Card: 1964 Philadelphia Gum, Card #3

Team/Position: Baltimore Colts / Tight End

Cost: $5.00

I ended up ordering this Mackey card with the Butkus rookie card, so it was pretty cheap.  When it comes to getting lower grade rookie cards, Kruk Cards out of Michigan has really been a solid source.

Mackey essentially revolutionized the tight-end position and was only the second true tight-end to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

In 10 NFL seasons, Mackey caught over 300 balls for over 5000 yards and 38 touchdowns.  In addition to break away speed, especially for the tight-end position, Mackey was a powerful all-around blocker.

In his 10 years, Mackey was selected to 5 Pro Bowls and 3 All Pro teams.  However, Mackey’s almost certainly best known for his catch in Superbowl V off a tip.

Mackey served as NFLPA President for four years, from 1969 to 1974.  Thus, making Mackey the first President of the Players’ Union after the AFL/NFL merger.

John Mackey currently suffers from frontotemperal dementia, and his original claims were denied by the NFLPA.  Thankfully, the people in charge of the NFL’s pension plan were able to connect the dots between Football and Brain Injury and “MACKEY 88” was established.

Unfortunately, dementia cannot be fully diagnosed until after an autopsy is performed, which makes it difficult to link brain injury directly to football.  Many current NFL players have gone about donating their brains (after death, duh) to science to help further research.

If you haven’t read Malcolm Gladwell’s insightful take on head injuries in football, please do (author of The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers)

Card: 1956 Topps Football #60

Team/Position: Baltimore Colts / Halfback

Cost: $9.00

Lenny Moore was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the first round (ninth overall) of the 1956 draft out of Penn State.  Lenny ended up being one of the few players to get his rookie card in his draft year.  The ’56 set holds some great Hall Of Famers on Topps cardboard for the very first time.  Lenny Moore, Joe Schmidt, Bill George, Stan Jones and Roosevelt Brown all have their Rookie Cards in the ’56 set.

I absolutely love the looks of these cards and I’m contemplating throwing together a low-grade set.  I got Lenny Moore and Joe Perry from the 1955 Bowman set, all for 9 bucks.  I’m going to considering Perry a Bonus! Bonus! card and just say that Lenny cost 9 bucks.  You can find Lenny Moore cards for under 5 bucks though, if you look hard enough.

Moore was a huge part of Baltimore’s offense, but his cards cost about 1/50th of the price as Unitas’.  Moore was another Flanker / Halfback combo-player that contributed whenever he touched the ball.

Over the course of Moore’s career, he notched seven Pro Bowls and seven All Pro selections.  Moore was named to the all decade team of the 1950′s and took home the UPI’s Rookie of the Year Award in 1956.

Lenny Moore was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975 after retiring from the game before the 1968 season.  Moore finished up his career with over 12K combined yards, and a then record, 18 consecutive games played with a touchdown.

Card: 1959 Topps Card #132

Team/Position: Baltimore Colts / Guard & Tackle

Cost: $4.50

After dealing with Jim Brown’s 1958 Rookie Card just the other day, it’s Jim Parker that shows up in my mailbox today.  As I said, the 1959 edition of Topps Football is absolutely gorgeous and this card’s in pretty good condition.  There’s a small unbroken crease that’s barely visible and most, if not all, of the gloss is still on the card.

So what does Jim Parker have to do with Jim Brown?  Parker was selected two picks after Brown as the 8th overall selection in the 1957 Draft.  The ’57 draft churned out HOFer (Hornung) after HOFer (Dawson) after HOFer (Brown) after HOFer (Parker) in just the first round!  Five others from the ’57 class also made the Hall of Fame.

Parker is the second Ohio State offensive linemen included and he comes with the same accolades.  Parker and Pace both won the Outland Trophy for Best Offensive Lineman and both finished top-10 in Heisman voting.  Orlando Pace was the winner of the Jim Parker Award; an award presented by the Touchdown Club of Columbus for the best offensive lineman, obviously named after Parker, himself.

At Ohio State, Parker was a bad-ass interior lineman on both sides of the ball.  Woody Hayes successfully used Parker’s power to run the ball directly at opponents in his patented “3-yards and a cloud of dust” style.

After Parker was drafted by Baltimore, he was moved to tackle and asked to keep Johnny Unitas upright.  Parker was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot as the first true offensive lineman in 1977.  In his 11 seasons, Parker accumulated 8 Pro Bowl Selections, 10 All Pro Selections, and 2 Championships.

What Made Parker Special?

Parker’s ability to dominate the Tackle position after having very little experience in pass-blocking at OSU is impressive.  Very rarely do you see offensive linemen switch positions halfway through their career without missing a beat.  Parker handled the ends just as well as the tackles.

Parker’s versatility lends itself to many referring to him as the best offensive lineman of all time.  Very few linemen had the mix of speed, quickness and power, that Parker had.

Football has never really lent itself to statistics, and that’s why players are still judged on the number of championships they’ve won.   Football’s still without a statistic to adequately define All-Pro offensive lineman play and thus, the “Eyeball Test” is almost always used.

Jim Parker obviously passes this test.