The student in the corner was decked out in orange. Dark blue flared out from beneath his armpits and his hat was black with the Broncos insignia stamped across the front. Last week he was wearing A Yankee hat and a Yankee shirt with Jeter’s number emblazoned on the back. This week’s number was 18 and this week’s name was Manning. It made me wonder about the costumes that people wear. There is no chance he will be mistaken for Peyton Manning, just as I will never be mistaken for Amani Toomer when I don the Blue. Still, we do it all the time. We put on these costumes and pretend to be our heroes, these people from what sociologists call Reference Groups that help us decide how to behave at what to be. It made more sense to do that when I was a kid, but why, as a 20-something, would you do it still?
Spoiler Alert: I don’t have a good answer. I think it makes us feel connected to these people and through that connection we identify ourselves to the public as avatars of that person or followers of that individual or what they represent.