Random Wax: 1992 Upper Deck Football

1992 UD:  Joe Montana was just amazing.  Four Super Bowl wins never throwing an interception in those games.  MVP in 3 of those games and you can tack on 2 regular season MVPs for good measure amongst all the accolades he's gotten in his career.  Just crazy great and would have been so much fun to watch in today's game.

Kosar and Lathon went to 1X Pro Bowl while Ken O'Brien went to 2.

Greatness.  He was MVP in '89 and '90.

Subsets/inserts included Rookie Force, FaniMation and NFL Scrapbook.  All are good and a nice pull in each.  That's animated Deion by the way. Maybe that should be more obvious.

Just a big fan of this design.  Upper Deck killed it with their early football designs.

Not sure why Joe Montanta got scanned twice but dang it, he deserves it.

BREAKDOWN:
15 – Total Cards
1 - Fanimation
1 – Rookie Force
1 – NFL Scrapbook

1992 Lime Rock Pro Cheerleaders

1992 Cheerleaders:  The Raiderettes have been around for a long time, starting out in the 60s while becoming more popular in the 70s.  The logos are the actual squad logos.

This set highlighted 4 teams - Cowboys, Dolphins, Raiders, Saints.  These are niche NFL cards but I like them as an interesting aside to the sport.  The Cowboys Cheerleaders are probably the most famous of all the squads and I do remember them well from when I was a kid.

The design is simple.  The squad's logo, photo and name.  They made sure you could see the name which meant it would move around depending on the photo.

The backs give us personal information for each of the girls and a personal photos.

Not something I collect, but I've come across these packs over the years.  They are cheap and the set is good for what it is.

BREAKDOWN:
11 - Total Cards

1993 Bowman Football (Affordable Breaks)

1993 Bowman:   This Jim Kelly is a foil card from this set.  It's not a parallel.  It's the only Jim Kelly card but has a different design from the majority of the cards.

These are from an Affordable Breaks break in 2021 and I'm just getting around to sharing.  The design isn't bad but does feel a bit lacking.  What you see here is the majority of the cards as opposed to the foil cards.  Lots of room for the photos, and the photos are solid, so no complaints there.

1993 would be the year Buffalo went to their 4th straight Super Bowl and the 4th straight year us Bills fans went home crying.  This time they lost to Dallas 30-13 in Super Bowl XXVIII.

Nice Melvin Jenkins photo.  I'm not posting every card I pulled from the break.  Lots of fun memories from this set including The Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert.

The foil cards seem to have gone to the star players on each team.  Kelly and Thurman Thomas for the Bills while Andre Rison is the only Falcon Foil.  Rison would go on to lead the league in touchdowns in 1993 with 15 and set a career high in receiving yards with 1,242.

BREAKDOWN:
I didn't get a full set of either team but was only one card away from the entire Falcons team set.

Random Wax: 2024 Donruss Football

2024 Donruss:  I'm a big Christian McCaffrey fan and it was great seeing him healthy and play 17 games last year.  He led the league in touches from scrimmage with 413, the 3rd time he's done so in his career.  He's also a 3X All-Pro.

Tyreek Hill still hasn't signed with a team since being released by Miami.  He's still recovering from a major knee injury that included a torn ACL.

Taliese Fuaga has started 30 games in his two years in the league.  Malik Washington, on this Blue Press Proof Parallel, might be in line for more targets in Miami with Hill no longer there.  He has 72 career receptions.

Greg Rousseau has started his entire career with Buffalo and has 32 career sacks.

Great threesome here.  This design isn't my favorite Donruss look but I like it enough.  And it does have solid photography as well.

Retired greats!  A great way to end the post.  I like James Lofton so that was a fun pull but also happy to get Broadway Joe and Andre Rison.

BREAKDOWN:
30 – Total Cards
4 – Rated Rookie
4 – Retired Greats
4 – Blue Press Proof Parallel

Random Wax: 2024 Prestige Football

2024 Prestige:  Andre Tippett was a dominant linebacker in the 80s being inducted into the Hall of Fame while earning 2X All-Pro, 5X Pro-Bowl and All-1980s Team honors.  And the 1985 Defensive Player of the Year got to wear those cool Patriots unis.

Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars had a great season going 13-4 but lost a close Wild Card game to the Buffalo Bills that saw the teams combine for 28 points (14 each) in the 4th quarter.  And wow was it fun to watch.

Panini had last their college license by this point.  Xavier Legette and Adonai Mitchell have become productive receivers in the NFL.

Two nice inserts and two great players. I like both Prestigious Pros and Power House.

These two are Xtra Points parallels giving the cards a shiny aspect.  Malik Nabers has done well in New York and was a nice pull.  I look forward to see what John Harbaugh can do as the Giants' head coach.

We also get retired greats like Drew Brees on this For the Record insert.  Nice card.  Any given Sunday cards look really good while highlighting specific games from the season.

Could have started the post with A-A-Ron but we'll put him here.  I don't see why Pittsburgh thinks he's a good option to bring back.  No doubt he's one of the great passers we've ever seen, but I saw him many times last year and nothing said he was going to get Pittsburgh to the next level.  That said the Steelers are in purgatory, being good enough to not get a chance at a good QB in the draft but disappointing enough each season to leave their fans wanting more.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Total Cards

5 – RC

4 – Retired Greats

2 – Xtra Points

1 – Power House

1 – For the Record

1 – Prestigious Pros

1 – Any Given Sunday

Random Wax: 1992 Upper Deck Football

1992 UD:   Eric Bieniemy didn't make a big impact in the NFL, but I really like this photo.

Eugene Robinson was an excellent player, but I can't not think about his short time as a Falcon.  The night prior to Atlanta's Super Bowl game with Denver, and shortly after receiving the Bart Starr Award for high moral character, he was arrested for solicitation.

These backs were so good.

My two Star Rookie cards and the Star Rookie Checklist I pulled.

Star Rookie Checklist.  As always, I enjoy the art Upper Deck gave us in their sets.

My team MVP Checklist pull.  I always liked Reggie Cobb who had one season with 1000+ rushing yards in Tampa Bay.  

More art on this Checklist card.  Great set with good photos and a great design.

BREAKDOWN:

15 – Total Cards

2 – Star Rookie

1 - Checklist

1 – Team MVP Checklist

1 – Team Checklist

1 – Star Rookie Checklist

Random Wax: 2024 Donruss Football

 2024 Donruss:  Georgia Bulldogs alum Matthew Stafford has been nothing short of crazy good in his career even when playing for those bad Detroit Lions teams.  Traded for Jared Goff, he brought the Rams their first Super Bowl win in over 20 years.  

Chris Jones has 87.5 sacks in his 10-year career with the Kansas City Chiefs.  He's also a 3X All-Pro

One of my Blue Parallels here.  Bucky Irving rushed for almost 600 yards in his rookie season.

Rookie Gridiron Kings and another Blue Parallel.

I love retired greats including Zach Thomas who was born in Pampa, TX.  The Hall of Famer was also a 5X All-Pro.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Total Cards

4 – Rated Rookie

4 – Blue Parallels

4 – Retired Greats

1 – Gridiron Kings

Random Wax: 2021 Score Football

2021 Score:   Patrick Mahomes is one of the big questions when the new season starts this fall.  He's coming off a major injury, the Chiefs were already struggling, and you just never know how these things play out.  I really hope he comes back close to normal.

I bought this pack in July of 2021 but just posting it now.  Like a little time capsule.  Things are so different now.  Russel Wilson and the Seahawks had won the 2013 championship and were still on top of the world.  It would still be a few years, but things would change drastically for both.

I had hopes for Zach Wilson.  Maybe rooting for the BYU underdog.  He's still in the league but it has been a rough go of it for him.

I'm okay with the 3D inserts showcasing a trio of defensive players from a team.

Mac Jones has also struggled overall in his career, but he did have success his rookie year in New England and in limited time last year with the 49ers last season.  These are 1991 Throwback Rookies inserts.

More Score Team inserts, which are pretty good, a Next Level Stats insert and Game Face which gives us a retired great.

BREAKDOWN:
40 – Total Cards
9 – RC
3 – 3D
3 – Next Level
3 – Score Team
3 – Red Parallel
2 – 1991 Throwback Rookies
1 – Game Face
1 – Retired Great