Personalized Jerseys

So what's the deal with customized sports jerseys anyway?  How come they have such a bad rap?  Growing up, all I ever wanted was jerseys of teams I loved, to show the world I was a fan.  When I was a little kid, I used to pretend I was a professional athlete myself, because thats awesome and that's what I really wanted to be when I grew up.  I would have absolutely loved a jersey of one of my favorite teams with my own name and my own number on it growing up.  In fact, when the NFL came out with customizable jerseys a few years back, I was thrilled!  I was totally going to order my own 49ers jersey with the number 3 and my name on it, because that's always been my favorite number.  Love the idea.  It was exactly what I had always wanted.

But when I talked about getting one, my then girlfriend now wife said that it would be lame to have a jersey with you're own name on it.  "You don't play for the team, that's lame" was her argument.  No it's not, if I played for them, this is what I'd want my jersey to look like.  I still have that fantasy of being a pro athlete with my own jersey with my name on it.  I still think it's cool.

But aparently, it's not.  Not just in my wife's eyes, but in pretty much everyones eyes.  Really?  It's that lame?  I would have never guessed.  I guess now a days you see personalized jerseys with not a name but perhaps something witty or meaningful.  Like, the dudes at Predators games who have #47 jerseys with TRAITOR on the nameplate.  For a small idea of what this means, read this most recent article I guess.  Basically, he was a Predator and left the team to play in his homeland, Russia, leaving the Preds high and dry.  That's funny to wear a TRAITOR jersey to games, because he was a traitor to the team.

But wearing a #42 Sadenwasser Milwaukee Bucks jersey is viewed as lame-o.  I understand a bit, I suppose, but what's so wrong with it?  You don't play for the Bucks, so why wear one? Supporting yourself?  I guess that's the argument.  When you wear a #11 Legwand jersey to a Preds game, you are supporting David Legwand.  When you wear a #69 York jersey to a Detroit Tigers game, you are supporting yourself.  It just plays to that fantasy a lot of us have of being the star of your favorite sports team.  It's a bit lame, I guess, but I don't know.  I would understand if you did it.  I came from that place, too.  I just had the guidance to not do it myself.  But it's no reason to call anyone any names.

But hey, at least if you get a personalized jersey, it won't ever be out of date because you got traded, right?