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An appropriate sports card to feature on Thanksgiving Day is this 1972 Topps football card of former NFL defensive lineman Joe “Turkey” Jones, who played 11 seasons in the league, mostly for the Cleveland Browns. Jones got his nickname when the team played its’ annual Thanksgiving joke on rookie players, sending them on drives to distant rural farms for phantom “free turkeys” which, of course, didn’t exist. Jones never caught on, and not only continued searching for hours for his “free turkey”, but also fell for the prank again in his second year with the team, along with that year’s rookie class. Jones immortalized himself in Cleveland sports history when he sacked Steeler QB Terry Bradshaw in a game, picking up Bradshaw after the whistle (which he claimed he didn’t hear) and depositing him directly on his head into the turf.

1987 Topps football card of former San Francisco 49ers’ receiver Dwight Clark, who played 9 seasons with the team and was a part of 2 Super Bowl-winning teams in the Bill Walsh/Joe Montana era. He was a two-time Pro Bowler, and is best known for making “The Catch”, a leaping end zone grab of a desperation Montana pass for a touchdown against Dallas that propelled the Niners into the Super Bowl. Clark worked as an executive in the front office of both the 49ers and Cleveland Browns after his playing days ended.

1984 Topps football card of former placekicker Scott Norwood, who played for the United States Football League’s Birmingham Stallions at the time this card was released. Norwood joined the NFL’s Buffalo Bills after the USFL folded and was a major factor in the Bills’ resurgence as a winning team in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Norwood is mostly remembered for his 47 yard “wide right” miss at the end of Super Bowl XXV, but he was a consistent placekicker for the Bills for seven years, and was even an All Pro selection for the 1988 season.

1961 Topps football card of former Oakland Raider quarterback Tom Flores, one of the early stars of the American Football League. He is one of only 20 players who lasted the entire 10 year existence of the AFL, as he also served as a backup QB in Buffalo and Kansas City. Flores is also one of the most underrated head coaches of all time, as he won a pair of Super Bowls while coaching the Raiders in the 1980s, where he became the first Hispanic head coach to win a championship. He and Mike Ditka are the only 2 people in NFL history to win Super Bowls as a player, assistant coach and head coach. He currently works as a commentator on the Raiders’ radio broadcasts.

1988 Opeechee hockey card of former National Hockey League player Joe Nieuwendyk, who recently was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The big winger broke into the NHL with a bang, scoring 51 goals in his first season and winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. He wound up playing 21 seasons, and won 3 Stanley Cups, in 3 different decades, with 3 different teams. Nieuwendyk was a great all-around player, and a leader on every team he played for. Also, he was an outstanding lacrosse player prior to beginning his hockey career. He currently is the general manager of the NHL’s Dallas Stars.

1951 Bowman football card of former Cleveland Browns fullback Marion Motley. At 6’1 and 232 pounds, he was a man among boys in his playing days, and in an era when two-way players were still common, he played on defense as a linebacker, which WAS uncommon. Motley played for coach Paul Brown’s Browns for 8 seasons, in the old AAFC and the NFL. The Browns won the AAFC championship all 4 years of the league’s existence, and Motley was the league’s career rushing leader. Motley was named to the NFL  All Decade Team for the 1940s (despite playing in the AAFC), the 75th Anniversary All Time Team, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.

1961 Fleer football card of former Buffalo Bills receiver Elbert Dubenion. Nicknamed “Golden Wheels”, Dubenion was the main target of QB Jack Kemp in the team’s championship seasons in the 1960s. He played 9 seasons in the old American Football League for the Bills, and was the last player from the original team roster of 1960 that remained with the club when the AFL merged with the NFL. Dubenion was a scout for the Bills, Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins after his playing career ended.

1958 Topps football card of former Green Bay Packer center Jim Ringo. An undersized center at only 211 pounds, Ringo had an outstanding career with the Packer dynasty and was a 10-time Pro Bowler. After finishing his 15 year playing career with the Philadelphia Eagles, Ringo went into coaching, and in his tenure as offensive line coach with the Buffalo Bills, was responsible for creating and mentoring the team’s famed Electric Company offensive line, which blocked for O.J. Simpson. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981, and passed away in 2007.

1960 Fleer football card of former player and coach Lou Saban. Saban played 4 years with legendary coach Paul Brown’s Cleveland Browns in the old All America Football Conference from 1946 through 1949 as a middle linebacker, and was team captain for the club, which dominated the AAFC. Saban joined the fledgling AFL as head coach of the Boston Patriots in 1960, but really made his name in coaching when he moved into the same position in Buffalo in 1962, eventually leading the Bills to 2 consecutive AFL titles. Saban was a coaching nomad after that, moving to Denver, then back to Buffalo in the 1970s where he resurrected the career of O.J. Simpson, featuring the Hall of Fame back in the offense. He also had stops at 7 different colleges as head coach, and briefly served as a vice president with baseball’s New York Yankees under George Steinbrenner. Saban died in 2009.

This 1958 Topps football card of former NFL quarterback Lamar McHan is a classic example of the “huckabuck” pose used by players on cards of that era. On the card, McHan is shown doing what is a lost art in football today, throwing a “jump pass”, a tactic which shorter QBs used to throw over taller defensive linemen. McHan was highly touted coming out of college and was drafted as the second overall pick in 1954, but overall his career was disappointing. He played for 11 seasons with 4 different teams, mostly as a backup.