12 Most Valuable 1992 Fleer Football Cards

1992 Fleer #89 Emmitt Smith

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $30

There is no easy recipe for an NFL dynasty.

However, the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s came close to finding one.

Over the course of three Super Bowl seasons in four years, one constant propelled the Cowboys forward: the synchronicity between the team's massive offensive line and Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith.

Smith relentlessly pounded opposing front sevens to a pulp, crossing the 100-yard mark seven times in 1992 (with the help of the beef in front of him.)

The young superstar won the NFL rushing title for the second consecutive year (1,713 yards) and also led the league in rushing touchdowns (18), touches (432), and combined rushing/receiving touchdowns (19).

The former University of Florida standout also finished third on the team in receptions (59).

As Smith flattened the NFL, so did Dallas.

The Cowboys reached the 13-win plateau for the first time in franchise history and won their first division title since 1985.

In the playoffs, the 'Boys worked their regular-season formula to Super Bowl perfection.

Smith topped 100 rushing yards in all three playoff contests, including 108 yards and a touchdown in a 52-17 Super Bowl XXVII rout of Buffalo.

1992 Fleer #123 Barry Sanders

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $30

Everything fell into place for the 1991 Detroit Lions on their road to a division title and playoff win.

In 1992, it all fell apart.

Besieged by injuries, the Lions went from a squad with few holes to a below-average unit on both sides of the ball.

"We've lost a tremendous amount of players," Lions coach Wayne Fontes said. "That's what happened to this team. Nothing else -- not the coaching, not the attitude, not the price of winning. We're just a very patched-up football team right now."

Even Barry Sanders couldn't outrun the team's injury problems.

Detroit's offensive line rarely featured the same five two games in a row, be it due to injury or performance issues.

The Lions' backfield was constantly under duress, and it took a Herculean effort just for Sanders to find his way to the second level.

The 24-year-old halfback averaged a career-worst 4.3 yards per carry, amassing 312 rushes for 1,352 yards and nine touchdowns.

The Second-Team All-Pro's 1,577 yards from scrimmage stand as the second-worst total of his career.

Detroit ended the year at 5-11, marking the franchise's eighth losing record in nine seasons.

1992 Fleer #475 Emmitt Smith

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $30

In today's sports card market, you'll find autographed cards, relics and serial-numbered cards in just about every set in every sport.

Card companies use these tactics as a way to manufacture scarcity and provide the collector with excitement that goes beyond the base checklist.

But in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they used subsets and inserts to pull off the same effect.

In 1991, Fleer released their first "Pro-Visions" baseball and football subsets featuring creative artwork highlighting characteristics unique to a given player.

Throughout the early to mid-90s, collectors could look forward to pulling "Pro-Vision" cards of their favorite players.

Six players made the "Pro-Vision" cut in the 1992 Fleer football set: John Elway, Ronnie Lott, Art Monk, Warren Moon, Thurman Thomas, and Emmitt Smith.

Each card had a theme to it, and, in Smith's case, his highlighted his unique skill set and abilities as the "Key Ingredient" to the Dallas Cowboys as their franchise running back.

All of them are desirable, but none more than the Emmitt Smith card.

1992 Fleer #94 John Elway

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25

The history of the Denver Broncos may have been very different if Dan Reeves had gotten his way.

Over nine years, Reeves and superstar QB John Elway led the organization to six playoff appearances and three Super Bowl appearances.

They hadn't found the trophy at the end of the rainbow, but they had come very close.

By 1992, the relationship was in big trouble.

Reeves played a role in the front office's decision to choose QB Tommy Maddox with a first-round pick in the 1992 NFL Draft.

Maddox was supposed to be Elway's successor, but Elway wasn't having any of it.

After Elway went down with a shoulder injury in a Week 11 win over the Giants, Reeves turned to Maddox.

The Broncos were 7-3 and well in control of their playoff destiny.

Maddox proceeded to lose four consecutive games, throwing nine picks as Denver's playoff hopes sizzled out.

Elway returned to the team in Week 16 to play out the string.

The Broncos missed the playoffs, and Reeves' bet on Tommy Maddox got him fired one day after the season.

Elway ended the campaign with a 55.1% completion rate for 2,242 yards with ten touchdowns against 17 interceptions.

1992 Fleer #153 Warren Moon

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25

Warren Moon got the injury out of the way during the regular season.

The insult came later.

Moon aired it at a breathtaking clip to start the 1992 campaign, completing just under 2/3 of his passes to lead the Houston Oilers to a 6-4 start.

Then came an unlucky break when the 36-year-old QB fractured his upper left arm late in a Week 11 road win over the Vikings.

Moon missed five weeks before returning late in the team's Week 17 win over Buffalo.

As it was, he had to settle for captaining the most prolific offense in the league, completing 64.7% of his passes for 2,521 yards with 18 touchdowns against 12 interceptions.

After dropping the Bills by 24 in the season's final game, the Oilers continued where they left off in the first half of a Wild Card rematch.

Moon passed for 222 yards and four touchdowns in the first half, staking Houston to a 28-3 lead.

The Oilers extended the lead to 35-3 with a pick-six…and then, pure madness.

Buffalo scored five unanswered touchdowns to take a 38-35 lead and send their home crowd into pandemonium.

Houston sent the game to OT off a last-ditch drive spearheaded by Moon, but the Oilers star followed that with an extra-period INT that set up Steve Christie's game-winning field goal.

1992 Fleer #188 Marcus Allen

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25

As a rookie, Marcus Allen made an immediate impact for the Raiders during the strike-shortened 1982 season.

In nine games, Allen rushed for 697 yards and an NFL-best 11 rushing touchdowns to go along with 38 catches for 408 yards and three receiving touchdowns.

His league-leading 1,098 yards from scrimmage set the tone for a career as a fearless dual-threat out of the backfield.

Throughout the rest of the 1980s, Allen continued to dominate as the Raiders' lead back, winning various awards and honors along the way.

But his relationship with owner Al Davis began to slide.

And it didn't get better when he had to share the spotlight with Bo Jackson during the late 1980s.

By 1992, the relationship was awful.

Allen played in all sixteen games for the 7-9 Raiders but was still serving as a backup as he had been for multiple years before.

Before the 1993 season, Allen headed to Kansas City to join another superstar looking for a fresh start: Joe Montana.

The two hit it off instantly, leading the Chiefs to a first-place finish in the AFC West and a playoff run that ended in an AFC Championship loss to the Buffalo Bills.

On the year, Allen rushed for 764 yards and an NFL-leading 12 rushing touchdowns to earn a Pro Bowl selection and a sixth-place finish in the MVP race.

1992 Fleer #327 Reggie White

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25

Even though he left the team in free agency after the 1992 season, the late Reggie White remains one of the most beloved Philadelphia Eagles ever to suit up.

"Philly fans, they love my father — they are adamant that he is forever an Eagle," White's son, Jeremy, said. "I appreciate that they are still so possessive of my father because it reminds me how deeply they appreciated him, not only as a football player but as a human being."

In eight years with the Eagles, The Minister of Defense set a standing franchise record with 124.0 sacks.

He posted 14.0 sacks in his last campaign with Philly, along with 81 tackles, three forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery for a touchdown.

White never tallied less than 11.0 sacks as an Eagle.

Philadelphia won the Reggie White era's first and only playoff game in the 1993 Playoffs, 36-20, over New Orleans, as White recorded one sack on the day.

The future Hall of Famer left for Green Bay in the offseason after serving as a plaintiff in a suit to bring free agency to the sport.

1992 Fleer #386 Steve Young

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25

Steve Young never looked back once he got the chance he so richly deserved.

After Joe Montana went down with a career-threatening elbow injury before the 1991 season, Young made the leap from highly-touted backup to NFL MVP within two seasons.

Always insecure that he'd never usurp Montana, the former first-overall pick now had the floor.

Young got the ball rolling with a good showing in 1991 but clicked into elite gear in 1992.

With the world watching his every move, the 31-year-old lefty QB cleared his mind and loaded his arm.

"Because there wasn't the burden I had been carrying, I felt free and I just let it rip," Young said.

Young was the clockwork for the #1 offense in the league, amassing over 4,000 combined yards (3,465 passing, 537 rushing) and 29 combined touchdowns (25 passing, 4 rushing).

He rarely made a mistake, throwing just seven interceptions in the regular season.

It ended with a two-INT performance in a 30-20 NFC Championship loss to Dallas, but that wasn't the real takeaway.

Now an MVP and Offensive Player of the Year, Young was the #1 guy, and Montana was on the outs.

1992 Fleer #453 Emmitt Smith

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25

Card numbers 452 - 470 in the checklist comprised another subset that featured the leaders in the AFC and NFC in various offensive and defense categories.

Thurman Thomas won the honor of kicking off the subset at card #452 by leading the AFC in rushing in 1991 with 1,407 on the ground.

However, Emmitt Smith was even better that year by becoming the first Dallas Cowboy in franchise history to lead the NFL in rushing with 1,563 yards.

As such, he took the honor of representing the NFC in the "League Leaders" set as its top back.

Other superstars who appear in the subset include Barry Sanders, Steve Young, Michael Irvin, and Ronnie Lott, among others.

The action shot on the card of Smith about to take a handoff (or maybe fake it for a play-action pass) perfectly frames the Hall of Fame legend doing what he did best for 15 fantastic seasons.

1992 Fleer #33 Thurman Thomas

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $20

There was no better dual-threat running back from 1989-1992 than Thurman Thomas.

The Buffalo Bills star entered the 1992 campaign as the two-time defending AFC rushing leader and the man for the back-to-back conference champs.

His explosive running style, soft hands, and durability made him an ultimate, week-to-week weapon.

Thomas led the NFL in yards from scrimmage for the fourth consecutive year, breaking the 2,000-yard barrier for the second consecutive campaign (2,113).

He rushed for 1,487 yards on 312 carries with nine touchdowns and caught 58 passes for 626 yards and three scores.

Thomas' most critical contribution to Buffalo's cause was his domination time of possession.

The five-year vet extended countless drives with hard-nosed rushes and bail-out receptions, keeping the Bills charging forward to an 11-5 record and a fifth consecutive playoff appearance.

The problem was he once again ran out of gas in January.

Buffalo made their third consecutive Big Game, but it was despite Thomas' 3.2 yards per carry, the same average he posted the year before.

In Super Bowl XXVII, he basically no-showed, carrying 11 times for 19 yards and a TD in a 52-17 blowout loss to Dallas.

1992 Fleer #83 Michael Irvin

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $20

After a First-Team All-Pro breakout in 1991, Michael Irvin felt he deserved his flowers as one of the best wide receivers in the game.

More accurately, the Dallas Cowboys phenom wanted to be paid like the best WR in the game.

Irvin held out of training camp before the 1992 season because he wanted to make the same salary as Jerry Rice.

The University of Miami product finally ended his holdout five days before the campaign.

He didn't get Rice money, but he got a massive raise on a new three-year deal.

By Week 3, Irvin was back to his 1991 tricks, dropping 210 receiving yards and three touchdowns in a 31-20 win over the Cardinals.

It stood as the fifth-best receiving performance in franchise history.

"I don't want to hear another word about me being rusty," Irvin said. "I want to put that holdout stuff behind me."

Irvin caught 78 balls on the year for 1,396 yards and seven touchdowns, earning second-team All-Pro honors and a second Pro Bowl nod.

He averaged nearly 100 yards per game in the playoffs (96.0) and caught two touchdown passes in the Cowboys' 52-17 demolition of the Bills in Super Bowl XXVII.

1992 Fleer #184 Derrick Thomas

Estimated PSA 10 Value: $20

In the 1991 NFL Draf

1992 Fleer Football Cards In Review

The 1992 Fleer football set contains 480 cards but also managed to leave out a lot of big names.

It was one of several sets from 1992 that had glaring omissions.

If you're looking for guys like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Dan Marino and several other superstar Hall of Famers of that era, you'll have to look in the 1992 Pro Set, Topps or Upper Deck sets, for example.

Collectors could find 1992 Fleer football cards in 17-card wax packs, 42-card rack packs, and 32-card cello packs at hobby shops and other stores nationwide.

There were also several interesting subsets, including:

• Prospects (#432 - 451)
• League Leaders (#452 - 470)
• Pro-Visions (#471 - 476)
• Checklists (#477 - 480)

Though they had the reach, Fleer just wasn't able to strike up as much collector interest as some of the other big brands at the time.

I really like the simple design and photography of the set and, even though it is missing some key players, it at least brings back some good memories.