Card: 1989 Score Football, Card #72

Team/Position: Philly Eagles, Minnesota Vikings / Wide Receiver

Cost:

If Cris Carter isn’t a first-ballot Hall of Famer, I don’t know who is.  Jerry Rice is obviously going to be a first-ballot guy; but realistically, do you have to be the greatest player at your position to be deemed worthy of first-ballot status by the grumpy, old, balding men known as the HOF Selection Committee?

Cris Carter finished up his career as the second best wide-receiver ever, if you’re just going on statistics.  Before becoming a mentor to young players everywhere he went, Carter had early off-field issues.  Rather than rewarding such a turnaround, the Hall of Fame committee decided to punish Carter in 2009.

Cris Carter’s yet another Ohio State Alum, adding to the already gigantically prejudicial list of Paul Warfield, Jack Tatum, Jim Parker,  John Stallworth, and  Orlando Pace.

In his third season (1989,)  Carter caught 11 touchdown passes but in a shocking move, was cut by Buddy Ryan before the 1990 season.  Carter’s life was falling apart and behind the scene, Carter’s addiction to cocaine and booze, was well known.  Carter later credited Buddy Ryan for changing his life (I’m sure Eagles fans took solace in that as Carter went onto have a HOF-career).

Carter’s career slowly built up steam with the Vikings until it exploded with the acquisition of Warren Moon.  In 1994, Cris Carter set a then-record for receptions in a season with 122.  Carter continued to dominate until the Vikings drafted Randy Moss in 1998, at which point he entered the stratosphere.

With Moss opposite him, Carter was free to put up career-best numbers and continued to find the end-zone  at a torrid pace.

Carter finished up his career with the Dolphins in 2002.  When all was said and done, only Jerry Rice had better numbers than Carter’s 1,101 receptions and 130 touchdowns.  Marvin Harrison has since surpassed Carter for receptions, but his recent nightclub incident will probably reduce him to a second-ballot HOF inductee as well.  Ugh.

Carter’s the only player to ever post two seasons with 120+ receptions and hopefully he’ll find a way to sneak into the HOF in 2010, a year in which Jerry Rice and Tim Brown both become eligible.

If you were third-and-goal from anywhere on the field, Cris Carter is the wide-receiver you’d look to.  In that regard, even Jerry Rice couldn’t compare to Cris Carter’s hands and body control.

Two final things in closing:

1. It’s awful that so many of the greatest rookie cards of all time were over-produced to the point that they’re worthless.
2. Cris Carter definitely looks stoned as hell on the rear of his 1989 Score Card.

Card: 1989 Score Football Card #263

Team/Position: Denver Broncos / Free Safety

Cost: 50 cents

The 1989 Score set is absolutely loaded with rookies.  In ’99, Score re-released quite a few of the ’89 cards with certified autographs.

Considering the rookie crop, it was pretty damn amazing.  Earlier this year, Score used the ’89 design on 2009′s rookie crop which made for some pretty desirable cards.

I nailed down Steve Atwater for exactly 50 cents on CheckOutMyCards. If you plan on ordering a handful of low-value cards, it’s definitely head and shoulders above eBay.

With that said, I absolutely adore Steve Atwater. 

Atwater’s yet to be elected into the Hall of Fame, which is pretty much bullshit.  Atwater came out of Arkansas and brought some toughness to the Free Safety position.  Atwater was used in the box like a linebacker and recorded insane unofficial tackle numbers (1989: 129, 1990: 173, 1991: 150, 1992: 151, 1993: 141)

Atwater’s best known for his devastating hits.  My favourite, by far, is Atwater’s hit on the Nigerian Nightmare, Christian Okoye.

A 216lb free safety taking on a 260lb running back, boo-yah.

Atwater was a key part of the late-90′s Broncos Superbowl teams, and his performance against the Green Bay Favre’s was as clutch as it gets.  Atwater hit everything in sight and while his coverage skills were declining quickly, he just seemed to be in the right spot to deliver the hit on every play.   With 36 seconds left, you get to see Atwater knock himself unconscious on the field of play.

By the time Atwater was done, he’d been selected to 8 Pro Bowls and 2 First Team All Pro teams.  For his work with the Broncos, Atwater was named to the All-Decade team of the 1990′s.

On the reverse of Atwater’s rookie card, it proudly displays his 4.65 40-yard dash time.  It’s almost a miracle that Atwater was able to play with such a lack of speed at the safety position well into the 90′s.  Without Atwater’s leadership or football IQ, he’d be nothing more than the 90′s version of Roy Williams.

The bone-heads at the Pro Football Hall of Fame will undoubtedly see Atwater’s 24 Interceptions and 5 sacks and just scoff. Yet, there was so much more to Steve Atwater than just statistics.  When you think of guys like Steve Atwater and John Lynch, it’s hard to believe they’re not Hall of Famers, yet Atwater continues to get overlooked.  Lynch and Atwater both possessed superior leadership ability, but for whatever reason (skin-color, maybe?) much more was made of John Lynch’s ability to lead.

Only time will tell, I suppose.

I’m sure we’ll see 20 more mediocre receivers and quarterbacks elected before Atwater, and it’s a shame.