6/24/26 - Brian Blades

Name: Brian Blades

Team: Seattle Seahawks

Position: Wide Receiver 

Card Year: 1991

Card Maker: NFL Pro Set

Card Number: 298

After a long hiatus, we are back! I thought I would have the mental fortitude to keep writing these during the school year, and well folks - I did not. But it is once again the summer and my day-to-day responsibilities have plummeted, so I decided to dig through the big box of cards and pulled out the first of hopefully many for this summer - Seattle Seahawks wide receiver, Brian Blades.

I was especially excited to pick this card, because upon seeing the name and given the age of the card, my first thought was - this guy has to be related to former Lions safety, Bennie Blades. I remember Bennie Blades from my childhood, mostly because his name was Bennie Blades (His name was actually Horatio Benedict Blades). But sure enough, my suspicions were immediately confirmed on the back of the card with Brian being the older brother to Bennie (Horatio). 

But while I love to remember an alliterative Lion, this post is about an alliterative Seahawk - Brian Blades, member of the 1987 National Championship Miami Hurricanes and drafted by Seattle in the 2nd round of the 1988 draft. The 1988 draft was wide receiver rich, featuring three future Hall of Fame receivers taken in the first round - Tim Brown, by the Raiders, Sterling Sharpe, by the Packers, and Blades' teammate at Miami Michael Irvin, by the Cowboys.

According to the Seahawks website, Blades was selected as "heir apparent to [Steve] Largent" given that Largent was at the end of his career as the Seahawks number one receiver, and he started off his career in Seattle with a respectable rookie season. He caught 40 balls for 682 yards, resulting in a very solid 17.1 yards/reception. He also scored 8 receiving touchdowns, a career high, and made the NFL All-Rookie team with the aforementioned Tim Brown earning the other WR nod, as well as his brother Bennie (Horatio) at Safety. 

1989 was another successful year for Blades, as he eclipsed 1000 receiving yards for the first time in his career, finishing the season with 70 receptions for 1063 yards and 5 touchdowns. This season would be the first and only season that Blades would make the Pro Bowl. He was also the only Seahawk in that season to score two receiving touchdowns in a single game, doing so against the Chargers. 

Beyond the scope of this card, Blades played all 11 seasons of his NFL career with the Seattle Seahawks, tallying four 1000-yard seasons in that time. In 1995 he was charged with 2nd degree manslaughter due to a gunshot wound that killed his cousin Charles Blades, during an argument in a condo that [Brian] Blades owned. He was convicted, but a judge overruled the verdict over lack of evidence. This led to a civil suit filed against him and his brother by [Charles] Blades' ex-wife. He remains third on the Seahawks all-time list for both receptions and receiving yards behind the aforementioned Steve Largent and Tyler Lockett. 

Sources

Pro Football Reference 

Seattle Seahawks Website 

UPI News Archives 

VA Tech Archives - Roanoke Times 

Seattle Times Archives

8/11 - Rich King

 Name: Rich King

Team: Seattle Supersonics

Position: Center (Basketball)

Card Year: 1993

Card Maker: Topps

Card Number: 275

I have an early post for you all this week due to some upcoming responsibilities that'll keep me from looking up my silly stats. So not only do you get an early post, I've also pulled the first basketball card of the blog, that of 1991-92 Seattle Supersonics very large rookie center, and University of Nebraska star, Rich King. 

Rich King was taken by the Seattle Supersonics as the 14th overall pick of the 1991 NBA draft - a draft that included Larry Johnson going first overall to the still very new Charlotte Hornets, and Dikembe Mutombo going fourth to the Denver Nuggets. This was after a successful four years at Nebraska where at the time of this card's printing - King had the Nebraska single game, season, and career blocks records, as well as ranking third overall for all time rebounds. As of the current day he is still number 3 overall for career blocks with 183 and number 5 overall for total career rebounds with 761, fitting numbers given his huge 7 foot 2 frame. This card indicates that he had the single game block record with 7, however his name isn't shown in the Nebraska team reference page under that stat.

This is also the second Topps Stadium Club card I've picked out, Byron Evans being the first, if you're into that sort of thing. The reason I bring this up is The Sporting News skills rating system is also used here as it was on the Byron Evans card only with basketball skills instead. King gets 3.9's on both mobility and shooting range which to me translates to slightly above average (still assuming out of 5) - which feels generous but perhaps the card writer was grading on a curve given his size. However, that doesn't seem to be factored in at all to his 'intimidation' rating of 3.4 which is likely based on his poor 'defense' at 3.3. 

So while this card also alludes to his ability to both "pass the rock" and shoot the proverbial "J", his opportunities to do either of these things, let alone anything else basketball-related, was greatly limited in his time with Seattle. He was only healthy during his rookie season, playing 40 games and averaging 5.3 minutes per game. After that he fell victim to a slew of injuries resulting in 6 total surgeries between his thumb, back, knees, and feet. 

In a 2008 interview he describes the situation:

"Instead of being on the court, my memories of the Sonics are of being at Swedish Hospital, being in rehab, being with trainer Bob Medina. I'd never been hurt before that."

Following his rookie year, he only played 3 games in 1992-93, 27 games in 1993-94, and 2 games in 1994-95. After being dropped by Seattle, he went to training camp for Denver, Minnesota, and Vancouver, but did not make any rosters. He called it quits after his sixth and final surgery but remained in Washington, getting married and raising two sons, Christian and Beckham. Christian played the 2024-25 season for Washington as a 6'8 redshirt freshman forward and transferred to Montana State for the 25-26 season. 

King's professional life has involved real estate, a current 14-year stint at Amazon, and most interestingly - starting an investment firm with former teammate, Detlef Schrempf a few years after his career ended. 

Given all of this, I think it feels safe to say that while his NBA experience was a disappointment, Rich King is living a life like well, just that. 

Sources:

Sports Reference 

Kent Pavelka UW Interview

Basketball Reference

Seattle PI Interview