Football Cards

A Classics Adventure: Donruss School Colors.

Donruss Classics, now produced by Panini of America, is an interesting product that seemingly caters to everyone while simultaneously catering to no-one in particular.

Classics, obviously lives up to it’s name as it’s chalked full of NFL greats.  One of the first cards that I pulled from this bad-boy was a Y.A. Tittle and Steve Young dual jersey.    Collectors love this stuff, but the people that try and turn cards for a profit are far more interested in the rookies dawning their professional uniforms for the first time.  Classics has a sizable window within which they can dominate the pro-jersey market and eBay sales reflect this.

Unfortunately, in order to be the first product offering pro-uniform (sometime pro-practice-uniform) cards, Donruss has to rely almost solely on sticker autographs. Obviously, this doesn’t become a problem until Topps’ releases their Rookie Premiere cards.

Unlike previous years, the School Colors subset doesn’t rely on stickers but rather provides college-pennant style cards with hard-signed silver paint pen autographs.  The issues with a paint pen are plentiful — it’ll chip, it’ll bubble, it’ll fade — but when the pen achieves an even flow, the cards look terrific.  These cards don’t measure up against the paint-pen autographs on UD Black, but they hold they’re own and better still, they’re affordable.

This is why I’ll attempt to collect the entire subset at a reasonable price.  In addition to the basics, I’ll throw together a relatively quick scouting report on the kids.  The plan is to get this set done before the season starts, all while spending less than 25 dollars per card.  Matthew Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Michael Crabtree and Knowshon Moreno are going to be tough, but I’m willing to bend the rules a little bit.

Percy Harvin

Acquired: eBay Auction

Price: 25 Dollars

Harvin was one player that I couldn’t place in this year’s NFL draft.  His talents are legendary and his skill-set is unquestionably among the best in the league.

Unfortunately, there really wasn’t really a position that you could slot Harvin into as your opening day starter (other than pot-smoker extraordinaire). Harvin’s about 5′11 on a good day, and carries 190-200lbs well.  Harvin’s not small, but he can’t carry the weight of an every down back, nor does he have the height to be that go-to guy in the passing offense.

Any team drafting for need had to pass on Percy Harvin, or so I’d thought.  Harvin eventually found his way to Minnesota which should, by all accounts, be a terrific fit.  With a solid foundation in place, Harvin shouldn’t be called upon to occupy any one position on a down-to-down basis (this doesn’t mean Minnesota made the right selection, they did have needs that required filling).

Harvin should start out in the slot, but while Adrian Peterson’s safely entrenched at RB, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Harvin steal snaps from 3rd-down back Chester Taylor.

Harvin’s extremely rare combination of upper body strength and speed should pose match-up problems across the board.  Harvin has the agility and strength to beat the press, but technique is going to be an entirely different story.  Harvin should be able to take anyone off the ball, but how he reacts to being bumped, and shifted into different zones will determine his future in the league.   Finding the sweet-spots in the zones is going to take time, but Vikings fans should be confident that he’ll develop.

With Favre under center, Vikings fans are looking at this year as the year, though.  Harvin’s production this year will depend solely on the creativity of the coaching staff.  If they can get him into space, he’ll succeed.  It’s going to be difficult for a contender to stray too far away from what’s been successful, but not drawing up 5 or 6 plays for Harvin would also be a huge mistake.

Matthew Stafford School Colors

Matthew Stafford

Acquired:  Pack Pulled

Price:  N/A, I guess.

The Lions took Stafford with the first overall pick and signed him to a 6YR/78M dollar contract with an NFL-Record 41 Million in guaranteed money.

Georgia was a huge disappointment in 2008, after being ranked the pre-season number one by SI.com.  Both Stafford and Knowshon Moreno did nothing to lower their draft stock,  but the team imploded.

Things fell apart after the painful loss to ‘Bama, and you could see the life sucked out of this squad.  If only the Georgia players understood the importance of the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party even with one loss,  maybe they’d be National Champs. Instead, Florida trounced them and eventually went on to trounce just about everybody else.

Georgia went on to lose to GT in one of the better games of the 2008 season.  Watching a power-house school being torn apart by the perfect triple-option is one of the more beautiful things you’ll ever see (unless you’re a UGA fan, I guess).

Tidbits:

Stafford has a cannon arm, but so did Ryan Leaf.  If the Lions can put Matthew Stafford in a position to win, he’ll prosper.  The Lions began drafting properly and have put together three consecutive solid drafts:  Calvin Johnson in 2007,  LT Gosder Cherilus and RB Kevin Smith in 2008 and then Stafford, TE Brandon Pettigrew and WR Derrick Williams in 2009.  I fundamentally agree with drafting the talent required for a QB to thrive prior to drafting your franchise quarterback.

Stafford isn’t Matt Ryan by any stretch of the imagination.  However, Stafford has more physical tools than Matt Ryan, so you could say that his ceiling is higher, but Stafford has nowhere near the field presense or football IQ that Ryan brought to the Falcons.