Sunday, April 17, 2016

Heads up Quad #41 - Cardinals from COMC

That Jets quad from a few days ago really showed off a lot of star power.  This Cardinals card is kind of the opposite.  But each one of these gets its own post anyways, so let's see it!

The front:
Bryan Gilmore was undrafted by the Cardinals in 2000, and after a brief period in NFL Europe, he spent four years with the team.  He was kind of a practice squad/special teams guy until 2003, where he turned 45 targets into 17 receptions and two touchdowns.  The Cardinals were done with him after that, but he parlayed that career season into four more years, two with the Dolphins and two with the 49ers.  He later signed on with the Seahawks but ended up retiring, and in recent years was part of a concussion settlement with the NFL.

Chris Greisen was a 7th round pick in 1999 by the Cardinals.  Over two seasons he played in five games, completing seven passes including a touchdown.  He then bounced around from practice squads to NFL Europe to the Arena Football League to the united Football League and finally back to the NFL as a 2010-11 backup with the Cowboys.  He retired from organized football in 2012, and since runs camps for quarterbacks.

The back:
Terry Hardy was a fifth round pick of the Cardinals in 1998, and started 37 games in four years with the Cardinals.  For his career he caught 68 passes off of 113 targets, resulting in three touchdowns.  Interestingly enough, his least productive reception year (2001) saw him catch only 11 passes, but for two of those touchdowns.  Needless to say, he was out of football after that.

Dennis McKinley was a 6th round pick of the Cardinals in 1999, starting 1 game (and playing 58) over his four years with the team.  While his stats were limited (four receptions, one carry, no touchdowns), he might've kept playing were it not for a major drug bust in 2003 that saw him cut from the team.  McKinley was renting a warehouse that was involved in dealing massive amounts of marijuana, and when he was arrested he had a small arsenal of weapons on his person.  Despite facing 19 counts of conspiracy, possession, and trafficking, he spent just 2.5 years in jail.  On a random note, his brother Alvin spent several years in the NFL as a DT for the Panthers, Browns, Broncos, and Saints from 2000 to 2008.

Who wins the card?  Man, this one is a doozy.  Three four year NFL careers, one cut short by criminal activity, one with a ten year NFL break with every league in existence in between, and one simply due to ineffectiveness.  I think Bryan Gilmore wins this card almost by default since his career was twice as long as all the other guys.  But Chris Greisen definitely gets an honorable mention for getting back to the NFL after falling out so early on.

4 comments:

  1. Wow. I went 0 for 4 on recognizing these guys. Usually... I recognize at least one or two of these players.

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    Replies
    1. I typically know 4/4 but I'd never heard of McKinley, so this was an odd card for me. I'd definitely consider it the card with the least star power in the set (one of the other Cardinals cards is close but has Bill Gramatica at least).

      In general I have no idea why the Cardinals got so much love in the set. They have three full jersey quads, plus a half quad (shared with the Bengals) and two other cards where a Cardinal is one of the four players featured. They were awful at the time, so...beats me!

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    2. Wow... was Pacific based in Arizona or something? Card #1 has all of the big names from the Cardinals and Gramatica is the only guy I recognize on #2.

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    3. I figure maybe they just had a lot of jerseys of Cardinals scrubs and didn't know where else to dump 'em. So why not this set?

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