TTM Stats
- Sent: 10/18/2017 | Received: 4/6/2018 | 168 Days
- ’90 Fleer, ’91 Pro Set Platinum, ’93 Wild Card, ’94 Upper Deck
- Address: ESPN
The Story of the Autograph
Merril Hoge played as a fullback in the NFL from 1987 through 1994. He spent the majority of his career (through 1993) with the Pittsburgh Steelers and then his final year with the Chicago Bears. After his playing career he was an analyst with ESPN, until last season when he was fired.
Hoge was born and raised in Idaho and went to college at Idaho State. After being a three-time all-conference (Big Sky) selection at running back, the Steelers drafted him in the 10th round of the 1987 NFL draft with the 210th overall pick. In seven years with the Steelers he gained 3,100+ yards on the ground and 2,000+ yards on the ground. He also had 34 overall touchdowns to his credit. His prime years were 1988 through 1991. During those he was putting up some good overall yards from scrimmage numbers and touchdown totals. Merril’s best year statistically I think would be 1990 with 1,114 total yards and 10 total touchdowns. He had a higher yardage total in 1988, but less touchdowns.
When he moved to the Bears in 1994 he only played in five games. He suffered a concussion and the doctors cleared him five days later the doctor cleared him to play after only a phone conversation. He would suffer another concussion several weeks later and he stopped breathing. He spent time in an ICU and was forced to retire due to a brain injury. He would have to learn to read again and experience memory loss, confusion and headaches. Later on Hoge would beat stage II Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2002.
Merril spent 1996 through 2017 as an analyst for ESPN in their various studio shows. He was fired in 2017 with a bunch of other high profile analysts.
The Score on Merril Hoge – 5.5
The best part of Merril’s signature is the size. He’s got a nice big signature, but you can really read it. I don’t feel like I see and “M” or “H” in there at all. That said, it seems consistent. You can see some quality issues and my guess would be that has to do with the cards rubbing together. I seem to get that a whole lot more with football cards, but I don’t know how they would be so different. Merril is a pretty good signer from what I’ve seen and if you have some of his cards you should give it a shot.
Something else I noticed about the cards… His name is not spelled correctly on the 1994 Upper Deck card. He spells his first name with only one “l”.
Thanks Mr. Hoge! These get a 5.5.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Pro Football Reference.