1987 was a long time ago… I was only 7 at the time but my friends and I were playing catch with that Nerf Turbo Football up at Marcy Park anytime we could. With the Nerf Turbo you could throw perfect spirals even if your form was horrible.
Adding a spiral to my game was huge. I always had the jukes and the afterburners but never had a good hail mary to go with my moves. The Nerf Turbo added so much to my game. When we did have tackle football games in the late 80’s, I was ready to show all of my friends that I could do it all on that plush grass. Devin would always throw Ryan and I mega bombs and our squads were totally unfair but it was classic to have Ryan and I flanked out on both sides going deep every play. After the TD, the three of us would all celebrate together in the endzone with our various touchdown dances. I’m sure the other kids thought we were obnoxious but the three of us were having so much fun. We would watch Deion Sanders play for Florida State and then try to emulate his every move when we played. His swag was so dope.
And while Deion was the dopest in college, our boy Randall Cunningham was straight killing it on the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL. Randall was a QB like no other. I’ve already talked about him several times on my blog but I’m just going to keep going with it because Randall was so sick. I rocked a white hoodie with a cut off mesh Randall jersey, sweatpants, and a Zubaz hat for my weekly football attire. Those mesh jerseys were great because they wouldn’t rip. And with the Nerf Turbo Football, I could do Randall type moves when we played. Devin was always the best QB but I was Michael Vick before Michael Vick. I had that lefty missile to go with the jukes and wheels and there was no stopping me. Unless you touched me because then I was go flying. I only weighed like 23 pounds so was brittle! Here’s some Randall for you!
When we weren’t out on the football field we were crackin’ open wax packs of Topps Football Cards! I wasn’t even a Football Cards kind of guy but I have to give props to Berry Ronaghy who schooled me on game. Berry knew so much about football and had really nice game himself. He watched a lot of football so understood the game better than all of us. Berry and I would go buy packs of cards and work on elaborate trades with each other to get the cards we each wanted. For 1987 Topps Football, you could get a Randall Cunningham rookie card so that was all I cared about. Here is some 1987 Topps Football fire for you so you can get a feel for the design and photography.
We were little kids so never had money to get much so every pack was valuable. I had the Randall and Elway in my collection and cherished them. Definitely had that Randall Cunningham rookie in a Card Saver to protect it from getting tweaked!
If you’ve been following my site at all, you probably already know that I’m buying packs of sports cards for my brother and he is opening them without knowing what he is getting. This adds a sweet element of surprise and his reactions are everything! Todd (aka Lunchmade) is a huge collector and is so knowledgeable about sports and the card industry to those in the know will respect his game. Here’s one of Todd’s more recent videos where he is cracking a wax pack open full of 1987 Topps Football Cards! Straight nostalgia y’all!