Dog's post about jersey selection is spot on. While we were walking out, I said with absolute authority that there is no chance that another team in the league has as many different numbers worn as the Steelers. No chance. Zip. If we went to every home game this year and recorded every jersey worn by a fan, no team could come close...especially if the criteria was that there had to be at least 5 at any one game to count. A quick rundown of the all-time roster by jersey would reveal the following possibilities...most of which we saw last week:
3 - Jeff Reed (saw a few myself!)
7 - Roethlisberger (a good 20%)
8 - Maddox shouldn't count but they do exist
10 - I still saw Slash jerseys but most are now Holmes. This should count as 2.
12 - Bradshaw
14 - O'Donnel shouldn't count either, but they are still out there. He did go to a Super Bowl.
20 -Bleier
24 - Ike Taylor
26 - Woodson
29 - Foster
31 - Shell
32 - Franco
33 - Hoge
34 - Mendenhall, Andy Russells have to be 0ut there as well!
36 - Bettis
37 - Lake - Borderline
39 - Parker
43 - Polamalu
47 - Blount
51 - Farrior
52 - Webster
55 - Porter
56 - Woodley
58 - Lambert
59 - Ham
66 -Faneca, I saw them
68 - Greenwood
75 - Green
76 - Lipscomb, I saw one....I went with one!!!!
82 - Stallworth
83 - Miller current, Lipps - they exist
86 - Ward
88 - Swann
92 - Harrison
94 - Timmons
95 - Lloyd
98 - Hampton
99 - Keisel
That's 38 numbers. If you take away the recent ex players like Maddox, Slash, Faneca and O'Donnel you have 34. If you take away some current players who won't be long in our memories like Parker, Reed, Farrior...etc, you still have 27-28 legitimate jersey choices right now. It's crazy.
3 comments:
For the old timers, in addition to Lipscomb the acceptable probably should be also contain:
35 - John Henry Johnson
22 - Bobby Layne
70 - Ernie Stautner
84 - Buddy Dial
These must be worn in the throwback jersey however since none of these guys ever played in what I define as the modern era (1966 - present). One guy who did play in the modern era and should be considered was #42 Dick Hoak, who spent more of his life as a Steeler than anyone not named Rooney.
I wish I still had my old Ernie Holmes jersey... I never saw anyone else with one of those... of course I didn't live in Pittsburgh then either...
Bluzdude, the late "Turnpike Ernie" Holmes was one of my favorites too.
Most of the #63s you see now are Dermontti Dawson. But in my book both are well within the acceptable range.
My lost jerseys consist of a home black and an away white #82, John Stallworth.
Back when Fats played, wearing jerseys to a game was not the phenomena it is today. It was done, but not by 87.5% of the fans attending a game. So it's no surprise there weren't too many of them to be seen.
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