Anyway, that's a lot of words about someone who won't be featuring in this post, or even this series. But we are talking about 12's position while looking at cards of two other notable Wolverine field generals today:
Brian Griese may have never won a ring in the NFL, but he did accomplish one thing Brady didn't: bring a National Championship at Michigan. The former journeyman and current college broadcaster is among the most represented guys in my PCs and days like this are why as I'm adding 10 fun new pieces.
The first seven are of the vertical variety and span 1999, the year after Griese was drafted, to 2005 and the second season of his first stint with the Bucs. There's plenty of shininess to appreciate thanks to Leaf Certified, Quantum Leaf, Topps Gold Label, Pacific Exclusive, and Topps Pristine. My favorite out of this excellent bunch is the Gold Label, made back in 2000 when Topps had competition and actually had to put effort into their products. Base cards from UD (2001) and Playoff Contenders ('05) are there because I almost always love their designs.
The horizontals are a fun mix in that they're all over the place. Fleer's Flair Showcase looked awesome in '99 and that goes nicely with all the shiny above. Pacific gets repped again thanks to the die-cut 2001 Prism Atomic, with the Broncos logo particularly suited to the design. And then we jump forward to 2002 and another nice Topps offering, Heritage.
This is the kind of variety I love adding to any collection so I was happy to put them in Griese's PC for a new count of 186.
Meanwhile, Shoelace (who's part of the brand new Alliance of American Football) may have switched to RB late in his college career and during his brief NFL stay, but I'll always think of him as a dual-threat QB. That's how he's depicted on four of these five new cards and that works for me!
The first three are from 2013 college-themed brands--Leaf Draft, Press Pass, and SAGE HIT--that unfortunately have to employ the usual tricks perfected by unlicensed products, such as airbrushing and non-uniform shots. Joining those are a Score Hot Rookies insert from the same year plus a 60th Anniversary Factory Set issue from 2015 Topps. With those I'm now five cards closer to the century mark at 96.
I still have something like four posts left in this series but plan on showing off my loot from last Saturday's card show next.
How did I miss that Griese Pristine before? I'm now drawn to every single '02 Pristine card I see, like a moth to a flame.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget this dumb joke about him that was in an issue of the Sporting News. I think it was a Johnny Carson-style list, where the punch line came before the set up, so it went like this:
a) Brian Griese
q) why nobody touch Brian?
lol..the dumb little things that stick in our memory..
Haha, he had one of those names that led to easy jokes for sure. I thought you might be interested in another Pristine example, too.
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