The Most Interesting Card(Back) in the World

Those of us of a certain age – and a certain country of origin – know what an amazing game NHL 93 was. The game, the first in a now-storied line of hockey games by EA Sports, probably drove more sales of Super Nintendos in Canada than any other title. And the star of the game was Cliff Ronning, a good-but-not-great player in real life who was somehow a demigod on pixelated ice. Ronning had a rating of 99 out of 100 in NHL 93, the highest of any one in the game. He was blindingly fast, and his one-timers seemingly scored every single time.

I never really understood why Ronning was so good in the game. Until, that is, I came across this card:

This is the auto parallel version of Ronning's card from Panini's 2012-13 Classics Signature release, pulled from one of a couple of boxes I picked up for Christmas when Dave & Adam's Card World marked them down to about $50 per. It's a nice blend of retro and modern styles, and it's hard-signed with a nice, thick blue sharpie. But what really makes this is a great card was the blurb on the back:

Turns out, Ronning was an NHL 93 God because he grew up with one of the founders of EA Sports. And that guy apparently thought it would be funny to make the video game version of his childhood buddy Gretzky-esque.

The more you know.