C.A.: 1994 Classic Pro Line Live Jacksonville Jaguars

(Greetings from one of only a handful of places on earth that received more than three feet of snow this weekend. No, I'm still not used to this after 30-plus years. I need some Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 345th in a series):

Sometimes I can't believe my luck when I decide to write a post. This card has been sitting on my desk as a possible topic for months and I only decided to post it because I needed something quick during a holiday filled with visitors and snow.

As I uploaded the card and searched for an online version of this newspaper front, the date on the top hit me: "December 1, 1993". Hey, today is December 1!

Thirty-one years ago today, this Florida Times-Union edition was published, a day after the Jacksonville Jaguars were named an NFL expansion team. Obviously a momentous day in the city. I found a couple of photos containing the cover image on the Jaguars' web site.

YES.

 

I have no attachment to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Like many NFL fans it's one of those teams that I never think about unless they're playing my team. But I wanted the card as soon as I saw it in a stack sale and grabbed it. I had never seen it before.

There have been plenty of cards that utilize a newspaper design and I've written about them a lot. I like these quite a bit.

The above two 1960s examples are two of my absolute favorite. There must be at least a dozen past blog posts of mine that opine about the 1969 Topps World Series newspaper treatment.

 

Here are a few others from my collection. I have several others and there are a bunch more I'm sure that I'm not showing.

But all of these cards are mock-ups. They aren't real newspaper covers. That's why I wanted the Jaguars card. That's a real newspaper cover!

I don't expect most to understand why I'm so fascinated by this. But for much of my professional life, newspaper design has been my job. Whenever I'm out of town in a city with a newspaper, I try to pick one up and then I can't wait to see how it looks, where they place their stories, what fonts they use for headlines, what graphics they use, how many stories are on the page, how many photos, just everything. Also, was that helmet every used by the Jaguars? It looks so unlike anything they've worn.

I also like how this is the full cover so there are other story references on it that are unrelated to the Jaguars. 

 

It's sad that a growing number of people have no idea what I'm talking about (a co-worker relayed a story the other day about an acquaintance she knows who is not much younger than us. When the acquaintance found out the co-worker worked at a newspaper, she said, "that's still a thing?" Hoo-boy). But I have lots of old copies of sports sections to show people about our archaic way of providing information if anyone asks and now I have this card, too!

 

This card is from the 1994 Classic Pro Line Live set. The Jaguars didn't exist as a team until 1995, so Classic got the jump recognizing the new expansion club.

 

The back gives the rundown on the new team. The Jaguars came into existence not long before I'd visit Jacksonville to cover a bowl game. Tom Coughlin was there and there were lots of questions for him about the new team.

 

Much like those late 1990s Fleer Sports Illustrated cards that I love so much, I'm curious to know if there are any other cards that replicate actual newspaper covers.