Jersey Decision

So I was reading the little pamphlet that is issued to the dealers at work every month and noticed a very nice surprise today. Unlike my previous employers, who would routinely talk about this wardrobe change and NEVER come through with it, my current casino will allow its dealers to wear football jerseys to work this fall on Sundays during the NFL regular season! Woohoo!! I may be overreacting, but I think that's super cool and can't wait to throw aside the polyesters for a nice replica jersey once a week!
So here's the problem. It stated specifically in writing that the jerseys could only be worn on Sunday and "must be an NFL jersey". That kind of sucks due to the fact that the jersey that I wear the most is a throw-back Ohio State Chris Spielman jersey. Spielman is the perfect guy to sport on my back. He was an absolute monster on the field at OSU and in the NFL. He is a super nice guy off the field, currently raises money for breast cancer research (his wife is a cancer survivor), and is an Ohio guy through and through as he now resides near Columbus. Alas, I will need to find an alternative to wear to work on Sundays.

As you can plainly see from this blog, my favorite NFL team is the Pittsburgh Steelers. The problem is that the only NFL jersey that I own is the following:

That would be a Kendrell Bell jersey. Good ol' Kendrell made an impressive debut in Pittsburgh bringing home the defensive rookie of the year award in 2001. I purchased his jersey at a game (I believe in 2002) thinking that he'd have a long and storied career in the 'burgh! Uh, that didn't exactly happen. I think he only lasted 2 more seasons with the Steelers before going to Kansas City and getting lost in mediocrity. He's currently listed as a free agent. So that jersey was kind of a bust (just like almost every single Cleveland Browns jersey that's been sold in the past twelve years).

Since even replica jerseys are quite an investment, I don't want my brand new jersey to become out-of-date a year or two after buying it. I'd like to be walking around at least five years from now and not have people asking me, "who the hell is Kendrell Bell?"

The obvious choice is Big Ben! But that's the problem. EVERYBODY has a Roethlisberger jersey these days, so I kind of want to be a little different. Some other names that come up in the Steelers.com team shop that pique my interest are Heath Miller, James Farrior, Larry Foote, Lamar Woodley, Hines Ward and Willie Parker. Miller is going into year 4 of a five year contract, so that makes me nervous. Both Foote and Woodley have the unfortunate distinction of coming out of the University of Michigan. So as much as I love to see them do well on Sundays, their former activity on Saturdays is a hang-up for me. Hines Ward is my favorite player on the Steelers (and one of my favorites of all-time), but he's getting up there in age and has been banged up the past couple of years. So I'm not confident in him being around too much longer. The same goes for Farrior. Fast Willie would be a decent choice, but I'm just not all that excited about his jersey for some odd reason. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm going to go elsewhere.

That leaves somewhat of an obvious choice for me, one which I've been thinking about getting even before I found out I'd be wearing it to work. I'm leaning towards WR Santonio Holmes. He had good season last year as an NFL sophomore and with his speed and ability, he could definitely take the #1 receiver role away from Ward either this year or next. I believe he's only going into his 3rd season of a five year contract and I'd hope that if he does break out this year, the Steelers will commit to keeping him around as long as possible. Oh, by the way, he also played his college ball in the Horseshoe!!! So that pretty much clinches it.

The only nagging worry I have about Santonio is the fact that he briefly turned into a Cincinnati Bengal a couple of years ago in 2006 when he was arrested twice in the span of a few months. Some assault charges were dropped and I believe the only other trouble was a traffic issue that he paid a fine on, but I still think that's a little cause for concern (even though he seems to have been clean since then).

I'll be thinking about it a little bit more before taking the plunge and making the purchase, but I do want to get it before the season starts. If you have any thoughts or ideas about other players, let me know.