2018 Sportlots purchases: it's so cold in the D

In what has to be a first in my combined time at the University as a student and then staff member, the school closed up shop for two days (today and tomorrow) due to the ridiculous wind chill courtesy of the globally climate-changed polar vortex.  That's almost as rare as the number of honest bones in Urban Meyer's body!

This evening's post's title refers both to an infamously bad song that can be viewed on YouTube (NSFW language warning) plus the side of the ball on which has been the traditional strength at Michigan.

Let's have a look at six of the team's defensive greats in the form of Sportlots pickups!

Hey!  It's Ala--

#alanbranchkillsQBs

-n Branch!  I was able to target and score a nice number of Michigan uni cards throughout this purchase and was extremely successful when it came to the monster DT--a 100% hit rate!  Everything you see is from 2007 with the first four made by Press Pass and the last by SAGE.  They're all quite nice to look at, if you ask me, but the numbered Reflector parallel and base SAGE are my favorites.  In fact that's likely my favorite design in the latter's run, though I should try comparing them all side-by-side at some point.

This five-spot bumps Branch up to 60 cards.

Player #2 is CB Leon Hall.  It doesn't look like there's much to celebrate with just this pair but they ended up being significant as the put him at exactly the century mark, the 15th of my football PCs to reach 100.  On the left is SAGE's Aspire base from '07, and while I don't love the design as much as anything above I still appreciate the use of a nice home action photo.  The other is a 2011 Score Glossy parallel, which is not the most exciting of inserts, but is new to his collection and therefore useful.

Four of today's players came to the NFL in the ridiculously talented 2007 draft class that really should have won more but didn't for a variety of reasons.  The third of that quartet is tackling machine David Harris, a guy who enjoyed 11 productive seasons in the league (as much as anyone can "enjoy" spending most of their career with the Jets).  New to his collection today are Score Glossy parallels from 2008 and 2011 and base cards from 2008 Select and 2012 Prestige.  Again, nothing too exciting--and no college cards--but I'm always glad to add to his PC, which now stands at 75.  I have a few interesting additions from COMC that will follow soon!

Former DB Marlin Jackson (who's always fun to search for--"NO I didn't want Marlins players named Jackson!") breaks up the '07 party as a 2005 draftee.  I was glad to find a college-themed set offering of his, the '05 SAGE HIT you see first.  Then I dug up a couple second-year base cards:  2006 Select and Topps Heritage.  The scan makes it obvious that I need to try to clean up the Select card a bit if I can!  As usual Heritage looks quite nice.

Thanks to this trio Jackson one-upped Branch by reaching a new count of 61 items.

Break's over, we're back to 2007!  I split my finds of Steelers star DE/LB LaMarr Woodley between that year--his rookie season--and 2009.  To rep the former he brings back SAGE HIT once more with that fantastic base design plus a Blue parallel of the Playmakers insert.  A Bowman Draft Orange insert (yeah, it doesn't look "orange" in-person either) leads the cards made two years later, and then we get a throwback pair with UD's Philadelphia and Topps Mayo.  The group of five you see here bumps one of my smaller football PCs up to 55, and I'll keep adding to it as I can find new stuff.

And here we have every Michigan fan's dream:  11 Charles Woodsons!  The GOAT DB is the old man of this group but he continues to outpace everyone else in my football PCs because he's a rare defender that got lots of cardboard.

This first scan starts with his second year in the pros, 1999, in the form of one of his two Playoff Prestige EXP base issues plus the loud and proud Revolution by Pacific.  That brand's Omega kicks off a 2000 quintet that includes another Prestige base plus Topps Collection, and UD's Encore.

This scan opens with a familiar photo but this time it's from UD's Gold Reserve.  Then we jump ahead to 2002 and that manufacturer's Piece of History insert called National Honors, a card that notes Woodson's surprise '97 Heisman win.  Suck it, Peyton!  The last three are a bit of a grab bag:  '05 Prestige, 2010 Finest, and another 2011 Score Glossy appearance.

The guy with the biggest bunch of additions to the biggest of my football PCs also gets to celebrate the biggest milestone today, crossing the 300 mark to 307!

I have something like five posts left in this series, so keep an eye out for those, plus hopefully some card show pickups from this coming weekend.