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Friday Morning Uni Watch

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Not too many uni-notable details in last night’s NFL season opener. One thing, which nobody else seemed to notice or mention, was that the Packers did not wear a Super Bowl championship patch, as defending champs sometimes do for the Thursday-night opener.

The other thing was the issue of the captains’ patches. As most of you know, for the past four years the league has used a captaincy patch with four stars. For each year that a player wears the patch, another star has turned from white to gold. But this season marks the fifth year of the patch program. How would they handle that?

For the answer, check out Drew Brees and his center. Brees, a fifth-year captain, wore a gold C, instead of the usual white. But since gold is a Saints color, does this mean (a) fifth-year captains get a gold C, or (b) fifth-year captains get a team-colored C? In other words, would a fifth-year captain for the Broncos get a gold patch, or an orange one? The Packers don’t wear captaincy patches during the regular season, so they’re no help. I’ve asked the league for clarification and put out feelers to a few other folks in the know. No response yet. Surprised the NFL hasn’t put out a press release on this (or, you know, set up a whole web site for it). Update, 10:30am: Just heard from the league: All fifth-year Cs will be gold, regardless of team color. So there we are.

And then there’s this: After the game I received an e-mail asking why the officials had a “WRL” patch on their caps. I didn’t notice this during the game, and I haven’t been able to find any photos of it. Anyone else?

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Can it get any dumber? (Wait, don’t answer that.) Whatever your feelings about the upcoming 9/11 anniversary, I’d like to think that most of us can agree that this would not exactly make for a solemn, dignified remembrance.

But Lance Briggs of the Bears announced yesterday, “Hey, I’m gonna wear that gear!” and then the NFL announced, “Oooh, you’d better not!” and now we all get to roll our eyes and lose a few dozen brain cells while the whole thing seeps into the news cycle.

This is, of course, a completely manufactured controversy. Reebok — whose wordmark, naturally, is well-positioned in the photo of Briggs’s gear — knows damn well that this stuff isn’t allowed on the field, but they made it anyway. And the league could tell Reebok, “Hey, you work for us, so stop churning out this unauthorized crap with our logo on it,” but they don’t. Briggs is probably sincere (even if he has some funny ideas about how to mark a national day of mourning) but has no clue he’s just a pawn being used to float some merch and drive some page views. The whole thing reeks — the corporate influence in sports is bad enough, but corporate exploitation of 9/11 is flat-out nauseating.

The most absurd thing is the slogan on the gloves. “Never forget” — yeah, like there was much chance of that.

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Holy moly! Wanna see something truly mind-blowing? Take a gander at this.

I have never seen a football uniform that looks anything like that. Reader Steve Murphy found the photo while poking around in the Boston Public Library’s photostream on Flickr. According to the caption, the team is the Chicago Cardinals — same franchise as today’s Arizona Cards. No year is listed, but Steve cross-checked the player names in the caption against an NFL database and thinks it’s from 1932. Hmmm, did someone say, “Throwback”? (Update: Steve also found a shot of a Brown University player wearing a very similar design, but without the front uni numbers.)

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Steve found some other good NFL pics from the same era, including an early-’30s shot of the Boston Redskins (I believe that’s Fenway, right?) and a really interesting shot of the ’Skins playing the Giants, circa 1933. Look at that Canadiens-style Giants jersey!

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No grommet or aglet changes — yet: A few more FBS changes have surfaced. To wit:

• I hadn’t realized that Auburn’s NOB lettering had gotten smaller, but it’s apparently a topic of some discussion among Auburn fans.

• Purdue has added a “22” memorial decal for former player Sean Matti, who died this summer in a drowning accident.

• Teams in the MAC are wearing a new conference patch.

• There were rumblings earlier this week that Georgia Tech might need to revise its home jerseys, and now that has been confirmed. Be sure to read the last two grafs, though — looks like they may actually wear a set of last year’s jerseys next weekend, creating a color-on-color game. Hooray for Russell outsourcing its production to Mexico, which makes it impossible to get a new set of jerseys ready in less than 10 days!

(My thanks to Chad Stegemiller, Patrick Campbell, Mike Foss, Dan Sankar, and Britton Thomas for these contributions.)

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Busy fella: There’s new material over at Permanent Record and the Butcher’s Case.
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Uni Watch News Ticker: Some 9/11 armbands on tap for USA rugby (from Andy Buck). ”¦ Samford University will be wearing this helmet decal tomorrow, commemorating both 9/11 and tornado relief. ”¦ Lance Hall and others have noted that a lot of the new Under Armour jerseys don’t even attempt to cover the shoulder pads. ”¦ Caleb Borchers wonders if Taniela Moa of Tonga deserves extra points for his commitment to the Rugby World Cup cause. ”¦ Good piece about how soccer teams got their colors (from Joe Poll). ”¦ Kevin Clark says the Broncos will be wearing their orange alternates on Monday night. ”¦ Assorted 9/11-related moves in the works for Arkansas and Boston College (from Sean Patton and Christian Eidt, respectively). ”¦ Check out the T-shirt design being sold at Pearl Jam’s Montreal shows (from Matt Friedrichs). ”¦ If you click on the decade icons on this page, you’ll see all of the Broncos’ media guides throughout their history (nice find by Kelly Hellman). ”¦ An NC State player has some issues with the new Adidas pants (from Chris Warfford). ”¦ Soccer note from Kasey van Puijenbroek, who writes: “Here is a composite shot of the 10 home unis for the Australian A-League after all clubs were freed from the league-mandated Reebok deal.” ”¦ My Wednesday appearance on All Things Considered prompted a note from a gentleman who identified himself as the Senior Innovation Manager with the Boy Scouts of America. “I was particularly interested in your comments regarding 17-year-olds’ reactions to shiny objects,” he wrote. “We struggle with our uniform, and I’m wondering if a conversation about what might be learned from your work might be appropriate.” Now that would be fascinating — but as I explained to the gentleman, I can’t be associated with a group that has a policy of discriminating against gay kids and atheist kids. Too bad. ”¦ Not a great look for Oklahoma State last night: dark-fudge brownie with whipped cream on top. … Readers Marty Hick and James Huening got together in Chicago yesterday. “We were sitting outside at a restaurant, waiting for our burgers,” says James, “when Marty points across the street and says, ‘Isn’t that your last name on that building?’ Lo and behold, he was right. I’ve seen that building dozens of times, but I’ve never noticed that detail.” Finally, naming rights we can all feel good about! Now all we need is to find a few fans named Citi, U.S. Cellular, and Minute Maid, and we’ll be all set. ”¦ Scott Lederer notes that Ryan Braun’s helmet logo appears to be slightly off-center. ”¦ “There’s a statue in downtown Phoenix titled Full Life Reach,” writes Kenn Tomasch. “It’s of a (normally) nude man, but he’s occasionally dressed up in the uniform of a local team if there’s a special occasion or a playoff run or something. Thursday morning I noticed he’s been dressed in a 2001 Diamondbacks uniform because the team is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its World Series title this weekend. The uni appears to be accurate, and even includes the American flag rear-neckline patch from 2001 and the appropriate World Series sleeve patch.” … Really good article on the history of the Longhorns’ logo.

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Looking ahead: I’m going to be running errands for most of today, and then tonight I’m heading upstate, where I’ll spend the weekend checking out the missing Candela structure. Won’t be back until late Sunday night, and don’t expect to see a single moment of football while I’m away, so Phil will have Monday Morning Uni Watch for you (thanks, buddy). I’ll be back in the saddle on Tuesday — see you then.

 
  
 
Comments (253)

    I didnt see a mention of this in yesterdays column…

    Juventus opened their new stadium yesterday and they playwd the first match vs notts county in england.

    Why? Because notts county sent kits for the italian team in the early 20th century and thats why jeventus wears theit black and white striped jerseys. (they had worn pink before that, as palermo famously does nowadays.)

    I Love that Juve, eschewing a ‘big name’ opponent(Like barca or even cross town rivals Torino)chose Notts County to christen their new stadium, chosing to honour the team that gave them their most identified ‘branding’ the black and white stripes. Well done to the old lady of Calcio. After their shame in calciopoly they have helped restore a little of their lost honour.

    Just a clarification on the Georgia Tech note. The potential color-on-color game against Kansas would be next Saturday, the 17th, and not this weekend.

    I’m kind of hoping the new jerseys don’t get here in time, because I’d like to see that.

    The NFL should let each team come up with its own Captain logo, but letting them use team colors is a good start.

    But if every team had its own captaincy designation, there would only be two other official logos on each jersey and only two to four others on the rest of the uniform! How would people know it’s an NFL uniform with only six NFL logos?! :P

    I don’t think it’s a “team color” C. The shade of gold on the captain patch is different from the gold on the rest of the uniform (helmet, pants, lettering trim, etc.). I do realize there is precedence for multiple different shades of the same color on one uni (Cowboys in the NFL, Colorado in the NCAA), but I don’t think this is one of those cases. Strikes me as a “the stars were gold, now the C is gold” thing. It’ll look pretty damn bad on teams like the Raiders, if we ever see that.

    I do realize there is precedence for multiple different shades of the same color on one uni (Cowboys in the NFL, Colorado in the NCAA)…”

    Uh, link in the NFL.

    Of course. Just wanted to give other examples.

    That and I forgot. Thanks for putting me in my place.

    The Boston Redskins were so named, “in alignment” with the Boston Braves, and did play a year 1932 at Braves Field before 33-36 at Fenway then off to Washington DC.

    IMHO… both the phrase Early 30’s and the stands I think this is Braves Field

    link
    Look at the 1914 pic, I suppose it could be the right field portion of Fenway

    It appears to be the 1st base end of the wooden (pre-1934) Right Field section of old Fenway that the Redskins/Braves team is pictured in front of. See this photo:

    link

    I’m also pretty sure that the Cardinals were photographed in left-center field of Braves Field, in the background of this photo:
    link

    The Braves use… Lifebuoy. Protects health, ends B.O.

    If its the “Braves” doesn’t it have to be Braves Field? Did either Braves (football or baseball) play at Fenway?

    Protects health, ends B.O.

    Man, if I was of the teabag persuasion, I’d slap that logo on a shirt and wear it to my next “grassroots” rally.

    I’m pretty sure most of us remember with bad baseball teams, there was a story went “The (insert baseball team) use Lifebuoy”

    To which a fan painted underneath the ad “AND THEY STILL STINK!”

    The 1914 Miracle Braves actually played their WS games at Fenway that year, because Fenway actually was bigger than Braves Field ( at least it was in 1914)!

    link

    Retrosheet is such an underrated resource!

    According to the Wikipedia, the Braves played the 1914 world series at Fenway, but for a different reason – the Braves abandoned South End Field in August 1914 and played the remainder of their games at Fenway waiting for construction to be finished on Braves Field.

    Wikipedia also says the Red Sox played their 1915 and 1916 World Series games at Braves Field because of its larger size.

    I think those Cardinals should be fined for having their socks too low:).

    It looks like the punter/kicker has wooden cleats on his shoes. Am I crazy?

    While it is true that fancy, odd, colorful football uniforms have been around for a long time, as evidenced by the vintage photos posted yesterday and today, allow me to point out the designs exhibited are no longer around…and I suspect the reason they did not stand up to the test of time is because, basically, they were, while eye catching, just kind of ugly. Likewise, I suspect that many of the new jersey and pants designs we are seeing, such as those with odd contrasting color panels, horns, eyebrows, back slashes, etc. are one day going to be regarded as oddities that didn’t catch on because they were…well, ugly.

    Is Penn State vs Bama is the best uni matchup of the week? year.”

    ~~~

    (fixed)

    Tarnation! Those Nittany Lions will look like a bunch of girly-girls until they take that fancy-pants stripe off the helmet, by gum!

    Snooze. Give me at least a little something. SMU stripes. UCLA stripes. SOMETHING. These are a snoozer.

    They can do a Harold Ballard and put blue stripes on the blue jersey and white stripes on the white jersey…

    The Penn State helmet depicts a polar bear eating a marshmallow in a snowstorm.

    Okay, that was the old classic logo. The new modern one is a “mean” cartoon polar bear flashing white teeth. Bring back the marshmallow!

    Nope. Any game that Penn State with the ugliest uniforms period can not be a good uni matchup. Alabama is plain but at least the color combo is better looking. Crimson Tides plain helmet with numbers is way better than a plain white helmet with a single stripe.

    Plain dark dark blue jersey with simple numbers on it is bad. Plain white practice pants are ugly as can be.

    I’m a couple of days behind and catching up reading your columns, but from two days ago: Did you send a copy of that link to Letterheady? Because it so deserves to be there.

    You’re welcome.

    I should do the same with some of the baseball letterhead I have (both AL Nats franchises, Chattanooga Lookouts). Seems like Mitchell&Ness used to make MLB letterhead tees but I haven’t checked their site in a while. I love the EFF minor league letterhead tees and own several.

    I think it’s pretty obvious that the captain’s C will be gold for all teams. All of the stars have gone from white to gold (not white to team colors), so it only makes sense that the C would go from white to gold as well. The background is what matches the team color, not the C or the stars. In other words, the black part of the Saints’ patch is what matched the team colors, not the gold part. It really doesn’t seem unclear or uncertain to me.

    Reasonably sound logic, but I still don’t think it’s so obvious. In any case, I’m not interested in speculations or theories; I’m interested in hearing the league tell us what the policy is.

    Well, it’s not really speculation, is it? It’s simply the observation of a pattern. After each year of captaincy, one white element of the patch has turned to gold (regardless of team colors), while the background has matched one of the team’s colors.

    If you want further proof of this, notice that the gold C on Brees’ patch is a different shade of gold than the Saints use. Now, yes, matching golds is always a problem, but in this case it’s pretty clear that the gold of the patch is unrelated to the gold of the Saints colors–it always has been.

    You beat me to the multiple shades of gold discussion. I retract the novelty of my comment above.

    The captain patches will be as follows:

    2011: Gold Large C
    2012: Gold outline of patch
    2013: Gold background of patch
    2014: Gold NFL logo on patch
    2015: Gold star on gold NFL logo on gold patch
    2016: Gold diamond on gold star on gold NFL logo
    2017: Gold star on corners of gold patch
    2018: Captains must wear gold jerseys with gold patch
    2019: We just hope that no captains live this long

    Now that we know five years is gold, the big question is what color C will they use when somebody gets to 10 years?

    Doesn’t Majestic makes all its baseball uniforms in teh U.S.? One reason to root for that company. Russell and Champion make most of their clothes in Central and South America and the Carribean, whereas Nike, Reebok, Adidas, and others make most of their stuff in the Far East.

    I don’t know where the final uniforms are manufactured, but I believe the super stretchy fabric Reedidas makes its jerseys from comes from Israel. Not the US, but at least they’re not sweatshops.

    Standard Reebok on-field uniforms are made by Ripon Athletic in Wisconsin. I hope Nike continues to outsource on-field uni production to a domestic company.

    I dunno, I think most of the Nike made soccer jerseys I have were made either in Portugal or Morocco.

    Sorry, I guess I’m confusing the items you find in a sporting goods store with those made for teams. As to the former, what I said is correct; but as to the latter, I stand corrected.

    Regarding the “dark-fudge brownie” uniforms for OSU, it appears that only one of those is a Brown uniform, the other two look black to me.

    Yeah, they’re black. Was trying to come up with a pastry analogy without resorting to chocolate blackout cake, which I recently used to describe another team’s uni.

    I found a dark chocolate cake with white topping called a garash cake. How do you feel about bad puns?

    If it was a red helmet it could have been a black forest cake of course.

    Hostess cupcake maybe?

    Nonetheless, I thought they looked awful. Something about all black unis with white helmets that just doesn’t look right. Okie State bragged about all of the combinations they have, and so far they are 0 for 2.

    If NOTtOSU is gonna go with the mono-blacks, then it’s best to go full-fudge brownie (i.e. black helmet). The white helmet just looked out of place.

    The uni on that statue looks fine, but… why does he have Mickey Mouse’s baseball glove? That thing looks all sorts of wrong. They could’ve just as easily gone with no glove, suggesting a post-game celebratory stance (particularly in the absence of a hat).

    In that pose the glove should be on his right hand anyway. Why would a fielder extend his throwing hand further up than his glove hand?

    Man, I was so disappointed that they went with the modern wordmark as the basis for that. If they’d gone old school with that, I’d have bought one.

    I even briefly considered the link (has that been mentioned in the ticker this week?), until I realized the shirt was black and not forest green.

    Oh, and wasn’t there a Bucks-themed shirt?

    Right. That part of the shirt is great. I just wish they hadn’t bastardized it by going with the modern-style wordmark.

    The NFL is letting the Broncos wear their orange alts?
    Didn’t the new rule say that alts can’t be worn for night games?

    It’s looking more and more like that rule was proposed but not approved.

    Or maybe *some* of it was approved. There were no alts or throwbacks in the preseason, e.g. — that’s a departure from what we’ve seen in the past.

    Unfortunately, I can’t get a straight answer from the league on ANYTHING lately. Not sure if they have a new tight-lipped media policy or if they’ve just decided I’m too annoying to deal with….

    I have confirmed that the discussed rules involving alternates are FALSE. Check these out:

    link

    The 49ers @ Ravens game is Thanksgiving, which is Week 12 (violating the first-nine-weeks-only rule) and, obviously, a Thursday (violating the Sunday-afternoons-only rule). The Ravens are also wearing black in a Week 4 Sunday nighter against the Jets.

    link

    Check out December 24. The Cardinals @ Bengals game is Week 16 and a Saturday, and the Bengals are wearing orange, again violating both rules. (While the Bengals’ site also has a white-on-white matchup next Sunday against the Browns, they may not have been notified of the Browns’ decision to wear white at home. Please don’t let this be another Shanahangate.)

    The only evidence that supports the so-called rules is the Rams (I believe it was them) stating the first-nine-weeks one, though this may have been prior to a rejection of the proposal.

    As for the London and Toronto games, I assume that rule was also rejected.

    I was under the impression that the Broncos were switching their colors this year – orange would be the standard uni and blue the alt. Or are you asking if they CAN do that?

    Well they can do that and I believe there is a strong possibility that it could happen after Nike takes over.
    But according to the NFL the Broncos jersey are still the same.
    Navy-home
    White-road
    Orange-alt
    This can be further backed by the fact that they only wore white and navy in the preseason.

    I seem to recall Denver wanting to switch and being told they had to wait till next year.

    Although, it’s not like the NFL can *really* stop them if they do it this year. What’re they gonna do, a fine? Yeah the team/owner has how much money? Sure, that’ll stop ’em. Maybe if they wear it and Oakland puts up 59 points again they might change their minds.

    It would be interesting to how that would turn out, I don’t think any team has ever blatantly gone against league uniform rules (However many have gone against league uniform respectability and dignity).

    First offense: unsportsmanlike conduct penalties at the start of each half?
    Second offense: penalties, a fine and a warning?
    second offense: forfeit the game (after it has been played, natch)?

    I agree. I know we’ve discussed this before, about wanting the team to have a certain “identity” or whatever nonsense. But jeez, if the uniform/jersey is already in rotation, what does it hurt to wear it a few extra times?

    As far as team Identity goes letting the teams like Denver and Cincinnati they’re fine (In fact I think the alts for those teams look better than the primaries.), however I can understand them wanting to limit teams like the Jets and Packers from using their alts on a national broadcast (They aren’t the type of uniform you think of when you think of those teams). But I mean if a team likes its alt better than its primary let’em wear the freaking jersey as much as they want.

    That sort of attitude is why the Rockies subjected us to those awful black sleeveless vests at the end of 2007.

    I didn’t know they were told to wait. The way I heard it was that they were planning on changing their primary color back to orange in 2012. We’ve already heard that Nike had a meeting with Seahawks brass about a redesign, maybe Nike had a similar meeting with the Broncos and the redesign was with orange as the primary color. Although that is just conjecture. The Jags equipment manager has already seen the template that Nike is planning on using so it can’t be long before pictures start to leak.

    I was going to post the same thing. I was a Boy Scout, and learned a ton from my time with the organization, but as an adult, I can see how flawed the Scouts are.

    Good job Paul. Maybe they will at least think about what their policies are and think about changing.

    RE: Possible uniform discussion between Paul and the Boy Scouts-

    As an Eagle Scout who strongly disagrees with the BSA’s policy regarding gay and atheist members, thank you for taking that stance. I would LOVE to see what you could come up with to help the BSA make a better uniform (by golly, they introduced some new ones a few years ago that are pretty hideous in my opinion), but I think they need to worry about some other major parts of their program first.

    I’m a long-time BSA volunteer at the local level, and I frequently struggle with the difference between the many great opportunities the Scouts provide for young men and the reactionary (and mostly money-driven, IMO) posturing of the national organization.

    BSA national is wrapped up in a little echo chamber in Irving, TX. Paul, thanks for reminding them that many many people who could help advance their program simply can’t accept their stance on certain issues.

    Meanwhile, BSA uniforms haven’t changed significantly (to where you could spot the differences from 30 feet away) since 1980. A lot of water has passed under the societal bridge since then…..

    For the record: After I told the gentleman why I would have to decline the gig, he wrote back: “I understand and appreciate your point of view. Thanks for your quick response.”

    My sense of it, reading between the lines, is that this wasn’t exactly the first time he’s heard this.

    Not only is it not the first time he has heard that, it sounds like he’s saying “thanks for your reply, but we’re going to maintain our bigoted system”.

    To bad, the Scouts can be such a positive influence in a young man’s life…but how can you teach principals if you can’t accept everyone into your organization.

    Their loss.

    Agreed with Keith. I’ve met many, many scouters who will listen to you disagree with them, say thank you, and then completely forget that you said anything.

    As Jim said, the National Office officials live in such an insular world that they think they can categorically deny a (not insignificant) chunk of the population membership without any consequences. They don’t seem to care that people like Paul and many others refuse to be associated with their group. By the rules, at least according to the Supreme Court, they can do that. From a business standpoint, it’s laughable. From a moral standpoint, it’s offensive.

    Some of the best scouters I know (including many of my close friends) are either gay, very gay tolerant/friendly or have atheist/agnostic beliefs. Doesn’t make them bad people. Wish the BSA could see that.

    On a fucked-up level, I respect them for sticking to their (completely wrong-headed) beliefs.

    I also completely agree with the court decisions that have ruled in favor of the BSA’s membership policies. Just like the neo-Nazis who marched in Skokie or those crackpots who picket military funerals, the Scouts are a private group, and they can be as discriminatory and prejudiced as they want.

    And boy do they want. That’s the shame of it.

    Reminder that Arizona State will be breaking out the new all-black uniforms with matte black helmets tonight. I know many will call this BFBS, but the Sun Devils have incorporated black into their permanent color scheme.

    As a loyal ASU fan, my take is that we really haven’t had “great” uniforms since the 1970s (with “Sunburst Sparky” on the sleeves). So it’s not like we have messed with perfection. The new gold helmets looked great last week and I’m looking forward to seeing the black helmets under the lights.

    So the school colors are now maroon, gold, and black? If not, then it’s black for black’s sake.

    Yeah but if we take that logic to it’s fullest extreme then what would we be left with. Sports organizations or university athletics teams are allowed to rebrand if they want to. In the ASU rebrand they now have black as an official color. I think BFBS only applies when a team that has no element of black and has not rebranded themselves to have black is wearing black. I think the uni watch community is a little too quick to name anything and everything with black in it BFBS. Like when the Arizona Cardinals black unis were named BFBS, but they have had a black as secondary color already for a while now.

    “Like when the Arizona Cardinals black unis were named BFBS, but they have had a black as secondary color already for a while now.”

    Small hole there. The Cardinals were named after the shade of red, so their black shit is BFBS. No team named after one color should be wearing anything besides that color unless in the event of contrasting from a similar-dressed team. ASU, however, now has black (along with copper) as official colors in their official style guide along with maroon and gold.

    The black helmet (with its ASC Bulldog precedent) isn’t bad, but the all-black uniforms, while technically not being BFBS, still look like crap. The gold/white gradient numbers look dumb, and there’s not enough maroon in the jersey top to balance out everything.

    Gotta admit, I like what ASU did with their uniform. Still would have liked to see Sparky at the main helmet decal, but the pitchfork is decent.

    The air sacs may be blue, but the picture is of the jaw/ear pads. I doubt it’s his old helmet, but certainly could be his old jaw/ear pads.

    the cheek pads have the same air sacs as the rest of the padding and it is indeed standard blue.

    Are we sure the official’s patch wasn’t ‘RWL’ for Robert “Bob” Wesley Lawing, a former Back Judge who passed away at the very end of last season from cancer?

    I’m not sure on the accuracy about the Broncos wearing Orange on Monday.

    On local radio, the afternoon drive guy (Darren McKee) asked this of Joe Ellis, and was told “The first daytime home game”.

    link

    But I dunno. Maybe both, then?

    I heard that too. But, didn’t the Denver Post have a write up during training camp about Fox wanting the Broncos to go with orange at home? I sent the link to Paul, but it was quite a ways back, so I’m sure he has deleted it….which is sad, because I thought I was the only person to send him anything :)

    The Giants wore a uniform in 1929 similar to the ‘double breasted’ Cardinals uniform shown above.

    Also, the ‘Canadiens’ uniform pictured on the Giants in the third photo is actually red with a blue and white band across the chest. As we all know, the black and white photos play tricks with the red and blue, and might make it appear as if they are blue with a red and white band across the chest.

    Re the Cards photo…did you find any with single-digit jersey numbers? The design wouldn’t seem to hold up if one of the color fields was blank, unless they put in a zero.

    Black was never a secondary color for the Cardinals until they redid their identity in 2004 or whenever it was. It was the color of the linework

    Unless the derby team trademarked the design (and I don’t know if one is even able to trademark a design based on a city, state or national flag), there is not much recourse. UA/Maryland is presumably not making money off this helmet, unless they are selling mini helmets, and the University and the derby team are not really in direct competition. It would be a tough sell.

    I don’t think it’s so much about stealing intellectual property or lawsuits. I think it’s just a sign that UA either didn’t do their homework or was just too lazy to come up with an original design.

    Thanks for the mention about the NC State “pants on the ground” problem with their Adidas beltless football uniform pants. Never thought there would be so much attention or discussion about this problem.

    Will duct tape become part of new NC State football uniform? at
    link

    Pretty sure if your elastic waist pants are falling down, you are wearing the wrong size or you don’t have the drawstring tightened. I’ve never had a pair of elastic waist pants or shorts fall off me.

    No matter any of our opinions, I think we can all be thankful he was wearing compression shorts instead of a jock. It could have been much worse:
    link

    Isn’t Samford’s use of the US flag improper etiquette? I know the rule that a flag shouldn’t be part of an athletic unifrom gets ignored all the time. But shouldn’t the US Flag be on the audience’s left, if they aren’t going to display the wind going the same direction?

    For crossed flags, what matters is which one is in front. The blue canton is supposed to be in the upper left corner no matter how it’s oriented, so it should be waving to the right like it is. Without poles showing it can be assumed the US flag is in front.

    at the PJ20 shows in Alpine Valley last weekend, there were Pearl Jam shirts with the Brewers logo theme, a GB Packers theme shirt and hat, and I guess a hybrid Bucks/Brewers logo too. So awesome.

    Good for Pearl Jam. Vivent les Expos! I also appreciate that Earl Weaver benediction: “This ain’t a football game. We do this every day.”

    Props also to Caleb B for that wonderful shot of the Tongan rugby star’s tri-colored cornrows.

    re: small NOBs like Auburn…

    Nike did something similar for a number of teams in 2005. Looked ridiculous, and was difficult to read from the stands and TV.

    LSU’s NOBs in 2005:

    link

    link

    By the following season, “regular” NOBs had returned:

    link

    Apparently they’re only catering to people with 56+” HDTVs, and not anyone actually at the game…

    Those old Chicago Cardinals unis were terribly ugly yet fascinating. I wonder if the lighter color wraps around to the back and has numbers on it too? Would love to see that colorized!

    Ahh good catch, thanks. I just noticed how awesome that coach looks too. Snappy dresser, as they used to say.

    The Brown University version does not wrap around according to this photo:

    link

    Plus, Colgate has some interesting stripes set more towards the back of the pants.

    “Those old Chicago Cardinals unis were terribly ugly yet fascinating.”

    Hmmm, did someone Please, nobody say, “Throwback!”?

    (fixed)

    More 9/11 “remembrance” on tap for Tulsa. They’ll be wearing a stars & stripes helmet decal. yfrog.com/hwsowonj

    OK, I normally wouldn’t do this, but it seems appropriate today.

    There’s a new PJ song (the one they played on Jimmy Fallon’s show last night). They just put it out there this morning. link.

    Apparently you can’t.

    University of Arkansas students will receive a free blue Razorbacks Remember t-shirt to fill the student sections. The Razorbacks Remember shirt is exclusively available to University of Arkansas students and is not available for purchase.

    If you read a little lower it sounds like the red and the white versions ARE for sale. I guess this is because the student section is section 1 and will be the only section they want in blue (the stars on the flag are in the top left like section 1 is at WMS if viewing from the home side) and the odd sections are asked to wear white and the even red, completing the flag design (ideally) throughout the stadium.

    For those of you wondering about the alternate jersey rules, I have posted my reasoning for the rules having been rejected above. Click on the link to show my reasoning:

    link

    The Cardinals photo with the four players and the coach has to be from 1932. That’s the only year that Moynihan, Simas and Douds were Cardinals teammates.

    link

    The Boston team was the Braves that year. George Preston Marshall moved his team to Fenway and renamed them the Redskins for the ’33 season.

    I have a feeling this weekend will more closely resemble the Pro Bowl than any other opening week game.

    Confused by the Georgia Tech conondrum. They have two sets of white jerseys this year. The home set with the gold numbers and gold trim, and the road set with the navy numbers and navy trim. Why not just wear the road set at home until the new jerseys arrive?

    Probably the fact that Kansas will be coming in with blue jerseys. There is a lot of blue trim on those “away” jerseys and probably not enough contrast.

    Yahoo link to the story about the 9/11 reebok garishness. Although I agree that those are some ugly accessories and probably about as over the top as reebok could make them, seems most of the yahoo folks who left their opinions say let them wear it, send the fines along with the $1M to the charity, etc.

    In fact, looking at it from a different standpoint, here’s players paying tribute to 9/11 and the NFL is going to fine them? Yes some people ARE outraged.

    One the NFL’s side though, looks like the players will be wearing a small ribbon on the front of their jerseys.

    link

    “…the current plan is for sideline personnel to wear commemorative pins, and for players to wear a red, white, and blue patch below their jersey collars in a shape of a ribbon…”

    +1 to what others have said. Great response to the Boy Scouts and sticking by your principles.

    We’ve all seen our share of best uniforms/worst uniforms polls, but that SI poll is absolutely terrible, picking 4 uniforms from each franchise(s) and half of them were one offs?

    I couldn’t agree more about the rest of the poll either but this “Winnipeg Franchise” seems to have moved from Winnipeg to Atlanta and back.

    It actually reiterates the point several of us have made that the current franchise should have used a different name as most people will not distinguish records and/or former Jets players from this version.

    And some of the people voting in this poll need to be beaten… the Columbus dingy fauxback, leading? WHAT?!?

    Nah you just have to wrap your head around the logic they were using. D is who they are now, C is who they used to be, and A & B are who used to be them. Makes sense to me, LOL.

    But what do they have for the Phoenix Coyotes?

    That’s a good question….I got so annoyed at this that I took the screenshot and closed the browser. I’m going to go find out and post it. Thanks for the idea.

    He might beat the fine:

    link

    I’ll say this, since the league is having the players wear a small red white blue ribbon on their uniforms (if that is the case), all other personal uniform displays should be forbidden.

    If there is no league wide provision then I guess a small subdued uniform gesture might be ok, but like Paul has said, why do they need to do anything at all as far as a uniform gesture.

    And what if you don’t happen to have a Reebok shoe contract? Oh, sorry, you don’t get to be “patriotic” (or look like a clown).

    “what if you don’t happen to have a Reebok shoe contract?”

    ~~~

    don’t you get it? then you must hate america

    Goddamit. What the hell is wrong with Reebok? And what is wrong with these people who thank them for sending such great gear to commemorate the largest loss of American life on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor? People jumped to their deaths from burning towers and it ignited 2 wars where thousands were killed. These players are “honoring” them by serving as corporate shills, wearing clown shoes and garish gloves? This isn’t remembering or honoring anyone. Have a moment of silence. Serve as a donation for a charity. Do something positive, not sell something or push your brand.

    I know this is a crazy thought, but what if instead of wearing read, white and blue jock straps, the NFL chose to NOT start the season on 9/11, so to honor the victims of that day…by making sure everyone could spend time with their families.

    Nah, there’s no money in that.

    I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the NFL (or any other sport) playing this Sunday. Hell, they play on Xmas and Tgiving, and those are actual *holidays,* unlike 9/11. They play on Dec. 7, which more akin to 9/11.

    And besides, there’s nothing *inherently* special about the 10th anniversary of the attacks — no different than the ninth anniversary was, or than the eleventh will be. It’s just a round number, which people tend to gravitate toward, but that’s an arbitrary cultural construct. I say let them play.

    Turning it into a corporate-sponsored fist-pumping celebration, however — that’s just distasteful on all sorts of levels.

    Actually, taking this a little further, maybe the round-number anniversary helps explain (if not excuse) the inappropriate responses like star-spangled shoes and gloves.

    Round-number anniversaries — cultural constructs though they may be — are generally causes for celebration. Your parents’ 30th wedding anniversary, a team’s 50th-anniversary season, etc. Maybe that’s why the circuits have gotten so badly crossed with a lot of the 9/11 stuff this year. So much of it seems like a festive party, with no sense of the tragedy that took place.

    I think 5 year increments is more the point. There will be more notoriety surrounding the 25th anniversary than the 24th or 26th.

    “what if instead of wearing read, white and blue jock straps, the NFL chose to NOT start the season on 9/11”

    every few years, pearl harbor day falls on a sunday…did the NFL ever take that sunday off?

    if anything, we should be playing the games as we would normally, with an appropriate moment of silence (and nothing more) before the game

    otherwise…the terrorists have won

    It really seems like we’re commemorating September 11th in a pretty similar fashion, at least visually, to the Fourth of July. That feels completely wrong to me.

    Independence Day is red, white and blue/hooray for America!

    September 11th is a somber day of remembrance.

    Can the fireworks be far behind?

    I can already tell we’re gonna do a bigger and better celebration in 2021, whoo-hoo!!

    Shit like this shortens the lifespan of Uni Watch. Seriously. At some point I’m gonna throw up my hands and say, “This isn’t fun anymore, because the bullshit factor is too high.” I’m not at that point yet, but I’ll reach it someday. And the assorted events of this week definitely pushed me a lot more than one week’s worth toward that point.

    Yeah, that’s a little odd, that they’d pick a picture of him wearing the Pelle Lindbergh memorial.

    I had been wondering whether the Bucs will wear a patch on the uniform or a decal on the helmet in honor of Lee Roy Selmon.

    Turns out neither one, according to Petwer Report:

    link

    The Buccaneers plan on paying tribute to the late legend Lee Roy Selmon throughout their season by wearing patches on their helmets. [Bucs Head Coach Raheem] Morris hopes that some type of memorial will be used for the coaches, as well, since he would like to be part of the tribute.

    “That’s special,” Morris said. “I’m sure everybody in our community has been touched in some way. He [was] a special guy; certainly a credit to what his family has meant and what he has meant to the game [and] what he has meant to the Buccaneers community. You cannot beat that. That’s the ultimate honor in our game when that happens – to wear his patch on our helmet. Hopefully we get something for the coach’s uniforms, as well, because I certainly would love to be a part of that.”

    Morris knows that Selmon was a major influence on his young players by leading with a quiet influence, but also by being a huge leader at the same time.

    Those must be some heavy duty sewing machines they have!

    Must… put… down… Smith & Wesson .500… and… not… hunt down… Roger… No-Goodell…

    No, but seriously, isn’t a black wristband (not to be sold for retail sale) and a moment of silence before the game enough?

    Certainly ten seconds of silence on 9/11 will be a heck of a lot more of a memorial. And sure to be completely mocked by 3 hours of celebratory garishness.

    But I gave up on pro and Division I college sports having any sense of decorum over self-importance a long time ago.

    In reference to the “WRL” on NFL official’s caps, I’m not sure, but it’s probably in memory of Bill Lovett (William Russell Lovett) a former NFL official who died this summer.

    link

    Paul,

    Sorry I missed you, but thank you big time for the link to the Broncos media guides. I was digging around the early years (might be a blue bronc lurking back there, who knows?) and found they posted (in handy PDFs) link. The advertisements and illustrations alone made my day — and I’m not even a Denver fan.

    I just opened the first one. Pretty neat. Frank Filchock, the Bronocos first coach went to the same high school my dad and mom went. Redstone Pa.

    Definitely some interesting browsing.

    1962 Media Guide: “Team Colors: Orange, Royal Blue & White”

    Also, at first glance it appeared that the Denver home scorekeeper was listing the uniform colors for a couple of years in the Gamebooks, but he would have had to have been colorblind to see the Broncos as wearing and red and the other team usually in blue (except the Raiders). Anyone know what this is referring to?

    1962
    Game 1: Denver plays in red. San Diego in blue.
    Game 5: Denver in blue. Oakland in red.
    Game 7 (Houston): no listing
    Game 10: Boston plays in blue. Denver in red.
    Game 11: Denver plays in red. Dallas in blue.
    Game 12: New York in blue. Denver in red.

    1963
    Preseason 1: Denver in red, Houston in blue.
    Preseason 3: Denver in red, San Digo in blue.
    Game 1: Denver in red, Kansas City in blue.
    Game 3: Denver in red, Boston in blue.
    Game 4: San Diego in blue, Denver in red.
    Game 5: Denver in red, Houston in blue.
    Game 8: Denver in red, Buffalo in blue.
    Game 10: Denver in red, New York in blue.
    Game 11: Denver in red, Oakland in blue.

    No listing for this in any other years.

    You could be onto something.

    The game summary is typewritten, but on the less legible pages (’62 Den/SD, for example), it does look like each team’s drives could have originally been in different colors.

    I suspect this is it.

    … wow. Just…

    Whatever. I’m just glad Baylor’s not a school in which I have any vested interest. Makes it easier to ignore this.

    this has probably been published 100 times already, but im fine with being number 101. looks like reebok got its way:

    link

    If NFL players are so patriotic, how come so far only Pat Tillman has given up his career (and, y’know, the money) to enlist?

    I learned (from “Baseball’s Golden Age”) that of all the ballplayers in the majors and minors on December 7, 1941, something like 92% ended up serving in the U.S. military.

    Just saying that “Safe Back Here at Home Patriotism” is awfully easy.

    No one sees this as an unbelievably transparent and calculated publicity stunt by Reebok?

    “Let’s whip up some 9/11 tribute shoes. The NFL will object. That will get us a TON of attention. And if they relent and DO let the players wear them, that’ll get even MORE attention. We can’t lose.”

    Probably we don’t, seeing as we also blithely accept that the price of gasoline really does need to go up 20 cents a gallon right before Labor Day weekend.

    Maybe this is old news, but the Diamondbacks are wearing 2001 home uniforms tonight as part of their 10th anniversary weekend of the World Series title. According to the team website, their wearing 2001 WS Game 7 version, which is the sleeveless version.

    link

    Time Warner Cable is doing upgrades they said for HD. So I have no cable tv now. Put on ESPN 3 online. Edmonton vs Calgary. Calgary has black helmets. Why?

    Time Warner does not get the NFL Network so I have not seen any CFL in while.

    also on espn3 in the high school games is a team from Florida (Yulee HS) that uses the BYU “Y” logo in the oval.

    Yeah, they’ve been wearing the black helmets on the road, and when they wear their black alternative uni at home. As much as it’s silly to have two helmets, it does look better than their red helmet – when they wear their hideous road outfits.

    Calgary truely makes a mess of their uniforms , both the CFL and NHL.

    Thanks Oakville. A few years ago We went to the Candian Rockies. Stopped at Edmonton and Calgary Stadiums. So I like to try and pay attention to them.

    Diamondbacks wearing throwbacks from 2001 to honor their championship team. The caps appear to be wool. They have gray under the bills as opposed to the black that the polyester 5950’s have. Also, the nike undershirts are missing the snake head sleeve patch that was worn in 2001.

    How is September 9 halfway to St. Patrick’s Day? Wouldn’t September 17 be six months to March 17? Or are they just on the road all next week?

    ASU running back Cameron Marshall is already missing his Pac-12 patch after the first play of the game. Maybe even happened during warm-ups, dont know.

    the BFBS is, of course, BS, and i miss walt on the lid, but as much as i hate to admit it…as far as a uniform (discounting the utter disregard for school colors) — sparky looks pretty good

    Like I said of all the teams and this wacky multi uni and helmet combos. I think ASU has some good looking ones. I do not like the BFBS either. But that is a decent look. The matte helmet helps too.

    Looks like a couple ASU players have a small patch above the Swoosh on their jerseys. Anybody know what it is?

    you’re not talking about the “PT 42” patch on the collar for Pat Tillman but something above the swoosh? havent noticed but will keep an eye out

    Justin Upton had his shoes customized for tonight’s Diamondbacks throwback game.
    The adidas stripes done in the old purple / teal logo colors. Pretty cool understated look.

    link

    In the Rugby World Cup right now, England are having number issues in their controversial black kits, the numbers – which are really just a flimsy outline – are peeling off the backs of most players…

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