Today’s vintage football card of the day is Jim Haslett’s 1980 Bells Market Bills card. Haslett played linebacker for eight years in the NFL: seven with the Bills and one with the New York Jets. He was named the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1979.
Haslett played college football at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, an NCAA Divison II school. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
After retiring as a player, Haslett began a long coaching career. He held two head coaching positions in the NFL: with the New Orleans Saints from 2000 to 2005, and as interim head coach of the St. Louis Rams in 2008. Most recently, in 2023, he served as head coach of the XFL’s Seattle Sea Dragons.
Haslett’s card is one of twenty in the 1980 Bells Bills set. The cards were distributed by Bells Supermarkets in the Buffalo region. They are attractive cards, except that many of the images, like Haslett’s, are too dark. I recently added the set to the Gallery; you can see and read more about them there.
