What might have been could be yours: Topps releases new John Elway card featuring NFL legend as a baseball star
Topps has announced the release of a new trading card featuring an NFL legend who could have been a baseball star. The card features John Elway, who was drafted by the New York Yankees in the second round of the 1981 MLB Draft, six spots ahead of Tony Gwynn, who became one of the greatest hitters of all time.
To kick off the release, Topps got some help from one of the most infamous television characters of all time, Stephen A. Smith. The ad starts with Smith interviewing Elway, asking him how the Yankees drafted him over Gwynn. Elway reminisces that “it was all George Steinbrenner.”
The ad then flashes back to “Steinbrenner’s office” ahead of the 1981 MLB Draft, where scouts are trying to convince The Boss, played by Larry David, to take Gwynn. David, who was the voice of Steinbrenner on “Seinfeld,” rejects the idea of the “basketball player” and instead wants Elway to play right field with his “cannon of an arm.”
The scouts reply that Gwynn will be better than Keith Hernandez, to which David responds, “I don’t like that big mustache.” He then pictures kids lining up for Elway’s baseball card and his name in lights at Yankee Stadium, saying, “DiMaggio, Mantle, Ruth — it’s gotta be Elway.”
The ad closes with the card of Elway in a Yankee uniform playing the outfield, saying, “What might have been could be yours.” It’s essentially a “what if” scenario that Topps is producing, similar to their Tom Brady and the Montreal Expos card.
Elway did play for the Yankees’ minor league system in 1982 but was traded to the Denver Broncos, where he went on to become a Pro Football Hall of Famer. He was openly against playing for the Yankees, even threatening to stick with the team if they didn’t trade him. In the end, the rest is history.