1999 Giant Eagle Cleveland Browns set

Recently, after buying a lot of Browns cards, I become aware of one of the card promotions during the Cleveland Browns expansion season of 1999.

Giant Eagle put out a collection of 24 cards that appear to have been distributed weekly over a six week period in packs of 4 sequential cards.

They also issued an album to store the cards in.

I purchased a set of these cards on eBay recently, and will show them here.


#1 Ty Detmer; #2 Marc Edwards;
#3 Jim Pyne; #4 Kevin Johnson

After receiving the cards, it was interesting to see that a couple seemed to either be miscut or trimmed. If you look at the Ty Detmer card above, you can see how it the right side of the card slants inwards from top to bottom. It is a sharp, smooth cut so I'm really not sure.

Jim Pyne was the #1 pick for the Browns in their expansion draft.

#5 Jerry Ball; #6 John Jukovic;
#7 Marlon Forbes; #8 Marquez Pope

Jerry Ball is a player that played for the old and new Browns. This is the only card I have of him in a Browns uniform for the new expansion team. (There are many from his previous stint.) I do have a Pacific Paramount expansion card that says Browns but still has him in a Vikings uniform.

This is the only John Jurkovic Browns card in my collection. The last cards of any sort that I could find for him were from 1997.

Looking at the Trading Card Database, this might be the only card printed for Marlon Forbes.

The only other Marquez Pope card in my Browns collection is an Upper Deck card that still has him in his 49ers uniform while listing his team as the Browns. 

#9 Orlando Brown; #10 Daylon McCutcheon;
#11 Irv Smith; #12 Dave Wohlabaugh

I find it surprising that Orlando (Zeus) Brown only has 7 cards on the Trading Card Database. One is from 1996, and five are from 1997 (one Pacific base card with four parallels). This is his only Browns card. To me, the odd thing about that is that Zeus was with the Browns for three seasons before the move to Baltimore. I would have thought he would have been in a set somewhere with the Browns.

The only other card I have with Dave Wohlabaugh featured in a Browns uniform is a play card from the 2001 NFL Showdown set. This seems to be his only real Browns card.

#13 Terry Kirby; #14 Lomas Brown;
#15 Jamir Miller; #16 John Thierry

As with a lot of other players, this appears to be the only cards of Lomas Brown and John Thierry in a Browns uniform.



#17 Corey Fuller; #18 Chris Spielman;
#19 Roy Barker; #20 Antonio Langham

I have two Cleveland Browns Roy Barker cards, the other being an Ultra card showing him in his old 49ers uniform.

Antonio Langham is another Brown that played for the old Browns before the move.

#21 Tim Couch; #22 Derrick Alexander;
#23 Chris Gardocki; #24 Leslie Shepherd

This Derrick Alexander card is the only one that I have that shows him in a Browns uniform, the only other card I have of him in my collection still shows him in a Vikings uniform. This Derrick Alexander was drafted by the Vikings in 1995. He isn't to be confused with the former Michigan WR Derrick Alexander that was drafted by the Browns in 1994.

I don't know why Chris Gardocki's name is in gold instead of white. It is the only card that I've seen in the set like that. What I do know is that this is his only card in a Browns uniform.

As can be seen in my comments, there are a lot of cards in this set that show the only time a Browns player is seen on a card in a Browns uniform. To me that is the true value of oddball sets like this. I love them!