SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Fans walking around the WM Phoenix Open in football jerseys have become pretty common over the years, especially with the tournament played during Super Bowl weekend.
Just this year, Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers jerseys have been spotted around TPC Scottsdale, with the occasional hometown Arizona Cardinals jersey sprinkled in.
That’s why so many heads turned Friday when not one Mark Sanchez jersey, not two or three jerseys, but seven guys in seven different Sanchez jerseys walked through the mass of people around the famous 16th hole.
“The funny part is, so one of us walks by and people are, ‘Oh, Mark Sanchez, what’s that for?'” said Wyatt Rozas, who was wearing a white New York Jets Sanchez jersey. “And then another one walks by and they’re like, ‘Sanchez?’ and then six more walk by and they’re like, ‘What the hell?'”
The Sanchez gang is a group of friends who are juniors and seniors at Texas A&M, and grew up together in Dallas, Texas. They’re all between 21 and 23 years old, and two — Wyatt and Bryce Rozas — who’s the mastermind of the Brotherhood of the Traveling Sanchez Jerseys — are cousins.
The seven friends — Drew Bonneau, Reed Pafford, Carl Wilson, Connor Lehman, Carter Kryzak, Wyatt and Bryce — used their trip to Scottsdale as one last hoorah before returning to the real world with real jobs and real responsibilities, by sitting in the grandstand along the right side of the fairway of the famous 16th hole starts with Bryce.
In 2012, he received a green Jets Sanchez jersey as a gag gift for Christmas shortly after the quarterback’s butt fumble. And like most family jokes, it morphed into legend and lore. Before Bryce knew it, he started getting a Sanchez jersey every time the quarterback changed teams.
“Ever since our family has been collecting them,” Bryce said, “and then at one point we decided to come to this tournament and wear them all and it became a big hit.”
One of his other cousins, who’s not at the tournament, is the gatekeeper of the Sanchez threads and shipped the jerseys so the group could wear them.
On Thursday night, the group had a draft to see who would wear which Sanchez jersey.
Pafford won the first pick and being a Dallas Cowboys fan — well, they’re all Cowboys fans, actually — he picked the Sanchez Dallas jersey. Lehman picked Sanchez’s Denver Broncos jersey. Bonneau got the Washington Commanders jersey. Wilson picked the green Jets jersey. Wyatt was last and got stuck with the white Sanchez jersey — a youth small that he still can squeeze into. When Bryce was on the clock, however, he could’ve chosen Sanchez’s Chicago Bears jersey but knew Kryzak was a big Bears fan so he did the unthinkable for a Cowboys fan: He took the hit and picked Sanchez’s Philadelphia Eagles jersey.
“It’s better that they’re not in the Super Bowl this year,” Wyatt said. “In the past they’ve been in the Super Bowl and there’s a lot of people here that know they’re in the Super Bowl and they call you out for it.”