When working in sports media, we are often asked how we got started. The truth is we started out as fans. Fans of a team, fans of a player or maybe just fans of a particular sport. Now we are lucky to be able to turn this passion into a profession, and we never take it for granted.
But as fans, it means that those we hold dear recognize that passion and often rely on it during the holidays.
Which means a lot of sports-themed gifts over the years.
With the holidays just around the corner, we thought we’d share our favorite sports-themed gifts we’ve received over the years. Who knows, maybe they will bring back a memory.
Or maybe even help create some new ones.
The perfect jersey
As a person of… let’s say a certain age, wearing a jersey is a bit awkward. Read also : Every Big Video Game Event Happens in September.
Team clothes are fine, of course. But walking around in a jersey for an athlete young enough to be your son or daughter just feels a little wrong.
However, a few years ago I decided I could take jerseys in a different direction. Made up jerseys. I started building a small collection of quarterback jerseys from a few different movies or TV shows. Hanging in my closet right now is a white Washington Sentinels jersey by Shane Falco, from The Replacements. There’s also Jonathan Moxon’s blue West Canaan Coyotes jersey from Varsity Blues , Willie Beamen’s black Miami Sharks jersey from Any Given Sunday , and even Alex Moran’s white Blue Mountain State jersey from the short-lived comedy Blue Mountain State .
So one Christmas Eve my family was exchanging gifts. My parents were excited, extremely excited to give me the box to open. As I began to unwrap the gift, I noticed the distinct blue color of the Miami Dolphins jersey.
We should stop for a moment. In light of my new career and especially my focus on quarterback studies, my parents have also given me QB jerseys over the years that I have studied for the draft as a memento of the work I have done.
So back to Christmas Eve. When I saw this Dolphins aqua, I started thinking to myself. Was that a Tua jersey? Was I on my way to Tuanon? But, I’m a Patriots fan. We are Patriots fans. Everything seemed off.
Ace Ventura Ray Finkel Jersey.
The nostalgia I needed, when I needed it
Christmas 2003 was not a good time for me. On the same subject : The 2022 MLB All-Star Game, As It Happened. I had to live in the United States for almost two years after moving from Australia and was seriously questioning my decision to move to the other side of the world for college.
I was in the middle of my first year at the time and I really didn’t like college. I started film school and found everyone around me to be notoriously pretentious and insufferable. My dream of meeting like-minded film buffs in college crumbled under the weight of their chin-stroking antics about French New Wave cinema and blabbering about François Truffaut. Meanwhile, I was ridiculed in class for claiming that Die Hard was cinematic genius, because the entertainment was just as valuable as the social commentary. Seriously, screw all these people.
In a moment of crisis, I internalized because I didn’t learn the importance of therapy for another decade – hope arrived in a white ‘Australia Post’ package. My mum sent me a Sydney Roosters jersey, my favorite rugby team, and it reminded me of one of my favorite sporting moments of all time.
Luke Ricketson, a battered second-row player, had his head cut open in the 2002 grand final and Sydney had no replacements. The medical staff told him to go to the locker room for stitches, but that would have cost the team valuable time and forced them to play the player less. So Ricketson, in all his rugby fan glory, GRAB THE PAPER THAT WAS USED TO HANG THE BANNER AND PUSHED HIM THROUGH HIS OWN HEAD! The doctors then wrapped his head like a mummy, and he ran back onto the field and tried to save the attack.
It sounds silly now, but that moment inspired me. If he could do something like that, surely he could hold his own and take his own path without fitting into the “accepted” path. I transferred from film school to the English department, focused on journalism, and met my wife in the spring of 2004.
This jersey was everything I needed, when I needed it. Whenever I was filled with doubt or anxiety, I wore it to class like it was my armor. I finally had to get rid of the jersey a few years ago because it was too worn out, but I will never forget how important that jersey was to me.
My first piece of sports apparel
I’ve had “better” gifts since then, but my most important sports gift was a San Francisco 49ers jersey I got for Christmas in 1988. This may interest you : Stillwater native wins world title in martial arts – The Daily Gazette. I was 9 years old and had just recently joined the 49ers (I lived in Las Vegas ). . It was my first piece of sports clothing.
I was in fourth grade that year and my teacher was a Bengals fan. Since I was a kid and had no qualms when the 49ers-Bengals Super Bowl game was on, I wore the shirt every day for two weeks. Sometimes it was washed, but as a nine-year-old I didn’t care if it was washed or not. It was my first “trash talk” moment, for lack of a better term, and I wore it until Monday after the 49ers beat my fourth grade teacher’s favorite team. It cemented my adoration for the 49ers.
Rose Bowl tickets
In 1997, when my beloved Washington State Cougars clinched a bid to their first Rose Bowl in 67 years, I found two Pasadena tickets under the tree. I was only seven years old, but I barely missed a game at Martin Stadium as far back as I can remember. This was the granddaddy of them all, a chance to potentially win a national championship, how could you pass it up?
It’s funny what your 7 year old brain remembers and what it forgets. I remember playing catch with a Nerf football in a hotel parking lot, I remember being in the background of a TV shot during the Rose Parade, I remember taking a nap on the grass outside the stadium before the game. I remember very little about the game itself.
I remember crying when my favorite player, running back Michael Black, left early with a sword injury. I remember Charles Woodson picking off a WSU pass off in the endzone. Most of all, I remember there were two seconds left on the clock when Ryan Leaf hit the ball. My father and I sat there for about half an hour after the field cleared.
I’ve been to hundreds of sporting events since then, but nothing compares to watching your alma mater play in its biggest game in its most iconic stadium.
A Curtis Conway jersey
I spent summers growing up in the suburbs of Chicago taking trips with my dad to Platteville, Wisconsin to watch some of the worst teams in Bears history go through training camp. I would stand at their entrance and exit from the practice field hoping for an autograph. I’d like to think that no one has more worthless memorabilia from that era of Bears football than I do, from Steve Stenstrom’s practice wristbands to Dwayne Bates’ signed mini-helmet to several Rashaan Salaam autographed trading cards.
My favorite actor though was Curtis Conway. He was young, fast and cool, and twice went over 1,000 receiving yards, which seemed like the most impossible task in sports for the Bears in the 90s (not much has changed). I got a Conway jersey for Christmas as an 8-year-old in 1995, and I wore the thing constantly. I would wear it to run in the yard, rock it to ever “dress up” at Catholic school, and of course I would wear it every year to Bears training camp. Muhsin Muhammad once said that “Chicago is where receivers go to die,” and he wasn’t wrong — but you can also be an icon to a young kid simply by being pretty good.
NBA Beef for Christmas
I was a teenager in Los Angeles during the Lakers dynasty, which means every time I wasn’t focused on school, I was thinking about that night’s basketball game. I fell in love with everything about Shaq and Kobe. I was equally devastated when the two future Hall of Famers couldn’t work things out and Shaq left for the Miami Heat. We could have won so many more championships if we put aside our differences.
Before the start of the 2004-05 season, everyone knew that their first matchup as opponents would be as dramatic as the sport could offer. I just didn’t know I’d be there in person. My parents surprised my younger brother and I with two tickets to the Heat-Lakers Christmas Day game. We couldn’t believe it.
They were the highest seats in the arena, but I didn’t care. I was there. I remember my brother and I waiting before the game to see if Shaq and Kobe would confirm. They are, but only half. I was an emotional mess when the game went into overtime. I may have gotten a little too upset because I spilled some of my Sprite on the nice sweater of the fan in front of me. If you’re somehow reading this, I’m sorry. I hope you enjoyed the game as much as I did.
