Looking back at Boomer Esiason on the 1989 SI cover and his rookie cards
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With the 2025 NFL season right around the corner, we take a look at the legendary Boomer Esiason and the 1989 Sports Illustrated cover. In a ironic case of foreshadowing, Boomer was featured on the cover of a season preview issue after winning his lone MVP and in a year he took the Bengals to the Superbowl, their second appearance in franchise history.
In 1989, the Bengals went 12-4, beating the Seattle Seahawks and the Bufallo Bills en route to facing the vaunted San Francisco 49ers. Boomer and the Bengals went into the fourth quarter of Superbowl XXIII leading 13-6, but were outscored 14-3 by Joe Montana and game MVP Jerry Rice.
Boomer's Rookie Card Came in 1986
While Esiason was drafted and debuted in 1984, Topps did not produce a card for him until 1986, thus making his rookie card the 1986 Topps, two years after he started his career. The card features a green and white, diagonal striped border. The set also includes first-time cards, or rookie cards, of Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Reggie White, Bruce Smith, and Andre Reed.
Being so condition sensitive, the PSA 10 GEM MT population count is just 27, making cards that get a 10 from this set fairly valuable. According to the PSA pop count page, PSA estimates the value of this card at $1,390.37.
Another Topps Rookie
A second, not-as-valuable, rookie card of Esiason's is from the 1986 Topps Stickers product. A very basic design with no logo, title, or name on the front, all of the information is read from the back.
Being a more common card, PSA only values this, a PSA GEM MT 10, at around $40. The population count is still incredibly low at 76, which is odd when you look at the price discrepancy between his base 1986 Topps PSA GEM MT 10 and his PSA GEM MT 10 Sticker card.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz