Yesterday I added 1980 St. Louis Cardinals Police cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. The design of the cards is the same the 1980 Chiefs Police cards I added earlier this week, but the player selection is far better: fifteen players vs. just eight for the Chiefs. I wonder why the difference?
I really like police and other regional sets because they often include players–especially linemen–who never appeared on regular issue cards. Today’s card of the day is a good example: Terry Stieve had an eight-year NFL career, mostly as a starter, with the New Orleans Saints and the Cardinals, but Topps never put him on a card. I’ve always thought that multi-player cards, like those in the 1968 KDKA Steelers set, would have been a good way to include more players, but the card companies produced very few of those.
Unfortunately, the police cards I’ve seen so far don’t include much biographical information about the players, not even the colleges they attended. (Stieve went to Wisconsin.) The backs of the 1980 Cardinals cards contain “Cardinals Tips” about crime prevention and football. Useful information, I’m sure, but as a kid, I’d rather have read about the players.
You can see the full set of 1980 Cardinals Police cards in the Gallery.
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The Police sets are really great. It’s a real shame that they don’t produce them anymore.