American Football: King of the Bay Area

One thing is universal across all professional sports leagues: jersey sales.

The number of jerseys sold is not only a reflection of a player’s popularity but also the first clue to their commercial value. Fans are never stingy with their wallets, buying jerseys to support their favorite players and show their loyalty—home jerseys, away jerseys, commemorative editions, throwback editions, limited editions, and so on.

The importance of a jersey to a professional player is self-evident. Some stadiums even hang jerseys with significant numbers from the rafters to commemorate a player’s great contributions. A single jersey becomes a bridge, connecting the shared memories and faith between players, teams, and fans.

After this year’s draft, Cam Newton’s jersey sales led the Alliance, far ahead of everyone else. This showed just how satisfied and fond the Carolina Panthers were of their number one draft pick.

As a case in point for the opposite, Lu Ke’s jersey sales were another classic example.

After joining the San Francisco 49ers as one of the Undrafted Players, Lu Ke was forced to give up the number eleven jersey he wore for those two games in college, all because of Alex Smith. He ended up choosing number fourteen, but his jersey failed to make any waves. The sales figures couldn’t even crack the top fifty within the San Francisco 49ers—

The team’s official roster has fifty-three players, but beyond those fifty-three are historical legends and certain players transferred this year. The jerseys available on the market definitely aren’t limited to just the current fifty-three players. And for an undrafted rookie quarterback, people had no expectations, so naturally, his jersey sales showed no signs of life.

Before the regular season, due to a series of unexpected events, Lu Ke became the helmsman of this brand-new San Francisco 49ers battleship. Sales of the number fourteen jersey did see a small increase, but it was still limited. It was estimated to be just enough to squeeze into the top fifty—because the sales were so low, there were no detailed official statistics. Jerseys ranked forty-fifth or lower probably only sold a few hundred units.

Ironically, the very few fans who did buy the number fourteen jersey didn’t do it to show support. Instead, they did it to vent their anger, expressing their stance to the team’s coaching staff and management by tearing, cutting up, altering, or defiling the jerseys.

In terms of jersey sales, Alex Smith still held the undisputed top spot on the team, while Colin Kaepernick, who joined this year, was second, showing that the fans had high hopes for him. But after three weeks of the regular season, things were slowly starting to change.

According to official statistics from the San Francisco 49ers and the NFL, Lu Ke’s jersey sales had skyrocketed by 660 percent over the past week, surging all the way into the top ten on the San Francisco 49ers’ team rankings!

Admittedly, Lu Ke’s jersey sales figures were still nothing heaven-defying. Forget the entire Alliance; even within the San Francisco 49ers, he had only just cracked the top ten. His sales numbers were still behind fellow rookies Aldon Smith, Logan Newman, and Marcus Lynch, which was nothing for a quarterback to brag about.

But no one could deny that the momentum and speed of the surge were truly staggering, especially considering Lu Ke’s Chinese Descent. This made it all the more remarkable—football has the weakest influence in the Chinese Community, its jersey sales unable to even compare to basketball’s, and even baseball jersey sales were better.

Now, Lu Ke’s jersey sales were climbing steadily, complementing his unstoppable performance on the field. It was one step at a time—incredibly arduous, incredibly difficult, but always moving forward.

Today, after finishing his relaxing yoga session, Lu Ke was driving home. At a traffic light near his neighborhood, he was contemplating how to allocate the one basic point he had earned this morning.

After the first week of the regular season, the daily training missions had undergone a seismic shift, completely aligning with the regular season’s game schedule. Now, two weeks had passed. After completing all the training missions on time, just as the clock struck midnight, the system had automatically notified him that he had completed the daily training missions and earned one basic point.

After a moment of thought, Lu Ke added this basic point to his Mid-range Pass Accuracy, raising it from sixty-seven to sixty-eight.

Although he had mainly chosen to upgrade Tactical Awareness and Observation Field of View with yesterday’s points, Lu Ke had also realized that his Mid-range Pass Accuracy and Short Pass Accuracy still needed improvement. Otherwise, even if his tactical arrangements were perfect, it would all be for nothing if his passing accuracy couldn’t keep up.

His Short Pass Accuracy of seventy-one and his Mid-range Pass Accuracy, now raised to sixty-eight today, had to catch up to the pace as quickly as possible.

Just as he finished allocating the point, the red light turned green. Lu Ke refocused, drove the car, and skillfully returned to the neighborhood where he had grown up. But then he froze, stunned. The scene before him left him utterly confused, or perhaps, astonished—

Along the short block, every single house had a San Francisco 49ers number fourteen jersey hanging by the door. It was clearly Lu Ke’s jersey. ’But... why?’

He slowly pulled into a parking spot on the side of the road and turned off the engine. Just then, he saw a neighbor passing by, who greeted him with overflowing enthusiasm. ”Hey, Bambi!” The neighbor then turned around, pointing to the number ”fourteen” on the back of their jersey. ”Go, Bambi, go!”

It was all so sudden. Lu Ke blinked, then couldn’t help but chuckle. He gave a polite wave. ”Thank you, Mrs. Franz.” Mrs. Franz lived on the corner. She was an incredibly warm-hearted old lady who would go door-to-door delivering freshly baked cookies for the children to taste and was always exceptionally active in community events.

Watching her walk away, Lu Ke opened the car door and got out. From across the street came the boisterous shouts of children rushing by. ”Bambi! Bambi! Bambi!” It wasn’t a unified chant, but a scattered, overlapping one, called out with gleeful laughter.

Lu Ke turned his head and saw a large group of kids, about eight or nine of them. Roughly half were wearing the red home jerseys of the San Francisco 49ers. If he wasn’t mistaken, he saw number fourteen and number eighty-eight. Before Lu Ke could respond, they zipped past like a gust of wind.

Lu Ke was completely bewildered. He walked toward his house, pushed open the door, and called out, ”Mom, what’s going on in the neighborhood? Why—” But he trailed off and froze. Staring at his father and mother, his brain took a moment to catch up before he broke into a hearty laugh. ”Can you two tell me what’s going on? Why are you suddenly wearing jerseys? I know it’s my number. But isn’t this... not your thing?”

The Newman family had a habit like this, wearing Logan’s number eighty-eight jersey to watch the games, just like truly loyal fans. But Lu Zhengze and Jiang Youning weren’t fans; they were simply supporting Lu Ke. So they never had the habit of wearing jerseys.

Today, Lu Ke saw both his parents wearing number fourteen jerseys, and they were wearing them over their regular clothes, with the sleeves and collars of the shirts underneath sticking out awkwardly. It looked truly bizarre, like a failed Halloween costume.

”So? How do I look?” Lu Zhengze was sizing up his own outfit when he saw Lu Ke and eagerly asked.

Lu Ke had to answer, ”You’re only supposed to wear a moisture-wicking shirt or a tank top under a jersey, at most. Wearing it like a jacket over your clothes... yeah, it naturally looks weird.”

It dawned on Lu Zhengze. ”Oh, then I’ll go change in the bathroom.” And with that, he turned and left before Lu Ke could stop him.

Lu Ke could only look at his mother. Jiang Youning tugged at her jersey. The jersey seemed a bit too big for her; the hem hung down quite a ways, making it look a little like a dress, but not quite.

Jiang Youning, however, didn’t mind at all. Beaming, she said, ”We just wanted to show our support. From now on, we’ll wear jerseys to watch the games, just like Austin and Tiffany. Tiffany even said today that our neighborhood is discussing whether we should have a big barbecue party this game day, gather everyone together, and watch the live broadcast.”

Seeing the astonishment in her son’s eyes, Jiang Youning walked over and patted him on the butt. ”What, not used to it? I went to Chinatown today, and a lot of young people were wearing your jersey. It seems your performance is winning over more and more people. In the future, maybe everyone on the street will be wearing your jersey.”

Listening to his mother’s explanation and recalling the scene on the street from just a moment ago, Lu Ke let out another chuckle and nodded. ”Maybe.” Then, Lu Ke finally took a proper look at Jiang Youning’s outfit. It still looked a bit odd. ”Mom, you didn’t buy a men’s size, did you? You know they have women’s sizes for jerseys, right?”

Jiang Youning’s mouth fell slightly open, a look of shock on her face. She didn’t say a word, but her expression made it perfectly clear: she had no idea.

Lu Ke giggled. ”If you’re not used to it, I can get you a women’s size from the team tomorrow.”

”Forget it, forget it. A men’s size is fine. A little bigger is good.” Jiang Youning waved her hand dismissively. Then, she seemed to remember something, walked around the sofa, and fished a marker out from the coffee table. ”Oh, right, right, quick, sign my jersey.”

”Mom!” Lu Ke felt the urge to facepalm. ’This feels so weird. Signing my own mother’s jersey? It’s not like she’s a fan.’

But Jiang Youning paid him no mind, shoving the marker into Lu Ke’s hand. ”Hurry up and sign it. That’ll make it one-of-a-kind. Otherwise, what if someone takes this jersey later?”

”If someone takes it, I’ll just get you eight or ten more.” Lu Ke didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But faced with the unyielding Jiang Youning, Lu Ke was the one who backed down in the end. He obediently signed his name on the back of her jersey, right above the number fourteen.