Mount Rushmore of Football Cards

[orly57]

I feel like the N162 Beecher should be on any football card Mount Rushmore. Definitely Nagursk belongs, and it is the only no-brainer. I hate to admit that the Namath belongs up there. I would round it out with the Sport Kings Grange.
I wouldn't fist-fight you if you wanted to argue Jim Brown and Johnny U belong over any of my suggestions other than nagurski. And I also think the Mayo Cut Anonymous deserves strong consideration.

[glynparson]

Nagurski
Unitas
Brown
Namath

[cfhofer]

Completely agree with glynparson. While Dunlop and Beecher are great cards, their value is based solely on rarity. I’d rather have cards of players that non-collectors would appreciate.

[bmattioli]

Mine..

Brown
Montana
LT
Brady

[TanksAndSpartans]

The first 3 came to mind right away: ’35 Nagurski, N302 Mayo Dunlop/Anonymous, ’65 Namath

But I think the 4th one could be just about anything. A '57 Unitas is a nice safe choice, but I could see an argument for any card already mentioned - one card I thought of that I don't think anyone else threw out is the '89 Score Barry Sanders (I kind of think of it as football's analog to the Griffey Jr rookie). I’ll take the ’48 Leaf Bednarik because its a high numbered card from an iconic set. (I eliminated the Jim Brown rookie just on the aesthetics of that card and set design, but I'd be fine with Chris's suggestion of the '59 Bazooka.)

My card picks don’t overlap with my pro football Mount Rushmore though. In that case I’d say: Lawrence Taylor, Don Hutson/Jerry Rice, Sammy Baugh/Otto Graham, Jim Brown if starting point is 1920/Jim Thorpe if starting point is the beginning of time. I wanted to have at least one defensive player and not have two players at the same position, so odd as it sounds if I really had to pick 4, I wouldn't have Brown or Rice (Thorpe, LT, Hutson, Baugh). Jeff mentioned the '33 Thorpe already. I think the '55 AA Hutson and '48 Leaf Baugh (there's that set again) are nice too as possible 4ths.

[Peter_Spaeth]

All discussions of football start with Jim Brown IMO. So his RC.
Doubtless it isn't unanimous, but I think Brady has the claim to being the best player at the most important position. His best RC is probably SP Authentic.
LT is probably the greatest defensive player but his RC is practically a common from a bad set. So somewhat arbitrarily I would substitute Butkus whose RC is a classic.
Final pick is tough. Nagurski to get a pre-war presence; or Unitas as the best vintage QB. I would go with Unitas.

Namath? No way. Iconic card as it's a perfect storm (tall boy set, NY, Super Bowl prediction, Broadway Joe blah blah) but he probably doesn't even make the top 100 player list.

[jefferyepayne]

Great thoughts, guys! Keep'em coming.

jeff