Mike Mercer, who was a kicker and punter for ten seasons in the AFL and NFL, passed away on March 24. He was 88. Mercer played for six teams: the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Green Bay Packers, and San Diego Chargers.
In 1963, with the Raiders, Mercer led the AFL with 47 extra points. In 1966, with the Raiders and Chiefs, he led the AFL with 21 field goals and a 70% field goal percentage. At the end of the 1966 season, when the Chiefs played the Packers in Super Bowl I, Mercer scored the first field goal in Super Bowl history.
In 1967, playing for the Bills, Mercer made the AFL East All-Star team. He scored two field goals in the All-Star Game, helping the East beat the West, 25-24.
Today’s card of the day is Mercer’s rookie card, a 1962 Topps. I don’t think that’s Mercer in the inset photo, though; to me it looks like Pat Summerall of the New York Giants, with Charley Conerly holding. (Compare the image to this one at bigblueinteractive.com.) Summerall wore number 88, but I believe Topps altered his number in the image to match Mercer’s. The company altered the inset photos on numerous 1962 Topps cards; there are more examples in an article in my old blog.
Mercer also appeared on several other cards. You can see all of them in the Gallery.
Very interesting about the inset photos. I was recently reading an article, I think it was on SCD, about Topps doing similar with the All-Star subset in the 1969 baseball set.