Westlake Village, California native Cassius Marsh was one of the top ranked defensive tackles in the entire country during his senior year of high school.
The defensive force took his talents to UCLA where he made the Pac-10 All-Freshman team and eventually caught the eye of NFL scouts. Marsh was selected 108th overall in the 2014 draft by the Seattle Seahawks. During his seven seasons in the NFL, he’s played for seven teams and currently holds a spot on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster.
As dedicated and as passionate as Marsh is about football, he’s equally as dedicated and passionate about gaming away from the gridiron. Marsh, along with friend and business partner Nick Nugwynne, realized a lifelong dream when they opened a brick and mortar card shop called Cash Cards Unlimited in Southern California just a few short weeks ago. He’s a standout in the Magic: The Gathering world as one of the most recognizable faces and personalities in the hobby.
We caught up to him to talk football–including a dearth of his own rookie cards, the store’s incredible Chase Young collection and the 300- plus 1986 Topps Jerry Rice autographed rookie cards in his possession.
Tony Reid- Cash Cards Unlimited is gaming centric but one of the unique focuses is that of a massive, elite Chase Young Collection. Can you tell us what that collection entails?
Cassius Marsh– The Chase Young Collection is ridiculous. It’s a sight to be seen. Our guy Jeff has been on it. He has a thing and this is his focus. He wants to continue to find these Chase Young cards and see what he can do with it. It’s a beautiful collection. He has at least twelve– I know of twelve but there might be more than that–one of one Chase Young rookie cards. There are probably another 80 or more of high rarity. It’s awesome, man. It’s a ton of stuff and its continuing to grow.
We are going to get that stuff to PSA and get it graded. We will help him sell this collection. I don’t know when that will happen. We are going to continue to help him build the collection and work on that. We are super excited to see the end product and what the final collection looks like if and when he decides to sell. It’s just another dope part of the shop. We have a pretty epic collection and we have some other stuff coming in that is pretty legendary, too.
TR– What is the legendary stuff that’s coming in?
CM– One thing that I can mention is that we have 315 signed 1986 Topps Jerry Rice rookie cards right now. We have some things in the works. I wanted to give you a little taste of what’s going on. We want to be one of the premier shops in L.A. and in the country for that matter. We are just working hard and having fun with it.
I went to school with Jerry, Jr. and I played for the Niners, so that’s close to home for me. I enjoyed my time with the Niners. When I got the cards and had them in front of me I just thought how unreal is was. I had never seen anything like it. You just see cool stuff every day.
TR-You are a huge Magic: The Gathering player and collector. You had a box of cards stolen from your car that you loaned to your girlfriend going to a concert way back in 2014 when you were playing with the Seahawks. You guys were playing the Patriots that week. Now, I’m not making any accusations but the Patriots have been accused of taking and creating any competitive advantage they can…
CM– I never even drew that correlation before but that’s pretty crazy. They might have been involved. That fan base hates me more than any other former Patriot. (Laughs)
TR–The jersey swap is a new tradition in the league. If you could swap jerseys with anyone who would it be?
CM-Tom Brady. I had him on the same team and I never asked him because I respected him so much. I never wanted to bother him but I regret not asking now. Just to see his work ethic, his competitive edge, his skill and commitment to the sport was amazing to watch day in and day out. If I could go back to when I was with the Patriots I would bug the hell out of him just to get a jersey signed. I wouldn’t even care if he took mine. I would just want to have one of his jerseys.
TR–You have a few rookie cards from 2014 in Bowman Chrome, Topps Strata and Topps Turkey Red. Do you remember seeing yourself on a card for the first time? Do you own any today?
CM-I don’t have any, man. I don’t know how that happened. I’m not gonna lie, my agent my rookie year was not the greatest. I missed out on a lot of opportunities. He definitely didn’t take care of me when it came to stuff like that. I did these card deals and I didn’t even get any copies of my own card. I’ve have people send me cards but I don’t know that they were necessarily rookie cards. I would love to see what the trading cards that I have out there look like.
I have a bunch of copies of my Army All-American trading card. I have a bunch of the other guys from the game, too. I have a pretty cool collection from that game. I haven’t seen my other cards. I would love to see them.
TR–The Bowman Chrome, Topps Strata and Turkey Red all have a very similar picture where you are doing the LeBron James ‘Push Down’ celebration. Do you remember that celebration?
CM-Oh, yeah! I really wanted that to be my celebration but that was jacking LeBron. I had to figure out my own celebration. It took me some years. I don’t think I really figured out my own creative and individual sack celebration until I got to San Francisco. I started doing the Tornado Kick.
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