86, 87, 88

The mid to late 1980s was a fascinating time for the NFL. Or maybe it's fascinating to me because it was just before I became a football fan. The USFL collapsed in 1986, replenishing the NFL's talent pool. Bo Jackson was selected #1 overall by the Buccaneers but he didn't sign a contract with the team. Bo was re-drafted in 1987 by the Raiders, making his debut in a chaotic season disrupted by a player's strike. The 15-game season included a month's worth of games played in part or in full by replacement players. It was wild. 

I wasn't even aware of football until 1988. I didn't see Lawrence Taylor snap Joe Theismann's leg like a twig until several years later. I missed Bo vs. Boz, Scab-ball, Randall Cunningham seizing the means of production, and Doug Williams' record-breaking Super Bowl performance. 

 
My introduction to football was through 1988 Topps cards. After spending the summer ripping open packs of Topps (and Donruss, Fleer, and Score) baseball cards I was falling for football in autumn, popping in to the local WaWa for cello and rack packs. Even though I had at least a hundred singles I still asked for - and received - a factory set for Christmas.

I was eight years old at the time, so naturally I opened it and handled the cards until they were wrecked. And so several years ago I purchased a wax box from Kruk Cards and completed the '88 Topps set all over again.

Two years ago I purchased this Jerry Rice rookie card on my birthday which prompted me to build the 1986 Topps football set. Nearly completing this set prompted me to fill in the gap with 1987 Topps. I'm still missing 230 cards from this set  - and one from 1986 - but I've been itching to compare the three sets.

If you flip through these cards in a nine-pocket page you'll notice that Topps followed a basic outline on their checklists - though they didn't always stick to the plan.

Each set starts with a Super Bowl recap and seven Record Breakers cards. In 1986 Topps the Record Breakers come before the Super Bowl card, and in 1988 there are only five Record Breakers.

The team hierarchy is based on the prior season's standings (just like Fleer baseball sets), so the Super Bowl champion goes first, their vanquished opponent second, conference finalists are next, and so on until the end of the set where you'll find the worst team followed by three checklist cards. 

Each team has roughly 11-15 cards, starting with a Team Leader card. The fronts feature action photos, which are otherwise nonexistent in these sets. Each team's rushers, receivers, and defensive stars are listed on the back, along with the game-by-game results of the team's season. Helpful information in the pre-internet days. 

I enjoyed looking at these as a kid, and I still do. You can see which teams were on a roll before fading out of a playoff spot, which teams were overmatched, and which teams absolutely dominated the opposition.

The 1985 Bears were pretty good.

Once I had the complete 1988 Topps set I began to notice the positional pattern. For the most part, Topps issued each team's cards in this order:

Quarterback, Running Back, Running Back,  Wide Receiver, Wide Receiver, Tight End, special teamer, Offensive Lineman, Defensive Lineman, Defensive Lineman, Linebacker, Defensive Back

There were variations based on a team's strengths and weaknesses, but this seemed to be the outline. Now that I have three years' worth of cards (and a comprehensive checklist of each thanks to TCDB) I can dig a little deeper. 

• The Chargers only had one defensive player in the 1986 set. How bad was the San Diego defense in 1985? They ranked 25th out of 28 teams in points allowed. Atlanta had the NFL's worst defense in '85.
  
  
• The first Eagles player in 1987 was not a quarterback. I've seen examples of a defensive rookie out of sequence before, but they're usually stashed at the end of the team set, not the beginning.
  
  
• I only noticed one team set in this three-year span that did not include a quarterback: the 1988 Chargers. Dan Fouts had retired after the 1987 season and I guess Topps didn't want to guess who would replace him. Mark Malone was San Diego's starter in '88 - but he was already in the set. 

Let's have a little fun with numbers. In the 1986 and 1987 sets there are 352 regular cards (the 1988 set has 354 such cards.)

179 players appear in two of the three sets, including legends like Fouts, John Stallworth, and Donnie Shell who retired in 1987 as well as former USFL stars like Jim Kelly and Herschel Walker.

Not all of these players appeared in consecutive sets. Steve Grogan and Ed "Too Tall" Jones appear in the '86 and '88 Topps sets but both are absent from the '87 edition.

138 players appear in all three sets. Among these are big names you'd expect, like Bruce Smith, Eric Dickerson, Dan Marino, and Lawrence Taylor. There are also some lesser-known players who appear in each set, such as Larry Kinnebrew, Pete Mandley, Brian Hansen, and Garin Veris.

Who's Veris? You gotta switch off Veris.

I didn't collect as much in 1989, and the Topps football set didn't interest me then or now. I do remember buying a few packs of 1990 Topps football, though I'm not a fan of that set, either. In 1991 I bought some rack packs at a department store in Cooperstown, of all places. The cards never made it home however; I must have lost them or left them somewhere in town.

As I mentioned before on this blog, the first football card I ever saw was from the 1985 Topps set. For the longest time I didn't like the black borders and block name along the side but I do occasionally pick up some '85 Topps cards on TCDB. One of them was included in a PWE I received today from user frankgifford.

Steve Bartkowski's sunset card.

In case you missed it, I'm hosting a PWE Swap Meet here at The Collector now through December 28. If you've got 4-15 football cards to trade, send 'em to me and I'll send you an equal amount of cards for your collection plus you'll get an entry into a random drawing for a mystery box of baseball cards, football cards, and trading card supplies. 

What was your first football card set?

Thanks for reading!


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