Sharing cards on Hive is really pretty awesome the more I think about it. Thanks to the little search function on PeakD I, or anyone else of course, can look up players names and see what pops up. For now, this community only has so many posts but hey, when Hive and this community grows, there will be possibly millions of interesting sports card posts and perhaps Pokémon and others?
Anything is possible. Keep on sharing!
But today I share a card I must have looked at a million times as it's an OG of my collection. I've had it so long I don't even remember how I acquired it. I definitely like the card though.
NFL QB Rich Gannon is nowadays not regarded as an all-time great, and that confused me a little during the first few years I started watching football. The very first year I started watching, Rich Gannon was basically a star. This guy was the 2002-03 NFL MVP the first year I really started watching the game. Rich Gannon led his team to the Super Bowl that season! But that was the last season I ever really heard of Gannon and it sort of became the Tom Brady and Peyton Manning world among the many NFL superstars of that time period.
Now that I'm older and can look back on Rich's career, I can see how intriguing and kind of poetic his career was. Rich Gannon played in three separate decades of NFL football. He played in 80's, 90's and early 2000's. In eighteen years as a pro it is quickly obvious that Rich Gannon has truly been through it all as a professional NFL quarterback.
Rich Gannon has been a backup quarterback, an average quarterback, and an elite quarterback, all in the same career. A very notable thing about Rich though is the fact that his elite seasons came in the twilight of his career. Gannon was drafted in 1987 by the Vikings, but would go onto have his best seasons in the early 2000's. Trippy stuff. Makes me think differently about time and aging.
If Gannon retired before joining the Raiders in 1999, he would probably be mostly forgotten within NFL history. A backup journeyman. But Gannon didn't retire in 1999.
At 33 years old, after being injured and through three different teams, Rich Gannon's career would have a rebirth unlike anything I have really ever heard of in the NFL. Let me break this down a little simpler.
Rich Gannon, The Benjamin Button of American Football
| 11 Seasons, 1987-1998 (Vikings, Redskins, Chiefs) | Stats/Accomplishments | 6 Seasons, 1999-2004 (Raiders) |
|---|---|---|
| 11,158 | Passing Yards | 17,585 |
| 40 TD - 36 INT | TD-INT | 114 TD - 50 INT |
| 31-27 | W-L Record | 45-29 |
| 0 | Pro Bowl | 4 |
| 0 | First-Team All-Pro | 2 |
| 0 | NFL MVP | 1 |
| 0 | Super Bowl Appearances | 1 |
| 22-33 | Age | 33-39 |
This card records Gannon's career while he is in mid career resurrection. This is why I love cards. It just totally captures moments in history beautifully. I wish modern cards showed more in-depth career stats like this.
What an inspiring career. So intriguing that Rich is an NFL MVP among the many greats that have won it. It's a shame he couldn't quite get a Super Bowl but hey, he should be still extremely proud of himself. What resiliency. A very smart choice by the Raiders to pick this vet up in 1999.
Rich Gannon's career, summarized in about eighty seconds:
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What do you think of Rich Gannon's career? Pretty legendary dude!
