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1962 Topps football card of former NFL quarterback Roman Gabriel. The 1962 set included, on every card, a black-and-white “action” shot of each player. This card was Gabriel’s rookie card, and also is an “error” card. Since Gabriel hadn’t yet played in the NFL, there were no action shots of him, so the inset appears to be Giants’ QB Y.A. Tittle (with his number altered). Gabriel was one of the top signal-callers of the 1960s and early ’70s, playing 16 NFL seasons, mostly for the Los Angeles Rams. He was a four-time Pro Bowler, and was named NFL MVP in 1969. Gabriel’s post-career activities included stints in broadcasting and acting.

1960 Fleer football card of former Buffalo Bills’ halfback Willie Evans, who spent only the one season with the team, in 1960, the Bills’ inaugural one in the fledgling American Football League. Evans was a local product, attending high school in Buffalo and playing in college for the University of Buffalo, which was a strong Eastern college gridiron program at the time. He was part of the 1958 UB team that made history. The Bulls won the Lambert Trophy as the top college team in the East, winning a bid to play Florida State in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida. The team, however, declined the invitation to play in the game after the Bowl committee informed them that Evans and Mike Wilson, both African Americans, were not welcome to play in the game. When his football career ended, Evans taught in Buffalo area schools for over 30 years, and also coached football, tennis and swimming.

1964 Topps football card of former Buffalo Bills’ offensive lineman Al Bemiller. Bemiller joined the team in 1961 and started on their O-line, either at center or guard ( and briefly at tackle), until 1969, never missing a game in his nine year career. He was a member of the Bills’ back-to-back American Football League championship teams of 1964 and ’65. After retiring, he was a substitute teacher in the Buffalo public school system.

1972 Topps football card of one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, former Dallas Cowboy Roger Staubach. After attending the Naval Academy, where he won the Heisman Trophy, Staubach completed his required service, which included a tour of duty in Vietnam. He joined Dallas in 1969, and for a short time shared the signal-calling duties with Craig Morton. He eventually won the job outright, and guided Tom Landry’s club to 5 Super Bowls, winning a pair of them. Staubach was a six-time Pro Bowler in his career, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.

1974 Topps football guard of former pro football offensive lineman Reggie McKenzie, who played 13 seasons in the NFL, mostly with the Buffalo Bills. He was an integral part of the Bills’ offensive line that helped O.J. Simpson rush for 2,003 yards, which earned the line the nickname of “The Electric Company” since they “turned on the Juice.” McKenzie was often overshadowed by his future Hall of Fame linemate, Joe DeLemielleure, but he was named to the NFL All Pro team in 1973 and ’74. He is a member of the college football Hall of Fame, having had a successful career at Michigan.

1972 Topps football card of former pro football running back John “Frenchy” Fuqua, who played eight seasons in the National Football League for the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers. Fuqua was an underrated member of the Steelers’ Super Bowl teams of the early 1970s. He was known for being a flashy dresser and flamboyant personality. His backfield running mate, Franco Harris, had a fan club in Pittsburgh known as “Franco’s Italian Army”, while Fuqua’s fans were known as “Frenchy’s Foreign Legion”.

Courtesy of www.VintageCardPrices.com , a 1981 Topps football card of Hall of Fame wide receiver James Lofton. A football and track star in college at Stanford, Lofton entered the NFL as the top draft pick of the Green Bay Packers in 1978 and played nine seasons with the team. He wound up playing a total of 16 years in the league with 5 different teams, and was named to the Pro Bowl eight times. After his Green Bay days, Lofton had a couple of lost seasons in Oakland before being claimed off the waiver wire by Bill Polian in Buffalo, where he had great success hooking up with Jim Kelly, appearing in 3 Super Bowls with the Bills. He dabbled in coaching for awhile after retiring as a player, and currently serves as an analyst on the radio broadcasts of Sunday Night Football.

Courtesy of  www.CheckOutMyCards.com , a 1976 Topps football card of former NFL defensive lineman Pat Toomay, who played ten years in the league for four different teams, most notably the Dallas Cowboys. He began his career in Dallas and played five seasons there, then was traded to Buffalo, where he played one year before being exposed in the expansion draft that stocked the new Tampa Bay and Seattle franchises. He finished his playing days in Tampa and Oakland. Toomay is an accomplished author, having written two books – The Crunch, an irreverent look at his playing days with Dallas under Tom Landry, and On Any Given Sunday, which the Oliver Stone film Any Given Sunday was loosely based on.

1965 Topps football card of former defensive lineman Roland “Ron” McDole, one of the defensive stalwarts on the Buffalo Bills’ American Football League championship teams of the 1960s. McDole played eight seasons with the Bills starting in 1962, and was a two-time AFL All Star. While the careers of many of his AFL contemporaries faded after the league merged with the more established NFL, McDole flourished, re-inventing himself with George Allen’s “Over The Hill Gang” Washington Redskin teams of the 1970s. He stretched his career out for another eight years in Washington, and was named one of the top 70 Redskin players of all time. Redskin teammate Sonny Jurgensen nicknamed him “The Dancing Bear”, after he showed off his moves at a local nightclub. He holds the pro football career record for interceptions by a defensive lineman with 12.

1972 Topps football card of former Pittsburgh Steeler L.C. Greenwood, who passed away recently. Although he was overshadowed by his more famous teammates like Mean Joe Greene, Jack Lambert and Mel Blount, Greenwood was a key player  on the “Steel Curtain” defensive units that dominated the NFL during the Steelers’ run of four Super Bowls in the 1970s. Known for wearing gold spikes during games (which would get him fined in today’s NFL), he was a six time Pro Bowler in his 13 year career. Greenwood was a member of the All Decade team for the 1970s, and has been a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame a couple of times, but has yet to be voted in.