It’s been awhile since I’ve landed a game-used jersey, but I got back on the big board with this XFL gamer of Nate “Big Nate” Miller.

Miller played football at LSU and spent a few seasons as an offensive lineman in the NFL, seeing some playing time with the Falcons in 1997. After NFL teams stopped calling, Miller resurfaced in the XFL with the Los Angeles Xtreme. I photomatched this jersey to the 2001 XFL “Million Dollar Game”, making it the second game-worn jersey I own from the league’s lone championship game and my third LA Xtreme jersey. This would be the last jersey Miller ever wore in a pro football game.

According to his XFL player bio, “Big Nate” is an avid comic book collector. Maybe he’ll show up here one of these days?

The newest entry to my game-used memorabilia collection is this 2003 San Diego Chargers jersey worn by wide receiver Dondre Gilliam.

This jersey has a crazy story. Gilliam was a graduate of D-II Millersville University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was signed and waived by the Chargers 5 times in 2002 without logging a stat. Going into Week 4 of the 2003 season, the chargers found themselves down five receivers - including David Boston, Reche Caldwell, and Tim Dwight - so the Chargers gave Gilliam a call and started him that week against the Raiders. Gilliam was issued #10 because every other common receiver jersey number was taken.

In that game, Gilliam was in the huddle with Drew Brees, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, and Lorenzo Neal - indisputably among the top-20 all-time at their respective positions, and possibly even top-10 all-time. To make it even more crazy, Gilliam ran routes against Charles Woodson and Rod Woodson.

Gilliam posted 4 receptions for 67 yards, leading the team. The top receivers for the Raiders? Jerry Rice and Tim Brown. The Raiders won the matchup of legends in overtime, 34-31. More ridiculous footnotes: The game featured the first career reception for Antonio Gates and the only career touchdown reception for Drew Brees.

Gilliam went on to play three more games in this jersey, logging his final two career receptions from Doug Flutie, before the Chargers went back to full staff and waived him for good.

I don’t have definitive photomatches for this one given that I only have two game photos of Gilliam to work with, but it’s a slam dunk for a combination of reasons:

1. The jersey tag is from 2003

2. Photos from the Raiders game show the layout of his jersey lettering is a perfect match

3. The jersey shows the stitch outline of a removed patch worn that season and the placement matches the photos

4. The jersey has repairs so it was worn in multiple games

5. There’s no way the team issued Gilliam a new jersey part way through the season because he had little playing time and a constantly-uncertain roster status

All in all, this jersey tells quite a story and I’m happy to have it.

I recently purchased this 2015 San Jose State game-used football jersey of linebacker Christian Tago. The reason I grabbed this one is because Tago was a team leader who wore the jersey in 6 games that year, including the 2015 Cure Bowl, and tallied 57 tackles in it.

When I performed a photomatch search prior to making the purchase, I found definitive proof it was worn in the bowl game based on matching repair spots, but I was thrown off by the missing ‘C’ captain patch as well as the missing bowl game patch. Upon closer inspection under a bright flashlight in a dark room, I can see the stitch holes from the captain patch (see the last photo). There are no stitch marks for the bowl patch, however, so I’m guessing it was an iron-on. It’s hard to find game-used NCAA jerseys from the pre-NIL days that still contain a nameplate, so it’s surprising that the team kept the nameplate on but removed the captain patch. I’d love to know how jerseys like this first make it into private hands.

Tago was signed by the Falcons and Eagles out of college but never played a down in the NFL. He currently coaches linebackers at Antelope Valley College in California. Hoping to get this jersey to him someday.

9/19/15 at Oregon State

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9/26/15 vs Fresno State

No photomatch, but jersey style worn

10/17/15 vs San Diego State

No photomatch, but jersey style worn

10/24/15 vs New Mexico

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11/27/15 vs Boise State

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12/19/15 vs Georgia State (Cure Bowl)

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Last September I posted about how I purchased a ticket stub from the 2001 Lions @ Browns game in which Ty Detmer infamously threw 7 interceptions for the Lions - a feat that hasn’t been reached since and will probably never happen again. Well, wouldn’t you know it, I now own the jersey that Cleveland Browns linebacker Jamir Miller wore in that game in which he grabbed Detmer’s fourth INT of the day.

I found the listing on eBay, and the seller included a COA from a post-9/11 NFL auction that stated the jersey was worn in 2001 against the Bengals. The jersey has several repairs and is riddled with hit marks of various colors. Jamir Miller was a first-team All-Pro that year, so the usage was consistent with his hard-nosed style of play.

I zoomed in on the jersey and saw bright blue hit marks on the shoulders and immediately started to geek out. I scrolled Getty Images from the Browns/Lions game and found a definite match. Needless to say, I had to make the jersey mine.

I checked multiple images from the Browns/Bengals game and it was clear that Miller was wearing a fresh jersey. This demonstrates a lesson I’ve conveyed multiple times on this platform: When it comes to game-used memorabilia, don’t trust certificates of authenticity from the groups that originally release the jersey to the public even if they come from the teams themselves. Equipment managers most likely throw jerseys into storage closets and can easily mix up the provenance.

I was also able to photomatch this jersey to games against the Seahawks and Chargers, and the mileage it saw is pretty incredible:

Sacks: 3
Tackles: 17
Tackles for Loss: 5
INTs: 1
Players Tackled: LaDainian Tomlinson (for a 4-yard loss!), Ricky Watters, Doug Flutie, Matt Hasselbeck, James Stewart
Number of Times Featured in an NFL Primetime Highlight: 1

9/9/01 vs Seattle

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9/23/01 vs Detroit

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10/7/01 vs San Diego

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My latest game-used jersey acquisition is this 2009 Purdue away game jersey worn by linebacker Joe Holland.

I found this jersey listed on eBay simply as a game-used Purdue jersey from the Joe Tiller coaching era. Although I’m not a Purdue fan (in fact, I went to Penn State), I quickly developed interest in this jersey because I’ll always be nostalgic for 2000s Big Ten football. In addition, it’s extremely difficult to find pre-NIL game-used college jerseys on the secondary market that still contain nameplates. I’ve observed from my research and experience scrolling through listings that most jerseys prior to the NIL period have nameplates removed by the school before they reach private hands.

Based on the nameplate and jersey number, I quickly identified that this jersey was worn by linebacker Joe Holland, who was a four-year defensive starter for the Boilermakers from 2008-2011. It’s clear that this jersey was worn during multiple games because it features several repairs and paint transfers of different colors. Photo-matching this jersey was extremely difficult because there aren’t many high-quality photos or video from Purdue football games prior to the mid-2010s. That said, I could quickly eliminate 2011 as the possible origin of this jersey because Purdue didn’t wear this style that season. The team didn’t wear nameplates in 2008 so I was down to 2009 or 2010 (or so I thought; more on that later).

I performed several dozen image searches for the 2009 season and watched some games on YouTube and I found some pretty solid evidence that the jersey was worn in Purdue’s game against Oregon, which featured a high-scoring showdown against a Ducks team led by Jeremiah Masoli (remember him?) and LaMichael James. Holland was all over the field that game, even registering a sack that knocked Oregon out of field goal range on an important drive late in the game.

Based on the maroon paint transfer marks, I’m pretty confident that the jersey was also worn at Minnesota that season as well. The evidence trail runs dry beyond that game, however. That said, I found some photos of Holland from the 2008 season that, although too grainy to photomatch, show the exact same jersey style and letter/logo alignment as this jersey. I’m thinking it’s possible that the jersey was a carryover from 2008-09, which would be incredible.

Joe was signed to the practice squads of a few NFL teams but never caught on in the pros, so he retired from football and followed in the footsteps of most former D1 linebackers: He went to dental school and started his own clinic. I’m sure this jersey would look great hanging in the lobby of his practice and I plan to help make that a reality someday.