SEPTEMBER 2003

Are the Olsen twins headed for NYU?

From the Post, the tradition of swapping jerseys following an international soccer match:

Jersey Exchange: Soccer's Shirt Tale

By Steven Goff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 24, 2003; Page D01

After most every important soccer match around the globe -- from World Cup qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur to friendlies in Frankfurt -- the same peculiar ritual has been bewildering observers for almost 50 years:

A player will peel off a jersey that has absorbed a couple quarts of sweat, grass stains, mud, maybe a splotch of blood. He'll find an opposing player, usually one closest to him when the final whistle sounds. Without hesitation, they'll exchange jerseys. Each will then pull on their newly acquired soaked garment and walk off the pitch in enemy colors -- a prize surpassed only by a championship trophy.

"It's a weird thing to do I guess, but it's something special that you can take away from every game, something to remember because the game is so significant when you play another country or a big club," said Jeff Agoos, 35, who has accumulated between 300 and 400 jerseys in a career that has included 2 World Cups, 1 Olympics, 134 national team appearances and 8 seasons in MLS.

"You take a little piece of history with you."

According to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., players have been exchanging jerseys since the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. No one is quite sure what triggered the first trade, but there's no disputing that it has evolved into one of the sporting world's oddest customs. (Rugby players also swap jerseys, but not as regularly as in soccer.)

FIFA, soccer's no-nonsense world governing body, has never approved of players stripping in view of thousands of spectators and millions of television viewers and has instructed teams to do their swapping in stadium tunnels or locker rooms. But that oft-repeated decree has been largely ignored and apparently no fines have ever been handed out.

The Iranians and Americans swapped immediately following their politically charged World Cup encounter in 1998 in France. American defender Gregg Berhalter -- who, like Agoos, has a large collection of jerseys -- has been known to position himself near an opposing star just before the end in order to land a prized shirt. MasterCard used the jersey-swapping theme (with French waiters trading aprons and beauty pageant contestants exchanging sashes) for a TV ad that ran in 20 languages during last year's World Cup.

Pele's famed No. 10 was so admired, the New York Cosmos equipment manager would execute a pre-emptive strike to avoid a postgame melee: Before a match, he would arrange with the opponent to distribute Pele shirts to all of its players after the game. "Pele was Pele -- he was the attraction," said Gordon Bradley, a former Cosmos coach. "Sometimes we would bring 25 or 30 of his shirts to a game. If we didn't, he'd have a hard time getting out of the stadium alive."

One of the most enduring images in international soccer history involved Pele and the exchange of a jersey. It was 1970 in Mexico, and Brazil had just defeated England, 1-0, in one of the classic games in World Cup history. At midfield, Pele and England captain Bobby Moore, both holding the other's shirt and smiling in admiration, embraced.

"The image that sticks in my mind is Bobby Moore changing shirts with Pele at the end," current England captain David Beckham, who wasn't born until 1975, told reporters in Japan before last year's World Cup rematch between England and Brazil.

England was also involved in perhaps the most notorious shirt swap -- or at least it was supposed to be a shirt swap. In 1966 at Wembley Stadium, England played in a terribly ill-tempered World Cup quarterfinal with Argentina in which Argentine captain Antonio Rattin was red-carded. England's disdain for the Argentines was so deep Coach Alf Ramsey ran onto the field afterward and disrupted the shirt exchange. "We don't swap shirts with animals!" he was quoted as saying. The "animals" reference has never faded from the bitter rivalry.

Sometimes a team will refuse to give up its jerseys out of embarrassment or humiliation. That occurred last summer when after losing to their regional adversaries from the United States in a World Cup elimination game, Mexican players sulked off the field in their own shirts. (Later, however, some American players were able to persuade their counterparts to make exchanges.)

On other occasions, players will withhold their jerseys because they were wearing a unique shirt. That occurred in Richmond last month when the U.S. squad was given retro uniforms styled after the 1950 World Cup team that shocked England. The visiting New Zealanders missed out.

Female players have also gotten into the act -- but to avoid Brandi Chastain-type hoopla, it's not done on the field. For many years, women's teams couldn't trade jerseys because their national federations didn't supply them with extras and the uniforms had to last for a long period. But as women's soccer has gained prominence the last few years, so have the budgets for equipment and uniforms, and now swapping shirts has become commonplace.

The den of Agoos's Fairfax townhouse, which he has kept despite being traded to San Jose from D.C. United in 2001, is a shrine to international soccer. There are about 20 framed jerseys on the wall. An enormous duffel bag holds several hundred more -- each neatly folded, in a variety of colors and designs, dating from his days with the U.S. under-16 national team. A few dozen shirts are at his home on the West Coast.

His favorites are a pair of England jerseys (from the 2-0 U.S. upset in Foxboro, Mass., in 1993 and the 2-0 U.S. loss at Wembley a year later).

When he gets home after a game in which he has acquired an opposing jersey, "I wash it right away -- there's too much stink on that," Agoos said.

The U.S. Soccer Federation spends $75 per shirt, plus an extra fee for a name and number. Each player is given two jerseys per game, one of which they are permitted to give away or keep for themselves.

D.C. United's Marco Etcheverry played for Bolivia's national team for many years, but he says some of his most treasured shirts are from his days playing in leagues in South America and Europe. He has gathered about 70 over the years and has used his friendships in MLS (with Agoos and United teammate Ryan Nelsen of New Zealand, among others) to add to his collection on non-game days.

"It's a sign of respect for you as a player and your team when someone asks for your jersey," Etcheverry said, "and to have something to remember that game or that moment in your career means a lot to a player."

While most players keep the jerseys they've collected, some give them to friends and family, pass them along to the team's staff members or donate them for charitable causes.

"I don't know why we did it -- we just did it," Agoos said, recalling the first time he exchanged jerseys about 20 years ago. These days, he considers his collection priceless. "Every one will mean something special when my career is over."

Remember Harvard Chemistry's suicides?

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The philosophical question of the day involves transgendered persons.  If you were a girl who became a guy, with the exception that you didn't have the full operation, which locker room would you use at the gym?

Also, what the fuck is with all of the celebrities dying this summer?  Ever since Robert Stack kicked back in May, they've been dropping like flies.  Barry White, Charles Bronson, Wesley Willis, Gregory Peck, Gregory Hines, Sam Phillips, Uday, Qusay, Buddy Ebsen, Buddy Hackett, David Brinkley, Katherine Hepburn, Hume Cronyn, Bob Hope, Johnny Cash, John Ritter.  Crazy.  And the pope lives.

Updates galore after a two week hiatus due to work and a trip to DC.  I fixed my CV posted in the fanfare section so it doesn't look retarded by embedding the fonts (like you care).  Also, August is archived in the features section.  Wahoo.  It was also nice to see that a Dunkin Donuts and Baskin-Robbins have sprung up next to Grafton Street, meaning I can eat junk food conveniently on the way to and from lab.  Stay tuned for FFL news as the Redskins open in just three nights. While in DC,  I got to see the Skins take on the Ravens.  I am happy to report that the FedExField PA no longer blares dance music after touchdowns, and instead, "Hail to the Redskins" is played after the extra point.  Big improvement.  Now if they would just can the sucky on-field guy who does a lousy job of revving up the crowd saying such inspiring things as, "Are we excited?!  Yeah!  All right!"  Lame and lame.  The crowd was pretty lively for a preseason game—even before the Skins started handing the Ravens their ass.  But you heard it here first: 6-10.  This team is paper thin, although I certainly wouldn't mind them surprising me.