My oldest son, Luke, had a brilliant idea a couple weeks ago. It was one of those “light bulb over you head” moments. We were watching the first round of NFL playoffs between the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Redskins. Since Washington was the home team, Seattle had to play in their white jerseys, their “away” jerseys. We both commented that we liked Seattle’s dark blue “home” jerseys better than the white ones. I wondered out loud why they couldn’t wear their blue jerseys any way since Washington’s “home” jersey was dark red. Luke’s next comment was brilliant. “Why don’t they all wear special commemorative jerseys and auction them off for charity after each postseason game,” he said. “They could auction them off online.” It seemed so simple that I’m surprised it wasn’t already being done. Maybe I had missed the news. Maybe the NFL had been auctioning off jerseys for years and I had missed it. I’ve searched on the internet for it and came up empty. One possibility why no one has thought of it before is I’m sure the players would love to keep their jerseys, especially if they play in the Super Bowl. So consider this – each player during the postseason gets two jerseys a game. The jersey they wear in the first half is collected at half time and eventually auctioned off for a charity. The players get to keep the jersey they wear in the second half. Now it’s just a matter of deciding which charity would receive the proceeds. Maybe the players could vote for their favorite charity – maybe the fans could vote as well. I’d love to see a different charity picked each year. It would be wonderful if the NFL started the practice and other sports like the NBA and MLB adopted it. Regardless, I think it’s time we used these mega-sporting events to generate something more than just advertising revenue and player endorsements.
Sam Murray
Award-winning Graphic Designer and Writer Archives
February 2015
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