Fight Football League Links Back!

Hey check it out:



See that little link on the right side of the screen - hey that's ME! In fact, if you google Fight Football, I'm on the bottom of page 2! That's not so bad.

Jim Rome's Rookie Card?

Jim Rome is a polarizing figure in sports talk radio and television, to some he's the greatest talking head on tv/radio, and to others he's a pompous jackass who's not much better than Rush Limbaugh. My own personal opinion is more on the positive side than the negative, since I've been listening to him for YEARS.

That's right, I count myself as an original clone. I was listening to Rome waaaaay back in the early 90's when he did his Saturday Scrub Show on XTRA 690 in San Diego. I even remember calling him up about some boxing match sometime in 1992 or 1993. Why I can recall sitting next to Natrone Means in the stands at Charger Training Camp while he was being interview by the young Pimp in the Box.

Once he got moved to the day-time shifts I became an avid, daily listener. I compiled lists of "Jungle Glossary Terms" before the Internet is what it is today. I remember the first couple of Smack-Offs too. I have though, never called the show because mostly I don't have a take and if I did, it would suck.

Now I haven't listened to Rome on a regular basis the entire time he's been on radio. There were a number of years where I was working when I couldn't have a radio at my desk so I never paid that much attention. Today though I get to listen to him when and where I want to, thanks to the internet and 570 AM KLAC's streaming coverage, oh and my car radio. So while I think the days of him calling athletes women's names are over, he's still up to his old antics.

So this brings me to his "rookie card." This is a set of trading cards that 690 used to hand out at events and I managed to snake one over the years. IN fact, I managed to get at least one of the autographed - the late, great Chet Forte was kind enough to his card for me, as did his partner and still a Loose Cannon Steve Hartman. You don't see these sets pop up very often, in fact I can't find another reference to the set on the internet machines. Cool hunh?

And hey, it's another post about sports cards, go figure. At least I'm not pumping my eBay auctions. Oh wait...see what I did there?

McFarlane adding NFL to PlayMakers Line

http://www.spawn.com/news/news6.aspx?id=13706

Series 1 will have 14 figures including:

PEYTON MANNING -- Indianapolis Colts quarterback
ADRIAN PETERSON -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback
TROY POLAMALU -- Pittsburgh Steelers safety
TOM BRADY -- New England Patriots quarterback
DREW BREES -- New Orleans Saints quarterback
LARRY FITZGERALD -- Arizona Cardinals wide receiver
MARK SANCHEZ -- New York Jets quarterback
TONY ROMO -- Dallas Cowboys quarterback
BRETT FAVRE -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback
BEN ROETHLISBERGER -- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback
AARON RODGERS -- Green Bay Packers quarterback
ELI MANNING -- New York Giants quarterback
JAY CUTLER -- Chicago Bears quarterback
JASON WITTEN -- Dallas Cowboys tight end


Being a toy collector, I've seen their Baseball PlayMakers on pegs at TRU, sitting there, kind of lonely, not selling well. I have to say I've never been overly impressed with McFarlane's toys, most of the ones I've ever held/owned feel like they're made from inferior plastic. I'm also well known as an articulation junkie so the barely poseable plastic statues that McFarlane has pumped out for years in the sports realm has always left me cold. I haven't taken the bite on any of the Baseball figures yet simply because there isn't one player out right now that I even like. Then again McFarlane has always neglected my favorite teams, I guess he just doesn't like me. (The one time I met him at a ComicCon I was nice though, so I dunno).

For the record, McFarlane has done a TOTAL of FIVE Los Angeles Kings in their NHL line and NONE since 2006. To make matters worse they've only done SIX Angels! It doesn't get much better in Football for old Will either, they've only done eight Chargers, but get this FIVE of them are Ladanian Tomlinson (The other three are Brees, Gates and Rivers, so I guess that's not too bad). Pro Basketball wise, I don't really care about the Lakers that much, but at least Todd's shown them some love with 16 figures since 2002, and all the big names are represented.

In any case, I might go ahead and pick up a Favre, Peterson or a Brees if I see them. I'd like to see the line do well, because perhaps that would me a "Classics" line would be possible and I could get some of my faves from years past, like Dan Fouts, Barry Sanders and Marshall Faulk.

Honestly my love of multipoint articulation comes from the great toys of the 70's, mostly Megos, but I also had one of these lads:



I know I had the Chargers figure because I lived in San Diego when I got it. I look for them on eBay every now and then when I remember what they're called. I think I'll remember more often now that I've blogged about it. Any readers out there remember these guys?

More Ebay Items

I've listed a bunch more comics on eBay, and if you're a reader of this blog - you wanna buy something, let me know in the comments and I'll throw in some free bonuses!


Check them out will ya?

Fight Football League

Jim Rome mentioned this today on his show and I HAD to check it out, its QUITE the spectacle, and you know what? I like it. Quite a bit actually. The organizers tell us that it's based on an ancient combat sport called Harpastum combined with a bit of this Calcio Fiorentino. TO me it seems more like a straight up combination of Australian Rules Football, MMA and Soccer. Oh and they've been playing it now for some time, only a few times a year though...until now.

Enter Fight Football League, and their debut match is on Youtube, a very interesting tilt featuring Rome versus Florence. The players are all Vinnie Jones look-a-likes who take their sport seriously. There's blood, quite a bit, and punching, a few take downs, but really no bad sportsmanship, which I found fascinating. In this match there were no penalties that I could see, no dismissals and no real warnings. The fighting is controlled, and it's always 1 on 1. You can't punch a guy from behind or when he's down. I don't think kicking was allowed either.

Basically there's 8 guys to a side (I think that's how many I counted) and they have to score a goal worth one point in a rather small square goal some 8-10 feet off the ground. They use a soccer ball and can run with the ball without dribbling. Passing is allowed, didn't see any offsides rules in effect. If a guy is tackled with the ball it's a turnover. They played four 12 minute periods with a short "extra time" for injuries I guess, the clock counts up like in Soccer. Substitutions seemed pretty liberal.

It's not all non-stop action, though it's pretty close. It's weird to see one guy running with the ball and right in front of him his teammate is squaring off with an opponent. If a fight goes on too long it gets broken up too. Actually they seemed to be broken up a lot.

Anyway, check it out, it's rather interesting stuff. The most scoring happens in the fourth quarter, so if you want to only watch one part that's it.

FINALLY A Sports Card Posting - Well Sort Of

I know, I don't write about sports cards much anymore. Mostly because I'm not really buying a whole lot. Between Upper Decks Baseball fiasco 2010, and my lack of interest in pretty much most of Topps releases, I'm just not spending a lot of money on cards. I still buy an occasional pack of Topps Series 2, and I've purchased a whopping 2 packs of Allen & Ginter and 1 of Heritage. Lack of funds really has me in a buying depression.

BUT that's OK, because I can still SELL SELL SELL right? Well, yeah, I could. I still need to send out trades from LAST NOVEMBER, so I'm erring on the side of caution with Baseball. I do have a decent amount of Hockey cards though, and I've just pulled them out of storage, which coincidentally is where I think the Baseball that I need to send out ended up.

So here's my first foray into selling Hockey Cards, three single player lots of arguably the most recognized three stars of the 20th Century, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and the Great One, Wayne Gretzky.

I also have quite a few rookies and Young Guns from the early 2000's and I'll probably be putting those up later this week, most of them I'll start at $1.00 with $1.00 shipping or $2.00 with free shipping. I may also just put the 3200 count box and the overflow boxes outside tomorrow morning for our yard sale and see if someone wants a good deal.

Meanwhile, as always lately check out my Ebay Seller Page AND if you buy something from me, and let me know you read about my items on my blog, I'll REFUND 10% of your sale price back to you! Just a way of saying thanks for reading.

NBA Mini Vinyls

Now I don't know why this hasn't happened sooner, but a company called Mind Style is putting out mini vinyl figures of NBA Super-Stars. Series 1 will be blind boxed with rare and chase figures! Woot!

Yes, I know there have been other companies to try the Designed Vinyl approach to sports collectibles, but so far they've all missed the mark. Why? In my opinion because they were too pricey and too stylized for sports collectors. We sports collectors are a finicky breed. We're not going to buy an expensive roto-cast vinyl figure of Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan, but give us a blind-boxed chance at a chase figure, for under 10 bucks, and guess how many will jump at the chance.

I see this as a positive, even though I won't collect the set. If there's any former Bruins in the series I'll go for them, and maybe try a custom.

NBA Series 1 will contain: Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Garnett, Derrick Rose, Dirk Nowitzki, Brandon Roy, Steve Nash, Manu Ginobili, Amar’e Stoudemire and Dwayne Wade.

I would imagine the chase/rare figures will be alternate jerseys or paint schemes.