373: Jason Lee, Nottingham Forest, Merlin's Premier League 97 Official Sticker Collection

From the moment the £20 per week wage cap was lifted for professional footballers in England in 1961 the stars of the beautiful game were transformed into celebrities. Their influence on popular culture and social trends soon extended beyond the hallowed turf and players became as well known for their playboy lifestyles and crimes against fashion as they were for their footballing abilities. It’s fair to say we haven’t looked back since.

One particular area where footballers have had an enormous cultural influence is in hairstyles. Despite what Graeme Souness might suggest, which is ironic when you look back at some of his holiday snaps from the 80s, it was not Paul Pogba who first challenged the status quo and it’s fair to say that some players have become household names purely because of their choice of haircut. Colombia’s Carlos Valderrama is one such example. Another is Jason Lee.

When we meet Jason Lee in the sticker above it would be fair to wonder what’s so exceptional about his hair. It’s a fairly standard number one all over albeit with some fancy barber work on the beard and moustache. However, had the Nottingham Forest team photo for the 1996/97 season been taken a few weeks earlier we would have seen Mr Lee showing off a headful of dreadlocks neatly arranged in a topknot. This haircut led to the terrace chant of “he’s got a pineapple, on his head” to the tune of ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”.

Whether the chant was meant offensively or affectionately can be debated but it’s fair to say it hasn’t stood the test of time. This is compounded by the frankly embarrassing sketches on the 90s football staple, Fantasy Football, fronted by Frank Skinner and David Baddiel where the latter ‘blacked up’ and wore an elaborate pineapple/dreadlock wig to impersonate the Forest striker. Whilst the sketches focused primarily on Lee’s somewhat patchy form in front of goal the crass impersonation of his appearance brought back some unpleasant ghosts from football’s past where black players were routinely abused by supporters across the country. Sadly these ghosts continue to plague the game both in England and across Europe. I’d say there was a dissertation in this but that would border on shameless self-promotion.

As anyone who was informed that it was ‘coming home’ during the summer of 2018 can attest, Skinner and Baddiel have had a lasting impact on football culture in England. Baddiel has made vague apologies for his representation of Lee and has been an outspoken critic of anti-Semitism, particularly within the Labour Party, in recent years but his actions in the 90s undoubtedly had a negative impact on Lee’s reputation. In a journeyman career, that took in twenty different clubs, Lee scored over a hundred league goals but is sadly more remembered for a terrace chant than his footballing ability.

After retiring from playing in 2012, and a brief foray into management with Boston United, Jason Lee was appointed the Equalities Education Executive for the PFA in 2013. In his role he has spoken out about the abuse players receive and the harm it causes off the pitch and was instrumental in the organisation of the PFA’s social media boycott in response to the racist abuse of several high profile footballers in 2019. Maybe it’s time to remember him properly and time for some of the game’s more high profile pundits to look beyond players’ haircuts.