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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.

1966 Topps football card of former Buffalo Bills’ flanker Elbert Dubenion. After attending tiny Bluffton College, Dubenion was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1959 but opted to sign with the Bills and the new American Football League. Nicknamed “Golden Wheels”, he was one of the AFL’s most prolific downfield receivers, and helped lead the Bills to consecutive league titles in 1964 and ’65. Dubenion holds the AFL’s record for the longest pass reception TD in a playoff game, set in 1963 when he caught a 93-yard scoring throw from Daryle Lamonica. After retiring as a player, Dubenion was a successful talent scout for Miami, Atlanta and the Bills.

1960 Topps football card of former NFL defensive end Marion Campbell, who played eight seasons in the league with the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles. His real name is Francis Marion Campbell, so he was appropriately nicknamed “The Swamp Fox” during his career. The highlight of his playing days came in 1960, when he helped the Eagles win a surprising NFL championship, handing Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers their only postseason loss of the Lombardi era. Campbell had a long coaching career after he retired as a player, serving as head coach of the Eagles and two different stints as head man for the Atlanta Falcons, but unfortunately has the third lowest winning percentage in NFL history among coaches.

A couple of classic baseball cards featuring a father and son duo who both played for the same franchise – a 1962 Topps card of former Cleveland Indian Tito Francona and a 1989 Topps Tiffany card (courtesy of www.CheckOutMyCards.com )of his son, Terry, who played briefly for the Tribe and is their current manager. Tito was mostly a journeyman player, spending six of his 15 years in the major leagues with the Indians as a first baseman/outfielder. He played for 9 different teams in those 15 years. Terry’s playing career was similar to his father’s, as he played 10 seasons for 5 different teams, one of those years coming with the Indians. He has made his mark after retiring as a manager, winning 2 World Series titles with the Boston Red Sox.

1993 Upper Deck football card of one of the greatest special teams players of all time, former Buffalo Bill Steve Tasker.  Tasker joined the Bills in 1986 after being cut by the Houston Oilers and carved out a 12 year career with the team as a special teamer, revolutionizing the “gunner” position on kick coverage teams. He also was an accomplished field goal and punt blocker, and basically took advantage of the fact that the Bills’ coach at the time, Marv Levy, was a former special teams coach who put a great emphasis on that phase of the game. Tasker was a seven-time Pro Bowler in his career, and currently works as a game analyst on NFL telecasts for CBS.

1972 Topps football card of former Cincinnati Bengal back Paul Robinson, who was a fourth round pick in the team’s inaugural college draft class. He was an immediate success, as he rushed for 1,023 yards in his first season,1968,  for the Bengals, the first rookie to rush for over 1,000 yards for an expansion team in pro football history. He also led the AFL’s Western Division All Stars to a win over the Eastern stars, and was named American Football League Rookie of The Year for those achievements. Robinson wound playing a total of seven seasons in the AFL and NFL, for the Bengals and Houston Oilers.

1962 Fleer football card of former Buffalo Bills fullback Art Baker, who played 2 seasons, 1961 and ’62, with the team. Baker played his college ball at Syracuse, where he was a backfield mate of  Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis. He also was an NCAA wrestling champion. He followed up his AFL career with four seasons in the Canadian League with the Hamilton Tiger Cats and Calgary Stampeders, winning a pair of Grey Cup titles with Hamilton.