Most athletes are essentially itinerant laborers.  They go where the job is, changing locker rooms and fan bases and color schemes as often as they have to, for the joy of playing another game, lasting another season, earning another contract or paycheck.

A lucky few become the face of the franchise.  They look into the crowd and see their reflection in the wardrobe choices of worshipful thousands.  Children are named after them; they float above us on billboards; they symbolize a team, a city, a community.

Until they don’t.

In the Bad Old Days, players had no control over their careers.  This doesn’t mean they invariably played for just one team.  Some did (Ted Williams, Jim Brown, Mickey Mantle, Bill Russell), some didn’t (Wilt Chamberlain, Yogi Berra, Willie Mays).  Today, players can become free agents; this gives them the power to leave (Barry Bonds, Greg Maddux, Emmett Smith), and also the option to stay (Cal Ripken, Troy Aikman, Martin Brodeur). 

It seems harder to find those iconic players than it used to be.  But the fact is that even the players we most strongly associate with a single club have often wound up elsewhere at the end of their careers.  O.J. Simpson, San Francisco 49ers.  Harmon Killebrew, Kansas City Royals.  Warren Spahn, New York Mets/San Francisco Giants.  Steve Carlton, Minnesota Twins.  Bobby Hull, Hartford Whalers.  Brett Favre, New York Jets.   And seemingly any day now, Brett Favre, Minnesota Vikings.  (At least the Jets wore green.) 

In honor of the latest familiar face in unfamiliar garb, we present our Top 10 Players In Uniforms That Just Look Wrong.