Buying a Jersey

When I was nine years old, I was obsessed with getting a New York Rangers hockey jersey. My friends and I were starting to get into hockey and we loved the Rangers. I remember seeing the Rangers jersey for the first time at a sports apparel shop in Lower Manhattan. I thought the jersey looked really cool with the long sleeves, and the word "Rangers" diagonally across the front.

I begged my mother for the jersey but she didn't want to buy it for me. She didn't see the point in getting a jersey that she thought I would not wear and she didn't know if this hockey obsession was just a phase. I explained to her that I loved hockey, I would wear the jersey to school, and I would wear it whenever I played hockey or went ice skating with my friends. Eventually she gave in and bought it for me and I will always remember that first sports jersey.

Many years later, I still have the same obsession with sports jerseys. It's nice to wear a jersey to represent your favorite team or player. I don't have as many as some of my friends but I have acquired a few random jerseys over the years. One of the things I promised myself after I decided on a new team would be that I would buy a new jersey which was really just an excuse to get something new.

A purchase like this can get pretty expensive. Stores charge an extra fee per letter if you want a player's name embroidered on the back along with the number which also has an extra fee per digit. I was getting Dempsey's name on the back and his name isn't short by any means. I also hate the fact that he chose number 23. Couldn't he have taken a single digit number and saved me a couple pounds? Although it could be worse. Thankfully I didn't become a fan of Dutch footballer Jan Johannes Vennegoor of Hesselink who didn't even have the decency to choose a single digit number.

Obviously I'm not nine years old anymore, I don't need to ask my mother for permission to buy a sports jersey. She would have no say in whether or not I could buy a brand new Fulham jersey.

So after my wife gave me permission to buy a Fulham jersey I placed my order online.

I was pretty excited to get this brand new jersey since you know....nothing says "cool" like a middle aged man wearing a funny looking shirt with a number on it, another man's name embroidered on the back and the logo of a corporate sponsor across the chest.

Eventually I'll get some more Fulham apparel, but this new jersey is a good start of representing my new team.

Whatever happened to that New York Rangers jersey, you ask?

I wore it one time (at home). I have never played organized hockey, I don't watch hockey and I've been ice skating about ten times my whole life and every time feels like the first time.