I’m entering my senior year of college, which means that for the second straight year I’m going to be older than most college basketball players getting drafted and I’m the same age as a lot NFL rookies who were drafted in April. Let’s ignore the fact that people younger than I am are about to be millionaires and I’m putting two dollars next to each other overnight and hoping that one becomes pregnant. Lets talk about sports jerseys.

I’m a die-hard sports fan. I want to become a sports reporter and I can talk about sports all day long. More specifically, I’m a die-hard Michigan State Spartans fan. The Spartans have two players who should get drafted in the upcoming NBA Draft, with Deyonta Davis potentially going into the top ten. I’ll support any Spartan. Draymond Green is one of my favorite NBA players and I’m still searching for a Spartan jersey of his to buy.

But, when it comes to Deyonta Davis, I’m torn. Is it weird for me to wear a jersey of someone who is younger than me? I think it’s pretty weird. When I was a sophomore in high school, he was in middle school. I wouldn’t have worn his jersey then. That would have been beyond weird. So is the same true now?

The same goes for Red Wings rookie Dylan Larkin, he’s 19 and went to a high school that is about half an hour away from mine. It’s not an insane idea that he and I might have played against each other growing up, I don’t think we did, but it’s possible. And I see people in my grade wearing his jersey. That’s weird right?

Think about it like this, that guy who you played against in high school, he’s now in the NBA with your favorite team. Are you buying his jersey? Regardless of whether you liked him or not, you probably viewed him somewhat as your equal, and now you could walk to your local sporting goods store and pay $80 for his jersey.

I’m not trying to stop people from wearing jerseys, nowhere close to that. My fraternity has it written in our by-laws that we have to wear jerseys on Thursdays, excuse me, Jerseys, and it’s my favorite day of the week. Breaking out a throwback Red Wings Bob Probert jersey is something that I look forward to every week.

But I think it’s weird to wear a jersey of someone younger than I am, or even a year or two older than me. I look at it like this, if we could have been in high school at the same time, I’m going to feel weird buying your jersey. So from here on out, I probably can’t buy any jerseys of any sports rookie. I’ll have to exclusively buy retro jerseys, barring some weird circumstance where someone with the last name “Metry” makes it to pros for any team.

I don’t think I’m the only person who feels this way, I just don’t think many people put two and two together. If I think about it, I don’t see many adults wearing jerseys of current players either. They usually go the throwback route, or in the case of my dad, just don’t wear jerseys.

So I’m going to apologize to Deyonta Davis, Denzel Valentine, and Dylan Larkin, but I can’t buy any of your jerseys. I’ll still buy them for my younger cousins though.