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09-21-2010, 10:36 PM #1
Joe Montana’s Five Best Cards - CONTEST ENTRY
Joe Montana’s Five Best Cards
by CamaroDMD
I was born only months after the San Francisco 49ers won their second Super Bowl title and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. I guess it was only natural that I became a fan of Joe Montana. His name is the first football player’s I ever remember knowing. By the time I was old enough to follow football; Montana had already suffered that terrible elbow injury in the 1990 playoffs and was recovering on the bench as Steve Young’s star was rising. I was probably the only kid in the country who had a favorite football player who I had never seen play. After two seasons of watching him on the bench, I was excited to see him traded to Kansas City. I was able to watch my favorite player quarterback the Chiefs for two years. Looking back at my memories of my favorite football player is almost comedic, I never saw him win a Super Bowl or even step on the field as a member of the 49ers. My memories are only of him playing those final two seasons in the twilight of this career wearing a Kansas City Chiefs uniform.
Throughout my childhood, I collected football cards and it’s not surprising that I focused my collection around Joe Montana. I found myself collecting in that magical period in the mid-1990s where the card collecting world was exploding with many different companies and products. I left the hobby for about a decade around 1998 and when I returned I was astonished at what I had found. Companies had continued to produce Joe Montana cards at an unbelievable rate. I decided to focus my collecting on what I considered to be his “original” cards from his playing days. I defined this as 1981-1995 (figuring that 1995 illustrated his final 1994 campaign). But, a caveat to this was I could dip a little into the more recent cards to add a little fun to my collection. With this in mind, I have come up with a list of Joe Montana’s five best cards. These aren’t his most valuable or hardest to find. Actually, each card on this list is designed to illustrate an important event in Montana’s career or a significant change in the card collecting hobby. The cards are listed here in the chronological order in which they were released, not my value or desirability.
#1: 1981 Topps Joe Montana RC #216
The first card on my list is easy to predict, its Joe Montana’s rookie card. This card is from the 1981 Topps set and depicts a classic image of Montana with the San Francisco 49ers.
#2: 1991 Upper Deck Football Heroes Autograph Joe Montana
This card comes from the first Upper Deck football issue. Along with its 9 card Football Heroes insert set, Upper Deck inserted the first pack issued autographed football card. The card is individually numbered out of 2500, not exactly a low number by today’s standards. However, with the vast overproduction of this set it is a very difficult card to pull. The card is identical to the normal checklist of the Montana Football Heroes set with the exception of the hologram on the back. The football shaped hologram is replaced with a diamond hologram on the autographed issues.
#3: 1996 SPx Tribute Autograph Joe Montana
On April 18, 1995, Joe Montana announced his retirement after 16 seasons in the NFL. Shortly thereafter, the various card companies began a farewell love fest with Joe Montana. Many companies issued cards and in some cases sets to commemorate his career. No such card was more elaborate than the autographed tribute from the 1996 SPx hologram rich set.
#4: 1996 Upper Deck Game Jersey #GJ3
In 1996, Upper Deck released the first gamed used set with its 1996 Game Jersey insert. The set and their patches are small by today’s standard, but this set revolutionized card collecting and began what can only be described as a “GU arms race” that is currently being waged between the card companies. Montana was the only retired player in this 10 card set.
#5: 1997 Upper Deck Legends Sign of the Times Joe Montana #ST1
Simply put, the 1997 Upper Deck Legends set is the finest football card set ever produced. The most sought after part of this set was the “Sign of the Times” insert set which included autographed cards of 10 of the best players in NFL history. The first card in this set is the Joe Montana.
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09-22-2010, 02:05 AM #2
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