By Paul Torres
In a moment that only Rodney Dangerfield could properly sum up for the Titans fans, we discover that even though the Tennessee Titans have six players in the Pro Bowl, NFLShop is currently not selling any of the teams Pro Bowl jerseys on their website.
In fairness to them its mildly understandable that they could not create and distribute jerseys for the recent additions of safety Kevin Byard and special teamer Brandon Trawick. But the fact that they don’t even have the option to purchase Pro Bowl jerseys for the likes of LT Taylor Lewan, DL Jurrell Casey, P Brett Kern and TE Delanie Walker only goes to show that there truly is “No respect” for our Titans league wide. It could be that we are a small market team and don’t often get league wide recognition but the fact remains that this league has 32 teams spread all over the country. Just because there are teams in smaller markets that don’t generate as much revenue for the NFL as others, that doesn’t mean they aren’t a part of the league as a whole.
The NFL holds events such as the Pro Bowl to recognize excellence league wide and to familiarize fans with players that they may not necessarily have noticed throughout the year. Incidents such as this do nothing more than prove to the smaller markets that when it comes down to it, we just don’t matter. When a fan asked the official NFL Shop on twitter where the Titans Pro Bowl Jerseys were, their official Twitter responded with “Unfortunately we do not currently carry any Titans Pro Bowl jerseys and not sure if/when we will. We apologize.” They are fully aware of this oversight and are looking us straight in the face and saying basically saying “so what?”. There is still time to correct this though, its likely too late to get this changed before the Pro Bowl but if enough people speak up they will have the demand so they must generate the supply. We can proudly support our Titans in the Pro Bowl jerseys they rightly earned in recognition of all the hard work they put in this year.
There are jerseys available for players like Antonio Brown, Kareem Hunt, Jalen Ramsey and Von Miller, these players earned this and will likely be there to actually wear them. But there is also jerseys for people like Jay Ajayi, Carson Wentz and Tom Brady. All of which will not even be playing in the game for one reason or another (sorry Wentz). Its entirely too evident that this is just a big cash grab for the league at this point and although we as Titans fans are fairly used to being disrespected, its about time we raise our hand and say “hey, we have actually been good lately and sent 6 people to this game, we want our jerseys.” The last time the NFL sold Titans Pro Bowl jerseys was in 2010, that’s CJ2K era. You have my full permission to be upset about it now. But I ask also that you to stand up and do something about it now.
Paul Torres is a contributor on NFLUpdate.co covering the Tennessee Titans. You can follow him on twitter @TitansSouthwest
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