When I think back to the 80’s, when Topps was the main football card brand, football and baseball designs differed each year and did so in pretty unique ways. Then somewhere along the way they became the same or very similar. It was somewhere around the early 90’s and I think about it most in 1991. Topps definitely started matching the flagship sets for different sports.
But we’re not talking about Topps in this case. Here we have 1991 Fleer Ultra and things are very much the same as baseball. I opened some of the baseball version a while ago and my thoughts on the design aren’t any different. I like the design and while I will grant anyone that “boring” comes to mind, I also think it “classy” comes to mind. Maybe “business-like” is another way to say it. No nonsense.
Do I like when designs are the same? No. There’s plenty of ideas to go around and I’m sure we can come up with an alternative idea. What I would have thought about doing is to use a version of the idea that you were thinking about for one as the idea for the other. You have to think there would have been a ton of ideas on the table as the design was developed. Plus just make the tweak that tailors to the sport if you can.
So these are different, but the same. Let’s check it out anyway.
1991 Fleer Ultra Football
The one thing I will say about this era of players and cards is that you can really find a lot of great players in there. I think there might be some of that for me in that I don’t generally collect a lot of football, so that means a lot of these guys are maybe a little more special for me as I go through the packs.
I noticed a lot of great defensive players in the packs specifically so I had to pull Seau, Thomas, and Sanders to show for these images. Unfortunately only one of these guys still with us.
One of my usual issues with football cards is that they are busy because of the action on the card and sometimes really dark. That’s not a problem if I am just collecting the cards, but if you are looking to TTM with them it presents challenges for the pictures looking good. These might be better examples, but the pictures are very bright and vibrant and a signature would look great on there.
Back-to-Back
There were a few interesting differences between the baseball version of the set and the football version. The backs definitely have the same look and feel just like the fronts, but it was the organization that was different.
Usually with Fleer baseball I remember them organizing by how the teams finished and then in alpha order of player. What it appears they did with football was to split up the conferences. Then they colored the backs according to the conference. You can see Art Monk and Broderick Thompson both have different backs above. The other difference you might notice is stats. There’s not much we can put on Thompson’s card with him being an O-lineman.
The other very small difference that you can see on the Ron Stallworth card was the way they added the “TRADED” icon to the card. They still organized the card with the back the right way. So in the NFC section you might find an AFC back kind of thing.
G-Men
The Giants are my team when it comes to football. And while 1991 wasn’t necessarily a great year (they were .500), 1990 was. These were some of my favorites from the packs. There was a pretty good amount to choose from too as I noticed that the split of teams was pretty good in most cases. I really love seeing the old helmets and uniforms from that era.
Draft Picks, Not Rookies
Well, yes rookies, but also draft picks. The NFL product definitely gets to play up the draft pick part because players go immediately to playing. These were some of my favorites from that lot.
Eric Bienemy, while not necessarily being a great player, seems to be a very good coach. I hope he gets a shot at a head coaching gig because he’s done a great job in Kansas City. That said though, having Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill don’t hurt.
I was always a fan of Herman Moore. He was a little before my time of really following college football, but he was a pretty great receiver for the Lions over the years. Russell Maryland was one of course the first pick of the draft so you can’t forget him, plus he helped the Cowboys to multiple Super Bowl titles in those years he was there.
Performers
As with the baseball version, the football version also has a subset of great performers. The design here is much the same too with the faded background and the full color player. Then of course the awkward logo.
There were All-Stars as well, but I didn’t see stickers.
The Set Asides
As always I put aside a good stack of cards for TTM and some unopened packs to store away. I’m definitely going to be sneaking these into some upcoming TTM requests I had planned so hopefully we can check them out on the other side too.
I think this was fun because I don’t open football very often. Sure I know the names, but I don’t go through my football stuff nearly as often as I do with baseball. I found myself stopping and checking the names and the back of the cards as I went through. That right there tells me I had a good time because I wasn’t blindly opening.