The Jacket

We all grew familiar with Don's Woodrow jersey, but it had a hidden supporting piece of apparel that I can now reveal. The Fulham varsity jacket:


After Fulham lost to Southampton in the FA Cup my son (who is a Villa fan) pointed out that Fulham lost every time I wore my Ream 2016-17 jersey. I thought back and realized that was true. I would bring it out for big matches and we lost them - the worst being the one time I went to Craven Cottage. So I decided to retire my Ream jersey. But then I realized that during recent matches that went well I had been wearing my Fulham varsity jacket.

So I started wearing the varsity jacket for every match. And you know the rest. However since I believe that if I speak of mojo then the mojo goes away, I kept the possible power of this jacket to myself.

Correlation is not causation, but the end of the season had to make me wonder about the power of the jacket. For my birthday in September 2017 my wife got me a polo shirt with broad white and blue stripes. I saw it and immediately was reminded of Reading's kit. I put on a forced grin and told my wife I liked it. But the "Reading shirt" hung in my closet as an unwanted reminder of how the season ended. When we got to the last week of the season I saw opportunity for the shirt. Since Fulham needed Reading not to lose, I decided to wear the jacket over top of the Reading shirt. I knew there was danger in splitting the mojo, but it was a desperate time. Reading got the desired result but the jacket couldn't pull Fulham across the finish line too.

Then the next week I put on my jacket for the first leg with Derby. In the middle of the first half my wife reminded me that we had to go to take photos of my son for prom. Not wanting to make his friends question his weirdo father wearing a jacket on an 85 degree day, I took it off. Derby scored shortly after that and won.

For the remaining two matches I was determined not to mess with the jacket mojo. I wore it for all of the second leg as I drove to the airport and I wore it today despite summer-like weather.

After the match, with its work done, I let the jacket get the rest it deserved and immediately put on my Ream jersey. Was the jacket the 12th man for Fulham? Probably not, but I didn't dare test fate.

 

1. Great post -- this is the same reason why I never wear purple when I go to Sacramento Kings games.

 

Love it.