As the Athletics departed for their road trip, players on the team marked the beginning of football season by wearing jerseys. When sharing those photos on social media, the team wanted to be sure that one of their players was wearing a Randy Moss jersey and not that of another player who wore No. 81 for the New England Patriots.
The team shared a thread of players wearing different jerseys. In the first post shared in the thread, Nick Kurtz and Colby Thomas were pictured wearing Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts jerseys, respectively. Brent Rooker was wearing a Dak Prescott jersey and Jeffrey Springs was wearing a Christian McCaffrey jersey. Also pictured was Sean Newcomb, a Massachusetts native, who was wearing a New England Patriots jersey with No. 81.
It’s football szn 🏈 pic.twitter.com/k1two9UWW8
— Athletics (@Athletics) September 1, 2025
Newcomb’s jersey got some attention, as it was the number worn by Aaron Hernandez for most of his career in New England. It was also the number worn by Randy Moss while he was with the Patriots. Later, the A’s shared a photo zoomed in on the patch of the jersey to show that it was a Mitchell & Ness throwback from Moss’ historic 2007 season.
🧐 https://t.co/n7CdzOizbX pic.twitter.com/8Vg5FAYOik
— Athletics (@Athletics) September 1, 2025
Better safe than sorry, we suppose.
Moss and Hernandez were actually teammates in New England during the 2010 season. During that season, Moss wore No. 81 while Hernandez wore No. 85. Moss was traded to the Tennessee Titans during the 2010 season and before the 2011 season began, Hernandez switched to No. 81.