Well, week 4 is pretty much in the books, and it was a pretty eventful week with some key injuries and a few players who did poorly instead of normally performing well. This week was also the first bye week, so not every one of the rookies got their chance to shine.

Matthew Stafford

Although the Lions lost in epic fashion, and although he threw for close to 300 yards, neither of those are the story of the game. Stafford went down with a pretty gruesome looking knee injury in the fourth quarter, which has been reported as a dislocated knee cap by NFL Network. The guys on the show all thought he would be out for a long time, which is going to be extremely detrimental to the Lions and his card values. Nothing is official yet, but this looks really bad for the future of his season.

Mark Sanchez

AHHH! Sanchez is human after all! He had his worst game to date, throwing for under 150 yards with no TDs and three picks versus a great saints team. The issue is that the Saints arent really known for their defense, and Sanchez threw two picks to the oldest part of it. Sharper returned one of his picks 99 yards for a TD, and the other came late when the Jets were trying to rally. His value shouldn’t drop all that much because one game does not a rookie make, or break for that matter, so don’t ditch everything quite yet.

Johnny Knox

Knox had another good game this week, with 50+ yards receiving and a kick return TD for 101 yards. Granted, it was against the worst special teams in the league, but impressive none the less. Knox has been a huge surprise for the Bears, and is slowly starting to look like he is going to be a reliable option for them if he can grow in the system. With Bennett struggling as I expected he would, Knox has been their guy. His values are at their highest of the year right now, and may go higher if he continues to perform.

Knowshon Moreno

The Broncos sure embarrased the Cowboys by handing them their second straight loss, with Moreno scoring a TD and gaining around 80 yards on the ground. Moreno has looked like a feature back, and I guess he will be it until he fucks up or doesn’t perform. He had a key fumble on the first play in the second half, but it didn’t come back to bite them that much. Moreno will be good, and he has had a productive season so far.

Donald Brown

Brown scored a TD in the Colts blowout, and ran for 40 or so yards in addition. I would have expected more from them, but even with the lead, they passed instead of ran. I never was really a Donald Brown guy in the first place because I knew that Manning, Wayne and Addai would take up most of the good plays. Brown has done well in a backup role, no doubt, but he is going to have to play ahead of Addai to become the man in indy. Maybe as the NFL moves to a two back system completely, he will have more of a role. Until then, he is going to be a cleanup player.

Hakeem Nicks

Welcome to the NFL Hakeem Nicks! Even though he only caught one pass, it was a big 54 yard screen that went for 7. Nicks has been injured the last few weeks, so it was good to see him get into the action in the huge Giants win.

Mike Wallace

The Steelers had their work cut out for them on Sunday night, and Wallace had 2 for 47 including a biggie for 35. He has been good for them in a number 3 role, and his values have reflected that. Im guessing its more because of the team he plays on, but having solid numbers has helped just as much.

Kenny Britt

Another solid game for Britt, and he has the first 100 yard game of anyone this year, rushing or otherwise. Even though he didn’t find the endzone, it was still a very impressive performance.

The Rookie Graveyard

Darrius Heyward-Bey – I still think its more of a QB issue than a talent issue, but he has yet to get a good game under his belt.

Beanie Wells – Bye week this week

Jeremy Maclin – Bye week this week

We still have a great game coming up tonight, so we will see how Percy Harvin reacts to being on the national stage, especially with Favre going up against his former team. Im beginning to see the talent in this draft class regardless, as we could have another year where there are a lot of contributors much like 2008. Next week has some key matchups too, plus we will see if some of the guys can rebound from their poor performances.

When I think of Topps, all I can think about is how awful their high end stuff is, and how bored I am with their stupid ass retro sets. Now that I have seen Topps Magic Football first hand, all I want is for them to stop putting out retro sets. I know that they are having huge troubles selling anything that isnt Chrome or Base Topps, but that is no excuse for boring us to tears with this absolute crap.

In fact, I was so bored out of my mind by Magic, that I couldnt even muster the enthusiasm to write a review. It would have been the lowest graded product so far this year in my mind. The cards are printed on weird stock, the pics are all players in college unis, and they are all playing on empty fields surrounded by trees. I dont get the appeal of putting this together, it just seems like its a retro set for the sake of putting out a retro set.

Last year we had Mayo football, which fell flat on its face. I wasnt too excited about it to begin with, but after hearing about checklist problems and seeing the structure made exactly like A&G in football form, I didnt even touch it. Magic takes it to a whole new level, as the whole set is lacking pizzaz and pop. This is coming from a guy who praises painted “masterpieces-style” cards at every turn. These are amateur and devoid of character.

Then you get to the autographs, and things get worse. In typical Topps fashion, they incorporated a bordered sticker spot INTO THE FUCKING DESIGN, and are staying with the gross foil stickers instead of moving towards on card. Mayo was on card, A&G was on card, all the retro sets are on card, why is this one on stickers that are built into the design? IT MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE! At least use clear, small, blank stickers instead of creating a bordered place for them and using huge ass ones. I guess they are still stuck in 2003.

What is even funnier, is that despite the fact that Topps has their certified auto language THREE TIMES on the card (Border around auto, on the sticker, and on the back), they are the ones that are having the most problems with counterfeits. Suck on that beast for a second, bitches.

Regardless, with A&G being extremely subpar in design this year, and this product being as blah-tastic as I could ever imagine, Topps should be banned from making more than one retro set per year. Its getting to the point of overkill. With Philadelphia, Goudey, Goodwin, Allen and Ginter, Heritage (Bowman and Topps), I am fucking sick of this retro nostalgic shit. Give me something new, and stop going to the old sets out of laziness.

Sorry, I totally forgot to post it. I almost have it done, ill have it up ASAP.

Due to some housing issues (along with a broken down car) related to my transition into a new job I will be unable to due the June Box Busters Club.

If anyone (ahem…Joe Collector) would like to take over ASAP please contact Gellman.

Personally, I have a feeling that things like this are just the tip of the iceberg. People always accuse me of being annoyingly negative and just being a muckraker from behind my screen, but stuff like this only makes me more cynical about what goes on behind the curtain. So, Razor was just UD’s way of competing with Topps’ chrome products without actually breaking any terms of their license. Yeah, they can pretty much kiss all that license renewal talk goodbye if this holds water. Throw another log on the UD/Topps hate fire, right? Topps sues UD, UD messes with Topps, its all the same to everyone.

Despite the fact that its pretty underhanded of UD to pull something like this, its not surprising at all. McWillliam is a slippery snake, and he has done things to the hobby that would make most people grab their torches and pitchforks for a good ole lynchin if they knew the full extent. Regardless of how you feel, you have to admit it’s a pretty good plan. Start signing players away from Topps, cut into their success, and watch the fireworks. Stupidly, they didn’t cover the tracks, and the execution was poor, but ill tell you it seems like this coup was pretty well conceived.

Now, what does this mean for the industry? Im not quite sure, but Im sure that Sports Card File Steve will have a great write up. It should drum up some worthy backlash for sure, but considering my hatred for Topps and their cop out products, im not too concerned whether or not Razor goes away.

As for McWilliam, I can imagine that the hobby and the industry would be a better place without him, but you can bet he wont let go of his iron grasp over his company without someone prying it from his cold dead hand. This may just be another straw on the camel’s back, but I think that netminded people are finally starting to see that all is not what it seems for most of the shit that goes on. Yet, for every enlightened person out there, there are 10 that have a subscription to Beckett, an OPG subscription, and still think eBay is “too volatile” a pricing agent.

Oh well, on with your regularly scheduled negativity and muckraking.