“How on earth does Tommy Hodson get to be the Card of the Week?” I hear you ask?
Fair question. Based on last week’s Eli Manning Card, I was going to do a Tom Brady card this week. But, as I started to put this week’s together, I realized a couple things:
- 1) Tom Brady is already getting enough publicity this week.
2) I really don’t have any cool, unique Tom Brady cards. The closest thing I have would probably be the 2000 Topps rookie card of him, which is really only unique because it doesn’t really exist (it’s actually a 2005 Topps Throwback Promo).
So, with that in mind, I set forth on a different angle. I figured I’d go with a card of the player who’s really responsible for the Patriots run of recent Super Bowl success–Drew Bledsoe (although, to be fair, many people would say it was actually Mo Lewis who is responsible).
And, since I’ve always liked the Patriots older uniforms (featuring Pat the Patriot) better than the new ones (although it doesn’t come anywhere near to being as cool as my favorite all time uniform–the original Tampa Bay Buccanears), and I vaguely recall seeing a card with Bledsoe wearing the throwback uniform, I figured I’d dig for that. [Sidenote: How cool would it be if the Patriots came out of the tunnel on Sunday for The Big Game wearing their old uniforms? I might actually cheer for them, then.]
Of course, being a bit lazy, and not really wanting to look for a needle in a haystack, I decided that maybe I would be open to alternative Patriot QBs, as long as they were in their Pat the Patriot uniforms. And that is how Tommy Hodson becomes the Card of the Week.
To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of Tommy Hodson before I found the card, and was quite shocked to find out that he not only started a handful of games for the Patriots in the early 90’s, but that he was quite the quarterback in college as well, becoming the first SEC quarterback to throw for 8,000 yards and 60 touchdowns in his career. Even more surprising was that Beckett actually shows 39 cards of Hodson, including his LSU Police cards–including a 1992 Pro Line Portraits Autograph card, which books for a whopping $8 (possibly more than the rest of his cards put together–the ’91 Upper Deck books for $0.01-$0.05).
And, of course, by my twisted Bledsoe logic, Hodson played a role in the Patriots success as well–if he hadn’t played so poorly during his stint in New England, the Patriots wouldn’t have turned to Hugh Millen (and Scott Zolack, and Jeff Carlson) in 1991-92, which led to the Patriots finishing 2-14 in 1992, which led to the Patriots getting the first overall pick in the 1993 draft, which they used to select Drew Bledsoe…
And the rest, as they say, is history.
I miss those old Patriot unis too. My favorite Patriot QB is Steve Grogan.
Ah, Steve Grogan–I meant to work in a reference to him too–when I realized I probably wasn’t going to find the Bledsoe, my second target was Grogan, as I remember a card of him that looked like he had a neck roll on–the only QB I’ve ever seen wear one, I think.
Actually this is one of my all time fave cards. This is when Upper Deck and Pro Set were just bringing some exciting photography to football cards. I was a huge Pats fan back then. I went to see them in Cincy in 1992. I know Hodson never turned into a big star, but I met him after the game and had this card signed. He was so cool to me, I’ve never forgotten. You’re right. By the time that game rolled around (late november) the Pats’ QB corps was deleted down to Jeff Carlson starting and Lee Saltz (#12, out of Rutgers) backing up. Thanks for the post!
Tommy Hodson attended my highschool. 🙂