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: 1977 Topps Football Card #177

Team/Position: Seattle Seahawks / Wide Receiver

Cost: $3.75

Largent finished up his career at Tulsa as an All-American, yet slipped into the fourth round of the NFL Draft.  The Houston Oilers originally planned on cutting the great white hope, until the expansion Seahawks traded an 8th round pick for his rights.

Until a certain greatest wide-receiver of all-time and Dancing With The Stars Season Two runner-up came along, Steve Largent was arguably the best wide-receiver to have ever played the game.

When Largent retired from the Seahawks, he held every imaginable receiving record:  13,089 receiving yards, 819 career receptions, and 100 touchdown catches.

Largent didn’t display break-away speed, but caught everything that was thrown in his direction.  Throw in very crisp routes, and what seems like a veteran savvy from his first snap and you’ve a Hall of Famer: A 5’11″, 185lb, Hall of Famer.

Largent made seven Pro Bowls during his fourteen year career and was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1980′s.  Along with the ABSOLUTELY FREAKIN DESPICABLE Jim Zorn, Largent became the face of the Seattle Seahawks.  Steve Largent became the first Seattle Seahawk inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995.

After his football career, Steve Largent entered the realm of politics. Largent served 4 terms as a member of congress for Oklahoma’s first district.  Largent never received less than 60% of the vote, but he was running in Tulsa, and he was a Republican.

I’m not particularly a fan of Largent as a politician, but he was one hell of a football player.  One of Largent’s most memorable political moments screamed, “I’m a effin’ idiot!”

Because two gay men are bound to rape little girls that they adopt, Largent proposed the following bill,

“On July 29, by a vote of 213 to 215, the House, under heavy pressure from homosexual groups, rejected an amendment to the District of Columbia Appropriations Act (HR 2587) sponsored by Rep. Steve Largent (R.-Olda) that would have stopped the District of Columbia from using federal dollars to promote adoptions by couples not related by blood or marriage.”  ( Article Link )

Lovely.