Leafs Indigenous Celebration Game jersey auction raking in huge dollars
The Toronto Maple Leafs partnered with Tyler Tabobondung Rushnell, a 23-year-old visual artist, to create a very special warmup jersey for last night's game against the Detroit Red Wings. Rushnell drew upon his Anishinaabe culture to come up with the design, which was worn in honour of the Leafs' Indigenous Celebration night. It's important for us all to remember that no matter where we stand in Canada, we are standing on land that once belonged to Canada's Indigenous peoples.
The design on the jersey is truly beautiful. The Maple Leafs crest on the front has been re-designed with a new outline, new colours and and the name "Toronto" has been replaced with its original one, "Tkaronto." The shoulders feature a Thunderbird crest with "Toronto Maple Leafs" emblazoned across it. Unfortunately, the jerseys were only worn for warm ups. When the puck dropped, the Leafs were back to wearing their regular home jerseys.
The warm up jerseys are currently being auctioned off by RealSports, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre. At the time of this writing, Auston Matthews' jersey has the highest bid at $3,965. Marner, who scored his 500th career point in the game, is at $3,140. Tavares, Rielly and Nylander are all hovering around the $2,500 mark. Jordie Benn and Connor Timmins, who didn't dress for the game, have the lowest bids thus far at $915.00. Also being auctioned are the pucks from the warmup, as well as locker room name plates and jersey patches from the Marlies Indigenous Celebration game.
The Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre will use the funds to continue their support of the local Indigenous community. The auction can be found here if you are interested in bidding on any of the items up for grabs.
| POLL | ||
8 JANVIER | 23 ANSWERS Leafs Indigenous Celebration Game jersey auction raking in huge dollars Should the Leafs have worn their Indigenous Celebration jerseys the entire game? | ||
| Yes | 10 | 43.5 % |
| No, warmups were enough | 10 | 43.5 % |
| No, they looked like practice jerseys | 3 | 13 % |
| List of polls | ||
