Living in Los Angeles has its benefits.
Every year, 30+ of the top rookies fly into LA to take photos with their new uniforms to put on football cards. The past few years, I've been able to get some of the top rookies autographs in person.
Some of the names I've been able to meet/get autos of are: Mark Sanchez, Chris Wells, LeSean McCoy, Ryan Mathews, N. Su, Eric Berry, CJ Spiller, D Thomas, Jimmy Clausen, Eric Decker, Dexter McCluster, among others...
In past years, there have been appearances held at local card shops around the LA area, but for some reason they stopped.
This year, a friend of mine emailed me early in the morning last week letting me know that the rookies were coming into town that day and he included a list of the rookies that would be present.
I took a look at Blowout and found out there would be a signing at a local Best Buy featuring 10+ rookies from the draft. They only included 4 names: Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Von Miller and AJ Green.
I really wanted to get AJ Green and Jake Locker's autos, so I definitely had to find a way to go to this signing (despite working during the day). As it turns out, the hotel where the players were staying is next to where I work, so I decided to go to the hotel after work with a football I had signed by players the previous two years. I wanted to add the new rookies autos onto the empty spaces on my football. Here's who I was able to get:
-Torrey Smith
-Blaine Gabbert
-Alex Green
-Julio Jones
-Ryan Mallett
-Von Miller
-Christian Ponder
-Titus Young
I could have gotten Shane Vereen, Austin Pettis and Marcell Dareus to sign the ball, but I was running out of space so I left.
Didn't see any others.
Then came the Best Buy signing. Panini wasn't allowing anybody to get any personal items signed (even though there was maybe 30-50 people in line, tops)... But the players at the event were:
-AJ Green
-Jake Locker
-Blaine Gabbert
-Von Miller
-Colin Kapernick
-Ryan Williams
-Shane Vereen
-DeMarco Murray
-Vincent Brown
-Jordan Todman
-Kendell Hunter
Panini gave out 5x7 photo cards to get signed by each player.
Jake Locker was doing an interview for Jim Rome while it was my turn to get autographs, so I wasn't able to get his. I asked if I could wait for him to come back, but the Panini rep said I could just get back in line and get everyone's autographs again.
So I saw Locker returned and I got his auto plus another set of autos.
I have to say, the nicest guys I met were:
Ryan Mallett, Von Miller, TITUS YOUNG (by far the nicest), Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert, Colin Kapernick and Ryan Williams.
Random notes:
DeMarco Murray looks like a BEAST in person. He has HUGE hands and a STRONG handshake. I was impressed. He'll be a favorite player of mine for the Cowboys.
Also, Ryan Williams has a good memory. The first time I got autos at Best Buy, I had all the players personalize them to me (Jake). The second time I got back in line (maybe ten minutes after), I got to Ryan Williams and he asked "Do you want this made out to Jake again?" I was shocked! I had no name-tag on or anything. I'm one of those guys who meets you and forgets your name one minute later. Ryan should have no problem memorizing the Cardinals playbook.
