Great googly-boogly.
It physically hurts to look at this card. Did anyone at Fleer apologize for this hand-tint monstrosity? Or at least be held accountable for their actions?
Jerry Burch was a minor star at Georgia Tech who made it with the Raiders, a team desperate for players after essentially being an AFL expansion team the previous year. In fact, Jerry caught more passes as a Raider in 1961 (18) than as a senior at Georgia Tech (10). He also occasionally punted. He had one AFL touchdown reception, which is more than any of us will ever have.
He signed for their 1962 training camp, didn’t report, and totally fell off the planet, apparently. Maybe it was because of the humiliating card Fleer spit out.
Someone actually sat down at an artist table, with most likely a promo photo from Georgia Tech, and thought, “He’d look good with peach foundation and Revlon’s ‘Persian Melon’ lipstick shade.”
And yes, I looked up the shade. The internet has everything, even old lipstick shades.
He quite honestly looks like a female impersonator who needs to put on their wig and to finish the makeup details before hitting the stage. If you’ve ever seen the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything—Julie Newmar (which I highly recommend), you get the point. Even the Topps folks had to see this and think, “Okay, we get sloppy at times, but we’ve never totally humiliated a person out of sheer spite.”
It reminds me of the epically bad Billy Squier video for “Rock Me Tonite”, which has been credited for being so bad that it did irreparable damage to his career. Once this came out, Jerry had to feel, “If this is what pro football is all about, what’s the point?”
I can only imagine Burch getting this card sent to him, with the inevitable comments…and I hope he signed them like the gentleman he needed to be in those circumstances.
