I’ve always been a bit of a Pro Set fan. That first ’89 set was not up my alley. They were cards that were colored outside of team colors and they were a little bit awkward in some cases. But once 1990 hit, they got a whole lot better and stayed that way for a few years. It wasn’t just for football, hockey too.
I happened to see a box of 1990 Pro Set in a shop and decided to dig into it. The big thing that jumps out at you first… THE COLORS. Oh my gosh it’s awesome. That first packs slaps you in the face. As you open the second and third packs, you still get slapped but it feels like the same slap (more on that later).
This box definitely brought me back to opening these cards with my brother back in the day though.
H. O. F.
Not that they are always these super expensive cards, especially for this set, but finding Hall of Famers in old packs is always so great. For me, the LT is of course a good one just because I’m a Giants fan. But the one that actually stuck out to me the most was the Deion card. I think it’s the fact that he’s in the white jersey with the red helmet. I don’t even think of him being part of the Falcons in that jersey. It definitely threw me for a loop.
As for Darrell Green, I actually have a story about him recently. He works for George Mason and I was at a game earlier in the season. He had just been chosen to the 100 years team (or whatever they call it). Anyway, the kid I was with saw a teacher of his and we were all sitting in floor seats near Darrell Green. The teach told the kid he’d give him extra credit if he went down and congratulated him on being chosen. The kid liked the extra credit, but I think even more is he wouldn’t have thought to try without being pushed. He was glad he did.
Big Players, Big Moments
I like these cards a lot. It made me realize a bit more about what was going on in the game at the time. I really had no idea who was part of the HOF class at the time so seeing those cards in the packs was pretty cool.
Again, seeing Giants on the important cards is something I like. So Ottis on a card was pretty sweet.
One thing I will say about these was that it made it hard to pick them out from Saints and 49ers cards because the coloring was similar.
The Big Game
This insert was always cool. I don’t think I thought about it that way when I was a kid but I do now. I even like the backs and the information they have on there. I wish I thought to take a picture at the time but for some reason I didn’t.
One thing it made me realize was that these old images and their “poster” feel was so cool. No it’s just logos that pretty much look similar year-to-year. But these are like old fashioned movie posters. Yeah, it’s a sign of the times, but it feels way more imaginative and less cookie-cutter.
Didn’t I Just See That…
These days we always complain about collation, but these packs definitely had their issues. The image above is showing the order of what I was finding in a lot of the packs. And this was even after I opened a bunch and had started setting aside some cards for TTM.
For all these packs you get:
- Card 1: Super Bowl Card
- Card 2: Los Angeles Rams Player
- Last Card: Phoenix Cardinals Player
The good part was that it wasn’t always the same Rams or Cardinals player. All of these were different. But there were those issues as well. You definitely hit runs of three or four players that were the same. It’s the same today though. It’s something we’ve always complained about but the atmosphere of social media just amplifies anything we are saying now as opposed to then.
TTMs – Woo Hoo!
One of the best parts for me is that I can always dig out some TTM cards that I can use later. There were a ton. Normally I only wait for doubles, but I don’t do that as much when I am opening a whole box. I kind of figure I have a double already or I’ll be opening one soon.
This was a really good time and a fun box to open. The colors were amazing and the images on the cards were pretty good as well for when they were taken. These sets benefited from all the changes in baseball cards where everyone had to step up there game. Next time my brother is over I’m probably going to have him look through these stacks before I put them away see what he thinks.
I really like these cards–this set is one of the few football sets I’m trying to complete. I’ve got a ton of unopened four-card cello packs of these that were left over from a Raiders stadium giveaway at the LA Coliseum back in the day. So I think I probably have most of the set but I still need to inventory these cards to create a want/trade list. The cellos packs don’t seem to contain the Super Bowl cards.
I’m guessing the giveaway was Raiders specific? Different than the cards in the base set? That’s cool! I feel like I have a bunch of these as doubles so if you want to put together a trade to fill out each others set let me know. I’d go one-for-one for any card I have doubles of.