Looks Like a Super Day for a Big Game

Well, I'm back after another unexpected posting drought. My wife and daughters returned from visiting my in-laws a week ago and they brought a nasty virus back with them so everyone in the family has been spending the majority of this past week in recovery mode. Today is the final game of the NFL season though and I couldn't miss out on an opportunity to celebrate the occasion. I'd like to think that I don't care who wins today, but I'd be lying if I said I'd be OK if the Patriots won. In fact, the only possible positive I could see coming out of a NE victory today is the chance that Brady will decide to retire afterwards. So, I can say with no reservations that I'm going to be an Atlanta Falcons fan for a day.

Since I don't collect either team, I guess I'll just have to show off some recently acquired Super Bowl themed, Broncos cardboard.

Up first is this pair of shiny Super a Bowl Heroes depicting two of the defensive anchors of last year's Championship team. The scan doesn't do these justice. In hand, they are reminiscent of some of the mid to late '90's issues from Playoff: shiny, semi dufex-y, goodness. Man, I miss some of the cards from those days! I snagged these from Listia for a combined total of 15,000 credits which roughly translates to a whopping $0.55.

Okay, this one is not technically cardboard, but I love it nonetheless. I 'pulled' this Topps Then insert from a digital pack in Huddle yesterday. It's part of their massive blitzkrieg of Super Bowl products. With 21 'cards' in the set the odds of pulling this one were long, especially for someone who doesn't spend money on the app. I can appreciate that this one highlights Mr. MVP's second strip sack of the game. It goes really well with the card that ended up being my favorite of 2016.

Speaking of my favorite card of 2016... I know I've showcased various versions of this card over the past year, but this will be the last. I found this listed on eBay shortly after Christmas and I knew that I must have it. It's the perfect choice for the first Miller auto to be added to my collection. 

Happy Super Bowl Sunday to you all. Here's hoping for some great commercials and a victory for Matty Ice! Thanks for reading.

The Broncos Defense Decided To #keeppounding Cam Newton

When I had started composing this post yesterday, I knew it could obviously go one of two ways. Either this would be a tribute post that said 'good job' on a great season, we'll get 'em next year or it could be this post. Thanks to the Broncos defense the Lombardi Trophy is headed back to the Mile High City!

The following trio from the defense are guys for whom I didn't have any Broncos cards for so I decided to go with the next best thing. Digital cards of them from my Huddle app!

I don't have much to say about Talib other than he is a great defender. I wish he was a bit more professional otherwise. 

Chris Harris Jr. has been one of the best corners that doesn't get a lot of recognition out there. All season, he routinely played the role of 'shut-down' corner and did it well! 

What can I say about Malik Jackson? He quietly goes about his business and is a big reason the defense played so well against the run all year. Plus, he's the guy that recovered the fumble in the end zone for the touchdown early in the 'Big Game'!

Williams is another one of those guys whose name you don't hear all that often, but without him, the other guys won't make a lot of the plays that they're able to. Shane Ray was a rookie this year and he made one hell of a hit on Cam last night. I'm hoping to see big things from him in the years to come.

Danny Trevathan and TJ Ward were definitely linked briefly last night. Ward came up wit a crucial pick and fumbled as he was running it back. Luckily, Trevathan was there for his second fumble recovery of the night. It would have been deep in the red zone and likely an easy score for the Panthers without Danny being in the right place at that time. These are the only Broncos cards that I own of each of these guys. I hope I'm able to change that in the near future.

Roby was just in his second year, but he really emerged as an excellent cover guy in the latter part of the season. He made some really big plays in the Division and Conference Title games and he kept up that momentum last night.

Wolfe has been incredible on the line all year. He allows for a situation where if this guy doesn't get you than that one will...and if that guy doesn't then this one will. He definitely finishes the trio of hard to handle guys that make up the core up front.

D-Ware! I am so happy that he came to Denver and will now have a championship ring. He was an absolute monster all year and certainly had a case for being the MVP of the game last night.

That brings me to the man! Von was unstoppable in both the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl. They were quite the mind boggling performances he was able to put together at the time where they were needed most. I hear the Broncos are already planning to place the Franchise tag on him and work towards a multi-year contract extension. I sure hope that Elway can work his magic and get the deal done!

I mean, he's got to have some kind of leverage speaking from one Super Bowl MVP to another, right? 

I couldn't be happier with the outcome of the game last night and I'm thrilled that the defense was at the center of it like they have been since week 1. Thanks for reading. Go Broncos!!!

If You're Going to San Francisco...

...be sure to throw some footballs in the air! No, I'm not going to embed the video for that song here. Now that I've said that, Championship weekend is officially over and the Super Bowl match-up has been set.

I couldn't be happier. In two weeks, it'll be my (kinda) home team, Carolina Panthers against my beloved Denver Broncos for the NFL championship. I almost feel like its a win-win situation for me. Don't get me wrong, I'll be pulling for the Broncos all the way, but if the Panthers happen to walk away with the 'W', at least I will still be happy. It's my second-best case scenario!

DT didn't really factor into the win tonight, but he's going to have to come up big in the final game of the season. This awesome new addition comes via Panini's 2014 Father's Day promo release and has a great pic from the last time Denver was in the 'Big Game'. Enough talk about the offense, tonight it was the D/ST that won the game.

Cody Latimer had a great catch for a first down, but his real contribution came in the form of some huge tackles on special teams. I've already shown this patch/auto off before, but it's one of my favorites of a guy who ended up being a difference maker despite limited snaps.

Roby played a great game, blanketing Pats receivers all night long, but it was his interception on the two-point conversion that sealed the win! I've shown this one off too, but I promise there will be some more new-to-the-blog cards if you keep reading.

DeMarcus did all the little things needed to keep the defense rolling. This is a recent pick-up from the relatively new Topps Platinum set. While the intangibles don't show up on the stat sheet(he only had a few tackles and a half sack), it sure was fun watching him have a standing reservation to meet Von Miller at Chez Brady.

I don't like being cliche, but Von was all over the field and was definitely the engine that made the defense run all night. With 5 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and a pick, he was certainly the player of the game! Here's yet another recent Topps Platinum addition, this being of the gold parallel variety. It's printed on super thick stock and is even more refractor-y than the base cards.

Hopefully the old adage that defense wins championships proves true in two weeks. It would be great to see the Broncos hoist the Lombardi Trophy again. Kinda like this:

This is the ultimate 'sunset' card in my opinion. It not only shows my favorite football player, but he is celebrating Denver's last Super Bowl win and as the card brand logo suggests, he was the MVP of that, the final game of his storied career. This great piece of cardboard hails from the 1999 Upper Deck MVP set and perhaps 17 years later an NFL card set could have a card of another Broncos Super Bowl winning QB riding off into the sunset. Thanks for reading.  Go Broncos!