Jersey Week: My favorite jerseys as a fan

It’s Jersey Week here at SB Nation. As part of our theme week, we’ve been asked to write about our first jersey and to get you thinking about your I love for Raiders’ jerseys.

I honestly am not sure what my first jersey was. It might have been an Earl Campbell Luv Ya Blue Oilers’ jersey.

See, I was one of those lame NFL fans as a kid. I didn’t have a real favorite team. I liked players over franchises.

I was always a die-hard San Francisco Giants baseball fan. I never wavered there and I’m still a huge Giants fan to this minute. But the NFL was different for me. So, that gets me to this my jersey point: I collected them from different teams.

Instead of getting a jersey or two from one team, I loaded up on several and I loved them all.

I grew up in the Bay Area and would go to the Sunnyvale Town Center mall where a cool sports store custom made my jerseys. It was the early 1980s and they each cost $30. I worked to get money for those sweet babies and I was so proud of them.

In addition to Campbell’s jersey, I had Marcus Allen’ Raiders’ jersey, Lawrence Taylor Giants’ jersey (my dad’s favorite player from his favorite team), a Steve Bartkowski Falcons’ jersey, Mark Gastineau Jets’ jersey, Kellen Winslow Chargers’ jersey and John Elway’s Stanford jersey.

They looked so beautiful in my closet and they were a staple of my high school wardrobe.

As I got older, my desire for jerseys faded, as those things often do. But they provide great memories. I’m not sure whatever happened to them. My mother probably gave them to charity.

I sure miss those jerseys.

What are jersey memories? Let us know in the comment section and if you still have them, take a photo and post them.

Happy Jersey Week!