White Out the Wide Out

When you look at the position players on the offensive side of the ball, there are three players that will ultimately have all the glory for the team. First is the QB, as he is the leader and captain of the offense, understandably the most valuable card wise as well. Each year, with few exceptions, the QBs lead the value of most of the cards that come onto the market. The hobby's A-list has more QBs than any other position. RB's are also up there in terms of value, I would expect because they play a tough position with a lot of visibility, and their cards usually reflect that for value. Yet, when you come to the wide receiver, there are very few guys that carry value, despite being some of the most vocal and most talented players on the field.

Aside from Jerry Rice, there are not many WRs that you could name when going through the top autos to get in a box. People like Terrell Owens, Marvin Harrison, and Randy Moss will probably end up in the HOF when all is said and done, but they are never the focus of any set, their cards are relatively cheap, and yet they are some of the best ever at their respective position. To tell you the truth, I am quite baffled as to why this is. You could say that people like TO are pretty scarce in value because of the public image he carries, and for the most part I would agree. Football is a sport run by and played by primadonnas, and TO is the biggest offender of the bunch. He is also a stupid crybaby asshole to boot, which probably doesn’t help things.

This doesn’t go for people like Harrison and Cris Carter, who are both guys that are suprisingly humble and quiet. You never hear from them about how bad the team is doing or how great they will play in the next game, but you also never hear about their cards going for big money either. Carter had over 1000 receptions and 100 TDs, but his autos usually don’t break 20 bucks. That is crazy considering what the prices are for people like Eric Dickerson and Earl Campbell.

Something else I find funny is that good RBs come a dime a dozen, yet good WRs come once in a great while. It seems that for a good RB, keeping healthy is a greater accomplishment than putting up good numbers, where as WRs must fend off injuries as well as put up legendary numbers to maintain a hobby importance. This double standard is kind of disheartening, especially when you see the price for someone like Ryan Grant, Selvin Young or Ahmad Bradshaw, especially considering that they will more likely go nowhere than into mediocrity even.

Im not saying that it’s a hobby consipiracy to keep the WR down, but I think its kind of interesting to look at the value of someone like Fred Bilitnikoff and Paul Hornung vs guys like Gale Sayers, Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen.