[y2hood]

How many of you out there have a few under the radar players you'd love to collect but there are no cards for them? In my experience if it's a late round draft pick at a non-skill position, and the usual rookie releases skip them, they probably won't get a card for their career.<br><br>I went to school with a guy that plays in the defensive backfield. He was a late round draft pick in 2008 and this year is a STARTER. But he's not in the Beckett database and an ebay search only gives publicity photos that he signed at hobby shops near his professional team's facility. Every now and then I'll get lucky and find a mini helmet with his signature. Still I don't feel safe getting these even though they are "certified" by the dealer.<br><br>I say I "went to school with him" but honestly we never interacted so it's not like we're buds. I still want to support the man. I attended a very underachieving FCS school and though we get a guy into the NFL about once a year, we'll never be mistaken for the U or anything.<br><br>Other guys that attended my school DO have a fair amount of cards out there, even if they're one off releases like SP Authentic for one guy or Bowman for another guy in 2004. Still this one gentleman that I've written about, I would love to have some cards of him for my Alma Mater collection, but thus far, no dice, and unless he turns into Champ Bailey or his squad wins the Super Bowl and gets a Topps Super Bowl box set, I'm not hopeful at this point in his career (3rd year now).<br><br>What about you guys?

[y2hood]

bump

[the ultraback]

I'm a sucker for special teams type players, and I'd really like to have some cards of Patrick Mannelly, who's been the Bears' long-snapper long enough to be the team record holder for games played, and I've actually head people speculate over whether he's the NFL's all-time best at the position. Problem is, there's never been a single card of him, even back in the days when base sets were bigger than 100 cards and Topps Total still existed. Not that I'd really expect a long snapper to have a thousand high-end patch autos or whatever, but man, at least a spot on a three-player Topps Total card would have been nice.

[shigfrag]

Foleylion and I were kind of discussing this a couple days ago on yahoo.  The same 5 or 6 players every year from your team in every card set.  I long for the days of kickers having cards so I could start a Matt Prater collection.  Aside from the mass production of it that destroyed any real value, I would love to see a set like 89 Pro Set again.  Or even bigger!  Like an 800 card base set! 25 players from each team! lol

[spazmatastic]

I know exactly what you guys are saying and agree. I have 1 card of the Panthers longsnapper and it is a Topps Total with John Kasay (K) and Rod Smart (KR). The player I'd really like to get more cards of though was a starter for almost a decade and I still only have 3 cards of him. He was the Panthers FB-Brad Hoover. I have more cards of two of his backups than I do of him. 2 of the 3 cards are Total cards of him and his backup Nick Goings, who I have 5 cards of. I would like more John Kasey cards too but they are hard to find.

[the ultraback]

Just thought of another one: Israel Idonije.  He's mostly been a special teamer, but he's another guy who had no reason to not be on a Topps Total card in '06 or '07. I'm kinda pumped, though, because he's a full-time starter at DE now and is actually leading the Bears in sacks, (five in the last five games~!)  so there's a pretty good chance that I could snag something like a Topps or a Score of him next year.