The fourth and final of my submissions to VMG was this sealed vinyl single of Public Enemy’s “Hazy Shade of Criminal”, released in 1992.

I love this single for its loud, gritty, and incendiary style. The song focuses on police brutality but in a way that would make this song seem ahead of its time even if it were released today. The cover features a historical photo of a lynching that occurred in Indiana in 1930. I obscured the image because it’s not fun to look at, but the cover photo epitomizes PE’s message on this track: We can’t avoid the results of institutions that fail society.

I’ve searched for this single on eBay and Discogs multiple times per week in the past year (this is the kind of time you have when you’re single with no kids) and this is the only copy I’ve found in sealed+mint condition. There are multiple reasons for this:

1. It was released on vinyl and CD during the transition period between the two mediums, so I’m sure lots of people passed on the vinyl offering.

2. It didn’t receive a ton of airplay because Public Enemy was moving out of their prime and some of their recent releases (namely “By the Time I Get to Arizona”) scared away some mainstream play.

3. It didn’t reach any meaningful heights on music charts.

As a result of these factors, a majority of the vinyl copies in existence have “cutouts,” which means the distributors literally cut off a corner of the album or drilled a hole in the barcode to demonstrate that the record was distributed at a discount to prevent stores from getting full credit on any returns. Imagine if sports card companies clipped cards from poorly-selling sets!

All things considered, a sealed 6.5 on this album is an incredibly strong grade, and it’s probably among the top-10 favorite collectibles I own.

My latest game-used jersey acquisition is this 2009 Purdue away game jersey worn by linebacker Joe Holland.

I found this jersey listed on eBay simply as a game-used Purdue jersey from the Joe Tiller coaching era. Although I’m not a Purdue fan (in fact, I went to Penn State), I quickly developed interest in this jersey because I’ll always be nostalgic for 2000s Big Ten football. In addition, it’s extremely difficult to find pre-NIL game-used college jerseys on the secondary market that still contain nameplates. I’ve observed from my research and experience scrolling through listings that most jerseys prior to the NIL period have nameplates removed by the school before they reach private hands.

Based on the nameplate and jersey number, I quickly identified that this jersey was worn by linebacker Joe Holland, who was a four-year defensive starter for the Boilermakers from 2008-2011. It’s clear that this jersey was worn during multiple games because it features several repairs and paint transfers of different colors. Photo-matching this jersey was extremely difficult because there aren’t many high-quality photos or video from Purdue football games prior to the mid-2010s. That said, I could quickly eliminate 2011 as the possible origin of this jersey because Purdue didn’t wear this style that season. The team didn’t wear nameplates in 2008 so I was down to 2009 or 2010 (or so I thought; more on that later).

I performed several dozen image searches for the 2009 season and watched some games on YouTube and I found some pretty solid evidence that the jersey was worn in Purdue’s game against Oregon, which featured a high-scoring showdown against a Ducks team led by Jeremiah Masoli (remember him?) and LaMichael James. Holland was all over the field that game, even registering a sack that knocked Oregon out of field goal range on an important drive late in the game.

Based on the maroon paint transfer marks, I’m pretty confident that the jersey was also worn at Minnesota that season as well. The evidence trail runs dry beyond that game, however. That said, I found some photos of Holland from the 2008 season that, although too grainy to photomatch, show the exact same jersey style and letter/logo alignment as this jersey. I’m thinking it’s possible that the jersey was a carryover from 2008-09, which would be incredible.

Joe was signed to the practice squads of a few NFL teams but never caught on in the pros, so he retired from football and followed in the footsteps of most former D1 linebackers: He went to dental school and started his own clinic. I’m sure this jersey would look great hanging in the lobby of his practice and I plan to help make that a reality someday.

I’m not a Blue Jays fan or a Delgado collector, but I had to pick up this card because it’s one of the most visually impressive 1990s cards I’ve seen.

I went to Penn State from 2004-07 and essentially minored in football fandom during my time there. I found a 2004 team set at a card show a while back and had to add it to my collection. One of the coolest parts about sorting through the set was reminiscing about the funny and tangential connection I have to some of the players:

Rodney Kinlaw - One of my best friends was his bio tutor, and Rodney once used his pull at a popular nightclub to help me jump a long line and get past the velvet rope within seconds.

Dan Connor - A good friend started a Dan Connor fan group on Facebook and he got my friend’s number and texted him to say thanks.

Tamba Hali - He was in my Spanish class. During one of our class ice breakers I think he signed my paper in the ‘Find a classmate who’s on a sports team’ spot, but unfortunately I think that paper is long gone.

Michael Robinson and Paul Posluszny - A couple times I was in line at the dining commons and I turned around to get something and they were standing in line behind me. They were both as big as a house and they ate giant salads containing at least a dozen eggs.

Mid-April was a little rough and caused me to lose my Ripken-esque daily activity streak (@EPonMantel and @hypemon can call off the search team, I’m still alive).

Speaking of the passage of time, Ki-Jana was drafted 30 years ago this month. Shown here is a rare open-field juke captured on film.