As the card companies continue to deliver a bumper crop of retro-themed (recycled) set designs and concepts, I thought it would be good to turn around and look into the Hobby’s storied past to learn a bit more about these vintage sets. In a way, it will be like remembering the aluminum cans that became a swing set or, perhaps a better analogy, the 1957 Chevy that became a batch of die-cast elephants (because the companies are generally taking beautiful and original designs and recycling them into common junk). To kick things off, let’s take a look back at the legendary 1894 Mayo set:

In 1894, the P.H. Mayo tobacco company produced the first ever set of collectible cards to feature only football players, the 1894 Mayo Cut Plug set. The 35-card set only contained players from the “Big Three” Ivy League schools, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, as these colleges were by far the most dominant in the young sport at the time. The simple cards were small by modern standards, measuring just 1 5/8″ x 2 7/8″ and featured a sepia-toned portrait on a black frame that contained the player’s last name and school and the Mayo Cut Plug logo. The card backs were completely blank and black and the cards were not numbered in any fashion. One of the cards did not identify the player shown and early checklists simply listed this card as “Anonymous”, although the player has since been identified as John Dunlop of Harvard. The cards were distributed in tins of P.H. Mayo chewing tobacco.

1894 Mayo Cut Plug cards featuring Harvard, Princeton, and Yale football players

Over 100 years later, card companies began creating sets that paid tribute to the 1894 May Cut Plug set. The first to do so was Donruss in 2002 when they created the Donruss 1894 set that was inserted into packs of 2002 Gridiron Kings. The set actually holds fairly true to the original design. The card fronts feature a black-and-white portrait (rather than sepia-toned) of the player on a black frame that contains the player’s full name (rather than his last name), position (in place of the player’s team/college), and his team’s logo (in place of the Mayo Cut Plug logo). This set also replaced the “For Chewing and Smoking” motto in the lower right-hand corner with “For Collecting & Trading”. Rather than plain black backs, the 2002 Donruss 1894 set featured a foil stamped serial number #/1,000, a card number (MC-#), and various manufacturer logos. For a great side-by-side comparision, please click here. Donruss repeated the set in 2003 Gridiron Kings, with the only notable change being the cards were serial numbered to 600.

2002 Gridiron Kings Donruss 1894 #MC-7 Emmitt Smith

In 2008, Topps created a new 1894 Mayo throwback set. While standard-sized, the card fronts actually held fairly true to the original set with the only notable changes being full color player portraits and the retention of “For Collecting and Trading” motto used by Donruss rather than the original “For Chewing and Smoking” motto of the original 1894 Mayos. Similar to the hugely successful Allen & Ginter baseball set, 2008 Topps Mayo included many short print subjects and a host of various insert cards. One of these inserts was a mini parallel that replicated the small size of the original 1894 set and included a black-and-white portrait. The product was however marred by an inability to follow through with pre-release checklists, especially for autograph subjects.

2008 Topps Mayo & 2008 Topps Mayo Mini #111 Adrian Peterson

In 2009, Topps again made a Mayo throwback set, only this time they did not hold true to the classic set. The standard sized base set features full-color portraits on a white frame that barely resembles the 1894 design. The set much more closely resembles the popular Allen & Ginter baseball releases. Topps once again included a mini parallel that brought back the correct card dimensions and black-and-white photo, but the new white border was still present. Similar to 2008 Topps Mayo (and Allen & Ginter), the set included a plethora of short prints and various inserts.

2009 Topps Mayo & 2008 Topps Mayo Mini #191 Michael Crabtree

While no modern throwback set has been able to quite recapture the magic of the 1894 Mayo Cut Plug set, it is nice to see companies pay tribute to the founding father of football card sets, even if they are just recycling a classic design (and failing to get it right).

For more information on the original 1894 Mayo set, please visit these sites:
Nearmint’s Vintage Football Card Blog
The Harvard-Yale Football Gallery
Vintage Card Prices – 1894 Mayo Gallery (very nice gallery of all 35 card images, except for the Anonymous/John Dunlop card)

Name: Les Horvath
Position: Quarterback
College: Ohio State Buckeyes
Class: Senior
Winning Year: 1944 – 10th Award
Official Heisman Profile: Click Here

Interesting Notes: Horvath won the Heisman in a very close competition and edged out two Army sophomore standouts…led OSU to an undefeated season by superior skills in passing, rushing, blocking, kicking, and tackling…graduated with degree in dentistry…served in Navy as dental officer and assistant football coach…played for a few years in the pro ranks…established a successful dental office while coaching when his playing years ended…was elected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1969.

Featured Card: 1948 Bowman #41. Despite never being a professional standout, Horvath was included in the 1948 set from Bowman, several years before many of his Heisman winning peers who had to wait until the 1955 Topps All American set. There are not many copies currently available on eBay, but all of them fall right into the $20 ballpark.

NOTE: You can find all of my Heisman Highlight Features by clicking the post banner above.

As a player collector, it is obviously very important to me that all of my Emmitt Smith (and Curtis Conway) cards stay together in an organized manor. While this is not usually a difficult task (except for the fact that my Emmitt collection is outgrowing the tin I am currently using to house it), there are a few bumps in the road. One of my pet peaves is oversized cards. I mean, really, what am I supposed to do with these things? Are they Emmitt cards? Obviously yes. Are they cool? Sort of. Is it remotely necessary that they are so oversized? NO! At least with some of my non-standard sized cards, I can still put them into a normal top loader and file them away in order (like Goudey and Mayo throwbacks). But not oversized cards. No sir. They require their own special top loader and must be taken out of their proper order and given a special spot…stuffed down along the side of the tin beside all of the other normal cards.

Seriously, are these necessary?

Click each image for a full-sized scan

To all of you other player (or team) collectors out there: what do you do with oversized cards? I know you all have box toppers, 5×7s, and other unneccessarily large cards. How do you cope? Do you just let them hang outside of the traditional borders of your collection? Do they reserve a special storage designation? Are you just not as organizationally anal as I am?

Please help!

Christmas is a great time of year. Hopefully we all agree that the real reason for the season is to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Without Him, none of this would matter. A nice perk to the holidays is gifts (be honest, you like them as much as the next guy). I am going to risk sounding cliché and state that for as much as I enjoy receiving gifts, I enjoy giving gifts just as much, if not more. There is just something about putting thought into a present for a loved one and then watching them light up when they open it. It makes me feel all warm inside. I like that feeling.

As the youngest in a family of five, gift giving has become much simpler in recent years. We still love each just as much, we just realize there are more important things than giving each other meaningless objects to sit around the house. For this reason, gift cards for entertainment are great. It gives the person you love a chance to get out, maybe make a memory or two, and to top it off, not spend any money (unless you were a cheap skate and didn’t get a large enough gift card). The problem with gift cards, at least for me, is they are about the most anti-climatic gifts ever. While kids get to rip into large boxes full of goodies, you are left handing your brother a piece of paper that says, “Hey man, I love you this many dollars worth.” What joy. How do we make gift cards more fun to give (and hopefully to receive)? We incorporate a gag gift into the presentation.

Take last year for example. I wanted to give my wife a gift certificate for a massage because she is on her feet all night at work and while my back rubs are numerous, they suck. I admit it. I didn’t just want to hand her the email print out or even put it in a greeting card, so I tried to get creative. I pulled out my 2007 Upper Deck Rookie Premiere box, retrieved all 30 cards from my Rookie Premiere binder and put them back into the box. I hid the gift certificate under the plastic tray, replaced the tray and cards, and then sealed the box in heat shrunk wrapping. On Christmas morning, I told her as I handed the box to her that this was a special present. When she ripped off the paper, I could tell she was a little confused why she was holding a box of cards. I explained that she had mentioned she would like to understand my hobby a little better and now she had her own small set of cards to look at. She still seemed skeptical, so I told her to at least flip through the cards. She began leafing through them as I pointed out that Brady Quinn still hadn’t lived up to his hype and that Adrian Peterson was the best card of the set. She was acting interested, but I could tell she was still confused why I bought her cards for Christmas. I took the box lid and said, “Hey, this says to look for rare autographed cards randomly inserted into the sets. Were any of those autographed?” She flipped through them again and said that none were. I then said, “Well, maybe they didn’t want to leave out one of the cards since you are buying a full set. Maybe they put it under the plastic tray.” When she lifted the tray out, she immediately saw the gift certificate, and the cards became an afterthought. When I said the cards were really mine and that I wanted them back, she admitted she had no clue why I had given them to her and that she was faking her interest…because I hadn’t noticed. At least we had a good laugh about it.

This year’s target: Mom and Dad. Later today, they will be receiving a fairly large wrapped rectangle. When they rip off the paper, they will see they have received a box of 2006 Upper Deck Exquisite football cards. They will open the box and slide out a much fancier hinged box. Inside they will find a small grey box, which will be filled with 10 completely blank decoy cards. Once they flip through all of them to ensure they are all blank on both sides, I will throw in a “That’s odd. I wonder if they had a packaging problem at the factory. Is there anything under that plastic tray?” (Note: a good card box hoax will include a nicer box that includes mutiple parts, not just a basic box from Upper Deck Series 1). Under the tray they will find an unmarked envelope. Inside the envelope? A gift certificate to a local restaurant, in no way related to Upper Deck or cards in general.

I’m not sure how I will continue this next year or who the target will be, but I have a feeling I will have fun planning it out.

Do any of you have similar stories about giving fake gifts, pretending to give cards to non-collectors, or otherwise disquising gift certificates? I would love to hear other examples…

Saturday is full of great College Football Bowl Games!

This Saturday finally provides us with more than one bowl game as three bowls will take place today. Ohio takes on Marshall in the early game followed by Pittsburgh against North Carolina and the BC Eagles against the Trojans of Southern Cal. This is a great day to bet on bowl games and if your going to bet on the bowl games, the best place is Diamond Sportsbook!

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Free College Football Bowl Pick

Meineke Car Care Bowl
Pittsburgh Vs North Carolina

When Pittsburgh was up 21 points against Cincinnati in the game last week that would decide the Big East Championship they have envisioned a much bigger bowl game then the Meineke Car Care Bowl. Then the defense collapsed and the Bearcats won the Big East crown and are playing Florida in a BCS Bowl game. The Panthers will have to settle for a trip to Charlotte where they will take on the North Carolina Tar Heels.

For the Tar Heels this trip to Charlotte is a welcomed one. They also struggled down the stretch but will have a home field advantage and play here for the second time in two years. Last year they sold out this stadium as they played Boston College and had an edge in the crowd. Although Pittsburgh travels well they should have it again this year against the Panthers.

While Carolina has an excellent defense they have big problems on offense and at times if the deep threat is eliminated can have trouble moving the ball at all. The Heels are off a game where they passed very well but that is not a good thing in this spot. The Tar Heels are 7-20 ATS in their last 27 games after accumulating more than 280 yards passing in their previous game. The Panthers are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games as a favorite and they are 4-0 ATS in the last four games after a straight up loss. The Panthers still have plenty to look forward to as they can win ten games this season. Dion Lewis is a beast in the backfield and will be too much for the Tar Heels to handle as the Panthers win in Charlotte.

Pittsburgh -3

Little Caesars Bowl (FREE)

Emerald Bowl (FREE)

I also have free picks and write-ups on every bowl game this year! They are all free! All you have to do is sign up and play with a great sportsbook featured here and email me at mregaw@yahoo.com and you will get all of the picks and all of the write-ups!

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15 Team Teasers and parlays!!

Merry Christmas another made up holiday for you to spend your last piece of man-made evil. proceed into oblivion……lol

And on the subject of grudges i think these emotions are useless. Let people be stupid,immature,plastic, etc. Why should it really matter to your existence.  You give them that avenue to exist just let them fuck off.  Ive used this it works wonders.  Try it when u have a have a chance.

“Don’t hold grudges; it’s pointless. Jealousy too is a non-cathartic, negative emotion.”

And here is the prodigy the world is really on fire……..so much bullshit out there…….have fun

and here is another pic from revenge of the fallen enjoy the detailed art.

power-up prime

[Excerpt from A Charlie Brown Christmas]:

Schroeder: This is the music I’ve selected for the Christmas play.
[Schroeder plays Fur Elise]
Lucy: What kind of Christmas music is that?
Schroeder: Beethoven Christmas music.
Lucy: What has Beethoven got to do with Christmas? Everyone talks about how “great” Beethoven was. Beethoven wasn’t so great.
[Schroeder stops playing]
Schroeder: What do you mean Beethoven wasn’t so great?
Lucy: He never got his picture on bubblegum cards, did he? Have you ever seen his picture on a bubblegum card? Hmmm? How can you say someone is great who’s never had his picture on bubblegum cards?
Schroeder: Good grief.

Well Lucy, let’s just say it’s obvious you were speaking in 1965 and not 2009:

2009 Allen and Ginter #83

MERRY CHRISTMAS, CHARLIE BROWN!

As you gear up for this weekend’s upcoming games by realigning your fantasy rosters to optimize matchups, let’s take a quick look back at last week’s studs. (Note: Points listed are directly from the First and Goal Fantasy League and may not represent point totals in your individual leagues)

QB: Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers — In another quarterback shootout (resulting in another close loss), Rodgers had the upper fantasy hand this time around (unlike Week 8). While completing just 26 of 48 passes, Rodgers did accumulate an impressive 383 passing yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Tacking on 22 rushing yards and a fourth touchdown, Rodgers ended the day with 35 fantasy points, earning him best QB honors in Week 15.

*Fantasy Stud of the Week*
RB: Jerome Harrison, Cleveland Browns — A relatively unknown rusher, Harrison ran into the record books in Week 15 with a staggering 286 yards and 3 touchdowns (and 12 receiving yards for those of you keeping track at home). Harrison’s ground attack led to the third-highest single-game rushing yardage in league history and broke a Browns team record of 237 yards set by the legendary Jim Brown. His 47 fantasy points shocked many fantasy owners and were more than enough to give Harrison Fantasy Stud of the Week honors.

WR: Joshua Cribbs, Cleveland Browns — Another Brown having a record-breaking day, Cribbs broke and then extended the league career kick returns for touchdown record to eight. His two kickoffs in one game also tied a league record. In total, Cribbs racked up 305 returns yards along with his 2 touchdowns for a total of 27 fantasy points (his 8 rushing yards and 3 receiving yards did not add to his fantasy output). He may not be a true wide receiver, but his performance in Week 15 deserves recognition regardless.

TE: Dallas Clark, Indianapolis Colts — For the second week in a row, Clark was the league’s best tight end. In Week 15, he reeled in 7 receptions for 95 yards and two touchdowns, good for 21 fantasy points. Clark now holds a Colts team-record for career touchdown receptions by a tight end with 41.

K: Matt Prater, Denver Broncos — Prater once again had a solid kicking performance in Week 15, connecting on all four of his field goal attempts, including one in the 40-49-yard range and another from 50+ yards out. Tacking on one PAT, Prater ended the day with 16 fantasy points, best in the league amongst kickers.

D/ST: New York Giants — In a crucial divisional game, the Giants’ defense showed up to play on Monday night. By only allowing 12 points and recording 5 sacks, 3 interceptions, and 1 touchdown, the Giants D scored 21 fantasy points. It may be more of the same for a unit that has featured Michael Strahan and Lawrence Taylor in the past, but it stood out in fantasy leagues as the Giants had the NFL’s best fantasy squad in Week 15.

ROOKIE: Mike Wallace, Pittsburgh Steelers — It’s not often that a receiver who only catches 2 passes and does not return kicks will be honored in the Fantasy Focus. Wallace would like to remind you that it isn’t quantity of receptions, but quality of receptions that earns you a spot on this blog feature. With his two receptions, Wallace had 79 yards and two touchdowns for a total of 19 fantasy points. What makes it even better? His first reception was a 60-yard touchdown on the game’s first play and his second reception was the game-winning 19-yard touchdown as time expired. Now that’s what I call quality.

Check back next week for another edition of Fantasy Focus as we recognize the week’s best fantasy performers. Best of luck to you in your respective fantasy football leagues!

Note: To quickly view all of my Fantasy Focus posts, simply click the Fantasy Focus banner at the top of any such post!

In my opinion, one of the best things about blogging is “meeting” tons of new collectors. I may never get to meet these new friends in person (unless I can get to the National in Baltimore in 2010), but I feel like I have gotten to know a few of them pretty well. Even the occassional passer-by who takes a moment to leave a comment on an old post is a welcome acquaintance. It is really cool when I am able to help that person out in some small way. For a few, this has been through trades to help them with set collation. For others, it has just been providing some information consolidated into one place. For a few others, I am hoping to take it to a new level.

A few weeks ago, a fellow collector, Ron, asked if I had any way to help him track down a copy of Mike Michalske’s 1975 Fleer Hall of Fame card, as featured in a past HOF Spotlight post. He noted that he was an old time Packers collector and has been searching for the card for quite a long time. I began searching around with no luck. I was able to locate a few autographed copies for around $100, but nothing else. I guess there is a reason I was only able to find an autographed image for my HOF post.

So I turn to you, my loyal and longtime readers (and you, too, Mr. Occassional Passer-by). If you happen to have a copy of this card you could spare or know where Ron could possibly obtain one, please let me know. For obvious reasons I will not publish his email address, but if you contact me, I will be sure to pass along any possible leads.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to everyone as the sports season is picking up with early games and football, basketball and the Bowl Season! To celebrate I found some great sportsbook specials! Sign up and play with any sportsbook here at Regaw World and get the best bonuses!

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Poinsettia Bowl

Utah Vs California

(Get the Latest Line here)

In this bowl game two teams that started off the year at different points now facing another crossroad to the season. Utah started the season off slow but ended the season playing very well and is even ranked in the low 20’s in most polls. California had high hopes to start the season and then went into a tailspin they could never pull out of and lost games they were expected to win down the stretch so the challenge will be to see what team shows up for this game.

Want the winner for this bowl game? It’s free! Just sign up at any sportsbook and email me at mregaw@yahoo.com and get the game for free!

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Free Sports Betting Pick for Wednesday December 23rd

West Virginia -10.5 (NCAA Hoops)

The Mountaineers are off to a great start on the season. Ranked 6^th in the country they take on 21^st ranked Mississippi and are an 11 point chalk. This seems like a big number but just shows you how good WV is. The Mountaineers are 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games following a ATS loss and 7-2 ATS in their last 9 games as a favorite of 7.0-12.5. They cover the double digits here.

When I started reading sports card blogs, I was amazed that not only were there more people out there that actually still collected sports cards, but these people were also willing to trade and give cards away to other collectors. By the time I had found the blogs, about 15 years had passed since I had last traded cards with my childhood best friend and neighbor. I assumed that once you grew up, you could only acquire new cards by visiting a local hobby shop or perusing eBay and you could only unload cards at a yard sale (selling on eBay still seemed like a foreign and intimidating concept at that time). The blogosphere helped me to change that antiquated paradigm completely.

One of those first blogs I began reading was Wax Heaven. People were always sending Mario their nearly forgotten Jose Canseco and Andrew Miller cards, and in turn, Mario seemed to be shipping out packages by the truck load for both trades and contest giveaways. When I got into blogging myself, I continued to enter Mario’s contests religiously and even co-sponsored a contest with Mario. Just when I was starting to lose faith that I would ever win cards from Mario (I have no Andrew Miller cards and very few overproduced Cansecos of which I’m sure he already has tons), I got an email from him that simply said, “Do you want to send a bubble mailer for some football cards?”

HECK YEAH, MARIO!

I asked if he wanted a big or small bubble mailer and if I should include any supplies. He said supplies were not necessary and that any mailer I had laying around would suffice, so off I went to the printer and PayPal to purchase two mailing labels and the (empty) package went out in the following day’s mail. Occassionally I checked the tracking code to see if I should be expecting the return package soon. It seemed to take forever, but finally one day, instead of just saying that the post office had been notified to expect my package, I read that it was at the sort facility and was on the way. WOOT!

When the package arrived, I furiously ripped it open, having no clue what to expect. I figured that Mario had given away all of the good stuff from his sponsorship boxes and that this would just be a handful of commons for which he had no other use. Boy, was I wrong. I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled out these beauts:

Click image for a full-sized scan

That's a total of 4 autographs and 3 jersey patches. While I'm not a UFC guy, any autographed card is cool. And the Dan Fouts card? VERY cool. I realize that Mario doesn't know much about the NFL, but I have a feeling he would have included the autographed jersey card of a HOFer regardless. What's really cool is that this pure generousity never went mentioned on Wax Heaven. I have to wonder just how many packages Mario sent out that were completely under the radar…

In hindsight, this may have been a way for Mario to unload some cards he had laying around as he geared up to make his grand finale in the blogosphere. Hopefully Mario makes a comeback some day soon, but until he does, I know I will surely not forget this act of blogosphere kindness anytime soon.

Mario, I don’t know if you’ll ever stumble across this post, but if you do, thank you. Thank you for all of your time and effort with Wax Heaven. Thank you for giving so many collectors a voice, be it through comments to your often controversial posts or by inspiring plenty of new blogs (First and Goal included). It’s a shame all the blogosphere karma you amassed by your countless kind acts couldn’t pay dividends in your personal life, but hopefully we will see you again soon. Thank you…

College Football Bowl game are here!

The bowl season already started but this is when the games start getting really exciting because the teams get much better and it starts tonight with the Las Vegas Bowl. Do you have a good sportsbook for the bowl games?

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BYU Vs Oregon St (Current Line)

This game is the best bowl game on the early schedule and will provide plenty of fireworks as these two teams face off. Both teams have superstars on offense and will be playing in the NFL someday but for now we can enjoy them in the Last Vegas Bowl! This game is free! All you have to do is sign up and play with a sponsor and contact me and the game with a full writeup is yours!

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Free Sports Betting Pick for Tuesday!

Memphis -7.5 (NBA)
Golden St looks better on paper but this team has just three wins on the road. Memphis has surprised teams this year and beat NBA powerhouses like Denver and Miami. They are doing it with defense and rebounding something the Warriors do not play. He Warriors are 1-5-1 ATS in their last 7 road games and the Grizzlies are 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games as a favorite of 5.0-10.5. Take the Grizzlies at home!

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Name: Angelo Bertelli
Position: Quarterback
College: Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Class: Senior
Winning Year: 1943 – 9th Award
Official Heisman Profile: Click Here

Interesting Notes: Bertelli was a master and pioneer of the T-formation…led the 1943 Notre Dame team, which is considered one of the greatest teams in college football history…swept the Heisman balloting regions…entered Marine Corps after graduation to serve in WWII…was elected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1972.

Featured Card: 1955 Topps All American #76. Another Heisman winner that jumped from college to the armed forces, Bertelli was first featured in the legendary college set from Topps. While a few higher grade copies of the Heisman winner’s rookie card demand prices of $40-$50, quite a few can be found for around $5.

NOTE: You can find all of my Heisman Highlight Features by clicking the post banner above.

Today, the NFL lost another young player to unfortunate circumstances. Chris Henry, wide receiver for the Bengals, died in the hospital early this morning after sustaining “life-threatening injuries” during a domestic dispute. You can read the full ESPN story HERE.

Henry had some off-field issues early in his career, but appeared to be on a better path at the start of this season, after being handed a second chance when the Bengals resigned him two months after letting him go due to several arrests. Henry has left behind a fiancée and three children.

Chris Henry’s 2005 Bowman RC

As you gear up for this weekend’s upcoming games by realigning your fantasy rosters to optimize matchups, let’s take a quick look back at last week’s studs. (Note: Points listed are directly from the First and Goal Fantasy League and may not represent point totals in your individual leagues)

QB: Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints — Brees is having a great year. There is no getting around that fact. In Week 14, Brees completed 31 of 40 passes for 296 yards and 3 TDs. His 23 fantasy points were the highest in the NFL amongst quarterbacks. The only thing that might slow him down? The Saints not concerning themselves with a perfect record and benching Brees to keep him healthy for a playoff run. Of course even from the bench Brees would probably find a way to score at least 15 fantasy points.

*Fantasy Stud of the Week*
RB: Chris Johnson, Tennessee Titans — Is anyone surprised by this man anymore? He has quite simply been dominating fantasy football this season, and Week 14 was no exception. Johnson rushed for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns and added 69 receiving yards and another touchdown for 35 total fantasy points. This was the fourth time just this season that Johnson has had 35+ points. On a non-fantasy note, Johnson is just 374 rushing yards shy of the 2,000-yards mark, easily attainable for such an explosive back.

WR: DeSean Jackson, Philadelphia Eagles — Showing some of the flash that made him a prime rookie last season, Jackson caught 6 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown and added 83 returns yards and another touchdown, not bad for a kid coming off a concusion the week before. His 33 fantasy points were highest amongst receivers in Week 14. On the season, Jackson is just 53 receiving yards away from breaking the 1,000-yard mark.

TE: Dallas Clark, Indianapolis Colts — Proving once again that he is an upper-tier tight end, Clark reeled in 5 receptions for 43 yards and a career-high 3 touchdowns in Week 14. The performance also helped Clark break his own team tight end records for receptions (82) and yards (902).

K: Rob Bironas, Tennessee Titans — In another perfect kicking performance, Bironas drilled all 4 of his field goal attempts, including a 50-yarder, and connected on all 5 of his PATs. His 19 fantasy points were tops for a kicker in Week 14 and made a huge difference in my own 2-point fantasy victory.

D/ST: San Francisco 49ers — Going up against one of the most potent offenses, the 49ers defense clearly showed up to play in Week 14. The Niners allowed just 9 points and recorded 4 sacks, 2 interceptions, a blocked kick and a staggering 5 fumble recoveries. The unit’s 24 fantasy points showed why a good defense is just as important as a good offense.

ROOKIE: Hakeem Nicks, New York Giants — Getting the starting nod over fellow rising star Mario Manningham, Nicks capitalized on the opportunity by catching 4 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown. His 17 fantasy points were highest in the league amongst NFL rookies in Week 14. Despite the overall solid performance, Nicks may want to brush up on his receiving skills as he dropped several key passes late in the game.

Check back next week for another edition of Fantasy Focus as we recognize the week’s best fantasy performers. Best of luck to you in your respective fantasy football leagues!

Note: To quickly view all of my Fantasy Focus posts, simply click the Fantasy Focus banner at the top of any such post!

Be honest.

How many of you saw this post’s title in an RSS feed and clicked with hesitation, hoping that another blog wasn’t being shut down for very unfortunate reasons? Seriously, be honest. If that statement is true, I sincerely thank you for thinking so highly of me. And if that statement is almost true, except you clicked on the title with much excitement because you thought I would no longer be writing, well, too bad. I’m not going down this easily.

At least not yet.

In case you didn’t notice, the posting on First and Goal has taken a hit recently with most of my offerings being reoccuring posts that, quite frankly, have become methodical to write and are often (*GASP!*) written ahead of time and scheduled to appear at a specific time. Have I grown tired of blogging? Am I walking away from the Hobby again like I did years ago? Have I run out of things to talk about?

No.

The simple answer is that time has been short recently. Some of you may recall that my wife and I purchased our first home at the end of this past summer. Living in a fairly wooded area and not having years of experience/practice, Northeast autumn maintenance and readying the property for the cold winter months ahead of upon us, my time just isn’t going as far as it did when we lived in an apartment. Also, as some of you might be aware, the holiday season is just about in full force, which brings decorating, shopping, cards (of the greeting variety), etc. And looking ahead, things are just going to get worse. I am an accountant, and tax season is just around the corner. Goodbye sleep and freetime, hello long hours and deadlines. There is a reason I started this blog in May.

I just wanted to throw this out there in case anyone is or will soon be wondering why the level of effort doesn’t seem to be present here like it was previously. On a bright note, I had a two-day tax seminar this week that allowed me to sit down and brainstorm some post ideas. I currently have a list of 50 post possibilities (sadly, I had to include this post on the list to make it an even 50). I can’t guarantee all of those will come to fruitation or that the ones that do will ripen shortly. I can promise that now that I have some goals, I will do what I can to set those in motion.

On a slightly related note, a recent trade (future post) has resparked my interest in my Emmitt Smith collection. I am currently working to update my list and am completely revamping my Emmitt Smith Collection website. Hopefully that will be up and running soon. I had to learn some new web coding to achieve my goals, so hopefully it comes together as I hope it will.

Oh, and one last thought: thanks for reading. If the site meter told me 3 people visited each day, I probably would have stopped writing a while ago. Thanks for the continued support…

Name: Frank Sinkwich
Position: Halfback
College: Georgia Bulldogs
Class: Senior
Winning Year: 1942 – 8th Award
Official Heisman Profile: Click Here

Interesting Notes: Sinkwich dominated the Heisman voting and won all five regions handedly…racked up 382 yards passing and rushing in what is considered the greatest Orange Bowl performance of all time…enjoy modest success in the NFL…was one of the first college players to wear a face mask (to protect his broken jaw)…was elected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1954.

Featured Card: 1955 Topps All American #69. Despite playing several years in the NFL, Sinkwich was not featured on a football card until the legendary 1955 set from Topps. A relatively forgotten player, Sinkwich’s only rookie card rarely tops $20 on eBay and can even be found for about $5 if a high grade is not a big concern for your collection.

NOTE: You can find all of my Heisman Highlight Features by clicking the post banner above.