San Diego football coach Sean Lewis gives fan shirt off back to sell season tickets
Sean Lewis has San Diego State coming off a nine-win season in which it shared the Mountain West Conference title. He's down a polo after selling tickets
With virtually every significant college football game broadcast via traditional TV or some kind of streaming service, it's arguably tougher than at any point in modern athletics to get fans in the stands. San Diego State coach Sean Lewis will do whatever it takes to market his Aztecs program. Including giving someone the shirt off his back.
Literally. During a tour stop along San Diego State's fan-forward coaches' caravan, Lewis was asked by an audience member where he could buy the team-issued Nike polo that Lewis had donned for the occasion. "It was actually our last question of the night from the audience and he was like, 'Hey, Coach, that's a sharp polo,'" Lewis told USA TODAY Sports on Friday, May 22.
"'Where can we get something like that? ' It's something we had our equipment guy, Omer (Melzer-Bronstein) make up for our staff for recruiting. "I told him the shirts will be available in our bookstore on July, but then I asked him, 'Have you bought your season tickets?
' He said, 'Not yet, Coach. I said if you buy tickets right now, you can have the shirt off my back. He kind of hesitated and I said, 'I'm dead-ass serious.