A little help please -- vintage Griese jersey

[mortatort]

Just thought I'd bounce this off of the forum. A friend of mine told me that this jersey was taken from the Miami locker room by a friend of hos and given to him. He recently died and his sister gave me a bunch of his stuff.

Based on what you see here, does this look like a legit field used type jersey? I have no idea if it was used in a game or not, or if it was actually taken from the locker room. Looks pretty convincing but I'm not nearly familiar enough with jersey's to know.

Thoughts?

Untitled by Card Bucket, on Flickr

Untitled by Card Bucket, on Flickr

Untitled by Card Bucket, on Flickr

[the1mcjensen]

did you try the game worn group on facebook?

[mortatort]

I did not. Will look into it.

[byronscott4ever]

That tag looks like one I’ve seen on old NBA jerseys

[salthill]

Sorry for your loss.
That’s a nice jersey. (As a Dolphins fan, even more so.)
The tags are consistent with Sand Knit tags from the early 70s.
But I’ve no idea whether they’re commonly faked/reproduced or not.

[Dallas Cowboys]

Paging Grid!

[TimBuckTwo]

Hoping it's legit. To me it appears so.

[Derekbauer]

Originally Posted by salthill

Sorry for your loss.
That’s a nice jersey. (As a Dolphins fan, even more so.)
The tags are consistent with Sand Knit tags from the early 70s.
But I’ve no idea whether they’re commonly faked/reproduced or not.

To add to this post I was able to dig up a few old articles saying the "Large" designation on the OPs would be more common on the reproduced jerseys for sale to the public.

The tag definitely matches the early 70's jerseys but I wasn't able to confirm/deny if this particular Griese is an authentic game worn one.

[mortatort]

Ok so I'm learning that this may be a "team issued" jersey. Not game used, but also not necessarily for retail sale. If I understand this correctly "team issued" means that the team bought them and that the intended use for the jerseys could be anything... maybe as back ups, maybe as items to give to organization members or whatever.

[salthill]

Originally Posted by mortatort

Ok so I'm learning that this may be a "team issued" jersey. Not game used, but also not necessarily for retail sale. If I understand this correctly "team issued" means that the team bought them and that the intended use for the jerseys could be anything... maybe as back ups, maybe as items to give to organization members or whatever.

Yeah. I have one game-used and one event-used Dolphins jersey. (Both are modern. Both came from the team via the NFL.)

The “team issued” phrase is most commonly used to mean a game-cut jersey that wasn’t used in a game. (Either a backup player that didn’t get on the field during a game, or spare for a starting player that didn’t wear it on the field.)

Modern practice jerseys are usually called exactly that. (Mostly because the modern ones look different to the team’s game jerseys. No patches or markings. Just plain, with a number.)

But for vintage, “team-issued” can also cover practice jerseys; because they often used the same style (including some old game-used jerseys) for games and for practice.

And as you’ve noted, “team issued” is also used by sellers to cover jerseys (whether game-cut or replicas) sourced from the team, but used for other purposes - marketing, events etc.

It makes for confusion, mostly because sellers want to pitch their item as being as close to the field as they can, and also because things have changed greatly over time.

(Check in with the user “Grid” here. He’s very plugged into team equipment - particularly for the Bears - and might have some insights.)

[Grid]

It's a cool vintage jersey. But it looks like a store model, but with legit Sandknit tags.

Store jerseys mostly didn't have nameplates. That way, they didn't have to pay the player.

This looks like the nameplate is missing, but someone ironed Griese directly on the mesh.

The mesh is wrong too, from what I can tell in the pics. Again, that mesh looks retail.

The font for the numbers are wrong as well, and the stripes look off too.

Looks like someone customized a retail jersey. Added the name, and probably took tags off a blank jersey.

[mortatort]

Originally Posted by Grid

It's a cool vintage jersey. But it looks like a store model, but with legit Sandknit tags.

Store jerseys mostly didn't have nameplates. That way, they didn't have to pay the player.

This looks like the nameplate is missing, but someone ironed Griese directly on the mesh.

The mesh is wrong too, from what I can tell in the pics. Again, that mesh looks retail.

The font for the numbers are wrong as well, and the stripes look off too.

Looks like someone customized a retail jersey. Added the name, and probably took tags off a blank jersey.

\


Thanks for your comments and time to take a look.

And you're right, not really a name plate, just letters on the mesh. And they're not centered and a little crooked too.

But on closer inspection the letters are definitely not ironed on. They're painted on and the paint material looks the same, just thicker so as to fill in the holes. The numbers do have some yellowing while the letters are white, but it was stored poorly with the name folded under and the numbers exposed.

I took some close up photos and it does appear that the name uses the same method of application. You can see a little drag drip on the E that is similar to the ones on the orange of the 1 on the sleeve. Maybe they were working fast to get them cranked out at that time or something... who knows. It's interesting to learn new details to consider though, so thanks for your input.

Untitled by Card Bucket, on Flickr

Untitled by Card Bucket, on Flickr


Untitled by Card Bucket, on Flickr

Untitled by Card Bucket, on Flickr

Untitled by Card Bucket, on Flickr

Untitled by Card Bucket, on Flickr