Skip to content
 

Monday Morning Uni Watch

Screen shot 2010-11-21 at 7.38.18 PM.png

I spent most of the weekend washing and installing storm windows at a friend’s old house in the Hudson Valley but managed to sneak a peek at some football action here and there. Among the highlights:

• Sweetest NFL look of the day: The Redskins in gold pants and white jerseys. First time this year they’ve worn that combo, but I hope it’s not the last. Lots of additional photos here.

• Not a good look for the Jets.

• Or the Rams.

• Or the Saints.

• Kevin Williams of the Vikings was victimized by a typo on his NOB.

• Remember how Kevin Mawae used to tape a Christian cross onto his facemask, until the NFL put the kibosh on that? Looks like Texans punter Matt Turk is doing the same thing, only he’s darkening the tape so it doesn’t show as clearly, presumably in an attempt to fly under the radar of the league’s uniform cops. You may fool them, Matt, but you can’t fool Uni Watch!

Chad Bengal wore orange shoes. Dog bites man.

• As for Saturday’s NCAA action, Montana went BFBS.

• Maryland wore their solid-black Wounded Warrior uniforms.

• Iowa State wore gold jerseys.

• Oregon State wore orange.

• And Oklahoma State trotted out a set of black pants (which I believe are new) and black helmet decals (which I know are new). Oops, update: The black helmet decals aren’t so new after all.

(My thanks to all contributors, including Corey Ylinen, Chris Haar, Travis McGuire, Arin Mitchell, Bryan Starkey, and David Pealing.)

swoosh.jpg

Gullible’s Travels: A few jillion people have sent e-mails asking why I haven’t had more to say about those Nike-fied NFL uni designs that have been making the rounds. Here’s why: They had nothing to do with the NFL or with Nike. They’re just someone’s Photoshop concepts, and I never run Photoshop concepts here on the site. They might have qualified for Phil’s weekend tweaks if they’d been submitted as such, but they weren’t submitted to us. So at the end of the day, these designs are no different than the many, many uni concepts that circulate on various message boards and discussion forums every day. We don’t normally talk about those, and I saw no reason to talk about these either. It was a non-story, and my policy regarding non-stories is simple: I don’t waste time with them.

I did have a very brief Ticker mention on Thursday, basically dismissing the whole thing. I figured that’s all I needed to say — a tangential “Oh look, this stupid thing is happening, whatevs” — because I thought the Uni Watch audience was sophisticated enough to see right through the whole thing from the start. The templates were obviously from Nike’s NCAA Pro Combat series (do you really think Nike would just recycle those images instead of coming up with new ones?), many of the players had exposed calves (not permissible in the NFL), and so on. And whatever you think of Nike, they turn out better work than this. Anyone with even a vaguely practiced eye shouldn’t have needed me to debunk this story for them.

Some of you are probably thinking, “But so many people have been buzzing about it!” Yeah, because so many people were super-gullible and willing to believe something simply because it appeared on the internet. That includes a bunch of supposedly professional media outlets who should have known better and who obviously didn’t bother to do even the most rudimentary fact-checking. A simple call to the NFL and/or to Nike — or to me, for that matter — would have revealed that the designs weren’t legit.

Anyway, just because everyone else is jumping into the Idiot Pool doesn’t mean I have to. On the contrary, when some uni-related urban myth goes viral, the last thing I want to do is further dignify it by discussing it. So I let the whole thing run its course, and now the NFL has actually issued a statement confirming what I (and I hope most of you) knew all along, the end.

So that’s that. Let’s forget it ever happened and move on, yes? Yes.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Those UAB road uniforms with the illegible uni numbers are being revised. ”¦ Remember the 1945 wire shot of Babe Ruth with the Esquire All-Americans? Here’s one of the original Esquire uniforms from that game. ”¦ Best sweater ad ever (thanks, Kirsten). ”¦ Looks like Nike isn’t the only company equating football with combat (with thanks to Daniel Knox). ”¦ More on Danny Jennings’s misspelled NOB toward the bottom of this page. The weird part is the last two grafs, in which the writer almost apologizes for writing about a uni typo. This trope is all too common among other sportswriters — they can’t quite accept that uni coverage is legitimate, so they feel the need to footnote any such coverage with a “Hey, I know it’s stupid to be writing about this, but here you go” proviso. Lame (with thanks to Louis Gaunch). ”¦ Coupla great auction finds by Mike Hersh: a Pennsylvania Railroad Operators baseball uni (click on the photo for a larger version and some sheet music for a song dedicated to Honus Wagner. ”¦ Speaking of auctions, Ken Juba spotted this Penguins prototype, along with some cool baseball-themed comic books. ”¦ Nice upgrade for Holy Cross hoops (with thanks to Patrick Hart). ”¦ Check out the awesome letterhead on this 1944 Packers contract (great contribution from Jay Rupert). ”¦ Loads of tasty wool cycling jerseys showcased on this page (with thanks to Sean Clancy). ”¦ New look for the Kinston Indians (with thanks to Brendan Dearie). ”¦ Not sure I’ve ever seen football players keeping warm with wool coats before. That’s a shot of the 1912 Nebraska Cornhusers, submitted by Larry Bodnovich. ”¦ “Nike originally said they created the N7 Line of shoes specifically to fit the feet of Native Americans,” says Chris Chaussee. “Now it seem like they’ve abandoned that idea for the sake of a color scheme.” ”¦ Not sure I’d been aware of Miami University’s “Love & Honor” nose bumper until Chris Cullum pointed it out to me. ”¦ Remember the inconsistent thickness of the red striping on the Kansas basketball uni? They now appear to have fixed that problem. Memo to Adidas: You’re welcome. ”¦ Chris Young says a Cleveland friend of his recently spotted this DIY jersey. ”¦ New road uni for UVA hoops, although their home uni appears to be unchanged from last season (with thanks to Kevin Zdancewic). ”¦ The image quality isn’t great, but it isn’t every day you get to see screen shots of a Bears/’Skins color-on-color game — with the Bears wearing orange! — in 1946 (great discovery by Mark Carroll). ”¦ The camouflage phenomenon has spread to college volleyball. That’s Truman State (with thanks to Kate Sutter). ”¦ If you scroll down in this thread, you’ll find a ton of really wonderful fan photos of Tiger Stadium (big thanks to Morris Levin). ”¦ What’s even better than a page of vintage clothing labels? How about a quilt made from vintage clothing labels (you rock, Robin Edgerton). ”¦ Several good finds from Mike Hersh, including Maurice Richard in an old-timer’s jersey, several NHLers in jockeys’ silks, and a CFL uni with oddly oriented TV numbers (which I believe we’ve seen before, but it’s still plenty interesting). ”¦ Lotsa good stuff from Bruce Menard, including a beautiful Ebbets Field usher’s cap, a potpourri of uniforms in a 7up ad, and the 1917 Yankees showing support for the Great War. ”¦ Rugby news from Eric Bangeman, who writes: “Samoa is sporting sharp-looking new uniforms this fall, using an asymmetrical look with Polynesian print on one of the sleeves, similar to Fiji’s sweet-looking kit. Wales wore their new blue for blue sake alternates against Fiji as well.” ”¦ Here’s how Oregon State’s turquoise basketball uniforms looked yesterday. ”¦ New hoops uniforms for Buffalo (with thanks to Spencer Seaner). ”¦ What’s going on here? No, he isn’t missing his uni number — it just isn’t quite visible in that shot, because it’s from the period when the Bulls’ numbers were positioned way off to one side (with thanks to Kevin Zdancewicz). … I’ll be on the road for most of today. Back home tonight. See you tomorrow.

 
  
 
Categories
NFL
Comments (148)

    Thanks, Paul for the cycling and Tiger Stadium pics (which just scream DETROIT). I won’t be getting much work done today!

    Oklahoma St. wore the black pants and decals vs. Texas A&M this year, but they were paired with black jerseys… link

    You can barely read the numbers on Oregon State’s Turquoise uniforms. Coming on the heels of the UAB number debacle I ask…What up, Nike? Were you keeping your group of third-grade uniform designers up past their bedtime? Those two sets are both embarrassing.

    And the uniforms for the UB (Buffalo) Bulls. Uglee!

    I’m really not seeing the problem here… I guess maybe the numbers on the front could be bigger? The color combination is hardly any worse than a couple of NBA teams with red or orange on blue.

    The UAB uniforms weren’t designed by Nike, their assistant coach already took credit and the apologized for his decision.

    The Connecticut Whale (AHL) will unveil their (green) third jersey on Tuesday, November 23. Interesting note that Reebok couldn’t meet the deadline to produce the jerseys, so they subcontracted to SP for the first set of uniforms. The home and away Reebok jerseys should arrive by mid December, so the Whale will be wearing the green third jerseys both home and away until then.

    link

    Oh my God that Pro Player Penguins concept is a hot mess! I’m so glad they went with a more understated design.

    The ‘Skins looked great yesterday.

    Holy Cross’ new uniforms are a great example of what simple and classic works. Notice the lack of clutter on the jerseys. And compare those uniforms with Kansas’ child-drawn squiggly lines running down the side of its uniforms.

    Here is hoping that the skins next few years can get a good mix of all 3 pants and 2 jerseys on the reg. Give me the all white look 1 game a year make it a prime time thing, burgundy over white 2 games a year, white over gold 2 games and then the standard BovrG/WovrB stuff the rest of the year.

    The direction of the bat on the jerseys makes more sense in that it communicates better when “read” from left to right, but then the way the feathers are reversed and tail off in the opposite direction lengthens the script and requires the lettering to be smaller than it otherwise would be. Very odd indeed.

    Watching the Jets – Texans game yesterday it looked like some of the Texans uniform pants were a different shade of blue than others. It was most noticeable on Andre Johnson and an unnamed O lineman, who looked like their pants were inky blue, while everyone else looked like they had navy blue pants. At one point they were in the huddle and it was plain to see how different the blue shades were.

    Anybody else catch it (or comment on it yesterday)?

    No, but the Jets jerseys and pants CLEARLY didn’t match. Annoyed me greatly. Just another reason to hate the Jets

    It’s not that they’re a different color, it’s that they have a different reflective quality on the fabric. Common problem. Matching or not, the green pants on the Jets are abominable.

    I could have sworn we’ve seen concepts of jerseys as recently as last month (the Anaheim Ducks third sweater) and all the concepts of the NBA jerseys this summer. Most of them weren’t concretely going to the actual designs, are we idiots for looking at those as well?
    I know UniWatch HATES modernized uniforms, and NIKE, but I don’t think that makes the rest of us morons for being curious, or even intrigued by the designs.
    And while looking at the templates with friends, we all pointed out the low socks, the alternate helmets, and everything else that is against uniform law in the NFL, but someone said, “If anyone could get them to relax the rules, it’s Phil Knight, and the dollar signs he could bring in.”

    >>I don’t think that makes the rest of us morons for being curious, or even intrigued by the designs.<< That's not what I said. Be as intrigued as you like. But taking them seriously, treating them as something that actually came out of the Nike offices, and losing sleep over the whole thing (either due to excitement or apprehension) -- THAT'S pretty stupid. It's someone's Photoshop concepts. If you dig that, great. I tend not to bother with that kinda stuff.

    You know the best way to capture new readers and the hold current ones? Be an elitist dick. That normally works.

    It’s all about respecting other people’s taste. Not everyone likes the same uni elements. With that being said, I have noticed more open disdain for opinions that stray outside of the conventional UniWatch box. No one should be called an idiot for wondering if those pro combat-like NFL prototypes were real or not. Just my two cents.

    “It’s someone’s Photoshop concepts. If you dig that, great. I tend not to bother with that kinda stuff.”

    Could you discontinue the “Uni Tweaks” section, then? The garbage regularly posted in that feature is far less professional than these latest Nike-fied designs.

    The point was that it was obvious the “Nike designs” were just photoshops, thus, all of the buzz about “check out these new Nike prototypes for the 2012 season” was stupid and not worth more than a quick mention at best.

    If you can’t understand that… well… you do the math.

    “Could you discontinue the “Uni Tweaks” section, then? The garbage regularly posted in that feature is far less professional than these latest Nike-fied designs.”

    i’m sure those who take the time and effort (and subject themselves to critiques like yours) will appreciate those kind words

    if you don’t like the uni tweaks, and i’ll heartily agree, not everyone does…

    SKIP THEM

    but a lot of people DO like them

    whether or not paul chooses to post the nikefakes has nothing to do with the tweaks section

    I agree with the request to kill the uni tweeks section. Go to the Creamer board if you want that stuff.

    As someone who does uni concepts as a once-in-a-while hobby, I can tell you it IS time-consuming work, even if you’re using pre-existing graphics, and it takes a lot longer when you make them from scratch. Even with tricks of (non-Photoshop) quick floods, number & uni templates, there’s still things like jersey sleeves / pants / shorts / socks, hat/helmet and many other pain-in-the-ass details I always end up going back and working on. Usually no template is perfect, and sometimes have to do front, side & back pieces to explain the point. Not everybody’s tweaking or OCD is at the same level, either.

    As for other general content, if there’s something I’m not interested in, then I just simply skip over it.

    Unfortunately the Nike tweaks ended up claiming national fame & creating a lot of confusion and fear, us “elitists” could spot as fakes a mile (or a kilometer for non-U.S. folk) away.

    I don’t think I’m going to read this blog anymore. I’ve checked it daily since it launched, but I can’t handle it. UniWatch is so self-righteous about their convictions, but far too sensitive about anyone disagreeing with Paul’s opinion. What was the point of that 5 paragraph “Gullible’s Travels” segment? To tell your loyal readers how utterly stupid they are. If so, congratulations. You have succeeded.

    The readers are the people supporting this site; adding content and supporting the businesses like “Homage” and “No Mas” that pay for the site’s upkeep that end up making this silly study of jerseys and uniforms a worthwhile venture.

    We don’t all get paychecks from ESPN to comb over every minute detail and trend in the uniform business. This was supposed to be just a release, a distraction, a break away from everyday concerns to enjoy a different end of sports.

    I use to look forward to reading this post every morning. It use to be so much fun. Not anymore. I’m done with UniWatch for good.

    I don’t know if I’m going to stop reading, but I admit I was more than a little annoyed at the tone of that portion of the post. Paul, now and then I find things that you say to be rather condescending. I never thought that those concepts were done by Nike, but I was insulted FOR the people who did. Your comments made me think that you were addressing people you disdain, as though, if they really thought these might be real, there opinions/thoughts were not even worthy of being considered. It was like you were annoyed that you even had to take the time out of your schedule to address it. Not everyone who enjoys the site is as familiar with the intricacies of uniforms as you and some of the readers are, being that you have a substantial repertoire of knowledge on the topic. I guess ultimately my point is that I found your comments insulting.

    As for the Tweaks, I kind of enjoy them, but it is rather contradictory of you to say you don’t want to give time to photoshop ideas and then have a section dedicated to them. Like I said, I enjoy them however, and appreciate the time people put into them.

    Watch the door and all that.

    I’m sure Paul gets tired of the same e-mail over and over again. And it’s not like it has gone unmentioned on this site. It was debunked in a ticker item, it has been debunked time and time again in the comments. So, yeah, I’m sure Paul is very glad to see the back end of those tweaks. It should also be noted (and has been), Paul doesn’t have anything to do with the Tweaks on this site, and I and many others gloss over them.

    All of that said, it does seem like Paul has had some extra vitriol the past couple months. Maybe the August sabbatical didn’t do enough?

    Even if we grant that Paul’s “tone” in that section was inappropriate, which I don’t, big freakin’ whup. Can’t a guy have a bad day? It’s like, I have a handful of favorite novelists, but even my absolute, all-time, I’ll-buy-anything-they-write-in-hardcover writers publish a crap book every now and then. Am I disappointed when this happens? Sure. But dude, EL Doctorow doesn’t actually have a moral duty to please me with every sentence he ever writes. He’s allowed to have a bad day, or a bad year, and write out of his ass for a while as a result. You’d think sports fans of all people would understand the “sometimes a guy just has a bad game” thing. Is it really so hard to remember that strangers, including bloggers and journalists, are actual human beings too, and to make allowances for the fact?

    I think some opinions on uniforms can be expressed in ways that seem to close off alternate opinions, but in fairness I’ve noticed a lot more open discussion and disagreement on the site in the last year. Phil clearly doesn’t agree with Paul’s uniform opinions, and used the material of guys like Jim Vilk who disagrees with everybody, and it is all considered legit. Some uniforms have more than one standing opinion on them (Phil, I believe loved the new Cavs unis, and Paul’s column calls them “boring;” Vilk hates Oregon’s uniforms, traditionalist Paul kind of likes them; etc).

    I looked at the Pro Combat photoshops, and they were all terrible. Now, having a disagreeable photoshop concept of a uniform is not anathema on this site; Phil cheerfully publishes several a week, which is a nice effort even if some of the concepts would make me vomit. As Paul said, those photoshops were not submitted to this site, they were being tossed around the social webisphere and people were panicking that they were legit. Paul’s argument is, “of course they aren’t.” Could he have clarified that position in his initial post? Maybe. But his theory that the people who daily check this site know enough about uniforms to be able to spot the fakery is legit.

    Do I agree with all the opinions? Nope, not at all. Do I like the tone all the time? No. Will I find the kind of uniform news resources provided here anywhere else? No, and I’m glad it’s put on by people who care.

    “guys like Jim Vilk who disagrees with everybody”

    Nah, man, it’s “everybody disagrees with Jim Vilk.” ;)

    I think Paul’s annoyance stems from a similar situation when in 1983 in a Bloom County comic strip, Berkeley Breathed had Milo talking to his bathroom mirror, a la Mike Doonesbury did in a 1971 Doonesbury strip, which people mailed in numerous xeroxes over the years, reminding Breathed on what he’d apparently copied. Breathed wrote in the last Outland book, “Now stop sending these to me.”

    This seems like a pretty ridiculous topic to get bent out of shape over. This is a UNIFORM blog is it not? We’re not debating world news right? When a story about NFL Pro Combat uniforms comes out, whether fake or not, Paul should expect that his readers would seek out his opinion. I can admit I didn’t realize the unis were fake when I first looked at them, it seemed right up Nike’s alley to do something ridiculous like that. I made a beeline to this site so I could get Paul’s take, and was surprised there was little to no comment on it. He could have saved his Email inbox a lot of wear and tear by responding to the story when it happened.

    Loved the Redskins white jersey and gold pants combination. I agree, I hope that it is not the last time that they use this combination. I wished that they would have worn it against Dallas for the season opener. I have never seen them wear white jerseys with gold pants against the Dallas Cowboys. They should always wear the white jerseys at home against Dallas, that is a tradition the Redskins should continue.

    The Pats and Lions will have another color vs color game on Thanksgiving as both are wearing their throwback uniforms (Pats in red, Lions in blue)

    I’d rather see the Lions do it with their 80’s uniform instead of the boring throwback… but YES! to the color vs color anyway.

    Reading the caption for that Nike N7 thing- it looks like those shoes are sold to generate money for their N7 fund. There’s no indication on the Nike N7 website that they’ve discontinued the specialized shoes, in fact the fund includes “product donations” in its programming. It’s not a leap to think that would include shoes.

    Looks to me like Nike, while trading on the American Indian inspiration for the shoes, isn’t just lining their pockets here, they’re actually doing something good.

    Good on them for that.

    As a Skins fan, I was beyond thrilled with the yellow pants – and the accompying socks looked great. Then Dan Steinberg with the DC Sports Bog in the Washington Post wrote they looked like the official pro football team of McDonald’s. Can’t get that out of my head now.

    Wouldn’t the official pro football team of McDonald’s wear a brighter shade of red than the Skins’ burgundy (he writes, looking in the direction of Kansas City)?

    …yeah that’s a rather stupid comment. If anyone should be the official team of McDonald’s it’s the Chefs..err Chiefs.

    Dan Steinberg is a moron.

    That’s just a stupid thing dull people say whenever they see the color yellow on a sports uniform that also includes any shade of red. If not Steinberg, then several of his colleagues said the same thing about the Nationals home unis it seemed like every few months from 2004 to 2010. Because, you know, it’s a really original thought and it’s what everyone is thinking anyway or something.

    Kind of like how you can’t combine red and green without all the really brilliant, original thinkers telling you that those are Christmas colors and any team wearing them looks like Santa Claus. It’s like, way to think inside the box, chief.

    Or you can’t wear yellow and brown without most people thinking of potty time. Let’s grow up – UPS looks classy in yellow and brown, the Padres used to, and Wyoming’s a tweak or two from resuming their classy look.

    Screw “potty time”, why is it that whenever a team wears brown & yellow, people always refer to the yellow as mustard?

    No one ever refers to the Steelers or Oakland A’s as wearing mustard, yet it was all about the “mustard and brown” when the Broncos wore the AFL throwbacks last year.

    The Jeff’s point is especially bothersome since mustard is an actual common name for a shade of yellow that looks nothing like the yellow most teams wear. It’d be like calling every shade of green “olive.” Like, “I’m so tired of the A’s wearing olive and mustard all the time. They look like a sub sandwich gone wrong.”

    And how come the SF Giants and the Orioles get a pass for wearing Halloween colors all year long? If we’re going to live in a world of strictly delineated color cliches like yellow+red=McD’s, then surely black and orange is no lower than #3 on the list of combos that must always be compared to something else.

    And when people aren’t comparing teams to McDonald’s, they say mustard and ketchup. How does USC get a pass on that?
    link
    Too bad that photo wasn’t available Saturday night…that could have been my #10.

    When I was a very young kid, growing up in the DC area, and just figuring out this thing called football, I thought the Skins were somehow associated with McDonalds too. The colors, McDonald’s promotions, and the fact that there was a player named Chris Hanburger on the team. What the Skins wore yesterday, brought back some of those memories. It was nice to see.

    You mentioned how you thought the saints didn’t look good. How come I never see them wear gold pants with their black jersey anymore? That’s a much better look than the full blacks. And as much as I don’t like the full blacks I think I like the white jersey less.

    Re.: CFL TV numbers.

    It’s the Ottawa Rough Riders 1966-67. In 1968 they readjusted the position of the numbers.

    Don’t have pics but I know for sure ok state had the black helmet decals when they first went all black a couple of years ago.

    Love the browns jersey…hard to believe we’ve gone through that many qb’s in just over 10 years

    Funny to think if it’d been a Colts jersey representing the same time frame, it’d be only one name.

    Unfortunate misspelling of Cincinnati Bengals’ Chris Crocker’s last name on the Paul Brown Stadium scoreboard yesterday. This happened while Crocker was injured no less.

    link

    “Anyway, just because everyone else is jumping into the Idiot Pool doesn’t mean I have to.”

    Wow, Paul…you’re kind of a dick.

    Yeah – what happened to Paul’s pseudo-mea culpa a few months back where he said he was going to be less harsh with his readers, appreciate them and their opinions more, etc?

    Looks like the old Paul is back.

    Anybody get a screen grab of Eagles FB Owen Schmitt with a big chunk of paint missing off his helmet last night? Helmet shell was gray underneath. I didn’t stop to take the pic b/c I figured that CERTAINLY it was already being sent in by another UWB reader…

    So wrong they’re right. Plus, the ones without the little Santa caps could double as Italian-American heritage caps. Why should we Irish-Americans get all the ethnic-color-cap fun?

    Seriously, every time I see a green-and-red variation of a Red Sox cap or jersey, I become more convinced that those should be Red Sox colors. Just take everything that’s navy in the Red Sox current unis, make it green, and leave everything that’s red as-is.

    Are “uniform aesthetics” still in bounds if they’re in reference to the way a football broadcast sounds? If so, please read on. If not, please strike this from the record:

    Mike Vick. Mike Vick. Mike Vick. If that’s the name he prefers, fine. Then that’s what the graphics should say, that’s what all the broadcasters should say, and that’s how it should generally appear in print.

    However, Mr. Collinsworth, to most of the world, he’s known as Michael Vick, and you should probably follow suit during a game broadcast. If you two are buds and you want to show off that you refer to him as Mike a couple times, that’s fine. In fact, his first name is used sometimes (especially first reference in a new conversation), but typically beyond that, most players are referred to by their last name.

    I don’t know why it bothered me so much watching the game, but it was like nails on a chalkboard last night.

    Uniform aesthetics? Absolutely not.

    Athletics aesthetics? In my book, yes.

    To me, the name “Mike Vick” just does not have a good flow to it. “Michael Vick” just sounds so much better.

    Really, any common nickname for Michael combined with the last name Vick would sound better to me than Mike does.

    Mick Vick
    Mikey Vick
    Mickey Vick
    Ron Mexico

    All of those have a better ring to them than Mike Vick.

    I find it more annoying when Al Michaels constantly refers to players by just their first name. It started, I suspect with Ben Roethlesberger (approximate spelling) being referred to constantly as “Ben”, but now he uses first name only almost as often (if not more often) than last name only.

    It just feels far too familiar to me.

    This is actually a thing in journalism. Thirty or more years ago, newspaper sports sections had a certain looser editorial ethos than the news sections. Since then, news sections have incrementally chased the sports section and adopted the sports editorial ethos. One sees this most clearly in political journalism, which is now dominated by an approach to reporting and writing where you could change a few proper nouns on any given politics story and have yourself a perfectly functional sports story. (Yes, Virginia, politics reporting wasn’t always only about the horse race of who’s winning and losing. Once upon a time, reporters would actually tell you what our elected officials were doing, not just speculating about how voters would respond to what everyone else is saying about them.)

    At the same time, sports reporting has chased and by now largely adopted the editorial ethos of the entertainment section. And so we see the sports media conducting itself like correspondents for Entertainment Tonight, with the celebrity-culture emphasis on first names and interpersonal drama and making the reporter a central actor in any story and whatnot.

    The really bad news: News reporting in all mediums is following sports journalism down this rabbit hole, too.

    For reasons I can only guess, WFAN radio guy Mike Francessa always — ALWAYS — refers to Johnny Bench as “John Bench.”

    As for Mike/Michael Vick, how about just calling him “Vick”? I’ve noticed that announcers seem to say his full name more often than they do with other players.

    Similar vein, different medium. Dave Molinari, Penguins beat writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, always refers to the great coach as Scott Bowman.

    From that Packers contract in the ticker:

    “We will gladly increase the amount of this contract as soon as you are playing the kind of ball deserving more money.”

    Wow. If only modern contracts were this simple.

    Anybody notice on the Packers contract the signature pretty clearly reads “Curly Lambeau” but the name at the top is spelled “Curley”?

    Indiana played a “home game” vs Penn State at FedEx Field in Washington DC on Saturday. However, “Penn State” was painted in one of the endzones.

    link

    Just to shoot a dead horse one more time……the Uniform concepts made it to PTI last week, i think it was on Thurs.

    I love the extra entertainment in the comments on those days when readers get their panties in a twist and vow never to come back to the site. I guess we were due for one of those.

    The Redskins looked amazing yesterday! Let’s hope next season they stick with the gold pants for all 16 games, while getting rid of the unbalanced 80’s “sleeve” striping on the jersey (best solution is probably a gold sleeve cuff, or eliminating the striping altogether).

    I really had no beef with Paul said about the Nike that were going around last week. I had seen them a few months ago and thought nothing of them.

    Last week though, they were showing up everywhere. On this message board I’m a member of, people were posting the link to those concepts like every hour and it was annoying as hell. I couldn’t believe people thought those were going to be actual uniforms.

    Some people on here submit some freaking amazing uniform concepts that could easily be rumored as something official. We should give some of those more publicity!!

    Wrong color yellow and haven’t they been wearing gold over burgundy a few times already. Now I wouldn’t mind seeing that on the Chiefs, though they might have that combo somewhere.

    I do like the Redskins’ yellow pants, however I wish the striping was more consistent. At the moment, each uni element has a different pattern: helmet = w-y-w (spaced apart); collar = m; sleeve = m-y (no space); pants = m-w-m (no space); socks = y-w-y (tiny bit of space).

    So you didn’t discuss it today, but I think that the Giants unis look horrible with the Reebok(adidas anyone) super stretchies. You can say what you want about all of the crazy Nike designs like Oregon, but at least the cut of their jerseys looks light years better than the Reeebok/Adidas jerseys.

    I don’t know if Turk’s cross is form so much as it is function. It appears that he has customized his facemask and removed a few of the bars, so the tape might just be there to smooth over some rough edges.

    Maryland unis look like exact duplicates of the Texas Tech UA Warrior unis… lame!

    As for the Jets in all green, I personally like them, the stripes break it all up and provide the contrast.

    The eBay listing for the Esquire uni touts that the game was “nationally televised.” In 1945, that must’ve been a TV audience of about 3 people.

    Like Paul said I too had never seen football players from that era keeping warm. I have a picture of Ohio State guys all cold and standing on sidelines during game with Wisconsin from mid 1910’s and no coats or anything.

    I am referring to the Nebraska 1912 big coats.

    and love that sweater ad and the Northwestern player on the right hand side of it. Check out the Wildcat uniform.

    Seems the Nationals decided not to update part of their on-field apparel for 2011
    link
    I wonder if they will just wear their new for 2011 Road version at home
    link

    According to Wikipedia, Majestic Athletic will provide new button-down front spring training/batting practice jerseys, for the 2011 MLB season
    link

    The Devils have added a patch to honor their former coach Pat Burns, who passed away this past Friday. It is a round black patch with ‘PB’ in white, on the right front side. Simple and tasteful.

    So, the front of their jersey now reads “PBNJ.”

    I was on the road all day and have only now caught up with all the comments. I reeaaaalllly don’t want to spend much more time with the non-story, but a few of today’s comments cry out for response.

    Let’s start with this:

    >>You know the best way to capture new readers and the hold current ones? Be an elitist dick. That normally works.<< You know the best way to make a faulty argument? Start with a faulty premise. That normally works. Here's your faulty premise: You're assuming that my goal is to attract the largest possible readership. But that has never been the goal here. The goal is for me to be true to my creative instincts and cover what makes sense to me, and then invite people to get on board if they choose. I honestly don't care if that means 10 people or 10,000 -- either way, it's a nice bonus, and I'm grateful for whatever level of readership the site attracts. If that includes you, great; if not, that's fine too. Either way, I'm sure we'll both sleep just fine tonight. Anyway, what exactly is "elitist" about thinking that my readers (all 10 or 10,000 of them) were smart enough to identify the Photoshops as, y'know, Photoshops? If I had assumed y'all were so stupid that I had to spoon-feed everything to you, THAT would be elitist. Instead, I chose to assume y'all were bright enough to figure things out for yourselves. And I still think most of you were. If you think my reference to "the Idiot Pool" was about you or other readers, go back and re-read the text -- that part had nothing to do with you. I was referring to all the media outlets that swallowed this story whole. My point was this: A bunch of media outlets failed to do any kind of fact-checking or due diligence and ended up with egg on their face. I dismissed the story for what it obviously was -- nonsense. I think it's pretty obvious who took the right approach. >>Could you discontinue the “Uni Tweaks” section, then? The garbage regularly posted in that feature is far less professional than these latest Nike-fied designs.<< I have never much cared about "fantasy" designs dreamed up by fans. I prefer to focus on real uniforms worn by real people in real games -- that's just me. And that's a big part of why I didn't care about the Nike-ized concepts -- that just isn't my thing. But Phil has made the tweaks part of the culture of his weekend posts, and that's fine. I've never discouraged him from doing so. Some readers really like the tweaks; others don't care for them. If you don't like them, skip over them -- is that so hard? I mean, shit, it's not as though Phil doesn't provide you with enough other material to chew on each weekend. I *do* like DIY jersey concepts, because I think actually making something you can wear (as opposed to just noodling around on the computer) is really cool, even if it's for an imaginary team or something like that. To me, that will always be more interesting and relevant than a Photoshop concept. Some of you may disagree, which is fine. Uni Watch is many different things to many different people. There's no way to please everyone, even if I wanted to. So I write about what makes sense to me. If that also makes sense to you, groovy; if not, well, that's how it goes sometimes. I realize some of this may sound dismissive and that some of you may be thinking, "Wow, he doesn't give a shit about his readers." On the contrary, I love my readers (all 10 or 10,000 of them) and have great respect for them. That’s why I assiduously give credit to every submission; that's why I do giveaways (although I realize we haven't had any in the past month -- I'm working on it); that's why I do my annual reader-appreciation raffle (coming up soon!). That why I'm spending time typing these words right now. Believe me, if I didn't care, I wouldn't bother writing all this after being away from my home for three days and spending most of today locked in a car. Now, if I did a half-assed job on the site, THAT would be showing contempt for my readers. If I self-censored some of my opinions just because they might be controversial, THAT would be showing contempt for my readers. If I pandered by running doofus-ish content (like, um, Nike-ized concepts) instead of staying true to my sense of what makes sense and what doesn't, THAT would be showing contempt for my readers. Look, like everyone else, I'm a complex proposition -- a package deal. When you read this site, you get all of me. Maybe you like some parts a lot, other parts less. I can live with that. I hope you can too.

    Hey guys, I’m watching mnf, just got to thinking… have the chargers gone white on white ever with these new unis? I feel like it’d be an obvious choice but idk that they’d ever done it….

    Anyone?

    I don’t think that was the first time this season that the Redskins have worn the gold bottoms. I swear I’ve seen it on another occasion a few weeks ago.

    it’s not — they have worn the gold pants at least three other times

    it is, however the first time they’ve worn WHITE over gold

    The Miami nose bumpers amuse me. As an alum, I’ve always thought that the school “fight” song was an odd football rally cry: “Love and honor to Miami, our college old and grand.”

    Nothing in there like Ohio State’s “Hit them hard and see how they fall, never let that team get the ball.” so, the opposing linemen will have fear in their hearts when they see “love and honor” staring them down.

    Is it me, or does the number on the back of this Yankee jersey not look right? Reminds me of the number font that David Robertson was using towards the end of the season.

    link

    Given that generic jocktag, the Majestic sleeve logo, AND the not-quite-right number treatment, I will guess that that is a retail jersey with a crummy customization job. No way in hell that that is a game-worn jersey.

    the yankees wore black memorial armbands all 2007 for cory lidle, so it’s definitely not game worn…but paul already told you that

    Not accusing anybody of misrepresentation! But sheesh, might as well have just had him sign a replica. Seriously, that’s an atrociously bad number job.

    I noticed while watching the Maui Invitational today that both Oklahoma and Washington now are wearing Nike jerseys with the subtle rear design like Gonzaga, Kentucky, Syracuse, etc. wore near the end of last year. Are there any other teams who have switched to that uni style?

    Without a doubt, Oklahoma State has the WORST helmet design in college football. They really don’t know anything about branding, as a black/orange “OSU” in fairly non-descript font could mean either Oregon State or Oklahoma State. Not to mention that it’s a very bland look without a center stripe, and it looks positively terrible anytime they pair it with an all-color uniform (orange/orange, black/black). They would be much better served putting their distinctive Cowboy logo on the helmets. Talk about great branding!!
    Kansas needs the same update – i.e. the school logo instead of non-descript lettering.
    Who makes these decisions, anyway? Are these people blind?

Comments are closed.