For the most part, they are undervalued and under appreciated. They look great on top of a pile of cards on your kitchen table or bedroom floor, though.
They are cool to squint at—the old Green Bay team cards, which ran pre-Lombardi pictures into the 1960’s; the Browns, with a blurred “32” which was of course Jim Brown…
Topps often recycled old team pictures—Ray Nitschke was #33 on at least two of them, well after he switched to #66. Topps tried to hand-color the cards, often to comical results. Philadelphia decided to avoid the Crayolas and went with black and white team shots that are far better, though bland as hell. When Philadelphia bowed out of the card market, they took team cards with them. Eventually, Topps transitioned toward team checklists, which were incredibly boring unless you were trying to finish a set.
But there are times when the team card preserved history that it never intended to do.
In 1958, Topps used a black and white team photo of the ’57 Steelers for their team card. This was former Lions coach Buddy Parker’s first year after Walt Kiesling resigned. But Kielsing had drafted a hotshot quarterback from Purdue—but Parker wanted his own quarterback. So, he got a draft bust from the 49ers and picked up a kid from Occidental he drafted with the Lions but was soon released. None of the three did very well—in fact, they were so unimpressive that Parker swung a deal for Bobby Layne, and the writing was on the wall for the three quarterbacks. Within a year all three were gone.
But the three of them are together on the ’58 card. Right in front of the Pitt Stadium scoreboard, which is cool in itself.
Who were the quarterbacks that didn’t impress Buddy Parker?
In the second row, second from the left is #18, the Lions castoff-Jack Kemp.
Also in the second row, second from the left is #10, the 49ers’ draft bust–Earl Morrall.
In the third row, fourth from the right is #16, from Purdue—Len Dawson.
Buddy didn’t last long at Pittsburgh. The others? They did okay elsewhere. And they are all preserved on this team card, if you squint real hard.
