Finals are completely over! Which
means I am now dedicated to posting a couple times a week. For my first post
back, I would like to tell a personal story in why I should never buy another
Football jersey again. Every time I buy a shirt with a player’s name on it
something bad happens. Maybe I should actually take this and purchase a really
good player’s shirt and hope for the worst, right? Nah, I wouldn’t do that…
maybe…
My first experience with this in
2010, I had a weird fixation with the New York Jets. But wasn’t it hard not to?
They had Mark Sanchez, a QB we all liked at USC because of his story, they had
recently signed LaDainian Tomlinson, Traded for Santonio Holmes, and featured
one of the best defenses in the game. On top of that, they had a head coach
that nobody liked in Rex Ryan, which made it kind of fun to root for. For this,
I purchased a Mark Sanchez jersey, wearing it in pride.
The following year Sanchez began his
downward climb into nothingness. He threw more and more interceptions with less
touchdowns, fumbled the ball more than any other QB, and began to get ridiculed
by the fan base. Heck, even I started
mocking him. Now in 2013, he has been out for the entire season, and will most
likely lose his job next year as well. While this was occurring, my home team,
and a team I still cared for deeply in the New England Patriots, were in Super
Bowl XLVI. This team featured one of the best Tight Ends in the league: Rob
Gronkowski. He was having a season unprecedented for a wide receiver, let alone
TE. Because of Gronk’s height, body-build, and athleticism, I began to believe
he would become one of the best Tight Ends to ever play the game. In this, I
bought his jersey in order to wear it during the Super Bowl.
Shortly after the Super Bowl, Gronk
had his already injured ankle tested. As the results came in, they found he had
a strained ligament that needed surgery. He would make his way back to start
the following season on opening day, but in Week 11, Gronk broke his arm,
requiring another surgery. Coming back for the playoffs, in the first quarter
of the Patriot’s playoff game against Houston, Gronk would reinjure his arm.
During the next season, Gronk still
had issues in his arm and had then developed problems in his back, requiring
yet another surgery. He would come back in the 2013 season, only to have a
player take out his legs, inflicting a torn ACL and MCL. With that, Gronk was
done for the season and my time. Another waste of a jersey.
Then I had already pushed my attentions towards Running Back
Steven Ridley for the 2013 season in wake of Gronk’s arm issues. Ridley put up
great numbers for the Pats the year prior with 12 Touchdowns and over 1,000
yards. Finally a RB I could enjoy watching because BenJarvus wasn’t doing it
for me during his time with New England. I purchased Ridley’s jersey right
before the start of the season.
Again, I would be disappointed. Ridley started the season off
in horrible fashion. His first four games were atrocious, almost to the point
where the Patriots were going to give up on him. With this, I retired the
Ridley jersey and with the retirement, Ridley came back to form. He would have
6 touchdowns in four games, garnering over 90 yards a game twice in that span.
I quickly grabbed the Ridley jersey and wore it every Sunday since Week 8.
Since Week 8, Ridley has put up one touchdown and 130 yards. Yet another bust
of a jersey.
This was a long version of the story, but I think I have learned
my lesson. If I like a player, I probably shouldn’t purchase his jersey. But
then again, I probably will never learn. I should probably purchase a jersey of
a player everybody hates and see if he goes down… I think it would be worth the
experiment.
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