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Monday Morning Uni Watch

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The fellow shown above is Rob Sankey, who works for NFL Films. Are the “SDS” designations on his laminate and camera a shout-out to one of history’s most important student organizing groups? Nope. They’re Steve Sabol’s initials (Sabol’s middle name was Douglas), which were worn yesterday by all NFL Films personnel — a nice touch. Looks like some coaches wore Sabol’s intials as well.

That was actually one of the more uni-relevant details from yesterday’s NFL action, as it was a fairly quiet day with just a few items of note:

• Robert Griffin again managed not to wear a swoosh during pregame warm-ups, this time by wearing an unbranded compression shirt.

• Once the game started, the Redskins again wore their gorgeous gold pants, this time with their burgundy jerseys.

• For the second straight week, the Chargers wore solid white.

• Several other teams wore white at home, including the Saints and Browns.

• The Cardinals wore their BFBS alts.

• This Fútbol Americano logo appeared on most (all?) fields yesterday. It’s the league’s recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

Turning to Saturday’s NCAA action, you should start with Phil’s coverage from yesterday. After you’re done with that, here are some additional items:

• Notre Dame added a 125th-annivesary helmet decal.

• Sticking with the Irish, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o wore a little placard with “574L” on it. Turns out he’s also using it as a Twitter hashtag. Turns out 574 is Notre Dame’s new area code, but it’s not clear what the “L” is for.

• Looks like Michigan’s road jerseys had some inconsistent piping.

• Louisiana Tech running back Kenneth Dixon suffered a nasty jersey rip. (Update: Check that — I’m now informed that the jersey was just stretched to the point where the pad popped out, but it wasn’t torn.)

• Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd’s nameplate was coming loose.

• Looks like Iowa was wearing a little heart (or possibly some other symbol) at the base of their gold helmet stripe. Anyone know what that’s about?

• Norfolk State was penalized for having two same-numbered players on the field at the same time. According to this story, “Norfolk State’s issues began before Saturday, when [linebacker Lynden] Trail began badgering secondary coach Marco Butler about being allowed to participate on the kickoff return team. Impressed that the Florida transfer would relish the grunt work, Butler and Adrian allowed it, but failed to realize another player on the unit wore the same number. When Trail and Wilonte Roscoe were on the field for the opening kickoff, both wearing No. 7, the Spartans were called for a 5-yard penalty.”

• Gee, ya think the Under Armour logo on Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald’s windbreaker is big enough?

• Speaking of coaches’ outerwear, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder’s jacket had last season’s Cotton Bowl logo.

• Yet another coaching tidbit: We often see players’ uniforms set out in their lockers before a game, but here’s how the Notre Dame coaches’ uniforms looked prior to Saturday’s game.

• Odd that Cornell’s midfield logo was upside-down for the cameras (or, if you prefer, odd that the main cameras were on that side of the field).

• And speaking of midfield logos, Minnesota-Crooskton’s grounds crew accidentally put the midfield logo at the 45-yard line.

(My thanks to all contributors, including Trey Ashby, Sam Belk, Adam Brodsky, Dan Cichalski, Fred Doyle, Andy Henderson, Omar Jalife, Warren Junium, Joe Lombardo, Andrew Lopez, Kyle Napiontek, Thos Trefz, Alex Wincapaw, Steven Wojtowicz, and Tris Wykes.)

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Better late than never: I’ve just been made aware of several patches and helmet decals that NFL teams will be wearing later this season. Some of them are fairly predictable things we’ve seen before (but for which I nonetheless had not gotten confirmation until now), but a couple of them are real eyebrow-raisers. Here they are, in ascending order of interest:

• All players will wear pink ribbon decals in October.

• The Rams and Patriots will wear the “International Series” patch when they play in London on Oct. 28.

• The Bills will once again wear their “Toronto Series” patch when playing the Seahawks in Toronto on Dec. 16.

• All teams will wear a Pro Football Hall of Fame 50th-anniversary patch for Weeks 14 and 15. Interesting that this patch wasn’t worn for the Hall of Fame game back in August. (Also, note that Week 15 is also when the Bills will be playing in Toronto. Will they wear both patches that week? And what will that mean for their captaincy patches?)

• The relentless ratchet screw tying football to the military will turn a few more notches during Weeks 9 through 11 (i.e., the first three weekends of November), when all teams will wear a G.I. Joe helmet decal as a “Salute to Service.” Disappointing.

I’m sorry I didn’t have these details for you at the outset of the season, but getting info out of the NFL has become like pulling teeth, at least for me. Fortunately, reader Fred Goodwin found the info in the NFL Kickoff Guide, a publication I hadn’t previously been aware of. Thanks, Fred!

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Nike feedback, continued: The anonymous critiques of the new Nike uniforms that I reported last Thursday have now largely been confirmed by two sources. One of them would only speak on deep background but essentially confirmed the narrative that was set out last Thursday. The other source is an NFL assistant equipment manager. I won’t name him or his team, but here’s what he has to say:

There are many issues with the new jersey materials being used. We use game jerseys for practice, because the coach likes the players to wear what they wear during the game. So using those game jerseys on a daily basis, we see the wear concerns in the matter of a couple of weeks. The Flywire collars started to separate after week one!

We also had Nike tell us we were using the wrong needles on our sewing machines. We investigated and found out we use the same needles they recommend. We were having issues with certain fabrics in the jersey fraying around our stitches when we added ad patches. We have presented all of these issues all the way up the chain of command, up to a high-ranking executive. This executive actually came to our equipment room and my boss went over the details of the issues with him. He was disgusted with the issues that we are having.

Now, a lot of these issues you won’t see on a lot of jerseys, because most game jerseys only get washed 8-10 times. Except for the severely stained ones, which we’ve had more than usual of this year as well.

Another side note is the sheerness of the fabric. If we use the wrong color girdles with our pants, the fabric changes colors. The game socks are also doing the same thing. If a player has a different color spandex on under their socks, it shows through.

All the teams we play are saying the same things. The annual fall equipment managers’ meetings that are coming up soon would be fun to attend, because there will be a ton of issues addressed”¦.

As for the memo [that was supposedly issued by the NFL office, telling equipment managers to stop complaining about the new uniforms], that would be something that my boss would have gotten, and he doesn’t always share that kind of thing with me.

Faaaascinating.

When I first wrote about this last week, reader Douglas King posted a comment asking if there had been similar “growing pains” when Reebok took over the NFL’s uniform contract in 2001. I don’t know the answer to that question (Uni Watch was a much more rudimentary enterprise in 2001), but Douglas’s underlying point — i.e., that any large-scale uniform transition is likely to entail a few hiccups — is a fair one. Still, it’s hard not to think that there’s a really simple solution to problems with the Nikelace: Don’t use the fucking Nikelace! It’s bad enough that it’s just a branding gimmick masquerading as “innovation”; if it’s also causing physical/functional problems, that’s inexcusable.

If any other NFL people want to chime in on this (anonymity assured), feel free to be in touch.

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#NoUniAds update: When the NBA execs first announced their uniform advertising initiative, they said a final vote on the plan would take place via e-mail in September. Ever since that announcement, I have repeatedly asked NBA officials to provide the exact date of that vote. In the beginning, the answer was, “We don’t have a firm date yet”; more recently, they’ve simply stopped responding to my inquiries.

This is the last week of September. So the vote will either be taken this week, or else it’s already taken place and they haven’t announced the results (I’ve specifically asked about that, too — again, no response). Either way, I’m not sure what else we can do, but the silence feels ominous. #NoUniAds

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Opinions wanted, continued: Two weeks ago I invited Native American readers to weigh in on the topic of Indian iconography in sports. I got some very good responses, but I just wanted to put out the call once more, in case anyone missed it last time.

So: If you’re of Native American ancestry (I realize that’s a somewhat controversial topic itself in certain circles, but I’m going to let you folks define yourselves as Native American or not for the purposes of this exercise), what do you think about the use of Native names and iconography in sports? What do your family members think, including those who aren’t sports fans? Is there a difference between, say, the Braves’ use of a tomahawk, which seems like an outdated stereotype, and the Seahawks’ use of Salish imagery, which is more part of the local culture in Seattle? Please let me know your thoughts on these and any other issues relating to this topic via this e-mail link (not in the comments, please). Again, Natives only, please. Thanks.

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“C” section: The Reds have qualified for the MLB playoffs, which means the wishbone-C will once again be making a postseason appearance. Since lots of teams have worn the wishbone-C (the Bears, the Indians, etc.), that got me thinking: How many times has the wishbone-C appeared in the postseason, and how many championships has it won?

I’m very busy this week, so I don’t have time to run these numbers. Anyone else want to take a crack at it? For the purposes of this exercise, let’s include the Twins, since their “TC” logo includes a wishbone-C.

If you’d like to delve into this, send the results of your research here.

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PermaRec update: Some records from a psychiatric hospital — including the patient ledger entry shown at right — raise some tricky questions in the latest entry on the Permanent Record Blog.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Check this out: MLB skipper Davey Johnson as a Texas A&M basketball player, circa 1962! I showed the photo to Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose, who quickly pointed out that Johnson’s uni number in that photo, 15, is the same one he wore while playing for the Orioles (nice find by Chris Smith.) … The Belfast football club Glentoran is letting fans vote on its 130th-anniversary kit (from George Chilvers). … New basketball uniforms for DePaul (from Luke Wrenn). … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: If you’re a Tennessee Vols fan, it’s easy to show your support via your facial hair. … In a related item, there’s a good slideshow of sports mustaches here. … Here’s a slideshow of “unique” (read: mostly dreadful) high school football uniforms (from Charles Mueller). … New team-themed goalie pads for Chris Mason. … Padres CF Cameron Maybin made a diving catch on Friday night, which caused his pant leg ride up, exposing a very un-baseball-ish sock (from Sean Robbins). ”¦ MLB has started selling Reds and Nats caps with “Postseason” patches. Let’s hope that’s only for retail and now something we’ll see on the field (from Peter Kirschenvaum). ”¦ Carolina Hurricanes players have been working out while wearing NHLPA jerseys (from John R. Follett). … F1 driver Sebastian Vettel has been wearing a helmet with LEDs forming zodiac patterns (from Dane Drutis). … New uniforms in the works for the Buffalo Bisons (from Mike McLaughlin). ”¦ Lots of high-cuffed players in the World Baseball Classic, but the South African third baseman is taking things a step further by wearing high-cut stirrups (from Michael Kotler). ”¦ Good article about Iowa’s Apex-designed “banana peel” uniforms from the 1990s (from Thos Trefz). … What’s a “milk rink”? “It was originally iced with water and then with skim milk, which was considered at the time to be waste,” explains Will Scheibler. ”¦ Surprising to see a parking sign in downtown Baltimore using the old Ravens logo (from Joe Giza). ”¦ “It’s Oktoberfest time in Munich, and 2nd Bundesliga side 1860 Munich decided to join in with a commemorative ‘Oktoberfest Edition’ jersey,” reports Bernd W. Wilms. “Extra points for going the distance with lederhosen-style shorts and traditional-looking socks.” ”¦ Brown’s women’s soccer team has added a memorial patch for assistant coach Denis Chartier, who died earlier this year (from Tris Wykes). ”¦ The Wild are holding a contest to find the best hockey jesey in Minnesota. ”¦ According to a post on the Chris Creamer forums, the Bills won’t be wearing blue pants this season after all. “According to one of the equipment managers, we aren’t wearing blue pants this season,” reads the post. “They’re in the 2012 NFL Style Guide, but the Bills have not ordered them, which totally sucks!! He said [team owner] Ralph Wilson likes the all-white.” The poster didn’t explain the circumstances under which he obtained this info from the equipment manager. ”¦ Good article on custom NFL facemasks (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ New hoops uniforms for Notre Dame (from Will Streit). ”¦ Check this out: there’s a German web site called UniWatch. “It’s not about uniforms — it’s a group opposed to racism in German universities,” explains Rob Holecko. … NBC has a new show called The ’Lights — as in, a shortened version of “highlights.” Only problem is that they’ve started things off with an apostrophe catastrophe (from Caldwell Bailey).

 
  
 
Comments (164)

    It might also stand for “love,” in recognition of the support Te’o has gotten since his grandmother and girlfriend passed away.

    It looked like several people (coaches?) on the Ravens sideline were wearing different colored caps. Does anyone know what the story is?

    they probably just don’t have a specific hat they have to wear on the sideline, just has to be a Ravens hat made by New Era

    Different coaches wear different color caps so players can easily identify their coaches for play signals.

    Which brings us to a question…Why does their need to be more than one makers mark on any jersey?

    (even though we already know the answer)

    “Another side note is the sheerness of the fabric. If we use the wrong color girdles with our pants, the fabric changes colors.”

    Noticed yesterday that as the game wore on the pants on the Falcons (I believe it was) looked to be almost gray.

    Noticed it on Florida on the road last week, too. On the tiny screen when I had the Direct TV Sport Mix channel up, for a split second thought it was the Georgia game (with their silver britches) then realized the helmets were orange and pants were (supposed to be, anyway) white.

    The Cornell logo was that way because of the crowd, I would assume. The camera shot from the visiting bench to get the shot of the large-for-Cornell homecoming crowd and the crescent seating of Schoellkopf Field. If they’d have shot from the home stands and got the C right side up, they’d have seen mostly empty seating and the scattering of Yale fans that attended.

    Cornell’s pressbox is on the side of the smaller “secondary” stands across from the original (?) main stadium stands.

    I can’t think of a stadium where the cameras aren’t on the pressbox side of the field (the referee faces the pressbox for his announcements so having cameras on the opposite side would result in you seeing his back on TV) so this is a case where the logo is flipped.

    True. It does prove annoying when the referee gives his announcements with his back facing the majority of the people at the game. Considering the potential TV audience, I suppose it’s appropriate, but I’m not sure what percentage of Cornell’s games are actually televised.

    Actually, Cornell’s opponent this past weekend — Yale — does something similarly odd for their televised home games.

    The press box, home team bench and fans are all on the west side of Yale Bowl, yet the TV cameras are stationed on the visitor’s (east) side of the Bowl.

    As a result, when watching a Yale Bowl game on TV, you see the “Y” logo upside-down, and the players are between the camera and the sun, which creates annoying shadows on a sunny day. But, you see the more-full side of the stands in the background. (Also the press box in the background, which is kind of odd.)

    And the ref faces the cameras / visitor’s side when announcing penalties.

    In all, a strange setup.

    Do most other smaller (I mean that relative to all the Big Div 1 FBS programs that draw 50,000-100,000 to every home game) schools do it this way, or do most of them not care about having the smaller visiting side crowd in the TV picture… (Or do others the school usually have the home crowd on the ‘opposite of the press box side’?)

    In short if that’s the reason then why aren’t the other non-BCS/Ivy League/Div 1 FCS, Div II & III schools all like this?

    A lot of schools have their home side opposite the pressbox but they don’t flip the logo like Cornell has.

    Is it me, or is Nike ridiculous for having to squeeze in their logo on the Chargers uni’s under the lightening bolts on the sleeves. It looks terrible!

    Good: Chargers in solid white. Bad: Now it’s more obvious the helmet thunderbolt, sleeve thunderbolt and trouser thunderbolt are all mismatched. They’d be on firmer ground if the fabric backing the bolt design were the same color as the uniform.

    Idea for Chargers’ upgrade: Powder blue numerals trimmed in gold (yellow), navy blue thunderbolts on white background. They should avoid the superfluous outlining they seem to be struggling over.

    That’s why I still think the Seau look was the best look the team’s had. Everything matched up very nicely.

    link

    I think I’m the only person on the planet that wants them to DUMP the powder blue and go back to that Seau look full time.

    Or this striped tubes are over his pants.
    Hard to tell (even when enlarged).
    You’d think they’d be likely to fall down, though.

    Would the milk in the milk rink also substitute for more expensive paint, creating the one of the first “artifically-colored” rinks? After all, ever notice how all rinks today are white?

    Thoughts?

    Any time. On a related note, Dixon did have a uniform rip 2 weeks ago agsinst Houston. His nameplate was nearly ripped of his back during the 2nd Quarter. I never got a picture of it, but the equipment guys had it stiched back by the begining of the 3rd Quarter.

    Is it weird, or is it ok, that the Redskins are currently wearing 4 different striping patters on their uniforms?

    1. Helmet – 1 gold and 2 white stripes separated by a thin sliver of burgundy

    2. Jersey – 2 stripes (gold/burgundy on the white uni; gold/white on the burgundy uni)

    3. Pants – 1 white and 2 burgundy stripes with no separation

    4. Socks – 3 gold and 2 white stripes with thin slivers of burgundy

    link

    Now, I don’t think a uniform has to have ALL the stripes match up, but I think 4 different patterns is too much.

    49ers have matching helmet and pants stripes, but the jersey is different
    link

    Same for the Packers
    link

    For example, the Browns have matching jersey and sock patterns, and the helmet and pants mirror one another (although in different color combos)
    link

    All that said, I like that the Skins have returned to gold pants, and added stripes to the socks. But, I feel like the Redskins have thrown too many of their history’s uniforms into 1 look. It’s like an homage to all 80 years or something. It just feels unthoughtfully put together. Have the pants and helmet match up, or have the socks and jersey match up.

    My 2 cents. Curious to know if anyone noticed the same thing, or had any opinion on it.

    Ideally, IMO, a team should either have matching stripes across everything, or they should match the helmet to pants and jersey to socks. With the general lack of sock stripes lately, the helmet & pants really need to match or it bothers me. The Cots having a single helmet stripe with double stripes everywhere else is annoying, but not too bad. The Redskins with their yellow pants are just a mess and should be ashamed of themselves.

    I would say that the pants and socks to have the same striping pattern. That “team color/white/team color” pattern (I call these “Braisher stripes”) can be used by itself or in multiples – when first introduced into the NFL, the Packers used one set on the helmets, two on the sleeves, one again on the pants, and two again on the socks.

    I can’t look at link and think that the striping patterns don’t match.

    But I agree with you on the others – best at least to lose the sleeve cuff stripes.

    I’ve always liked the Iowa “banana peel” uniform. At the time, it seemed they took the Philadelphia Flyers’ insignia as inspiration. Unusual without being tacky. It makes sense for teams with bird mascots to use stripes that resemble wings or feathers.

    Is this even technically an apostrophe catastrophe?

    link

    That would-be apostrophe is not merely reversed, it’s flipped on both the horizontal and vertical axes. That’s a mere apostrophe catastrophe to about the same degree that Andropov and Chernenko just had colds. More of an apostrocalypse, really.

    Depends on the font, Scott. For many fonts, that is indeed a single open-quote mark. Which means it is indeed an apostrophe catastrophe.

    Bonus points for mentioning the two guys in between Brezhnev and Gorbachev, though.

    Bah! Just because the font doubles the error, the error is not any less doubled. link, and all that.

    But whaddaya know (“not much!”): It’s link.

    It also just happens to be National Coffee Day. Go getcha a free cup at McDonald’s!… I’m sure its delicious ;)

    I agree this is ugly, but certainly you should give them some sort of poetic license to line up the angles with the “E” there, right? This is a logo, not journalism.

    I’m just saying, it was probably an intentional, artistic decision, rather than an ignorant one.

    This is a logo, not journalism.

    Has nothing to do with journalism. Has to do with grammar and punctuation. If you mean to use an apostrophe (which they clearly did), then use a fucking apostrophe!

    Actually, this literally is journalism. As in, if you ask people who work on the show in question what they do for a living, they will say, “Journalism.”

    In journalism, there are things you don’t get to do for artistic purposes. You don’t get to darken mug shots to make people look more sinister. You don’t get to alter people’s quotations. And you don’t get to invent your own alternative systems of spelling, grammar, or punctuation.

    In journalism, there are things you don’t get to do for artistic purposes. You don’t get to darken mug shots to make people look more sinister. You don’t get to alter people’s quotations. And you don’t get to invent your own alternative systems of spelling, grammar, or punctuation.

    Sure you can, see Fox News.

    /I’m mostly joking… mostly.

    Coach Snyder never wears the “right” jacket for the year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him wear a 1993 Copper Bowl jacket.

    I’m pretty sure he wears the pervious year’s bowl jacket the following year. He has been wearing the Cotten Bowl jacket every game this year.

    He wore an old Holiday Bowl jacket for years. He just wears whatever is hanging on the rack by his garage door.

    Iowa was honoring Brett Greenwood, a former player, who collapsed during a workout. He was going to play for the New York Giants, and nearly died. Fans were encouraged to wear green to the game to honor him. Team is raising money to help offset medical costs.

    “The annual fall equipment managers’ meetings” ??

    They have an annual meeting? Does every team send a delegate?

    Tell us you’re going to this, Paul. Or at least dispatching a scribe.

    I saw this odd looking Nikelace hybrid kind of collar on Carleton (MN) College this weekend. The collar looks a lot more like the Nikelace material in person than it does in this photo, but you can see it’s not the full length in front.

    link

    To this untrained eye, the Rob Sankey photo looks like he’s using a film camera. Makes me wonder if NFL Films is still using film instead of digital, and if so why. (Not “why” in the sense of implying that it’s an absurd decision that requires justification, but “why” in the sense of honest curiosity about the choice.)

    Being a photo enthusiast I know there are some people who just love film and that digital can’t replace some inherent magic from film, and I agree with that to an extent. I don’t know if this is still true, but I had heard back a few years that digital still couldn’t match film in capturing detail (I think the term is “outresolve”)

    I was also wondering if perhaps film still delivers better performance for, say, very slow-mo and very long telephoto distances. I have no idea, but I could imagine either being the case.

    The Arizona Cardinals’ BFBS uniform is really growing on me. Maybe it’s more befitting a bird with black feathers (Arizona Crows?) but an excellent look, nonetheless.

    I nominate that entire Euro-centric elite high school hockey league as having the best hockey jerseys in Minnesota! Not! LOL!

    It wasn’t a sticker on Iowa’s helmet stripe, at leaste I don’t think it was. To me it looked like the stripe had been cut straight on the long portion of the stipe, and as a “V” on the shorter portion. Combined it made a triangle where there was no stripe. Why did they do this? No clue. It looked as though the triangles appeared directly on the ridge of whatever model of helmet has those. Perhaps the company that makes the decals is trying to accommodate for the ridges, and making a break point on the stripes so that they don’t bridge that area.

    Absolutely love the Cardinals BFBS. Arizona should make that the main uniform. The Red set looks so weird to me.

    Also, a general observation/question.

    Is Notre Dame using a new type of gold paint on their helmets this year? It seems like the helmets are alot shinier and the pants are a darker shade…

    Notre Dame is using a HydroGraphics-designed helmet. The color is standardized and unique to the school. They went with this because, over time, the changes in permissible paints and the materials used for helmets made it impossible for the student-managers to produce a consistent gold paint job. As Paul mentioned, they didn’t finalize things until just before last season’s USC game.

    The pants are new this year (I think they’re Adidas’s “old gold” color, as opposed to the “sandstorm” of last year).

    I don’t like it. Yes, it’s bold. But it’s distracting more than anything. Anytime they show a close-up of a player, my eyes go straight to the helmet. It reminds me of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.

    So speaking of referee uniforms……(OK, we weren’t but….)….

    Nice work by the ref in the Cowboys game to throw his hat directly under Kevin Ogletree’s foot in the end zone. I don’t think anyone has quite figured out why he did that yet.

    “One in a million shot, Doc. One in a million”

    From what I heard, ref’s are supposed to throw their hat if someone steps out of bounds. However, as to why throw it into the middle of the action, I have no idea. Maybe his fantasy team was playing against Ogletree and he wanted to cut his points.

    They throw hat for that reason, and also if they see a second penalty and they already threw their flag. (Or if it’s stuck and they can’t get the flag out, which I seem to remember happened once.)

    I need to see video of this event before I comment on it.

    Overall though, I really can’t complain too much about the replacement refs. They haven’t been throwing as many flags as they probably should be, and I’m perfectly OK with that.

    I don’t know his name because I’ve only seen this on the Steelers 79 highlight film but there was a Dolphin wearing “The Deion”. Years before Eric Dickerson.

    I never thought about this until now (since Paul has had me thinking critically about native american imagery in sports) but doesn’t the Redskins burgundy over gold look seem to be a direct “shoutout” to the typical native american imagery of going shirtless with leather pants? The burgundy color looks to be the same as the skin tone they use on the profile in the logo.

    Hmm. Not saying “no way,” but I’ve never made that connection. Methinks it’s just the team’s colors.
    (Comparatively, if the Super Bowl-winning “Flying Elvis” Patriots, that just so happened to have been originally designed in the Adidas era, included a “Dude, it’s just three stripes” three-striped sock option, I think this is an even more specious conspiracy theory.)

    I pretty much agree. I don’t think it is an intentional reference. Just a combination of team colors that pop out. But still, now that Paul has infected my thinking on this matter, I can’t help but see it.

    I always thought the Redskins choosing to use the throwbacks in 2002 (including in Spurrier’s first preseason game) with the helmet that looked exactly like Spurrier’s Gator rival Florida State was a shout-out to ‘Free Shoes University’

    Then again there is only so many ways you can chuck a spear on the side of a helmet.

    I’ve always thought that the jersey color was intended to mimic the nickname (maybe because it matches logo color), but I never considered the gold as a replacement for deerskin.

    Isn’t the mimicry of skin tone akin to blackface? How universally derided is the practice of blackface and yet now we can casually reference the fact that the burgundy color of the uniform is a direct correlation of the skin tone of the mascot? I have to say, this is quite the rabbit-hole of thought that I have started going down. Something I never considered before.

    Hey Paul, any chance we could sneak you into the annual fall equipment managers’ meetings? Or maybe get some hidden audio/video recording of the event?

    If people thought that political video was something, just wait for some equipment manager frankness.

    One would think that Nike tested all their new materials and would have sorted out any issues with Oregon before they sent the new uniforms to the NFL. Maybe Nike didn’t because Oregon doesn’t wear the same jersey for any length of time.

    I haven’t seen the Flywire collar in person, but being a former player, and now coach, I haven’t seen many problem with collar integrity, but, I did see a purpose in the stitching on the shoulder yoke when Nike unveiled that a few years back.

    Are the NFL player wearing the padded socks Nike introduced, I’m not seeing many who are.

    Yeah… I’m really wondering if all of these supposed issues are Nike’s fault, or if it’s equipment managers doing things they aren’t supposed to. For all of the ridiculous marketing they do, Nike does seem to actually do a fair amount of research and testing before they unveil new technologies. Is the flywire collar falling apart because it’s been poorly constructed, or is it the result of being washed improperly?

    In short, I’d love to know if any Nike NCAA teams are having the same types of problems.

    The Redskins’ link… I mean, seriously. Just look at that. The simple change from white pants to gold takes the Skins from a perfectly average-looking team to one of the league’s elite. Based strictly on aesthetics, they’re easily in my top 5 with those pants.

    Now if they’d just to back to the ’71 helmets. (chinstrap optional!)

    (PS: note the 4 different stripe patterns even back then)

    link

    I thought I had heard from a source or two that the Redskins were supposed to wear the (I’m still calling them) yellow pants for all their games this season.

    Paul,

    Oh knock it the fuck off with your “POOR ITTLE ME!!!!!!! THE NFL AND NBA ARE BEING SUCH POOPYPANTED STINKY FARTNOSED POPPYHEAD MEANIES TO ME AND WON’T RESPOND TO MY EMAILS ANYMORE” and then claim you have no idea why that would be.

    You know damn well why that is; you’ve been attacking them and acting like a cooze towards them in your daily updates, throwing the douchebag and fuckers word around in direct reference to them.

    But you seem to have this demented idea that simply because they are this huge corporate entity that they have to stand and take any and all abuse and profanity that you barf out at them and do nothing but accept it with a smile on their face.

    I guarantee you that the vast majority of emails/missives that uni watch readers sent to the NBA about the ads on jerseys issue were filled with obscenities and thus immediately deleted/thrown in the trash. And you encouraged them to act this way. You never told your oik followers to be polite.

    The schadenfreude that is coming down on your ass when the NBA announces that it IS putting ads on the jerseys is going to be so scrumptious I intend to stuff myself until I puke it all back up then lick up the puke.

    First rule of media relations (generally learned in the first 20 minutes or so that you’re in the business):

    You don’t stop responding to people who write/say bad things about you.

    Why? Because…

    a) It’s the media, and your public organization very likely IS subject to “fair comment and criticism”
    b) It would make you look petty, bitter and vindictive, rather than staying above the fray
    c) It likely will just make them target you even move.

    You realize that: b) makes absolutely zero sense in terms of agreement with your other points. “Staying above the fray”, means just that, not responding to the increasingly vulgar and whiny bitching that Paul is doing vis-a-vie the NFL and NBA. Having the pr guys at either league lower themselves to the course,vulgar, spoiled brat antics and discourse that Paul is engaging in would make the NBA and NFL look bitter, petty, etc.

    Paul is not helping himself at all with his constant barfing, farting and shitting out of various forms of the word douche (douches, douchebags, corporate douchebags, douchiness.) We get it, he’s a wanna be failed tough guy, wanna be uber failed hipster living in Brooklyn and in Brooklyn it’s all about ‘bustin’ balls, yo.’

    That’s fine, if Paul and his fellow uni oiks, yourself included want to act like spoiled brats with dirty mouths who can’t stop bleating and farting out obscenities every fourth word, then you also have to deal with the consequences and can’t whine and bleat and blub and bitch about them, even if they include being actively shunned, which it sounds like the NFL and NBA are doing.

    Just look at Paul’s comments on this entry about the Nike NFL uniforms. He says, “When I first wrote about this last week, reader Douglas King posted a comment asking if there had been similar “growing pains” when Reebok took over the NFL’s uniform contract in 2001. I don’t know the answer to that question (Uni Watch was a much more rudimentary enterprise in 2001), but Douglas’s underlying point – i.e., that any large-scale uniform transition is likely to entail a few hiccups – is a fair one. Still, it’s hard not to think that there’s a really simple solution to problems with the Nikelace: Don’t use the fucking Nikelace! It’s bad enough that it’s just a branding gimmick masquerading as “innovation”; if it’s also causing physical/functional problems, that’s inexcusable.”

    So it’s expected and accepted by all reasonable and reasonably sane people that there is a breaking in period when a new manufacturer is making the unis and in fact these exact same issues happened when Reebok started out.

    Except because it’s Nike and they are HTE EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, not only don’t they get some benefit of the doubt, they get absolutely zero grace period.

    Yeah, way not to be even the least bit unbiased there Paul.

    You don’t get it.

    With regard to “b”…

    As a media relations person you are ALWAYS about the image of your organization. And, when in doubt, stay professional…no matter what any particular media outlet or individual says about you. If at all possible, NEVER get into a pissing contest. If they make a request for some kind of info, just give it to them and keep your mouth shut.

    What you talking about? I’m only talking about the NFL being slow to respond to Paul’s inquiries, and to those who think that’s appropriate because of what he’s written.

    My B.A. is in journalism/public relations; I’ve been a partner in a PR firm that represented several national sports organizations/leagues, and I’m simply passing along what we found was the best way found to approach requests from the media, even those who routinely bashed our clients. Don’t judge, don’t debate with them, just be responsive.

    If the client wants to offer a response, deal with it separately.

    I’m pretty certain it wasn’t at you Ricko. FWIW, I think your analysis of a corporation taking the high road, is accurate.

    I didn’t use any profanity in my letter to Adam Silver. I don’t need to lean on that kind of language to get my point across and in no way did I feel like Paul was encouraging me to use that kind of verbiage. Even if he had, I wouldn’t have. But, no matter how many of us refrained from such language and noted as such in this thread, I presume we will not change “Giraffe”‘s mind nor will we get an apology.

    It says something positive about the general quality of this site that we’re all so responsive to a rare visit by a single troll. Now let’s all please make him go away by ignoring him.

    I just love it that the definition of a troll now means anyone who doesn’t march in lockstep with the prevailing viewpoint of the majority of posters on the site.

    Just like the Nazis.

    Really great group to emulate.

    Say what?
    All I said was the NFL, by not responding properly to any recognized media rep, really isn’t taking the best approach.

    Sounds like you’re saying that anyone who doesn’t agree with you is wrong.

    How’s that different from what you accused the other “commenters” of doing?

    Seriously, how is it different?

    RE: Carolina Hurricanes players have been working out while wearing NHLPA jerseys…

    Odd that they are still wearing what appears to be their team-issue helmets and pants, which have Hurricanes logos and wordmarks. Aren’t these items owned by the team and thus would not be available for use by the players?

    Looking forward to seeing what you end up sharing from the asylum records Paul. Very interesting stuff. One thing in the OSU-UCLA game caught my eye. I swore the holder for OSU had a pink accent on his shoes. Haven’t found any photos to prove it though. Might have been orange and my TV is trying to tell me something. And finally, as I flipped to the Duck game Saturday, my wife (who now fully accepts my uniform obsession)came in and said something unsolicited. I’ve seen it said here, but she never heard it from my mouth. She said, ” What is that team (UO) wearing? They look like they’re saying LOOK AT ME. Wow…that’s garbage.” The rest was a mumble and a chuckle. Something to the effect of encouraging them to go and have sex with themselves. I think I’ll keep her.

    Quick question:

    Do we know which uniforms will be worn on Thanksgiving Day? Specifically, I’m wondering about the Redskins vs. Cowboys game. I think the game would be a beauty if Washington wore its white jersey/gold pants combo while Dallas sported the blue throwbacks.

    Lions have said they won’t be wearing throwbacks this year, and the Texans have down that they’re wearing the white jerseys with blue pants, so I suppose that puts the Lions in Honolulu blue (is it still Honolulu blue)?

    How about this…

    link

    On a related note, I’m glad you asked this, me Tim B. & Bill were just discussing about how some teams are releasing their “uniform schedules” so we know what teams are wearing ahead of time. Apparently the league office knows in the summer so road teams will know who’s wearing white at home, etc. I think it would be a sad day if all 32 teams publicly released what they were wearing… part of the drama at 1 PM Sunday is not always knowing who’s going to wear what.

    What do you all think?

    Yeah, but since Dallas is hosting the game, it’s not likely they would choose to wear their blue jerseys.

    …and the previous throwbacks 2001, 2002, 2003. Really, for Thanksgivings, it’s been the rule rather than the exception over the past eleven years.

    This high school team appears to rip off both the Texans and the Seahawks uniforms at the same time:
    link

    That is a combination I never would have guessed I would have to see together…

    I noticed how much “borrowing” happened in just those ten examples.

    In addition, when it said they were unique uniforms, a couple of them didn’t seem very unique at all. The final one that had the Texas Longhorn logo was a very plain looking uniform. Ditto the Huskies who had a green and yellow scheme. A quick disclaimer, I’m not saying I liked’em, just saying they were more common than what I thought the list was going for.

    I’m going to assume that Oceanside has a second nickname or reference to their fans which would explain “The Nation” down the side of the pants. Double points for the Oregon-style O on the helmet.

    With those of us that actually like hockey, we have to think about possible alternative programming to watch in order to get through yet another work stoppage. It appears that SCTV had the right idea decades ago:

    link

    Pic and link below to perhaps the worst monstrosity of a uniform I have ever seen. (this link is a spin-off of Paul F’s post above)

    link

    link

    You have to wonder what some people are thinking, don’t you. Either the school got a break on dozens of bolts of that fabric, or they play paintball.

    I’m watching an early round of the World Baseball Classic on mlb. Germany is wearing a nice white home uni with no trim, “Deutschland” in black script and gold trim, black hats with “D” in red with gold trim, and….stirrups all around! Very nice. Canada is wearing a red jersey with a white “Canada”.
    I look forward to a WBC uni special in the near future.

    I found a sweet looking clip on a bag of apples the other day. I actually saved it to scan in and put up a pic. Haven’t gotten quite that far yet.

    It’s probably too late to matter, but it’s “Crookston”, not Crooskton. :)

    All I can say is, with groundskeepers like that, I’m glad I’m not an alum.

    Is it me, or do the stripes on the Packers’ pants look smaller than usual? Maybe just the white stripe. I might be seeing things, though.

    All I can see is that everything green on the Packers’ unis from the neck down is way too green – like kelly green, pre-Lurie Eagles green. Same goes for their sideline personnel. Is it the lighting, the fabric, or what?

    I’ve been saying that for most teams stripes this season. A lot of them have looked much thinner. I didn’t really notice the green issue on the Pack but I only have the game on as a background noise so I’ll have to take a look.

    Paul, could you you give more detail about why the NFL’s upcoming “Salute to Service” sticker is so disappointing to you?

    Sure. Because it’s part of a reflexive trend (in our cultural in general, in sports in particular, and in football most of all) to celebrate anything military-related.

    Is Nike using some of their World Cup fonts from 2010 in college football (Wazzu and a few others and with the Seahawks (reminds me of the 2012 South Korea font) this year?

    This is the first I am seeing the ‘Hawks on TV this year. I won’t lie, they don’t look as bad as I thought they would…

    Back to the weekend, does anyone else think that WVU in grey would look good in bad weather? (clouds, rain, snow…)

    I don’t hate this Seahawks look as much as I thought I would when they unveiled it. It’d look better with the gray pants at home and the blue on the road but it’s slowly growing on me. Just as long as it sticks to Seattle only and not spreads through the rest of the league. I don’t want Nike using the hypocycloids in a 3 color repetitive pattern all over a Steelers alt. With some tweaking and maybe a few run ins with a Bic I could really like what Seattle did.

    no…it’s awful

    but…

    it is actually better than what it replaced

    and that’s sad, bro

    Just saw this post, after watching the Packers get raped with a sandpaper condom.

    The WVU game on Saturday WAS cloudy, and there WAS rain, and it looked like shit. Gold and Blue. Fuck gray.

    Sorry, I might be angry tonight…

    I must tell you I think the Seahawks look cool. I’m glad we don’t live in Seattle ’cause it would be tough convincing my wife I need $1000- of Nike Hawks stuff.

    Wow.

    I’m no Packer fan being here in SF…but they got screwed.

    Seattle 81 pushed off on GB 37….and GB 43 had the ball.

    And no extra point.

    I bet Goodell’s phone is ringing.

    “Wow.

    I’m no Packer fan being here in SF…but they got screwed.

    Seattle 81 pushed off on GB 37….and GB 43 had the ball.

    And no extra point.

    I bet NoGoodell’s phone is ringing.”

    Fixed ;)

    As a Bears fan…

    MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

    That is all.

    I’m going to find you, Tim E. and I’m going to make you pay. But could you please still work on that uni-concept for me? ;) I don’t hate ya that much right now.

    They’re mocking the Sham!?! How dare they!

    Suck it Pack (That was the biggest horseshit call of all time, but as a fantasy owner I appreciate the CBen Touchdown).

    I’m not even going to go off on this shit tonight. Ill tell you one thing, though…

    I’d take full uni-ads in the NBA to get these fucking scabs off NFL fields.

    I’m going to find Gooddell’s email, and my email to him will be this, exactly:

    Sir,

    I don’t have to say it. You know what this is about. Fix it. Football is being ruined.

    Couldn’t we just call the NFL to express our displeasure with the Nike uni’s like we did with the NBA? Please call Roger Goodell 212-450-2027

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