The wrinkled paper with the face of Andrew Jackson on it – or is that Peter Gammons? – was all I had left to my name. It was stuffed inside the canary-yellow, $10 pair of pants I thought so stylish.

“Good luck at whatever it is you do in life,” the manager of the new-car showroom told me as he fired me by handing me a check for the minimum-wage hours I’d spent on the floor.

“You don’t understand,” I pleaded. “This is what I want to do with my life. I know I can sell cars, if you just give me the chance.”

“You really want to do this?” he said with doubt.

“Yes,” I said, fingers crossed.

He recommended a car dealership on a shadier side of Los Angeles back in the summer of 1981. “They’ll take anybody,” he said. “And let me give you a tip: Dress a little nicer.”

I decided to pursue a profession that didn’t require as much sartorial splendor. I became a sports writer, and my days as a car salesman ended before my first sale.

No fashion plate am I, but I do know a cool-looking uniform when I see one. The Kansas University football squad looked a lot sharper Saturday night in red than it ever did in blue in improving to 3-0 with a 34-14 defense-driven victory over Louisiana Tech.

They saw red jerseys hanging in their lockers, and all the players on the KU defense turned into enraged bulls.

OK, so maybe the jerseys had nothing to do with the defense intercepting four passes and sacking the quarterback seven times.

Still, the uniforms brought Memorial Stadium to life more than the boring blue standards, which call to mind the dull New York Giants. So my question is this: Why not permanently switch to the crimson shirts as the primary color for the football team?

The school colors are crimson and blue, so it wouldn’t be as revolutionary as it might sound.

Before traditionalists see red over a switch to red, consider this: The 1946 and 1947 (Orange Bowl) football teams wore red, a color that didn’t go away until the early ’50s. What’s more traditional than turning back the clock nearly 60 years? This isn’t another case of Larry Brown dressing the Jayhawks in dreaded yellow.

Let’s be honest. In recent years, the only football tradition has been one of losing. For those scoring at home, it’s been nine non-winning seasons in a row.

Cautious optimism abounds, so why not make the first 3-0 start since 1997 more than the beginning of a promising season? Make it the beginning of a new era, one with the football team establishing a bold identity separate from basketball.

This team’s identity: Its defense is fast, dangerous, and bloodthirsty. The color red captures it.

“We cranked out the red jerseys last week for no major motivational reason,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “I just talked with our equipment manager, and he said we could do it. The kids responded well to it.”

See, even college kids want to look their best. Red jerseys. Get behind it. Come on, it’s not as if anybody’s asking for canary yellow here.