Michael Strahan to auction house: That’s not my Super Bowl jersey

Is the jersey Michael Strahan wore in Super Bowl XLII in the hands of someone who wants to auction it off or is it hanging on the wall in Strahan’s downstairs gym? At the moment, it’s an unresolved yet intriguing question.

The jersey became disputed when the former New York Giants Pro Bowler learned that Goldin Auctions had put the jersey up for bid in its latest auction.

Strahan claimed in an interview on Wednesday that he still has the sweaty jersey he wore during that 17-14 victory over the New England Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl. He said in a Pardon My Take podcast, “Why would I sell it? I don’t need the money.” The former star defensive end added that the jersey is the “most special piece of memorabilia that I have.”

However, Ken Goldin, CEO of Goldin Auctions, said in a statement that the auction house is “100 percent confident that Strahan jersey in the auction is authentic.” Yet out of respect for Strahan and the relationship Goldin Auctions has with him, the jersey was pulled from the auction until the dispute could be settled.

Making it more intriguing is the “overwhelming photographic evidence” Goldin Auctions claims to have in defense of the jersey’s authenticity. Goldin said, “the images speak for themselves.”

“Based on our personal experience and the experience of others in the industry there are many times that an athlete believes, on a good faith basis, they have an item from a specific event, or was given an item and told it was an item they used for a specific event, and actual photographic and/or video evidence conclusively proves this is not the case,” Goldin said in a statement. “This jersey has been photo-matched by two leading photo-match experts, Mei Gray and Resolution Photo Matching service. Both reached the same conclusion. Mei Gray in particular is the official authentication company of the NBA and NHL and is the only service that offers a lifetime guarantee of authenticity and a money back guarantee on the purchaser’s purchase price of the item.”

In the podcast, Strahan said that game was the last he ever played.

“I kinda knew if we were going to win I was going to retire anyway, it’s the Super Bowl, so I just knew after that game I was going to take everything,” he said. “I kept everything except the shoulder pads.”

He packed everything into a bag and gave them to a friend, Dr. Ian Smith.

“I have the one I wore the entire game,” Strahan continued. “Then when I got back to New Jersey, I took it out of the bag, the whole thing is soaking wet and nasty. I let it air out. I didn’t wash it. I didn’t want to have it washed because if you wash it, you pretty much wash away the game, in my opinion.”

Strahan provided a photo of the jersey he has hanging on his gym wall for comparison, seen in the images below with Goldin's jersey.

From Goldin Auctions:

“With respect to the jersey authentication, one third party photo-matching company did an analysis on the jersey hanging on Strahan’s wall and gave us the following report: ‘We are unable to make conclusive matches from both halves of Super Bowl XLII (to the framed jersey). The unique characteristics used to make the non-matches were the alignment of the mesh holes with the custom stitched numbers on the front of the jersey and the stains that appeared in different locations and shapes than on the jersey. Different mesh hole alignment and stains were seen in images in both halves of the games, which led us to making conclusive non-matches to images from both halves.’”

Goldin Auctions plans to re-list the jersey in a future auction once the dispute is concluded between the consigner and Strahan.