SIGnificant Cards - 2001 SP Authentic Sign of the Times Doug Flutie

Tim Tebow sure is making a lot of headlines as the starting QB for the Denver Broncos. More of them are saying he can't do this and he can't do that than praising him for his efforts and the efforts of his team. After all, it is the team winning, not just the QB. I think its funny that even John Elway won't give his blessing to the kid and the team keeps winning. It was so many years ago that another popular college QB was picked on, ridiculed and sensationalized in the headlines. So much that he packed it in and headed north to the CFL to hone his skills until it was the right time to come back to the NFL. That QB was Doug Flutie.

Remember those headlines? He's too short, too small, won't develop, blah, blah, blah. Sure, with some athletes you can tell almost instantly don't have the tools, but no man can measure another's determination. The media sure thinks they can, they actually get paid to come up with ridiculous newspaper and website headlines. It's borderline pathetic that people have come to expect sarcasm instead of fact.

Doug Flutie proved everyone wrong. The guy is a 3x Grey Cup MVP, he's a Heisman Trophy winner and he snagged an NFL Comeback Player of the year award. He had a spectacular CFL career throwing for over 40 TDs in a single season not once, not twice, but THREE times! He was 2 TDs shy from doing it four times...

His time with the Buffalo Bills and the San Diego Chargers were the best of his NFL days. He was also a member of the USFL. While drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1985, he passed up the NFL and joined the New Jersey Generals for a season. When the league folded a year later, he joined the Chicago Bears. He didn't get much playing time and was then swapped to New England. When the NFL went on strike, he crossed the line to play. Imagine that, a guy that just wants to play football. Hmmmm.

So... of course he was branded a scab and shortly thereafter he left the NFL for Canada. He became a CFL legend. His accolades are unmatched and many believe he is the greatest player in CFL history.

Sounds like a helluva career doesn't it? Well I haven't even touched upon the thing he's known the most for -- Flutie Flakes!

Ok, well he is known for that, but really... he's known for one of the most amazing hail mary passes in NCAA history. As a member of the Boston College Eagles, he helped his team defeat the all-powerful, so-called unstoppable Miami Hurricanes with a last second bomb that made him an instant superstar. For the record, he was already a star, notching the Heisman that year, and a couple of player of the year awards. He also wore #22 as a QB. I don't think I've ever seen anyone wear it again while playing that position, it caught my attention.

I had always wanted a Flutie autographed card in my collection since he threw that unbelievable pass back in '84. It took awhile before I pulled one out of a pack, but it did happen. This Upper Deck SP Authentic Doug Flutie card is one I will not soon forget. It was the last pack I opened from the box. I was almost at the point that I thought I got hosed on the box and it didn't include an auto (it happens). The card is #DF from the amazing 2001 Sign of the Times insert collection and features Doug in his Chargers gear. It is on-card and a very legible auto. To this day, it remains one of my top ten favorite pulls out of a pack. It's not worth a mint, but to me it's priceless.

Kinda makes you wonder if Tebow will follow in his footsteps, or get tripped up in them? Either way, both were underrated, one story has a happy ending, not that kind... get your mind out of the gutter, and the other we get to sit back and watch it all unfold.

Get Your Matt Leinart Cards Out

Ok, now put em away.

SIGnificant Cards - 2011 Andy Dalton Prestige Draft Picks Rights Rookie

With all of the quarterbacks selected in the 2011 draft by teams that sorely needed them, it was bound to be an exciting season watching them all explode or implode. Cam Newton, Blaine Gabbert, Jake Locker, Christian Ponder and Andy Dalton were all fantastic NCAA QBs. Who would succeed at the NFL was up to them and they all have performed well when called upon. Newton has put up outstanding numbers, but they have not translated into victories. Gabbert has struggled and so has Ponder. Dalton performed well in the season opener when the Bengals defeated the Browns. They are looking for the sweep of the Browns today. After the opener, the Bengals dropped their next two and then Dalton led them to a 5-game winning streak. It had fans saying, "Carson who"?

The Bengals are improving at a steady pace. They dropped games to superior opponents, but they are holding their own. Don't be surprised if they find a way to continue winning and earn a wild card in the very even-keeled AFC. The are currently on a 2-game skid, let's see if they can run off another 5-game win streak and make Dalton's rookie campaign even more of a success story. It won't be easy as they face Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston among others in their last six. They hung tight with their fellow AFC North franchises and the Texans are going to struggle without the services of starting QB Matt Schaub.

Football. Ain't it great?

This Dalton rookie card comes from the early Panini America release Prestige. It's usually the first NFL product on the market and is loaded with rookies. A box usually provides a couple of autographed rookie cards in addition to the regular base-card variety. This is card #207 from the set and is sequentially numbered to 499. It is the Draft Picks Rights variation and sports a really nice looking sig on a sticker. I usually don't like closeup images on cards, but take a look at Dalton's face, he is determined and you can see that he's taking all of the experience from his TCU days into the NFL. The fifth QB selected and a second rounder, the Bengals couldn't pass him up and got a franchise player; exactly what they were looking for.

SIGnificant Cards - 2005 Ken Griffey Jr. Sweet Spot Signatures

In 1989 The Upper Deck Company took the trading card world by storm. Brash to the point of nearly doubling the existing price of a pack of cards would have been enough, but they also landed one of the hottest prospects in Major League Baseball history before anyone else did. That player was Ken Griffey Jr. I had no problem finding the Griffey rookie card in those 89 packs, but let's skip ahead just a few years. Griffey would become synonymous with the Upper Deck brand. Enter the memorabilia and autographed card era. Keeping with my stubbornness, I had for a long time wanted to pull a Junior Griffey auto out of a pack.

It really wasn't because I was a fan, it was because he was a fairly difficult auto to get. I'd see him at MLB spring training in Arizona and he didn't sign very often if at all. In fact a lot of guys were like that. Bo Jackson, Mark McGwire and Rickey Henderson and Griffey weren't very cordial to their supporters some goaded the fans accusing them of selling their stuff on eBay. I always found it funny that a guy making 10 million gave a crap about a guy making a couple of bucks on eBay... but that's fact, I saw it with my own eyes. For every one of them though, there were 4 or 5 players that would sign as often as possible and that, some warm weather and good baseball is what made an annual trip to Arizona worthwhile.

It wasn't until 2005 that I finally pulled a Griffey auto out of a pack. It came from the 2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Baseball product, one of the best MLB sets ever made. It is perhaps the very best autographed baseball card insert collection to hit the hands of collectors even to this day. Unfortunately I've heard some collectors complain about their autos fading after some time, but I have never experienced this.

Junior signed it in black ballpoint with an extra inscription of "56 HRS". It's #'d to 175 and is one of the true gems in my collection. Do you have a favorite Sweet Spot auto? Which one is it?