Quote Originally Posted by jeffaary View Post
Michael:

This is great info, but as I've learned in the last few years there are no absolutes with this era of Patriots jerseys. Specifically regarding the Custom Crafted stamp, not all Patriots jerseys got them. When the Patriots Pro Shop started selling jerseys on their website a couple of years ago I ordered what was listed as a 1997 Keith Byars home jersey. I already had a home 1996 Terry Glenn and a 1997 road Byars, each of which had Custom Crafted stamps, as did every other Pats jersey from that era that I had seen. When the jersey arrived it did not have the CC stamp. My first thought was it was a fake, but the jersey had a TON of marks/burns/damage/repairs and it came straight from the Patriots. I went to the internet to see if I could photo match it. It took all of 2 seconds to identify it as the jersey Byars wore in the 1996-97 AFC divisional playoff and Championship games against Jacksonville and Pittsburgh. When I was in Boston last year I met with Jim Scollins from the Pro Shop and told him this. He told me that during that time frame the Pats actually used three different shops to do the names/numbers/logos, not just Custom Crafted.

I completely agree. Don Brocher (long time equipment manager) was a great resource to us before he passed away. He explained that it wasn't uncommon for them to use different shops for jerseys during the course of a season. The years stamped or tagged on a jersey don't always mean exactly what they read either. The equipment guys didn't care if the jersey was tagged a previous year as long as it was the cut, size style and manufacturer they needed. Players have even change their cut, size, sleeve, etc mid season for weather,comfort or whatever. Back up jerseys were sometimes use for a single game if they were behind on repairs. All that and more can lead to some elements of a jersey not lining up they way you might expect them to.

Jim