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I’m Dreaming of a White Autumnal Equinox

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The Rams went white-over-white last night — not their best look. But several players took things a step further by wearing solid white socks, with no blue at all. Call it white-over-white-over-white. One of the players sporting this look was running back Cadillac Williams, shown at right (here’s the money shot of him). Another was defensive end Chris Long. And I’m pretty sure defensive back James Butler was doing it too, although I don’t have a photo of him. Will these players be fined? Maybe, but they make so much money that it’s the equivalent of a parking ticket to you or me, so they don’t care.

I’ve been saying for some time now that baseball socks have essentially shifted from being part of the uniform to being equipment, by which I mean they’re subject more to the player’s whim than to any team or league standard, and it appears that football socks are fast approaching the same status. For all the talk you hear about the NFL vigorously enforcing uniform standards, socks are all over the place: high whites, low whites, no whites, all whites. You’ve got players like Devin Hester, who often go with two sets of socks (and, hence, two sets of stripes). You’ve got players using white tape to simulate the white part of the sock. Hell, most players don’t even wear real socks anymore — they wear tights with colored leg warmers, or they have the leg warmers sewn into their pants.

It seems like some sort of reckoning or shakeout may have to happen, because the current rules (which call for a one-piece sock, white from the ankle to mid-calf and team colors or pattern from mid-calf to the knee) simply don’t reflect the way players currently dress. If you believe, as I do, that form follows function, the NFL will have to come up with new set of lower-leg standards, or else simply acknowledge that no such standards exist. Funny how that part of the body has gone from uniformity to a total freestyle in both baseball and football (and, to a less extent, in basketball too).

Two other notes from last night’s game:

• Tom Coughlin was wearing a ribbon pin. Some readers thought it looked yellow — and I agree that it looks yellow-ish in that photo — but I saw a good close-up of it on TV and am pretty sure it was a stars/stripes design.

• If you look again at that last photo, check out the seams on Brandon Stokley’s jersey. Phil swears they looked unusually white, but they just look like normal seams to me. Then he sent me this screen shot, which again looks pretty normal to me. Am I missing something?

(Mega-thanks to Phil for help with screen shots and photos.)

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Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

I’ve been a longtime ESPN fan from way back. Chris Berman even gave me with my own nickname — “Brinke’s Robbery.” So I picked up this terrific (and huge — over 700 pages) book on ESPN. I highly recommend it, and I also recommend this classic satiny 1980s ESPN SportsCenter jacket — just the thing to wear while you’re reading the book. Da-da-da, da-da-da.

In other eBay finds this week:

• Staying with sports media for a sec, here’s a nice CNN-SI polo shirt.

• Wow, a gallon-sized 1970s NFL IHOP pitcher.

• Here’s a cool set of 1970s NFL binoculars by Tasco.

• Reader HH Hipster checks in with a Super Bowl XXIX grounds crew jacket. (Note to The Hipster: you sent a lot of great items, but the other auctions would be over by the time this gets posted.)

• This 1970s Houston Astros/Gulf promo visor could use a little cleanup, but still nice.

• ABA fans will like these: a Spirits of St. Louis mug and a Carolina Cougars pennant.

Seen something on eBay that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.

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Wondering why there’s a photo of donuts over there? Here’s the deal: I was gonna write a little something about Permanent Record, which is about report cards, so I did a Google image search on “report cards,” and for some reason one of the photos that came up was that photo of glazed donuts. “Hmmm,” I thought, “glazed donuts are, on the whole, better-looking than report cards. So I’ll just use that photo instead.” (Maybe next week I’ll use glazed donuts to accompany Collector’s Corner, too.)

Anyway … My thanks to the many of you who had kind and enthusiastic things to say about yesterday’s Permanent Record article on Slate. The second article in the series is up now (click on the “2” at the top of the page), plus there’s a little bonus material on the Permanent Record blog.

And for you NYC-area folks, we still have room for a few more people at this Saturday’s Permanent Record party in Brooklyn. If you’ve been following the project and would like to attend, shoot me a note and I’ll fill you in on the details.

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Membership update: Several new designs have been added to the membership card gallery (including Jason Shane’s card, which is based on his young son Aidan’s soccer jersey), and the printed/laminated versions of those new designs all mailed out last Friday. As always, you can get in on the membership scene by signing up here.

Incidentally, we’re getting ready to offer a new product to all past, current, and future membership enrollees. Details soon.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Really fun story about an old Alabama mascot. ”¦ Yancy Yeater notes that Temple QB Mike Gerardi appears to have wing-like tape strips on the forehead area of his helmet. ”¦ Riddell is the only helmet manufacturer whose logo is allowed to appear on an NFL helmet. “So are the Redskins getting fined every week?” asks Ryan Perkins. Good question. ”¦ “I found this picture of Washington, DC-area high school helmets, and it looks like just about every logo is stolen from some other pro or college team,” says James Noone. ”¦ Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Brandon Flowers of the Chiefs got in a skirmish during Sunday’s game and ended up with a badly mangled jersey (from Scott Andrews) … Also from yesterday: an article about high school football uniforms in Oklahoma. … Looks like the Phils were using a raised helmet logo in 1964, much like the Cubs still use today (from Kyle Ostendorf). ”¦ “The New York Liberty are offering a ‘promotional 1997 black Liberty Pondexter Throwback Jersey’ for season ticket renewals,” says Kevin Brown. “Problem is, in 1997 Cappie Pondexter was in middle school. Meanwhile #23, the number she wears now, belonged to All-Star, fan favorite, and current Liberty radio voice Sue Wicks.” ”¦ If you really love your sneakers, bleed for them. “Unfortunately, that is not the dumbest shit tattoo I’ve ever seen,” says Gary Streeting. ”¦ “The Western New Mexico University bus caught on fire on the way to a D-2 football game against Fort Lewis College in Colorado over the weekend, destroying all the uniforms and equipment,” writes Bryan Homrighausen. “Fort Lewis and a local high school loaned out helmets, pants, etc. to the WNMU team, Nike donated some shoes, and someone drove the 450 miles through the middle of the night with 55 alternate jerseys so they could play in something uniform. WNMU won the game.” … Fox Sports totally fabricated some newspaper headlines as part of its Bears/Falcons coverage two weekends ago. ”¦ What’s the deal with the wrong-colored Vikings helmet in this 1998 photo of Elvis Grbac, especially since Grbac was a Chief at the time? (As spotted by Brad Tucker.) ”¦ Here are all of this season’s Islanders goalie masks (from Jason Hoffman). ”¦ The ongoing realignment of college football conferences has led statistical guru Nate Silver (once referred to as “the most important mammal since Abraham Lincoln,” and it’s hard to disagree) to do some very interesting geographic analysis. Recommended reading. ”¦ ASU players continue to wear odd helmet decal combos in practice. That’s linebacker Vontaze Burfict (big thanks to Shane Nelson). ”¦ The Preds have a very logo-driven red line and gold-capped boards. Further details here (from Paul Richard Cook).

 
  
 
Comments (167)

    I’m wondering if the picture with Grbac is simply a trademark/rights issue. Perhaps the magazine wasn’t allowed to show a picture of an official NFL helmet

    That’s exactly what it is whenever you see an NFL player player in an ad showing any football equipment. Unless the NFL gets a cut the player’s “wardrobe” in the ad is generic and without identifiable NFL team logos or markings.

    It’s possible they could have been using a high school’s locker room and uniforms. Look at the sleeve stripes on the jersey hanging in the locker and you’ll see they’re the same colors as the helmet trim.

    Grbac is a Cleveland native. This helmet and uniform belong to his alma mater, Villa Angela-St. Joseph high School, as the article states. VASJ is the Vikings, obviously.

    FWIW, Desmond Howard was also Elvis’ teammate/classmate at VASJ before they headed to Michigan together.

    Other notable recent VASJ alum are the Golic brothers and London Fletcher.

    link

    Man I never thought I would see a VASJ reference on uni watch! I live a couple blocks down from the school.

    I was just as surprised as you to see a local high school on here, but I’m even more shocked that someone else in Euclid reads uniwatch.

    There’s a funny story to that article. Rich Gannon, who was Grbac’s backup at the time, was supposed to be named People’s Sexiest Athlete, but instead they went with Grbac because all they asked for was “the Chiefs quarterback”.

    link

    Regarding NFL socks, I was at the Saints/Bears game Sunday and noticed how the Bears have cleaned up their act, sartorially speaking. Their striped socks look great with their uniforms and it appeared that the team generally wore them in a uniform fashion…even Deven Hester.

    link

    I dunno, when I see a team with players who try to draw attention to themselves with all sorts of unconventional uniform oddities the first word that pops into my mind is “undisciplined”. Of course, a player has to feel comfortable in his uniform and should be able to wear it comfortably, but how hard is it to look like a team? As for baseball, forget it…it’s too far gone.

    I’ve always liked the Bears uniforms a lot but wouldn’t want to rank them. All I know is that they look like a damn serious football team on the field. I can’t picture Brian Urlacher in anything but a Bears uniform…he is a beast.

    Bears do indeed have best uniforms in NFL. Raiders a distant second.

    Certified by a panel of experts convened by the World Sport & Art Authority, a body on whose Executive Committee I have had the privilege of serving.

    “I’ve always liked the Bears uniforms a lot but wouldn’t want to rank them”

    ~~~

    ah…but we did rank them…and guess what team had the best uniform, as selected by uni watch readers?

    buffalo was the runaway loser then, but of course, they’ve vastly improved this year

    maybe we’ll have another poll at some point this fall

    Not only would the Bills skyrocket if a new poll were done, but the Skins would jump up due to those awesome ass gold pants and cool socks.

    Bears would look a lot better if they didn’t use the modern shiny fabric on their pants though. The “traditional” uniforms look silly in modern fabrics.

    Also, ditch the GSH already.

    Yes, he is. Which is why the NFC Championship trophy is named after him. That doesn’t mean his initials should be forever on the jerseys.

    You don’t see an ELL stuck in the Packers stripes, do ya?

    The Chiefs have the best uniforms in the league. The Bears look good, but there must have been some Chicago-style voting going on in that UW poll…

    And yes, the Rams have looked better, but the white over white is still pretty good.

    Yes about the Chiefs! The rams are okay, top third or so. I’d like to see more gold or yellow or something brighter. Their blue over blue is down there with the Seahawks and last years Bills monochromes though. Rams white over gold is better than all whites.

    It looks like the players are wearing white tights over white crew socks. You can see skin peeking through above the calf line for both Cadillac Williams and Chris Long. In the long shots of Williams I thought it was just a pair of tights over bicolored socks, but you can see the detail in the close ups.

    I think the “wing-like tape strips” on Temple QB Mike Gerardi’s helmet are merely the stadium floodlights reflected on the helmet.

    I laughed when I saw this in the ticker and said out loud to myself, “it’s just a reflection guys.” Good work!

    The helmet in the Grbac picture is what his high school, The Village Angela – St. Joseph (OH) Vikings, wore at the time.

    Well I guess that explains that. I still think it’s a bit of a weird choice since very few people would have any idea what it was. Given that he was a Chief at the time, a plain red helmet would’ve made more sense to me.

    I still think it’s a bit of a weird choice since very few people would have any idea what it was.

    Except for all literate people who read the article clearly explaining where the photo was taken.

    Wait. Hold on, hold on. Nike donated shoes to a tiny D2 school and there wasn’t a massive ad campaign centered around it? No publicity other than a local write up? Is it possible that Nike actually did this out of the goodness of their hearts?

    I don’t know how to feel right now.

    Stokley’s seams might just be washed out. If the thread is made from a different material than the body of the jersey, it might fade faster than the main body. That’s assuming, of course, that he reuses his jerseys.

    Seeing Eli Manning and the Giants last night reminded me that I saw Manning a few months ago at Jazz Fest here in New Orleans…wearing an LSU cap. Seeing any of the Mannings here in New Orleans is pretty common. (At the end of last season a friend of mine was outside his house getting something out of his car when Peyton Manning and his mother came walking by and my friend overheard Peyton expressing his concerns to his mother about the prospects for a season-long lockout.) When I saw Eli (who, of course, played for Ole Miss) it didn’t occur to me to snap a picture of him wearing an LSU cap…I’m sure I could have gotten a lot of mileage out of that.

    BTW, not long after I saw Eli, as I was leaving Jazz Fest that day I passed a guy wearing one of Paul’s “Meats” T-shirts.

    When you saw Eli, or mush-mouth as I like to call him, did he look like he was about to cry or puke? These are the only two looks this man possesses.

    White over white is ALWAYS better than dark colored pants. I don’t care what team it is. The Colts road uniforms are one of the cleanest looks in football. Remember how bad they looked in 1995 with the blue pants crap? UGH!

    I’m with you Jeff. Arrrrghh. Much prefer the Chiefs in red trousers. AND, I like the Browns in orange pants with white jerseys. Commence rotten tomato throwing now.

    The Colts thankfully short-lived “BYU” look. I hated it, thank God it went away. Even worse were the Lions’ one-year dalliance with Blue pants paired for road White jerseys. The ABSOLUTE WORST OFFENDER AWARD is a tie between the Saints’ – Jackass Jr. College Black leotards, and the Browns’ seal Brown leotards – both horrible abominations. May we NEVER see them again.

    To their credit, you won’t see the Raiders, Cowboys or Packers donning monochrome dark unis, or piting dark pants with light jerseys – “So they can look togh, Man ….” No, they seem to get it. The idiots that run the Saints haven’t for quite awhile. I again, for another year, keep my fingers crosed that the leotards stay put away this year. But I have my doubts.

    That said, I prefer the Rams’ Gold pants with the White jerseys. I actually favor the White pants with the Blue jerseys. The White pants with the Gold numerals on the Blue jerseys create a pretty cool look.

    I strongly believe that the Chargers should wear Yellow/Gold pants with their White jerseys – instead of those boring, yuk Navy Blue pants. Why not a nod to the unique 1971-72 Chargers look. Maybe even wear the Gold pants with the Powder Blue jerseys (I concede that they likely wouldn’t match well with the Navy jerseys/White helmet look, but would look Heavenly paired with Powder Blue jerseys).

    Why go back to the Chargers’ 1971-72 look? Because winning NOW in that uni today helps heal the painful memories of many tough, losing years. It ties it all together in good, healthy, loyalty centered continuum. Nothing wrong with that ….

    I like seeing the Saints in all black in the Dome and I think most hardcore Saints fans dig’em. We’ve just grown accustomed to those uniforms down here…and there are a lot of good vibes associated with those uniforms from our Super Bowl season.

    BTW, the Saints start every season wearing white at home, as they did Sunday against the Bears. Then one Sunday you walk into the Superdome and you see the team warming up in all black…makes’em look serious.

    I’d like to see the Chargers pair their road navy blue pants with the powder blue jerseys. I think it would look better than the Titans do now.

    Oh, and forget the Bears. The Steelers have the best uniforms in the NFL.

    I think there so many things that look bad just because we think they should look a certain way because that’s how we are used to seeing them. If the Colts had been wearing white-over-blue since the 1950s and came out with white-over-white in 1995, it would have looked just as bad. It’s what we were used to.

    The Cheifs’ white pants would look good with their white jerseys if they paired them with their red socks as they used to do instead of their white socks as they tend to do today. Their white pants with their white socks just look too monotonous like the Chargers’ and Ravens’ road unitards.

    ” … The ongoing realignment of college football conferences has led statistical guru Nate Silver (once referred to as “the most important mammal since Abraham Lincoln,” and it’s hard to disagree) to do some very interesting geographic analysis. Recommended reading. … ”

    ***

    What a great tip, Paul. Totally fascinating, and those maps are killer.

    On another front, of interest to blood relatives and no one else, is that daughter Molly, self-appointed captain of her U6 soccer team, rejected adult attempts at interference and persuaded her teammates (under threat of injury) to name their team the Underwater Blue Sea Monsters, which I believe to be the greatest sports moniker since the Cro Magnon Cavedwellers.

    Awesome – back when, my daughter’s T-ball team was issued “key lime” t-shirts and visors by our Park Dstrict as their “uniform”, and we took a vote on the team name. The kids unanimous choice “Key Lime Pies”.

    …and we “creamed” the competition :-)

    When my oldest son was playing youth baseball (about 4th grade) here in the Denver area, there was a team from Golden that had the name “Golden Fighting Pickles”. They were horrible, but I always loved the name.

    Nate Silver’s findings are questionable. Does he really believe Georgia Tech has more fans than Georgia? Tech struggles to fill its stadium even in good seasons, while UGA can have a poor year yet still sell out Sanford Stadium.

    Ummm, the new jerseys for the Sudbury Wolves story is two years old. All the CHL teams got the Reebok treatment one year after the NHL got it.

    I have my Rbk Quebec Remparts jersey with me today. I met the Hanson Brothers at a charity event, and will be covering the charity hockey game tonight between the old-timer Jets and the policemen and emergency service men.

    I can get one later on once the bosses evacuate the building. They cracked down on the “business casual” the other day because too many people were abusing it.

    But, to give you an idea, it looks link, except mine has #25 on it.

    Regarding the photo of the Redskins’ player with the Schutt helmet – I would say that they are not getting fined because the official Schutt logo on the Air XP is black. It looks like they just covered over the logo with something white (white paint, white tape, maybe even WhiteOut) to meet the requirement.

    I guess some teams will go the extra mile of trying to carve the raised logo off; other teams tuck that snubber up under the helmet shell (the Giants do that on almost all modern Schutt helmets; I noticed that Matt Ryan and some other Falcons are doing that as well).

    Am I remembering correctly that Goodell has declined to renew the Riddell deal and that once it expires teams can either show all helmet manufacturer logos (or perhaps they will go back to covering up all helmet manufacturer logos like in the mid-80s)?

    I was looking at one of these in a sporting goods store; the “Schutt” is molded into the bumper so it will be visible whether it is painted black (like the retail helmets) or left white like the NFL helmets.

    The membership card looks great, Paul. Thank you so much. I can’t wait to get it in the mail.

    Not sure if this was reported yesterday, but Virginia Tech is breaking out their orange pants this weekend at Marshall. They’re also going with the infamous orange helmets they wore in the Orange Bowl.

    That Washington Post football helmet photo was part of a 10/21/10 article it ran about high schools copycatting NCAA/NFL helmet logos. Hence the pic featuring same.
    link

    Not that anyone gives two s**ts, but my high school, the Thomas Edison Eagles, is the helmet in the center.

    I still think the Giants look better when they wear the link as well as the white, but at least their more consistent with their sock parings…

    Brooklyn Beefsteak news flash: The organizers are offering a $5 discount to Uni Watch readers for this Sunday’s event. Enter the code “SIRLOIN11” when link.

    A uni-related discussion came up in my Financial Accounting class today. During an example in which the professor was talking about the steel strike decades ago, he brought up that the Steelers helmet logo is an offshoot of the steel mark used by the industry. He then went on to speculate that, had the Steelers been an expansion team in the last ten or twenty years, they wouldn’t have used the steel mark, but instead had either a ketchup or mustard bottle or a pickle jar on their helmets, assumingly based on the Heinz sponsorship of their stadium. I thought about bringing up the NFL’s no advertising on game jerseys policy, but it’s a substitute and he seems to be a bit of a scatterbrain.

    This really doesn’t have much at all to do with anything. Just thought I’d share.

    had the Steelers been an expansion team in the last ten or twenty years, they wouldn’t have used the steel mark, but instead had either a ketchup or mustard bottle or a pickle jar on their helmets

    Right, like all those other major league expansion teams in the past 20 years that have corporate logos…

    ummm, Red Bull NY?
    (wait, I said major)

    I don’t think they count. Hell, they got sued because they were trying to rip-off the car logo originally.

    Scatterbrain indeed.

    Even if we can image an alternate universe where, I dunno, Tampa Bay has a team in 1933 and the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t come into existence until ’76 or even ’95, there’s just no way in hell we’d have a team with a ketchup bottle for a logo. You might get a generic “guy wearing a hard-hat” logo or something instead of the steelmark, but that’s about it.

    “Even if we can image” Ugh. Even if we can imagine

    Apparently I shouldn’t post when I’ve been drinking.

    “had the Steelers been an expansion team in the last ten or twenty years, they wouldn’t have used the steel mark, but instead had either a ketchup or mustard bottle or a pickle jar on their helmets”

    ~~~

    is your teacher named “powers” by any chance?

    Nope, George Leonard. He’s a substitute, so I’m not quite sure how to read him. All I know is that nobody seemed to like him and most of the class left at the halfway break.

    I don’t really know where he was going with the whole “ketchup bottle” rant. I mean, yeah, there’s the example of the MLS and WNBA teams with corporate logos on their jerseys, but other than the Red Bulls, I can’t think of any team that uses a corporate logo (not a derivative, as the Steelers do) as their team logo.

    On a similar note we discussed Indianapolis Colts v. Metropolitan Baltimore Football Club, LTD. in my intellectual property class today as an example of consumer confusion. The judge seemed to think there was no reason that should have ever made it to an appeal since it was so blatant and unapologetic infringement.

    A quick scan through link give me one more in the US: Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

    Maybe he was thinking of the Phillipine Basketball Association: Gilbey’s Gin, Manila Beer, Sunkist Orange Juicers, Sta. Lucia Realtors, Mobiline Cellulars, FedEx Express, Coca-Cola Tigers… and for some reason the Alaska Aces.

    The Toronto Blue Jays are an example of a failed attempt to promote their owner’s product (Labatts Blue)

    Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Today, the top-selling beers in Canada are Bud, Bud Light, and Coors Light, in no particular order. Labatt Blue, as well as Molson Canadian, Export and Golden, are pretty much orphan labels.

    Driving to Buffalo last week, I made a pre-border crossing pit stop at the Fort Erie duty-free, where I saw massive quantities of Brador and Molson Stock Ale on display. I thought I’d died and come back in 1975!

    So to hark back to the OP’s professor, if Labatt were granted an expansion baseball team today, would they call them the Toronto Buds?

    Or would that be more appropriate to a Vancouver hockey team?

    And either way, would the Maple Leafs file for an injunction?

    Actually, Labatt is now part of the Anheuser Busch Interbrew megaconglomerate.

    But I think the point was that old-school Canadian brands like Blue, Canadian, OV, 50, Export, are orphans in the sense that they’re only getting made in Canada now, as opposed to the “global” brands like Bud and Coors.

    (I had no idea Brador still existed. I was always partial to Black Label.)

    More likely, they’d be called something generic and menacing, like the Pittsburgh Menace, or Demolishers, or Snarrrrrrl.

    Or something with a CamelCap, like the Pittsburgh RiverMonsters. Not the SteelHawks, though, because Seattle might complain.

    You know, the sort of name that could “inspire” a cartoonish logo featuring some sort of angry creature, real or mythical, that you can slap on all sorts of merchandise that the kiddies will want.

    possible throwback for ASU this year? On the left side of Burfict’s helmet (our right, duh) is the old sunburst that was on the helmets before ASU went to Sparky in (I believe ’80).

    I would’ve gone to one of those high schools if I hadn’t moved to Indiana! The Black helmet with the rd falcon in the bottom right is from James Madison HS in Vienna, VA.

    As far as the Islander masks go, I was expecting Nabokov’s mask to have “Get me out of here!” on it. Perhaps in Russian. Or in Morse Code.

    Sorry – that was “Why me?” in Cyrillic.
    “Get me out of here!” would be: Выпустите меня отсюда!

    Again with the Sabres’ shop, eh?

    Yes, I can see how the Maple Leafs were disappointed at having their thunder stolen, preventing them from the proud chore of unveiling that cutting-edge design.

    Let me guess — the next third jersey will be the 1970-to-1992 design.

    It surprised me that it took them that long to confirm the story, considering the Senators came out fairly quickly about their third, all in the same incident.

    Paul- A couple years ago, in the piece on Joe Skiba, you said that the Giants had something special planned for this year. Any news on that? (disclaimer-since starting a new job in which I no longer have a desk and computer, I’ve started reading Uniwatch on my phone which has led to more skimming that reading of the ticker, so it is entirely possible that I missed it if you have already mentioned it.) Thanks.

    NIKE FOOTBALL LEAGUE UPDATE:

    Remember that picture of link that I sent in last year (made it on Uni Watch August 24th, 2010 to be exact) because his Nike HyperStrong pant had integrated knee padding? Apparently, he was test-driving them for what would turn into link: a first look at the *underworkings of, at least* NFL in 2012.

    THE DAY IS MINE!!!

    Yesterday, I tried to log on to UW and my school’s filter wouldn’t allow it.

    Today I acquired the override code and I am back!!!WOO HOO…

    Anyone notice that Mike Vick, Tom Brady and Matt Ryan are all wearing Schutt Air XP helmets instead of the Riddell VSR-4’s they were wearing?

    Aaron Rodgers did the same last year after his late season concussion.

    Brady before:
    link

    Brady after:
    link

    Paul- Another great post/article on the Permanent Record. Fascinating story today. The fact that family had stayed in the greater NYC area all those years is amazing. Keep up the good work.

    M-N

    Has anyone seen the preview for the movie “Abduction”? They have the main character wearing a fake Roberto Clemente jersey.
    It’s the black one, and he passed away before the Pirates went to the mix & match unis.
    Pretty bad for a movie to get that wrong. Why not shell out the $$ for the Mitchell & Ness?

    Why isn’t a Mitchell & Ness jersey considered a “fake”? It’s still just a reproduction, right?

    Wouldn’t the character just be expected to be wearing fan apparel? I believe I’ve seen the trailer, and he is sliding down something and running away from bad guys or the FBI or something, jumping the turnstiles at PNC Park, right? It’s not like he’s portraying Clemente playing outfield for the 1969 Pirates. He’s just a guy at a baseball game.

    Maybe I missed your point, though.

    It was jarring to me simply for the fact Clemente never wore NOB. Looked all kindsa wrong.

    Yeah, the movie can’t be blamed but the manufacturer should.

    I noticed that Clemente jersey in the movie trailer as well, and as Rob H. says, it’s just fan apparel. The black Clemente jersey is very popular in the Pittsburgh area, I saw more of those jerseys and gold ones than the historically accurate white and grey versions Clemente wore during his great career.

    Technically, yes, Clemente died four seasons before the multicolored jerseys debuted, but he played with several Bucs from those 1977-79 teams,(including Dave Parker in spring training), so the connection still exists because of the short time span. On the other hand, if someone had an Elroy Face jersey with the multicolored look, that would cross the line in my opinion.

    I have seen the Bumblebee-era Clemente jerseys at PNC Park. I’d still like to see Barry Bonds jerseys in that design, even though the Bucs retired the Bumblebee design the year before Bonds debuted.

    I think you can find black jerseys for Bonds on Ebay, but his Pirate jerseys aren’t very popular, so it’s tough to find them. Sad in a way, because he was fun to watch on the field during those years. Unfortunately, his off field persona turned off many fans at that time, so you’re more likely to see a Van Slyke jersey today.

    WSU is asking fans to vote on which uniform to wear for Homecoming this year:

    link

    Keep in mind that the Cougars’ school colors are crimson and gray. They have eschewed BFBS.

    I did just the opposite: Crimson helmets, gray jersey and crimson pants. Your vote is for the traditional Cougar home uniform. I don’t have a problem with that.

    I have a problem with any kind of “fan voting” to make a decision like this when they don’t show the results as they go along. You know they’re going to probably choose what they want anyway, and it the mean time they got thousands of people to visit their site.

    Seeing ASU’s pitchfork where the helmet stripe actually looks really cool. I hope they do this for the future…(or one game)

    RE: Riddell and the NFL

    I mentioned last week in the comments that I had noticed several players (during the Monday night Raiders vs Broncos game) were wearing Schutt helmets.

    I had always thought that Riddell was the only helmet allowed in the NFL (due to equipment contracts). I still don’t know the answer about the Schutt helmets, but I’m thinking that since the actual neck bumper is all white (and only the Schutt is raised), that they can skirt the rules?

    Riddell is the only logo that can be displayed. That’s why you’ll often see guys in Riddell helmets have the word Riddell on the front bumper, but guys in other helmets have a sticker with the team name.

    Tom Coughlin’s pin was yellow last night, not Stars/Stripes. I would provide photographic proof, but I cannot get a good picture off of my t.v.

    Just a question – what does it take to get something to appear in the ticker around here? I’ve tried both e-mailing the main UniWatch address, as well as posting links in this message board.

    Apparently the bears are wearing their orange alternates against the Packers.

    link

    My apologies if this has already been noted.

    Gah…when they didn’t wear them last year I assumed they’d been burned…

    You owe me, Bears. That’s right. White-over white on the road at the next opportunity. Lose the navy Pop Warner pants.

    Bunch o’ clods.

    Pfft, the navy pants date back to the 30’s, they should have never started wearing all-white in the first place.

    Put me down as the all white Rams look is far from bad, not ideal.

    The Bears wearing Orange against the Pack does not seem right

    The Red Sox collaspe is drawing a lot of media attention, from what I’ve read they’re missing the main reason. The average Red Sox is about 4 hours;), about a third longer than the average ball game, which means they’ve played the equivalent of 240 games, they’re simply worn out, playing baseball’s equivalent of the neutral zone trap.

    I’m probably in the minority here, but I actually like the Rams in all-white. Maybe this is the Who Dat kid in me, but dark jerseys with gold numbers outlined in white and white jerseys (both paired with gold pants) just seems more like a Saints thing to me. The gold pants do look excellent with the white top, however.

    Seeing as it was a boring game last night, I took the Rams’ current uniform (sans blue pants) and swapped out the 21st Century colors with the classic colors, and brought back the ’73-’94 L.A. socks. link?

    I’m in New Orleans and I am a longtime Saints fan. Their Gold pants are wonderful – though perhaps too light a shade of Gold – and their Black leotards are nauseous. Some Saints fans, including some on this site, think that the Black pants make them look “serious” or tough or tougher than usual. I think that at best, they look like Jackass State Junior College , and they are 15-years-too-late-trendy, thug wannabee, sickening looking and not suitable for a professional football team that asks fans to pay money to see this.

    That is simply my opinion.

    I much prefer the all-white Rams than their alternatives: I hate the newer navy pants, whether worn with a white jersey or, especially, with the navy jersey at home. Can’t stand monochrome unis (unless they’re white), and I generally don’t like dark pants.

    Their gold pants look fine with the away whites, but they still remind me of the days when Mike Martz always wore navy over gold at home. When the pants began to get sweaty, they’d end up looking brownish in the dimly-lit done. I’d rather they return to the old royal blue & yellow scheme.

    I just have to say, your project on Slate is amazing. It’s incredibly well-written. I’m a teacher, so I find stories of schools from decades ago fascinating.

    So, we all know about the speculation of Nebraska having black football helmets from that picture of their new gloves not too long ago

    link

    It turns out that Nebraska athletic officials have asked their fans to wear black to the Wisconsin game, to differentiate themselves from Wisconsin fans wearing red.

    Source – link

    This would make sense since Wisconsin/Nebraska has very similar uniforms. My strong guess is Nebraska will be wearing those black helmets for that historic first Big 10 game at Camp Randall in a few weeks.

    lets hope they will get destroyed in them and never wear them again, much like Wisonsin’s new uniforms they wore in the mid-90s, also at Camp Randall.

    This might be one time where BFBS might be a good thing (or at least not a horrible thing). Those two are going to look like an intrasquad scrimmage in their regular uniforms.

    Imagine how much better it would look if Nebraska revived the full UCLA striping of the Devaney era. Even without TV numerals, it would look awesome. Why not?

    it matches their stadium logo, and adheres to the fact that they wanted to do something with the colors of the miami city flag

    Still lame as hell. How do you design a uniform around that many colors without looking really stupid?

    We’ll find out on November 11. According to their own web page (link) they will unveil the new logo, uniforms and colors.

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