Heads Up Bills Patch

I've had plenty of posts about times where I dug up a name, sent them a message, and worked out a deal.  Sometimes they come to me though, which is the case with this newest Heads Up Quad conquest.

There is a guy who keeps posting trade/sale threads on Blowout, and the card that led me to him was a Bills quad from the Heads Up set.  Unfortunately due to his terms/prices, it seemed like the Bills card was out of my league pricewise, so I waited on contacting him.  But then one day, out of the blue, the owner of the card sent me a message with a trade offer (man it was a good idea to add a trade bait page!) that I quickly accepted.  A few days later this beauty was mine:

He valued it pretty highly (by highly I mean like $8-10 in sale value, which is pretty much going rate anyways) because of the Shawn Bryson three color patch.  And I was fine paying that because I loved Shawn Bryson's style back in the day, both in real games versus my hometown Patriots and in Madden games, often as my third down back to give Shyrone Stith a change of pace.

In general though, Bryson had a pretty weird career.  During his entire four-year college career he rushed for 505 yards on 91 carries, which isn't terrible for the FB/RB hybrid he was, but really doesn't stand out at the Pro Level.  The Bills saw enough in those stats to make Bryson a third round pick in 1999 though, and after spending 1999 doing something (injury?  Practice squad?), he led the 2000 Bills in rushing with 591 yards in 7 starts.  Injury and a busy backfield led to just 396 yards over the next two years, which led Bryson to the Lions for 2003 (and the next four years of his seven year career).  Bryson's Detroit career mirrored that of his Bills career, with a team leading rushing total in year 1 (a career high 606 yards in 13 starts) followed by 571 yards over the final three seasons (including 1 on 2 carries in 2006).  Bryson then called it a career, with a little over 2,500 total yards and 9 total touchdowns to his name.  He was recently the fullbacks coach at Lenior-Rhyne University.

Reggie Germany pairs well with Shawn Bryson on the front of this card, as he was also relatively unheralded coming out of college.  Germany did go to a bigger school in Ohio State, but his four year college stats combined were 80 catches for 1,268 yards and 6 touchdowns.  His senior year he was third in yards behind Ken-Yon Rambo (of Cowboys fame) and some guy named Chad Cacchio.  The Bills took a flyer on Germany in 2001 with a 7th round pick, and Germany rewarded them with 12 receptions for 203 yards over 16 games, including 1 start.  He followed that up in 2002 with a mix of off field issues, including injury and suspension, which led to him being waived by Buffalo.  The Redskins tried Germany out, but nothing ever came of it and so he ended up with just a one year NFL career.  Germany has since worked on talking to younger athletes about avoiding the mistakes (suspension, poor school performance) that ended his career so quickly.

Sammy Morris was drafted by the Bills in the 5th round of the 2000 draft after a two year college career that was (you guessed it) nothing crazy awesome to look at (788 yards rushing).  He turned that into quite the NFL career though, including four years in Buffalo, three in Miami, four in New England, and a 2011 final year in Dallas.  Like Bryson, Morris was rarely the featured guy, which led to about 4,200 combined yards and 27 touchdowns over those 11 years, which averages around 400 total yards and 2 touchdowns a year.  But Morris made two of those years count.  In 2004 he led the Dolphins with 523 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns.  And his best all time season (plus the one I remember most fondly) was 2008 with the New England Patriots where he turned injuries and ineffectiveness from other running backs into 7 starts and a team leading 727 rushing yards with 7 touchdowns.  That was the Matt Cassel year, which makes Morris' performance all the more impressive since Brady wasn't around to take pressure off the run game.

We finish this card with Jay Riemersma, who was a 7th round pick of the Bills in 1997 and spent six years with the team before a final two seasons in Pittsburgh.  Riemersma caught a solid 204 passes for 2,301 yards  with 20 touchdowns while in Buffalo, but always seemed a bit underrated as a TE despite those nice stats.  He was on his way to an even better career with the Steelers, with 17 catches for 3 touchdowns total, but he suffered a number of injuries including a severe Achilles injury that effectively ended his career.  Since retiring Riemersma has moved from coaching his hometown football team to joining the Family Research Council (a conservative group that has been deemed an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) and going into politics in general.  He actually ran for a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives in 2009 but lost out to eventual winner Bill Huizenga.

Who wins the card?  This one's an easy one for me - Sammy Morris.  It's all about those New England years for me.