Sunday, January 12, 2020

From the Favorites Box: Mark Gastineau, 1982 Topps #168

A series where I post some thoughts about favorite cards. Previous cards in the series are available here.

If I were to use just one football card to describe the sport to a person who'd never seen it, this might be the card I'd choose. 



 
Now, you could show that person a card of a quarterback in a throwing motion, or a wide receiver stretching out to catch a pass, or a running back dodging defenders. Those kinds of images make attractive cards. Those positions are the glamorous ones.

But to me, you can't define football (especially older-school football) without showing the Goliaths, the behemoths on the line, grappling with each other for every inch of real estate they can gain. Defending. Attacking. Pushing. Countering. You can hear the NFL soundtrack by Sam Spence, can't you?

And for a few years in the 1980s, hardly anyone did the attacking part of it better than defensive end Mark Gastineau. Look at the card above again. He's being double-teamed (as he often was), but still appears to be giving both of those Cleveland Browns more than their share of trouble. That defender on the lefthis jersey is soaked in mud and water, as if Gastineau has already walked all over him a few times.

And really, how are either of them going to stop a guy who's 6-foot-5, 275 pounds, and can run the 40 in 4.5 seconds? Even his hair and mustache combo is all-pro.


 

To provide an example of the damage the five-time Pro-Bowler did on the gridiron:

In 1983, the year after the football card shown above was released, Gastineau put up 19 quarterback sacks to lead the league. In 1984 he would lead the league again with a whopping 22. Then in 1985 he'd add another 13.5, good for 6th place. Hard to top that three-year total.

I'm not going to mention much about the "sack dances" that ruffled so many feathers back then, although I can understand why they did elicit such a response. I probably wouldn't have liked them, either. And did other defensive linemen display histrionics like that in the 1980s? No.

But it's not easy to toil in the trenches, battling with 300-pound monsters on the pass rush all day. What made Gastineau different was that despite the grind, he still somehow played the sport with passion and a childlike effervescence. Maybe the sack dances stemmed from that sort of enthusiasm, and not from the desire to taunt a defender or quarterback. That's only a guess, and it might be painting too kind of a picture, but in any case I'm not going to criticize the guy for it. Besides, I'm sure the home-team fans ate that stuff up.

For reminding us that it's possible to toil in those trenches, succeed, and even have fun doing it, 1982 Topps #168 has a spot in my box of favorites.

8 comments:

  1. Great choice! This post sent me to the net for a little Gastineau research. He's an Okie like me! He must truly be one tough son-of-a-gun. Stage 3 colon cancer survivor, Parkinsons and dementia? Head injuries are frightening and often taken decades to reveal themselves fully. A sad fate for one still relatively young at 63.



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    1. Yeah, it hasn't been easy for him over the past few years. But it seems like he's got some good support at home and from the fans, and as you said, he's a pretty tough dude. For proof, all you've got to do is look at that 1982 card!

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  2. After watching some old games recently, I decided to start collecting Mark's fellow "Sack Exchange" member, Joe Klecko. I'm sort of thinking about adding Mark to the list as well. As an aside, the idea of showing just one sports card to someone who hadn't ever seen that particular sport is an interesting one. If anyone other than me was suggesting it, this idea of yours would probably make for a really good blog bat-around (most people would probably cover baseball though), but usually you need someone like Fuji or Night Owl to convince people to do it.

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    1. Yeah, the Sack Exchange must have made Jets games pretty exciting back then. I might have to start watching some old games, too. As for the bat-around idea, good thinking!

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  3. Hear, hear! I'm a staunch believer that the game is played in the trenches and a supporter of all those big uglies who make it happen.

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    1. Thanks Trevor! Glad you enjoy the card selection. (And thanks for following the blog!)

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  4. That's a badass card! I didn't start watching football until Gastineau retired, but I've heard he was quite a character.

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    1. Right? It almost looks like he's about to lift both of those guys up -- one in each arm.

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