Six New Senecas

I promised more birthday goodies - here's the Seneca part!

The first card would've been my favorite of the whole lot if it weren't for a card in the next post. As is, it's still a point in the argument that unseen cards are cooler than seen ones when buying online. I had no idea what a Playoff Contenders Rookie Round Up card looked like because none of Seneca's online had images listed and I never looked up the set on COMC. So imagine my surprise when it was acetate and die cut:
SWEET card. The honeycomb effect in the bottom right reminds me of a video game...I want to say Perfect Dark 64 but I don't think that's it. Speaking of Perfect Dark, damn that game was good. It's dated now, but the music still rules. Check it out for a second:

Nice right? I miss when gunfire in games sounded the same as it did when I made those noises as a little kid. Damn realism.

Anywho, back to cards. The Round Up...so excellent. Anytime you can see the card number on the back from the front of the card is a good time. That was hardly the only nice card here though, and it also wasn't the most triumphant. That card would be 2003 Sage #41, aka Seneca's highest print numbered card that still has a listed print run (of 2,750). It looks quite nice too:

I had a bead on one of these once but it got lost in the mail, so it was good to finally pick up one of the remaining 2,749. The weird part is the back though - the card gives you all sorts of combine data that I never knew about Seneca:
Most of his athletic stats are pretty nice, but his Wonderlic score was only a 14...ouch. Now a 10 means you're literate according to the NFL, and Vince Young supposedly scored a 6 on his first try, and Young's 16 on try #2 tied Dan Marino's score. Seneca's score also falls just a bit lower than the average RB/WR/DB, which makes sense since (ouch terrible word combo) he started as a DB before moving to Iowa State.*

Additionally, I never knew Ben Watson was a 48. The guy impresses me more and more the more I learn about him...I smell a potential collection someday!

Final thought on the above cards: the left Class of 03 card back says Seneca's closest NFL comparison is Doug Flutie. A look at the stats and that doesn't totally hold up, but only because Flutie stayed a scrambler (took more sacks, had a lower completion percentage, made more big plays) while Seneca has sort of developed into a pocket passer, which incidentally gives him the higher QB rating. That'll happen when you don't take as many risks though.


Wow I'm blabbing in this post. Time to finish er off...four parallels, two silver, two 07 Topps Total:
The Totals are my favorite, as they're my 4th and 5th parallels from the set and put me three cards away from the rainbow (six if you count the other three printing plates). It's Seneca's biggest parallel set, so that'd be quite the rainbow if I pull it off!


* The Wikipedia article on the Wonderlic links to a cool article from a guy at SI who claims there is a 26/27/60 rule to college QB's NFL success. 26 minimum on the Wonderlic, 27 minimum college starts, 60% minimum college completion percentage = successful NFL QB. The guy sort of cherry picked starters (and Tom Brady is an exception), but guys like Peyton (and Eli) Manning, Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Matt Schuab, Sam Bradford and Matt Ryan all fit the bill while Tim Couch, Akili Smith, David Carr, JaMarcus Russell do not. Interestingly, Ben Roethlisberger, Brett Favre, and Jay Cutler were right on the line, while Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb are actually in the no pass category (but again, exceptions exist).

Seneca missed all three categories: 14/25/57.7, but he was a 4th round pick so it's not like the Seahawks were expecting Joe Montana, especially since they were going to transition Wallace to WR at first. Still, I think Seneca has done a damn good job with the starts he's gotten for a guy who started college at DB.