1968 Topps #196 Bob Griese — Two Gem Mints in 2,007 Tries, and a Population That Crests at PSA 6
Bob Griese's rookie card sits at number 196 in a 219-card set, well into the second series, on a checklist that opens with Bart Starr and runs through Joe Namath, Gale Sayers, Johnny Unitas and Dick Butkus. It is the most-graded card in that set. PSA has put 2,007 straight grades on it, and two of them came back Gem Mint 10.
That is the card in one sentence, and the rest of this is an attempt to explain how both halves can be true at once.
The Most-Submitted Card on the Checklist
A full sweep of the set — every one of the 219 cards, pulled from PSA's population data this morning — puts Griese first by submissions, and it is not a shared first. His 2,007 straight grades lead Namath's 1,963, and the order does not change when half grades and qualified slabs are added: 2,271 Griese, 2,218 Namath. Starr is third at 1,253, which is to say the top two are in a conversation of their own.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame records Griese as Miami's No. 1 draft choice in 1967, in the franchise's second year, and credits him with three straight AFC championships and wins in Super Bowls VII and VIII. It also notes that he missed eight games of the Dolphins' perfect 1972 season before returning to win the AFC title game and the Super Bowl. TCDB's checklist marks this card RC. It is the one collectors send in.
PSA Population Report
| PSA Grade | Population |
|---|---|
| PSA 10 | 2 |
| PSA 9 | 78 |
| PSA 8 | 316 |
| Total Graded (All Grades) | 2,007 |
* Population data as of September 22, 2026. PSA population counts are dynamic and increase as more cards are submitted for grading.
The scan PSA publishes for this card is itself one of the 78. Its label reads MINT 9, cert 12010178, and PSA's cert lookup returns Population 78, Pop Higher 2 against that number — the table above, arriving by a different route.
Two Gem Mints, and Only Two Cards in the Set Do Worse
The whole set has produced 335 PSA 10s across 41,540 straight grades — a gem rate of 0.81%. Griese's two out of 2,007 works out to 0.10%, an eighth of the set's own pace, and he has had more attempts at it than anybody.
Sixty-six of the 219 cards have never produced a ten at all. Among the 153 that have produced at least one, exactly two gem at a lower rate than Griese: Bart Starr, one in 1,253, and Johnny Unitas, one in 1,076. The three lowest gem rates in the set belong to the quarterback on card 1, the quarterback on card 100, and the quarterback on card 196.
Five Cards Peak Below a Seven, and They Are the Five Everybody Knows
Run the full curve for all 219 cards and the shape is remarkably uniform. 211 of them peak at PSA 8. Three peak at PSA 7 — John Mackey, Ray Nitschke and Maxie Baughan. That leaves five, and the list is not subtle:
- Card 1 — Bart Starr
- Card 65 — Joe Namath
- Card 75 — Gale Sayers
- Card 127 — Dick Butkus
- Card 196 — Bob Griese
Every one of those five peaks at PSA 6. Four of them are also the four most-graded cards in the set. The commons on this checklist reach PSA 8 more often than any other grade; the stars stop two rungs lower.
Griese's own curve makes the point without much help. It climbs to 413 copies at PSA 6, sits at 403 at PSA 7, and then falls away — 316 at the 8, 78 at the 9, two at the top. More copies of this card have graded 6 than have graded 8 and 9 combined.
He Leads the Set in Nines, and He Is Near the Bottom in Nines
Both of those are true, and the gap between them is the card. Griese's 78 PSA 9s are the most of any card in the set — Fred Biletnikoff is next at 64. Convert it to a rate and 78 of 2,007 is 3.89%, which ranks 207th of 219. Ken Gray, card 138, turned 190 submissions into 61 nines — nearly a third of everything PSA has seen of him.
The count is a measure of how many people sent the card in. The rate is a measure of what came back. On a card this heavily submitted the two say opposite things, and only the second one is about the cardboard.
The verdict: the 1968 Topps Griese is the card this set is asked about most and the card it answers worst. Two Gem Mints in fifty-eight years, a population that crests at PSA 6, and a set-leading pile of nines that is nearly the set's worst nine rate once you divide it by the submissions behind it. It is a Hall of Fame rookie card that grades like something every owner handled, because for fifty-eight years every owner did.
