Caller "David": At what age should a grown man stop wearing their sports jersey in public? To me it's always disconcerting to see a 40+ year old guy at the grocery store wearing a "Tebow 15 Denver Broncos" jersey. Young grade-school boys, no problem.
Sports commentator legend Frank Deford: I think David has a good point here. I think the answer should be, "You can only wear a shirt [of] someone your age. For instance, how old is Peyton Manning? Thirty-five? Thirty-six? So it would be okay for a thirty-five-year-old man to wear a Peyton Manning shirt but not a thirty-eight-year-old man, then you've gone over. Now the only difference--the only difference--is baseball. Now think about this. Baseball managers, no matter how old they are, dress like children. Jack McKeon was managing Miami (they were then the Florida Marlins) last year at the age of eighty, and wearing...you know. So if you want to wear a baseball manager's uniform, you can do it up to the age of eighty.
Listen to the whole interview with the hosts of NPR podcast The Dinner Party, Rico Gagliano and Brendan Francis Newnam, at their website here.
It's a great question, and an even better answer. I would have said, "in extremis when you have graduated from college," but I'm no sports fan.
Sports commentator legend Frank Deford: I think David has a good point here. I think the answer should be, "You can only wear a shirt [of] someone your age. For instance, how old is Peyton Manning? Thirty-five? Thirty-six? So it would be okay for a thirty-five-year-old man to wear a Peyton Manning shirt but not a thirty-eight-year-old man, then you've gone over. Now the only difference--the only difference--is baseball. Now think about this. Baseball managers, no matter how old they are, dress like children. Jack McKeon was managing Miami (they were then the Florida Marlins) last year at the age of eighty, and wearing...you know. So if you want to wear a baseball manager's uniform, you can do it up to the age of eighty.
Listen to the whole interview with the hosts of NPR podcast The Dinner Party, Rico Gagliano and Brendan Francis Newnam, at their website here.
It's a great question, and an even better answer. I would have said, "in extremis when you have graduated from college," but I'm no sports fan.