An Unusually Hilarious Measure of Time Passed

One of my (Steve) greatest joys here in Africa has been traveling around Benin and seeing all of the awkward American sports memorabilia. While I haven’t yet seen any victory t-shirts for losing teams (although I’ve already designated 10,000CFA - $20 – to buy a Yankees 2004 American League Champions shirt if I see it on someone), there have been a handful of jerseys that make me chuckle and cringe.

Then there was this. Back in late January we were walking through town on a particularly bleak and dusty day. Out from under one of the makeshift used clothing stalls I saw the unmistakable red glow of infamy and shame:

A Michael Vick Atlanta Falcons jersey, child sized and surely donated buy a parent who refused to have their child seen in it while Vick serves his sentence for running an illegal dog fighting operation. It was in very good condition, and the design is the one the Falcons unveiled not too long ago as part of the team’s re-branding.

Now Vick was arrested the day before we left, so I can tell you to the day how long it took that jersey to go from suburban Atlanta to rural Benin – 6 1/2 months.

So has a new scale of athlete-oriented infamy been born? The severity of the scandal not just marked in number of Google searches but also in the amount of time it takes for disgraced fans to discard their once cherished memorabilia?

How does Vick’s 29 weeks compare to other athletes? Hard to tell right now. The only other possible representation I’ve seen was the guy in Parakou a couple of weeks back selling a Tim Hardaway Miami Heat jersey while WEARING a Tim Hardaway Golden State Warriors jersey. Doing a little research, that would be approximately 15 months.

I have to imagine the 6 month turnaround on Vick will be the gold standard. I can’t imagine Goodwill could turn something like that around much faster. We’ll do our best to keep an eye out for others to test the theory, maybe a Marbury Knicks jersey or maybe some late vintage Roger Clemens. Should be fun.