Tony Dorsett: 1978 Topps Football
Player: Tony Dorsett
Card: 1978 Topps Football Card #314
Team/Position: Dallas Cowboys / Runningback
Cost: Purchased In Lot (about 3 bucks)
What a simply gorgeous football card! Everything about this card, produced in Tony’s second year, is just beautiful. The bright yellow border with black type just makes everything pop. Of course, poor centering stands out like a bi-atch in these puppies, but everything else is perfect.
I think my favourite part of Topps’ 1978 set is the pink little football in the lower right corner displaying the player’s position. There’s really no reason not to love it.
What Made Tony Dorsett Special?
This is going to be a tough one, but let’s start with something completely unrelated to Dorsett’s dominance at Pitt or in Big-D. Let’s start with Tony Dorsett, the bringer of truth:
I don’t know why on God’s earth Tony Romo has been anointed a superstar in the National Football League, Tony is very young in his career. Not to say you can’t be young in your career and be a superstar because you’ve got one up there in Minnesota in Adrian Peterson.
But the thing is this: You have a guy who hasn’t done much, and quarterbacks in the NFL, most of them go through this growing curve. He hasn’t gone through that growing curve, but he was anointed this great player all of a sudden. Now he’s having to live up to that. And obviously Tony has some deficiencies.
“He’s a good player who’s still learning how to play in the NFL, and I think the media has given him too much credit for doing nothing. He hasn’t done anything really in the NFL to deserve all the recognition and visibility he’s gotten so far. (TSN)
Spot on, no?
First thing’s first, Tony Dorsett was an absolute machine for the Pitt Panthers. Until Ricky Williams did his thing, and Ron Dayne followed it up with the big-and-fat approach, Tony Dorsett was the all-time leading NCAA rusher. Dorsett almost single-handedly transformed Pittsburgh into a powerhouse which in his senior season, culminated in a National Title victory.
In three of his four years at Pitt, Dorsett was named a First Team All-American. Dorsett finished as a Second Team All-American in 1974 behind a couple nobodies — Who’s heard of Archie Griffin, Walter Payton, Joe Washington and Anthony Davis anyways?
Dorsett weighed in at under 190lbs, but he managed to run hard on every play. Dorsett had the uncanny ability to perfectly set up defenders before exploding past them. I wouldn’t classify Dorsett as a tackle-breaker, but his swift cuts often put him in position to break one arm-tackle after the next. The Cowboys had no problem running Dorsett between the tackles, which often resulted in Dorsett bursting out the back end never to be touched again.
Most people mention Dorsett’s Monday Night Football run as his defining moment. Dorsett’s 99-yard run is still the longest run in league history, and it’s just a thing of beauty:
In 1994, Dorsett was elected to both the College and the National Football League Hall of Fame. When Dorsett retired, only Walter Payton had more yards on the ground, but since then Emmitt’s bested them both. Dorsett still ranks 7th overall behind Smith, Payton, Sanders, Martin, Bettis, and Dickerson.
Much like Barry Sanders, there’s a big “What If” surrounding Tony Dorsett. Tom Landry made it quite clear that he had no intention on wearing Dorsett down saying, “If I wanted to risk Tony, I think he could gain as many yards as Payton and Campbell,” the Dallas coach explained. “But Tony is so much different than Earl, who is so big. Payton is probably the strongest little man I have ever seen. Then there is Wilbert Montgomery, who did get used a lot and got hurt. I don’t want that to happen to Tony.” (source)
Tony still looks terrific after retiring in the late 80′s as a member of the Denver Broncos. Injuries eventually lead to Tony’s retirement, as is the case with most runningbacks.
The Cowboys gave up a lot to trade up to second overall in order to select Dorsett and it clearly paid off. Dorsett often gets lost in the shuffle, despite being a member of America’s team.
For all of Tony’s greatness with the Cowboys though, he’ll still be remembered as a Pitt Panther. ESPN listed Dorsett as the 7th best college football player of all time, which sits just fine with me.
Dorsett’s found his way into a few different products over the last couple of years. Most recently, he’s popped up in Donruss Classics and Topps Magic as sticker autographs, but last year’s Mayo release numbered to 10 looks pretty sweet:
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