Giants are playing a possibly Favre-less Vikings team today in Minnesota. It would probably be a bit better for the Giants if Favre is indeed out for the week as he’s gone 5-2 against them in his career, but I’ve never been one to think of heading into games in those terms. I’d almost rather lose than win and have people say that you only won because so and so was out of commission. I guess on the other hand, who cares how you won, you won. Anyway, more possible good news for the Giants, Steve Smith and Hakeem Nicks might be be playing tomorrow, which would be pretty huge. If they can keep the running game going like they did last week against Washington and get 2 of their top receivers back, that would be a pretty nice offensive weapon for them. I guess the bad part is that none of that is set in stone.

Then again, apparently, the game isn’t set in stone either, as at the time that I’m writing this, the Giants are stuck in Kansas City, trying to figure out a way to get to Minneapolis. I’m not really sure what exactly would happen if the team were unable to get to Minnesota. I know I’ve seen games where they’ve played in snow or rain, but I’ve never seen a situation where one team was unable to get to where the game was being played due to snow or rain. Will they move it to Monday? Will they make it up late in the season? Who knows.

Anyway, here’s a card.

1958 Topps Football #65 Jimmy Carr

I wrote last week about a different 1958 Topps Football card, so I won’t get so much into the design. I will say that I find it sort of interesting how sometimes, like in the case of the 1958 football cards, Topps recycled the design the very next year for baseball, but other times, like in the case of the 1973 football cards, it took a few years for them to dust off the design and reuse it for baseball. As usual, I would love to hear what the design teams thinking was on that.

Anyway, Jimmy Carr had a pretty nice, if unspectacular 9 year career in the NFL, playing for the Cardinals, Eagles and Redskins. For some reason he took off 1958 to play in the Canadian Football League for the Montreal Alouettes. Probably the highlight of his his playing career was the 1960 season when he was the starting left corner for the Eagles when the won the  Championship, beating the Packers.

After retiring as a player, he served 24 seasons as an NFL assistant coach for the Minnesota Vikings, the Chicago Bears, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Detroit Lions, the Buffalo Bills, the San Francisco 49ers, the New England Patriots, and the Atlanta Falcons. Apparently, he was a pretty innovative guy defensively. He was known for implementing nickel packages, seven defensive backs, eleven man fronts, zone blitz schemes and special zones well before they came into common practice. If I knew what the hell nickel packages, seven defensive backs, eleven man fronts, zone blitz schemes and special zones were, I might be impressed. I just like when guys get tackled. Some guys who have benefitted from his tutelage over the years include Fritz Shurmur, Jerry Glanville, Floyd Reese, and Bill Belichick.

Tags: 1958 Topps, Jimmy Carr
Filed Under: Football by slangon
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