1991 Bowman Football

The card shop near me just got 3 boxes full of new cheapo packs so I picked up a few to share. Since college football kicked off this weekend (including a win by my beloved Bulldogs) I've got a pack of 1991 Bowman to get us in the football mood.

17 Michael Haynes
254 Irv Pankey
309 Gary Zimmerman
143 Mel Gray
155 Lomas Brown
32 Nate Odomes
280 Clarence Verdin League Leaders
529 Charles Mann
500 Dave Kreig
20 Scott Fulhage
18 Chris Miller
62 Jim Harbaugh
319 Rich Gannon
37 Butch Rolle

Ok, I have to start out with this: Can someone explain this haircut to me?

A mohawk that gave up? Maybe it makes sense from the front.

I love opening up early '90s football packs, it's like going over a Tecmo Bowl roster. I appear to have picked the Falcons pack, with Haynes, Miller and the punter. Chris Miller is the reason the Falcons didn't need that Favre guy so there's some great memories for me. I spent several years at a therapist trying to repress those memories but hey, nice card. When you take out the "guys hanging out on the bench" shots out there is actually some decent action photography on these cards. Gary Zimmerman taking on the fridge is just classic. It's a shame Topps ripped off the design from Bowman baseball, but they did that with every football set that year. They have the one per pack foil card too, but I got the NFL leader in punt returns, whoopie. I ignored this set when it came out, mostly because of the backs. The fact I was a broke-ass freshman in college didn't hurt, but the wall of text backs just didn't do it for me. I wanted full career stats and cartoons and crap. Now I love it, you open up a pack and it's like reading a book. There's a bunch of gems in there too, like on Michael Haynes' card:

"Wide receiver Michael Haynes attended high school games playing not football, but trumpet!"

Aw, that's just heaven. I'm going back on Tuesday and wiping them out of this stuff. It's ten times as good as any of the crap that's come out this year. I can also get 40 packs of it for the price of one Stadium Club pack.