I love the 1962 Fleer cards. But, whoever did this to Ron Mix should be taken out and publicly flogged.
Ron Mix was “The Intellectual Assasin”. During the off-season, he earned his law degree. On most cards, he looks like the man he was–a brilliant man in the body of a 6’5” blocking machine.
But not here. He looks like someone who has been sniffing paint fumes, and now he’s hallucinating and running for his life from a vampire gremlin chasing him with a cheese grater. Yeah, I went there.
It’s not fair. But, that is the world of cards.
Mix was just becoming the lineman who would easily earn Canton residency. He had been drafted by both the Colts and Patriots (who traded his rights to the Chargers, thinking he’d opt for the California AFL team), and he said that had the Colts matched the Chargers, he’d have signed with them. Instead, the Colts got cocky and said he’d be begging for a job in a year when the AFL collapsed.
Yeah. Nice negotiation strategy, there.
Mix would play through the entire history of the AFL, and would become the second AFL player inducted into Canton. But in 1970, nagging injuries forced him to retire–until 1971, when he had healed up, and wanted to play one more season…and the Chargers had a replacement. He requested a trade, and when he was traded to the Raiders in 1971, the Chargers un-retired his jersey number. Smooth move, Chargers.
None of that excuses this travesty, though. Paint fume hallucinations or no.
