CHARLOTTE — Even if Jeremy Chinn was small for a linebacker last year, he found someone smaller still to kick off a season-long tribute to his new community.
Chinn said during an appearance on NFL Network's Good Morning Football that he planned to wear a different jersey of a Carolinas sports legend to each home game this year, and will eventually get it signed by that athlete and then auction it off to benefit their charity.
He's starting the process Saturday with one of the biggest names in Charlotte sports history, if not the biggest person, by wearing a Muggsy Bogues jersey.
Bogues, the 5-foot-3 point guard who became a darling of the city during the early Hornets years and later as the coach of the WNBA's Charlotte Sting and a star of the movie Juwanna Mann (OK so maybe not that last one), was an easy choice for Chinn.
"He's so legendary to the Carolinas and specifically Charlotte having played in the city for ten years and coaching as well," Chinn said. "I figured it would be a great place to start."
Chinn said the idea began as a way "to learn about my new home in the Carolinas through sports and to give back to the area and communities that have willingly embraced me."
He said he hasn't planned out which jerseys he'll wear for each game on the home schedule, though he's open to suggestions for some.
"I do have one I'm super excited about," he said. "It's not 100 percent yet that I'm going to be able to get it so I don't want to jinx it, but fingers crossed."
The possibilities are endless. Will he continue to honor the area's basketball history with a Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning, Dell Curry (or his son Stephen), or a Michael Jordan? A former Panthers star? Or is he branching out to Charlotte's minor league baseball tradition with a Cal Ripken Jr. or a Jim Thome? Perhaps getting away from team sports for something honoring a Richard Petty or a Ric Flair or a Jim Beatty (the Charlottean who was the first to break the four-minute mile indoors)?
Which legend of the Carolinas would you like to see Chinn support? Submit your choice in the poll below and you may just see Chinn repping that jersey one Sunday this fall.
