Some 1975 Topps Football Customs

 As I mentioned before, I'm organizing and trying to complete some Topps football sets that I've had since I was a kid.  I am making binder covers for them so that they look nice on my shelf.  And of course, I decided that all of the cards featured on these binders would be "Cards That Never Were".  I've made literally thousands of cards for this blog in the decade plus that I've been sporadically posting.  However, football cards have been few and far between.  So now I am making a few cards simply for the sake of my binders, and here is the completed binder cover:

Most of these have been published on this blog.  Bartkowski and Brazile were both Rookies of the Year in 1975. Click Here. The Divisional Playoff cards were just published yesterday. Click Here.  I took the Vikings-Cardinals card for my binder. And Joe Namath on his potential WFL Chicago Winds card was posted a few weeks back. Click Here.

I am a "homer" and I readily admit it.  So you knew I needed to have a bears card.  The Rookie Stars card was a Topps baseball standard of the 60s and 70s, but not football. So here's what a 1975 Bears Rookie Stars card would look like with the classic backfield tandem of Walter Payton and Roland Harper.

The final two include a "normal" card of George Blanda and a 1974 "Highlights" card of Emerson Boozer.  In 1974 the NFL added a sudden death overtime to the rules, and the first player to score a walk-off touchdown was Enerson Boozer.  It was a short path from Joe Namath.

 In 1975 Blanda had 2 "special" cards.  Both close ups of his profile and different layout than the standard card. I really didn't care for either, so I had to make a "regular" card for him. 

Here are his actual 1975 cards:

1975 Topps Divisional Playoffs

 These were requested by someone who contacted me through eBay.  He wanted more complete NFL playoff cards from Topps.  I needed to add a few custom football cards to my binder cover anyway (more on that later).  Anyway, here are the divisional playoff from 1974 using a similar format of the 1974 AFC and NFC championship cards in the 1975 set.

Trailing Buffalo 7-3 to start the 2nd quarter, the Steelers scored 26 unanswered points.  Rocky Bleier caught a 27 yard TD pass from Bradshaw. Franco Harris rushed for 3 more TDs to make it 29-7 at the half. Pittsburgh went on to beat the Bills 32-14.

With the game tied 7-7 at the half, the Vikings scored 16 points in 7 minutes. 10 of which were off Cardinals turnovers. In the game Chuck Foreman had 1968 all purpose yards. He rushed for 114 yards and a touchdown and caught 5 passes for 54 yards.

Trailing 26-21 in a back and forth battle. and just 2 minutes left in the game, Ken Stabler mounted another comeback.  Drive the Raiders downfield culminating in a 8 yard TD pass to running back Clarence Davis. Down 28-26 with just 24 seconds left, the Dolphins' Bob Griese threw an interception on the second play of the drive. Phil Villapiano's pick iced Oakland's victory

In the final game of Sonny Jurgensen's Hall of Fame career, it was all about the defense.  There were only 2 offensive TDs and one of those was set up by a forced fumble. In all there were 9 turnovers between the Rams and Washington. The nail in the Redskins coffin was a 4th quarter pick-six by Isiah Robertson to put L.A. up 19-10.

1970 NFL Rookies of the Year

Another crazy-busy summer.  I just haven't found the time to post.  I am working on getting a few more baseball sets based on rejected Topps designs and will be posting them soon. In the meantime, here are a few more football Rookies of the Year card that never were.  We're already into the 3rd week of the season, so lets get into the '70s.

1970 was the first year of the newly merged NFL. The Steelers, Browns and Colts moved to the AFC. Other than that the conferences maintained the "old" NFL teams in the NFC and the AFL teams in the AFC. The breakdown of the divisions was difficult, too. Because there was no consensus among owners, the top five plans were thrown into a hat and the winner was drawn by Pete Rozelle's secretary.

There were also still 5 different presenters for the Rookie of the year. You'd think combining the league would reduce the awards. Instead, TSN and UPI began giving ROY awards to AFC and NFC. AP and PFW still gave out separate offensive and defense ROY's. NEA still gave out only one overall ROY award.

The breakdown went like this: the NEA gave its sole award to Raymond Chester, TE Raiders. AP and PFW agreed on the offensive ROY Dennis Shaw QB Bills. They also agreed defensively. Bruce Taylor CB 49ers was their choice. Oddly these were the same picks for TSN and UPI. Shaw was their AFC pick and Taylor was the NFC ROY.

Dennis Shaw and Bruce Taylor made their Topps debut in the 1971 set. Raymond Chester waited until the 1972 set for his rookie card.

1969 Topps Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp was a 6 time AFL All Star for the Chargers and the Bills. In a preseason scrimmage in 1968 Kemp injured his knee and was out for the entire season. Despite his return in 1969 along with the addition of Heisman Trophy winner, OJ Simpson, the Bills managed only 4 wins. Kemp was named to the AFL All Star team for the 7th time.

In 1970 Kemp ran for Congress and began his long career in politics. Although Topps did not see fit to make a regular 1969 card of Kemp he was included in their 4 in 1 mini stamps which were inserted into 1969 packs.

1967 Topps George Blanda

The 1966 Houston Oilers started the season with George Blanda under center. Blanda at 39 years old went 3-5 as the starting QB. The Oilers decided to go with the 25 year old Don Trull for the remainder of the season. They were winless. After the season they felt Blanda was used up and dropped him. 

Apparently Topps did as well. There was no 1967 football card of the 40 year old George Blanda on his new team, the Oakland Raiders. Blanda would primarily be the Kicker and back up QB to Daryle Lamonica. He ended up leading the AFL in scoring and was selected to the All Star Game that season. 

1967 was the first of 9 season with the Oakland Raiders. Blanda would eventually retired a month before his 49th birthday. He would be a 1st ballot Hall of Famer in 1981.