https://youtu.be/0dXeoGrExic?si=Yf6yOfsyFPLZB84Z

One of my favorite cards. Game worn even.

As some of you know from my previous posts, I collect game-used football jerseys and perform research to photomatch them and uncover neat stories they might tell. I wanted to take you through a brief tour of that process using a jersey I purchased recently.

While cruising eBay last month I stumbled across a game-used Chargers jersey of current Vikings defensive lineman Jerry Tillery. The jersey was riddled with stains, scrapes, and punctures, which is right up my alley because I only collect jerseys that can be definitively photomatched to at least one game, and this kind of wear makes the photomatching process easier and conclusive.

The Tillery jersey came with a certificate of authenticity from the Chargers stating that it was used during the 2022-2023 season but I disregarded it because certs can be wrong, certs can be faked, and there’s no direct authentication link between the cert and the jersey itself, such as a unique sticker code or a photo of the jersey on the certificate.

Before making an offer I needed to verify that I could match the jersey to at least one game. I did some image searches of Tillery using Getty Images, Alamy Images, and Google. The simplest reference point to use in photomatching was the clear black mark that streaks across the front jersey numbers. After sifting through a couple dozen photos I found a Getty image from a game against the Broncos in Week 12 of the 2021 season that showed this exact stain. I also found some images from other games that at first glance looked like potential matches. It was time to make the seller an offer.

The seller was my favorite kind of eBayer: He hadn't researched his product at all, he chose a product title that didn’t align with the description (the title says the jersey is from 2020 but the description says 2022-2023), and he appeared to use ChatGPT to generate a meaningless description. After a little back and forth we settled at $200 all-in. In terms of an investment, I knew I was walking into at least a break-even deal given that recent game-used NFL jerseys with signs of wear tend to sell in the $200-400 range for the average player. Factor in that Tillery is a former first-round pick out of Notre Dame who’s still active in the league, and $200 was a good price even if the jersey was only used in one game.

After receiving the jersey through the mail I located the Chargers 2021 jersey variation calendar online. This helped me narrow down the games in which this jersey could’ve been used. I’d already photomatched it to Week 12, so I started by searching for images of Tillery from the next game on the schedule, which was Week 13 at Cincinnati. Photos of him from that game showed a fresher jersey with minimal signs of wear, indicating that Week 12 of the 2021 season was the last time Tillery wore the jersey.

I then started working backwards. For Week 9 against the Eagles I found an action shot in which the black mark appears across the numbers. Two games in the books.

It became harder after that, as jerseys only get cleaner (and therefore more bland) the farther back you go.

For the next game on the list—Week 6 against the Ravens—I used a combination of factors to conclusively match the jersey to game photos: (1) the two puncture holes on the front 9, (2) the pair of scrape marks on the lightning bolt on the right shoulder, and (3) the dot pattern in between the numbering (which I don’t love using as a standalone matching technique but can help rule out negatives). These things, taken together, cleared my evidence bar. The jersey was used in at least 3 games.

Week 3 against the Chiefs was hazy but I found a reasonable photomatch on the jersey's front dot pattern. I didn't feel 100% confident on this one so I put an asterisk beside it.

Then there was Week 2 against the Cowboys. A photo from this game clearly shows the right shoulder lightning bolt with the same scrapes and imperfections. A definitive match. Now I also felt 100% confident about Week 3 because of the matching I found coupled with the improbability that Tillery wore a different jersey in the game between Week 2 and Week 6. I was up to five games now.

Only Week 1 remained. I found a closeup from that game which shows a perfect match of the dot pattern on the front of the jersey. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t love dot matching on jerseys simply because it’s possible to manufacture near-identical jerseys with today’s technology, but the dot pattern match is too exact and unique to be a false positive.

It took several hours and I had to sift through at least two thousand photos, but I matched my latest purchase to 6 NFL games.

From there, I used Pro Football Reference and a little bit of YouTube to tabulate stats for those games:

Tackles: 16  (including Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott, and Melvin Gordon)
QB Hits: 6  (including Patrick Mahomes)
Total Snaps: 337

I don’t know if metrics exist regarding the average number of games that a player wears a specific jersey in this current era of sports, but for the NFL I would have to guess the average is somewhere around 2-3 games for the following reasons: (1) most teams have 3-4 jersey variations they wear throughout the 17-game season, meaning the most any one jersey style is worn is 6-8 games, (2) teams change up jersey styles almost every year so the same jerseys probably don't carry over to the next season too often if ever, (3) unlike the old days, NFL teams are flush with cash to replace jerseys rather than repair them for continued use, (4) players sometimes trade or give away their jerseys, (5) the NFL now has a game-used jersey process.

All things considered, there probably aren’t many recent NFL game jerseys that have seen as much mileage as this one.