booed off the field at half time. He lasted two seasons, as the Redskins failed to compete- posting a 12-20 record.
After coaching for the Redskins, Jim served one season as QB coach of the Ravens in 2010, and then as QB coach for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2011 and 2012. He joined the XFL as head coach of the Seattle Dragons, and as his offensive coordinator Mike Riley took a leave of absence from the team, Jim had to take a more hands on approach. He was able to navigate the team through a quarterback controversy and a win before the league was terminated after the 5th game of the season, due to COVID.
I was surprised that Jim was not a part of the XFL 2020 set released by Topps. Nonetheless I wanted to get his autograph on this Upper Deck 1997 Legends card I had of his. I love this card. The detail is stunning, even down to the cheerleaders and band in the background.
He signed this card in 6 days flat and inscribed it with an interesting passage:
Proverbs 26:1
Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool.
NFL G/GP
ATT
CPD
YDS
PCT
TD
INT
RAT
140/106
3149
1669
21115
53.0%
111
141
67.3
RUSH
YDS
AVG
TD
LG
322
1504
4.7
17
41
CFL
ATT
CPD
YDS
PCT
TD
INT
RAT
25
13
175
52.0%
0
1
N/a
RUSH
YDS
AVG
TD
LG
5
11
2.2
0
5
NFL W
L
T
.PCT
12
20
0
.375
Celebrating the game, the players, the cards, and the autographs for over 25 years.
