Leonard Hankerson Gets Some More Redskins Gear

Almost from the moment he was drafted in the third round, wide receiver Leonard Hankerson has been tweeting pictures of himself in Redskins gear. It was a cool story, interesting enough that I talked to the longtime friend who provided Hankerson with the burgundy and gold accoutrements, but apparently a few twitpics of himself wearing borrowed clothes wasn't enough for Hankerson: late Sunday, the former Miami wide receiver tweeted a picture of himself in a pretty authentic-looking Redskins uniform.

Before I re-post Hankerson's picture, let me make it very clear that no uniform numbers have yet been issued; as far as I know, Mike Furrey is still on the roster and is still the person who would officially be wearing 85. [UPDATE: Furrey is apparently no longer on the roster; according to his website, he's the head coach at Kentucky Christian University. Still, no numbers have been issued to draft picks that I know of, so that point remains accurate.] THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL IN ANY WAY. That said, it still looks pretty freakin' cool.

Based on the background signage, it looks like this shot comes from a photo shoot for a Topps football card -- presumably something to do with the one from the company's high-end "Inception" line that Hankerson tweeted on Wednesday. Here, look:

Here's the description of the Inception line, from sports card industry mag Beckett:

As the 2011 video card war rages on, Topps is talking about its new football line - 2011 Topps Inception - dreamed up for a rare early season high-end release. Due out in early July, the premiering premium product will be rookie heavy, mostly defined by top draft picks and supplemented by established stars.

The description goes on to say that the rookies will appear in "airbrushed uniforms," which doesn't do much to explain the clearly non-airbrushed picture at the very top of this post, but the most interesting thing to me is the "defined by top draft picks". It's not every day that a third-rounder gets called a "top draft pick," and it serves only to reinforce the high expectations that Hankerson is going to be facing in his rookie year.