Rooting for Laundry

As Jerry Seinfeld once accurately put it, "sports fans don't root for players they root for laundry. " Truthfully we as sports fans don't care who wears our uniform as long as they are good, and if they aren't good enough find someone else. I reflect upon this as my favorite sports team the Superbowl Champion New York Giants just traded one of my favorite players Jeremy Shockey to the Saints. Shockey has always been a favorite of mine since he trucked over a poor Texan in his first preseason game. Through the years he's provided a lot of my favorite Giants moments, winning jump balls over Brian Dawkins, running people over without a helmet on, and providing big plays rarely seen from the tight end position. At the same time he was a headache for almost his entire career with the Giants, if he wasn't fighting off an injury then he was taking shots at the coaching staff in the media or not training with the team.
So without Shockey the Giants had a run to the Superbowl and completed one of the happiest moments in my life (sad, huh?) and so despite enjoying his time with the Giants I'm not really sad to see him go.

So it occurs to me would I be heartbroken if anyone left one of my teams? Would I still root for them after they left? Lets say after his Sophomore year Jaycee Carroll transferred from the Ags to a big name school. Would anyone in this area still like him? Would anyone still follow his career in the Logan area? Probably not. And its absurd to think that we would. Its the paradox of being a sports fan. As committed as we are to our teams we only care about the jersey, not the player who fills it out.

Now you'll have to excuse me while I store my Jeremy Shockey jersey next to my Tiki Barber, Micheal Strahan and Ron Dayne jerseys and look back on the good times.