Cooley Into Top 25 of Jersey Sales



Cooley jerseys rising. (By Preston Keres - TWP)

At the time of his death, Sean Taylor was the owner of the most popular Washington Redskins jersey, which wasn't enough to put him in the top 25 of NFL players, according to NFLShop.com numbers at the time. (Although the post-tragedy spike in his sales did briefly move Taylor into the Top 25.)

So it seemed odd that, as of a few months ago, the Redskins--the second-most valuable franchise in the NFL, with a string of sellouts stretching back to the Mesozoic Era --still had zero players on the Top 25 list of NFL jersey popularity.

Well, that was in late June, and a lot can happen between late June and late August, the closing date of the most recent NFLShop.com numbers.



In particular, Jason Taylor can get traded to D.C., immediately moving into the final spot of the Top 25. And even more remarkably, Chris Cooley can become the NFL's most entertaining player/blogger, shooting up to 19th on this list and making him the second-most popular tight end in the league and the most popular Redskin, at least according to online jersey sales.

Six teams have multiple players on this latest list; half those teams are from the NFC East. In fact, the Cowboys (five), Giants (three), Redskins (two) and Eagles (one) combined to put 11 players in the Top 25; no other division had more than three players on the list.

I've argued that Clinton Portis and Cooley are the most popular Redskins, but maybe I'm wrong. Is Taylor actually the second-most popular Redskin? Or maybe LaRon Landry? Santana Moss?

But the main point is, Cooley is tops. So if you don't think having an entertaining, informative and occasionally controversial blog can help boost your jersey sales, cast on eye at Chocolate City. Chris Cooley blogs his guts out and makes it to No. 19, passing, among others, the slightly more hyped Reggie Bush. Gilbert Arenas, meantime, plays a total of 13 regular-season games in 2007-'08, misses the All-Star Game, fails to make the slightly hyped Redeem Team, and yet ends the season with the 10th most popular NBA jersey, according to sales at the NBA Store in New York City and NBAStore.com. That's probably not a coincidence.

UPDATE: Alex Ovechkin remains this area's most dominant jersey seller; from July through yesterday, Ovechkin's jersey was the No. 2 seller on Shop.NHL.com.



Anyhow, here are the Top 25 NFL sellers, from April 1 - Aug. 26, 2008.

1. Brett Favre, New York Jets

2. Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys

3. Eli Manning, New York Giants

4. Tom Brady, New England Patriots

5. Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts

6. Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings

7. Marion Barber, Dallas Cowboys

8. LaDainian Tomlinson, S.D. Chargers

9. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

10. Darren McFadden, Oakland Raiders

11. Brian Urlacher, Chicago Bears

12. Devin Hester, Chicago Bears

13. Terrell Owens, Dallas Cowboys

14. Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys

15. Brian Westbrook, Philadelphia Eagles

16. Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh Steelers

17. Randy Moss, New England Patriots

18. Osi Umenyiora, New York Giants

19. Chris Cooley, Washington Redskins

20. Reggie Bush, New Orleans Saints

21. Patrick Willis, San Francisco 49ers

22. Michael Strahan, New York Giants

23. Jay Cutler, Denver Broncos

24. DeMarcus Ware, Dallas Cowboys

25. Jason Taylor, Washington Redskins