As you know, the Bears normally wear a George Halas perma-memorial on the left sleeve. But their Monsters of the Midway throwback jerseys don’t include the “GSH” inscription, so they show their allegiance to Papa Bear by wearing his initials as a helmet decal.
The “GSH” decal on the throwback helmet has always been fairly small and easy to miss. Someone with the Bears apparently thought it was too small, because yesterday they made it a bit bigger (click to enlarge):
This isn’t just an aberration involving those two players. I looked at a lot of photos going back several seasons, and there’s no question that the decal was larger yesterday. How’s that for a subtle in-season change?
Aside from that, it was a pretty uni-uneventful day around the league. But here are a few tidbits:
• Lions defensive end George Johnson wore an Under Armour base layer and made a half-hearted attempt to cover up the logo. Here’s another view.
• The “1” on Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant’s back uni number was upside-down. You can tell because the drop shadow is projecting the wrong way.
• The Browns wore their brown pants.
• The paint wasn’t even dry yet on Giants wideout Odell Beckham Jr.’s amazing catch when Nike turned it into a branding exercise, and some enterprising designer turned it into a T-shirt.
As an aside: Beckham’s catch wouldn’t have been possible a generation ago, when players didn’t routinely wear super-grippy gloves. As I’ve said several times in the past, I think this is one of the biggest and most under-reported changes in the game over the past few decades. I’m not anti-glove, but I’d love to see today’s players go without the gloves for one game, just to see how big a difference it would make. I think the results would be fascinating.
(My thanks to all contributors, including JustinSr, Means1974, Eric Stoker, Jamie Uthe, and of course Phil.)
Call for entries: My next ESPN column, to be published sometime next week, will be the annual Uni Watch holiday gift guide. I already have a pretty good assortment of stuff to feature, but I’m always happy to have more. If you know of a uni- or logo-related item that would make a good stocking stuffer, please send details this-a-way. Thanks.
Click to enlarge
Bonus ’Skins Watch: I usually wait until Friday to run ’Skins Watch, but there’s already a lot of chatter about this week’s New Yorker cover illo (plus Phil mentioned it in Saturday’s Ticker), so I didn’t want to wait.
The cover design, by longtime illustration pro Bruce McCall, makes the obvious connection between the ’Skins and Thanksgiving — or at least now it seems obvious, although I don’t recall anyone having connected those dots before. Good work by McCall, who explains some of the thinking behind the design here.
Membership update: Another eight designs have been added to the membership card gallery (including D.P. McIntire’s awesome-looking Stargell-era Pirates treatment, shown at right). The printed/laminated versions of those cards should mail out today or tomorrow.
As always, you can sign up for your own custom-made membership card here, you can see all the cards we’ve designed so far here, and you can see the step-by-step process by which we produce the cards here.
Baseball News: Strong work by game-used jersey debunker Peter Nash, who’s presented convincing evidence that an old New York Giants jersey that was supposedly worn by Jim Thorpe and was then cut up into pieces that were sold along with cards produced by Donruss, was actually never worn by Thorpe. … Cardinals manager Mike Matheny is giving up his regular No. 22 so newly acquired Jason Heyward can wear it. No word yet on which number Matheny will wear (from Mark Richter). … New uniforms for the Seibu Lions. “The right sleeve patch ‘Believe Lions’ colors are taken from the three colors that the team has had in its history — black (Nishitetsu), light blue (original Seibu color), and ‘legends blue’ (the current darker color),” says Jeremy Brahm. “The new road uniform (dark blue) was the third uniform last year. I think they’ll also have some throwbacks.” … I was watching an old episode of The Sopranos the other day, and there’s this sequence where it turns out that this guy Tony’s been meeting with is actually an FBI informant and has secretly been recording the meetings via a tiny microphone hidden in the button of his baseball cap. I kept waiting for them to use the term “squatchee,” but no dice. Dang. ”¦ The name and logo for Biloxi, Mississippi’s new minor league baseball team will be announced today.
NFL News: The ’Skins lease on FedEx Field runs for another dozen years, but the team is already planning for a new stadium (from Tommy Turner). ”¦ With the Bills having a “home” game in Detroit tonight, the Bills’ logos are being added to the Ford Field end zones and at midfield (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Good spot by Joshua Johnson, who writes: “Remember Randall Cobb getting ketchup on his jersey during a Lambeau Leap? He parlayed that into an advertising gig for Clorox. But what’s with his jersey? It looks like Clorox just had him turn his standard jersey inside-out.” Interesting — we’ve seen plenty of instances of advertisers using faux NFL jerseys when they don’t have a license to use the real thing, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an inside-out jersey before. ”¦ The NFL and New Era think you’re stupid enough to buy an ugly new cap for Thanksgiving. ”¦ Saints owner Tom Benson is donating $11 million to the Pro Football hall of Fame, most of which will be spent to renovate the Hall’s stadium, which will be renamed after Benson.
College Football News: Hawaii wore their gorgeous rainbow throwbacks against UNLV on Thursday night (from Eric Bangeman). ”¦ Harvard’s placekicker wears glasses — like, regular eyeglasses, not sports glasses — on the field.
Hockey News: Several Rangers players don’t want to see ads on NHL jerseys (from Brooks Simpson). ”¦ Teams in the ECHL are gearing up for a Batman/Riddler promotion. ”¦ Oooh, the 1950-51 Lethbridge Native Sons — an old junior team — had one of the most gorgeous jerseys I’ve ever seen. That’s the back of the jerseys, so they were going with the city name as the NOB (from Graham Clayton). ”¦ Is this an old women’s hockey team? Nope — it’s a bunch of ice show performers who were doing a show at Maple Leaf Gardens in the 1950s (from Will Scheibler). ”¦ ” On Sunday, just for the heck of it, I decided to watch the French language video feed of the Canadiens game,” says Matt Larsen. “In the second period they promoted an upcoming Ottawa/Detroit game. Interestingly, they translated ‘Senators’ into ‘Senateurs’ but did not do likewise for the ‘Ailes Rouges.'” ”¦ Small note at the bottom of this article indicates that the Rockford IceHogs will be wearing “Brovember” jerseys on Wednesday. ”¦ Are the Kings gonna be going with the infamous Burger King design for their upcoming Stadium Series game? “Either that or else this is the best troll job ever,” says Mike Engle.
NBA News: Depending on what kind of cable deal you have, you may be able to see this very good nine-minute documentary about the Lakers’ uniform manager. Recommended viewing (from Paul Lee). ”¦ Forty-six years ago yesterday, the Bucks used one of the greatest program covers ever. Yowza! (Great find by BSmile.)
College Hoops News: The Nebraska women’s team wore these very nice throwbacks yesterday (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Akron wore black uniforms with a big “Z” on the front and TNOB for yesterday’s win over South Carolina.
Soccer News: “Joe Allen of Liverpool took an elbow to the head, which busted him open,” says Mark Coale. “He ended up wearing a numberless blood jersey and a head wrap.” ”¦ The NYCFC away kit has leaked. ”¦ Ditto for the Orlando City road kit.
Grab Bag: I’ve been a member of the Center for Land Use Interpretation for many years. The problem is that they’re based in L.A., so I’m often unable to see their very cool exhibits. They currently have a new exhibit about the U.S./Canada border that I wish I could see. If any of you SoCal readers want to check it out, I’m eager to hear your reactions, descriptions, etc. … Flags and flag design seem to come up semi-regularly around here, so I was happy to learn a new word the other day: vexillology, which is the study of flags. ”¦ WBO welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao and challenger Chris Algieri both wore blue trunks when facing each other on Saturday night. ”¦ I was recently visiting a luthier (that’s someone who builds and repairs stringed instruments, don’tcha know), and her workshop had this really cool wall display of various sizes of planes. Sorry for the shitty photo, but I trust you can see why I found that so appealing. ”¦ Back in 1981, Sony was considering a new logo. Here’s a bunch of proposed designs that were rejected. ”¦ The International Rugby Board has rebranded as World Rugby. “Reaction from the rugby community has been overwhelmingly negative,” says Eric Bangeman. “I, for one, look forward to the 2015 World Rugby Rugby World Cup.” ”¦ Alex Allen came across these DVDs of Bull Durham and Hoosiers with cool minimalist cover art. ”¦ Mark Nicklawske found a very cool hat in the thrift shop but doesn’t know what team or sport it’s for. Anyone know more?
What Paul did last night a week ago: I’m a big fan of Slate’s weekly politics podcast and culture podcast, plus they also have a very good sports podcast (although I rarely listen to that one because I already have enough sports in my life). Each of these three podcasts has its own three-person team, and last Monday night all nine of those people — several of whom I have connections to — came to New York for a live tag-team event, which I was very happy to attend.
The format was like so: All nine people were onstage together, with each three-person team getting a chance to do a truncated version of its own weekly podcast. First up were the politics podcasters — David Plotz, Emily Bazelon, and John Dickerson — who discussed President Obama’s immigration policy (for all of these admittedly crappy photos, you can click to enlarge):
My connection to this crew is that Plotz, who’s now the CEO of Atlas Obsura, was Slate’s editor-in-chief when my 10-part “Permanent Record” series ran there. He was a big booster of the series, for which I’ll always be grateful. (He also got me on the comp list for this show — thanks, David!)
Next up were the culture podcasters — Julia Turner, Dana Stevens, and Stephen Metcalf — who discussed the cultural implications of this New York magazine article about emoji:
My connection here is that Stevens, who’s Slate’s movie critic, lives around the corner from me. I got friendly with her and her husband, Robert Weinstock, about a decade ago, when I wrote a New York Times article about how he’d lost his sense of smell.
Then came the sports podcasters — Mike Pesca, Josh Levine, and Stefan Fatsis — who discussed NBA commish Adam Silver’s recent push for legalized sports gambling:
I’ve had dealings with all three of these guys. Pesca, who used to work for NPR, interviewed me for an NPR story a while back; Levine was my editor at Slate in 2004, when Uni Watch was briefly appearing there; and Fatsis and I have been mutual fans for years, plus I interviewed him here on the Uni Watch blog back in 2007, when he’d written a book about his tryout with the Broncos.
After each three-person podcast team did its thing, the podcasters were put into assorted mix-and-match panels and assigned to debate various hypothetical questions — one of which, as it turned out, involved the Washington football team. The question was basically this: “You oppose the team’s name. A good friend of yours posts something on Facebook supporting the team’s name. Do you confront your friend on Facebook or let it slide?” Turner and Plotz were assigned to defend the “Let it slide” position, while Stevens and Levine were assigned to argue in favor of confronting the friend. I took some really shitty video of the debate, which lasted three minutes. It begins with Plotz explaining why the friend should not be confronted on Facebook:
The several Billy Joel jokes in there are references to the previous debate, in which four of the panelists were asked, “If the world could hear the music of only one person for the rest of eternity, and if that person had to be either Billy Joel or Beethoven, which one would you choose?” That debate, frankly, was more interesting that the ’Skins one, but I didn’t record it. You can hear it, however, along with the rest of the night’s content, here.
As an aside: Beckham’s catch wouldn’t have been possible a generation ago, when players didn’t routinely wear super-grippy gloves.
But it would have been 2 generations ago, when players were using Stickum. At least the gloves don’t leave residue on the uniforms.
Actually, no. You never EVER saw one-handed catches (or interceptions) during the stickum era. Now you see them semi-routinely.
Probably been the occasional one but this video shows some of the best ones ever and all the guys are wearing the gloves which bears out Paul’s point
link
I was basically just joking, but it did happen: link
Ok, so he tipped it first… close enough, dammit
There is a humongous advantage to wearing the gloves of today. It’s so big I cannot find another word that describes how much EASIER it is to catch with gloves than without.
Frankly, anyone who’s worn them for practice alone knows this. There’s virtually no “sting” to catching hundreds of balls one after the other. None.
And then you have the adhesions properties. I’m telling you… it’s hard to drop a pass when you use the appropriate technique. Compare that to gloves of about a decade or so ago… which were simply glorified baseball batting gloves (leather, and that’s it).
These gloves today… it’s HARD to drop a pass when wearing them. Like golf equipment, aluminum bats, huge tennis rackets… it’s a decided advantage and the league might consider looking into them. Makes the game too easy, IMO.
Thing about stickum was the soils from playing football would get into your fingerprints and basically smooth out your hands. This is why you had to have it all over you to re-apply. These gloves absorb the shock of the football hitting your hands, making your hands “softer” if you will and then are stickier than stickum.
I was thinking the same thing but these responses are perfect. It is a great catch but the league probably needs to limit usage of these things to games were temps are below 32 or something like that. Way too much advantage to the receivers as is it to allow for that.
Perhaps my memory is faulty, but as I recall it was mostly DBs who used Stick’um anyway, not WRs as a rule (save for Biletnikoff, who still in my mind was the single greatest pass-catcher I’ve ever seen). And even if you were a WR wearing it, you wouldn’t slather it on a la Lester Hayes, b/c if you did it would rub off on the ball to the detriment of your QB’s accuracy.
Funny that this came up because in the downpour that was the FSU vs BC game, several glove-wearing FSU receivers dropped the ball multiple times, yet gloveless Nick O’Leary caught every ball that came his way.
Sorry, but you misspelled vexillology.
It’s vexillology, not vixillology.
Fixed!
the New Era caps are reflective material, not granite,
as well as the undervisor.
might look cool under stadium lights
I was thinking the same thing
I don’t hate a lot of these, though the gray/reflective button on the top should just be made the same color as the brims.
I’d like to address Matt Larsen’s point on French naming in the NHL. For branding consistency, team names are generally not bilingual. Because Ottawa is a legally bilingual city, they actually have Senators and Sénateurs trademarked. The best example is on the barber pole alternate beauties, where one patch is in English and the other is in French. Aside from that, you only see the French name in French newspapers or RDS. (Logically, I’d bet that a NHL team in New Brunswick would work the same way.)
Now for the Habs, there is no “English” equivalent. Quebec is officially French. So it’s always Canadiens containing an E.
TL;DR: All team names are English only (even in French media) except the Canadiens, and only the Senators are able to be translated.
Didn’t mean to duplicate your comment on the Senators’ bilingual use of the nickname, Mike.
And good point on “Canadiens” being a French word to begin with. It brings up the interesting case of the fact many anglophones pronounce the word “Canadians” while some try to acknowledge the presence of the “e” by saying “Ca-nay-dee-ENZ” even though that isn’t close to being the French pronunciation.
Ray Gandolf (sp?) was a sports announcer on the old CBS Morning News show. A bearded gentlemen in a clean-shaven era. Anyway, when Gandolf was announcing NHL scores, he pronounced the name of the Montreal franchise as the “Cuh-NAHD-ee-enz” even though he pronounced “the” and “Montreal” in standard US diction. I was torn. Pretty affected, Monsieur Gandolf, I thought, but Montreal was (and is) my favorite team, and I really dug the Frenchiness of the team character.
Only anglophones from outside Quebec says Canadi-ANS – here in Quebec, we say like Canadi-UNS.
(Sidenote for Americans, it’s pronounced as MUNtreal, not MONtreal even though it’s spelled with an O.)
Who OWNS… OWNS da Chiefs?
I’m pretty sure no Anglophones accentuate the “ans” in Canadians. On the prairies, it’s “Can-ay-dee-ins”.
Good info, Mike — thanks!
As someone from Québec City, I love this discussion. Bonne journée!
Because of the bilingualism, the Ottawa thirds just used SENS instead of a full nickname.
And, as far as pronunciation, wouldn’t it just be (lay) ca-nay-JENN – without the “S” sound? Also, wouldn’t Montreal also have emphasis on last syllable?
Regarding Senators/Senateurs, as a team located in a bilingual region, Ottawa officially uses both the English and French versions of its team nickname.
As far as French TV goes, the announcers use the English pronunciation for virtually all team nicknames except for those in which the word is the same in both languages: Coyotes, Avalanche, Sabres.
The one standout expect ion is Penguins, who are often called “Pingouins” on French TV.
One more note, in connection to the Penguins “exception” (sorry for the typo) you have the Flames being pronounced the English way on French broadcasts even though the French word — Flammes — is so similar.
This is a distant cousin to the discussion about teams using translated versions of their team names on Latin Night jerseys even though most Spanish-speaking fans reportedly refer to the team by the English name.
Saturday’s games reminded me of another answer to the ‘pet-peeve’ QOTW. It really bothers me th lack of material manufacturers make their jerseys out of now (mainly, and pretty much only, Nike). I understand the whole “less fabric, more speed” gimmick, but it makes the uniform look like their from the mesh era. This is most apparent on Oregon’s greens, Alabama, and Arkansas. You can see the pads in the back, and IMO, it makes the jersey look tacky and poorly done. The meshiness also shows on my beloved Vanderbilt’s new black pants. While completely black, you can see the players’ white compression shorts under the black mesh. Surely Nike could find a equally light, but less transparent material to stop this ugliness.
Re the Redskins stadium thing, Snyder is in a tough spot. The team has almost zero public goodwill anywhere in the region, popularly and politically. (Put together three winning seasons in a row, and fans will come around.) Politically, the District Council has neither the fiscal headroom nor the will for the foreseeable future to contribute the kind of subsidies a new NFL stadium will require. In Virginia, localities face the dual structural problems that the plausible near-DC jurisdictions have loud NIMBY constituencies that regularly oppose basically all rezoning and major development and a state constitution that requires state legislative approval for most of the forms of local public financing that these sorts of projects require. And the General Assembly is dominated by conservative members from the rural parts of the state who historically oppose granting urban and suburban jurisdictions permission to create the necessary revenue streams to finance major projects like this. Richmond won’t let Northern Virginia build new roads, for Pete’s sake; it sure isn’t going to be in a hurry to let Arlington or Loudoun raise taxes for a stadium.
That leaves Maryland, which is facing at least two years in which divided government will just not have the political bandwidth to think seriously about a new Redskins stadium. And even if it turns out that the new Republican governor and the Democratic legislature establish an era of good feelings and bipartisan koombaya, there’s just not much of a constituency for a new stadium. Keep it in Prince George’s? You lose support from the rest of the near-DC legislative caucus, who will point out that there’s already a perfectly functional NFL stadium in that county. Move it to Montgomery County, and you risk creating a strong anti-stadium alliance between Prince George’s Democrats and anti-tax rural and Eastern Shore Republicans that may be large enough to kill a bill.
Bottom line is, at the moment there’s no clearly plausible path to any major public financing anywhere in the DC area. If Snyder wants to pay for the facility out of pocket, he may just be able to win lower-cost land concessions from one or more local jurisdictions. That would be a very positive development for sports generally, but it would also be extraordinarily out of character for Snyder to even consider.
as a Philly fan living MD, if one cent of my taxes goes to funding that stadium, I would be pissed. I stand by the “there’s a perfectly good stadium” line of thought…even though I know it isn’t “perfectly good”.
Considering the governor-elect won based on a bogus “rain tax” claim and with all the transit projects that are possibly in danger right now, yeah, I’d be apoplectic about any public financing for (or related to) a new stadium.
Give me a break. Republicans don’t “win” in MD. Democrats lose, and only with considerable effort (read: incompetence) on their part. This time they lost b/c their gubernatorial candidate disgusted the voting public by lacking one iota of intellectual honesty or integrity. Go figure: people didn’t cotton to a guy who ran ads suggesting that his opponent was on-board with gunning down small children, or who slathered himself with self-congratulations for being “an adoptive father” when all he’d done was legally adopt his spouse’s child from a previous relationship.
So that would be a “no” to a new era of bi-partisan goodwill, then? ;)
Montgomery County, MD, would never ever ever have any interest in housing the Redskins.
f Snyder wants to pay for the facility out of pocket, he may just be able to win lower-cost land concessions from one or more local jurisdictions.
Pretty much. In addition to all the political complications in MD and VA, land in DC’s immediate suburbs are just too scarce/expensive to make a stadium feasible. And after DC helps build DC United’s stadium (which has the mayor-elect’s support and the chief opposition to tearing down Reeves Center passed away this weekend), Snyder would have to show a lot of his own money to make a stadium in the District happen.
Is Prince William County (basically like Braves moving to Cobb County) a possibility?
Prince William County is possible, but I shudder at the thought of football traffic either on I-95 (Woodbridge area) or I-66 (Manassas area). I honestly don’t know if there is room in Woodbridge, unless they demolish the outlet mall … and Disney got deep-sixed when they wanted to build an amusement park in Manassas closed to the Civil War battlefield.
I really think D.C. will somehow pony up the money and bring the team home.
Prince William County finally makes Uni Watch! Thing is, in PWC we’re already having a hard time getting the deal closed for the single-A Potomac Nationals to build a new stadium, despite the owner mostly paying for it on his own. (Some state and a little county money is going toward infrastructure improvements around the stadium site, which is across the street from my house.) Not opposition so much as it’s getting slow-walked at every point in the process.
There’s land here, a strongly pro-business county government with 7 Republicans and 1 Democrat, and the Democrat, my rep, is a mouthpiece for property developers. Traffic is a huge problem for any new development in PWC, but still, as far as NoVA goes, pretty much the ideal political environment for a deal like this. Then again, people I know in Alexandria hate to have to drive “all the way” out to Woodbridge, so it would take a pretty major cultural shift for anyone north of Fairfax to come out to a Redskins stadium in like Triangle or wherever. “North of Fairfax” includes most of suburban VA, all of the District, and all of suburban Maryland.
Yeah, I was thinking PWC as basically a nuclear option, sort of like what the Braves did by abandoning any attempt at appealing to Atlanta (or growing new fans) and consolidating its support where it’s most appreciated.
If I had to make a bet, I’d say it’ll be somewhere on the RFK site, though I don’t know what kind of political maneuvering it would take that to happen.
I think renovations of FedEx with a lease extension. are the most likely in any pre-2030 scenario. Something on the RFK site would be ideal, but so much would have to change that I just don’t see it as a plausible option for the next decade or more. It would take, what, a nearly complete turnover on the Council, maybe a white mayor from Ward 2 or 3, and a fiscal miracle involving higher than anticipated tax revenue and an early paydown of outstanding municipal bonds.
Well, that or a Republican president and Congress that overrides the city government to dictate its own terms for RFK site redevelopment.
“Is this an old women’s hockey team?” My first thought looking at that question was “old women playing hockey”, rather than “an old photo of a women’s hockey team”.
They’re all old now.
For some old photos of women hockey players of various ages Library and Archives Canada has this archived page:
link
and at the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador
link
Paul, I sent the pics of the Bills end zone to Phil on Twitter (@jimijamm) and the reason I sent them is that they painted the Bills pre-2011 wordmark that was used for decades until they overhauled the uniforms.
Ok…correction, I didn’t send those pics but he retweeted what I sent and I tweeted those to you as well.
So late last week, after some blather by me about Harvard-Yale unis, Phil volunteered the information that the betting line was Harvard by double digits with an under/over of 64. I replied that one would be well advised to pick Yale and the under.
I was particularly interested in the under/over. No way, I thought: Harvard defense is pretty good and Yale will be sky high. Since I’ve never bet except for stupid gestures with friends before a TV game, I went online to find out how to put some money on the H-Y o/u. THAT’s how convinced I was that a bet on both teams scoring fewer than 64 points was — as they say — money in the bank.
So I typed in “Harvard Yale football betting” on my steam-powered search engine and got directed to a site that covered all human contests using the Euro as its basic currency. I deposited $150 USD and then went to the US college football section. I inquired re H-Y and the live-chat person said it would “go up tonight.” Later ” early next morning.” At 09.00 “as soon as the boss arrives.” At 11.00 “Management Decision not to offer Harvard-Yale.”
Luckily, Phil took note of my comment and won $10,000. Final score was H31-Y24.
The unis looked good, btw.
“Luckily, Phil took note of my comment and won $10,000.”
~~~
Wait, what?
If it’s impossible to drop balls with the new WR gloves, how come the Jets WRs still have a problem catching passes?
Also, wow. Never thought I’d know something before PL. Vexillology. Thank you Big Bang Theory.
link
So… with the Bills playing in Detroit tonight and the Lions playing at home on Thanksgiving, is that the shortest time between 2 NFL games in the same stadium? Or have the Jets & Giants both played at home in the same weekend before?
Didn’t Ford Field host back-to-back NFL games when the Metrodome roof collapsed in 2010, forcing the Minnesota NFL team to play there on a Monday night after the Detroit NFL team played there the day before?
Is that what you were asking?
I’m pretty sure the Lions were on the road that week, which was why Detroit was picked to host the Vikings in the first place. It’s the same thing this week– the looked at cities where the home team was either on bye or on the road.
“Attendees of the Detroit-Green Bay game the Sunday of that weekend…, were able to redeem their ticket stubs for admission to the New York-Minnesota game the following night.”
link
Well I know in Week 2 2005 the Jets had a home game on Sunday, so that’s why the Saints-Giants Saints home game that they moved to New York because of Katrina had to be played on Monday night.
But I imagine the Jets & Giants have done the Sunday afternoon Monday night double home game a time or two over the years.
At least twice, according to this:
link
Readers Digest version:
Giants opened the new stadium on a Sunday and the Jets played there the next night.
In 1991, the Jets hosted the season opener on a Sunday and the Giants hosted the MNF opener.
I could have sworn at least once in the 80s or 90s, one team hosted a 1:00 game and the other an 8:00 game. Someone with more time than I have could probably find that.
From Wikipedia’s Giants Stadium page (so it must be true):
In mid-December, traditionally the stadium hosted a Saturday-Sunday NFL doubleheader, with the Giants playing a home game one day and the Jets playing the other. The night between the games was a challenge for the stadium grounds crew, as they only had hours to convert the stadium from one team’s colors to the other.
Wouldn’t have been as much of a challenge if they just left it half Jets half Giants. The Superdome used to be half Saints half Tulane all season. Sharing is a good thing.
Snoopy Field was specifically designed to do this. There is/was a video showing the changeover. In the gift shops, for instance, all the wall displays rotate in and out of the walls with Jets stuff on one side, and Giants on the other.
And here it is: link
There were wild-card playoff games on back-to-back days in 1985 at Giants Stadium. Ordinarily the wild-card games back then were both played on Sunday, but with both New York teams hosting the Jets played the Patriots on Saturday and the Giants hosted the 49ers on Sunday. Jets lost; Giants won.
Shea Stadium held NFL games on consecutive days in Week 6 of the 1975 season…both home teams lost:
10/25/75 (Saturday): NY NFC v. StL
10/26/75 (Sunday): NY AFC v. Balt
It wasn’t 2 NFL games, but TCF Bank Stadium hosted Gophers-Northwestern and Vikings-Lions on consecutive days. The U put up a You Tube video of the changeover.
Not a huge mistake, but what should be “GSH” is written as “GHS” in the second paragraph.
Oops — thanks. Fixed.
That Toronto ice show photo is like a real-life version of Rob Ullman’s work.
I thought the same thing!
And as Rob S said earlier, I was thinking old women playing hockey until I clicked the link and saw the next sentence.
Plane wall = plain wall.
I get it! I get it!!
(oh, there’s no joke? ok.)
Regarding vexillology, here’s an online trivia league that identifies players by their own flag: link
The hat in question is from the Roller Coaster Riding World Cup from 1970, held in Sandusky, Ohio, where the querent’s hat in the photo is sporting the logo of the International Professional Amusement Park Operators Association, the FIFA of Professional Thrill Riding back in the day…
(yeah, I got nothing…)
That is some obscure knowledge, even for our group!
Great contribution.
I didn’t want to mention it on social media and sound like a wet blanket, but I thought the same thing about the gloves and I’m glad you said it. He made the catch with three fingers! If you don’t think those tacky gloves had something to do with it…
Also, is the Peter Nash of that blog post the same Pete Nash that was once known as Prime Minister Pete Nice of the rap group 3rd Bass? I thought I read somewhere he was really into baseball memoriabilia.
Yes, that’s him. His website, Hauls of Shame, is devoted to debunking the claims made by dealers of supposedly game-used gear. His research has directly led to the Hall of Fame taking down displays of jerseys that turned out to be fraudulent.
d’oh, i guess I could have just clicked “the author” before I asked you!
“Strong work by game-used jersey debunker Peter Nash, who’s presented convincing evidence that an old New York Giants jersey that was supposedly worn by Jim Thorpe and was then cut up into pieces that were sold along with cards produced by Donruss, was actually never worn by Thorpe.”
Whoever came up with the idea of cutting up jerseys, especially vintage jerseys, to put swatches on cards should have been horse whipped and executed in the public square.
Amen.
Ditto on that amen…
but first have him stripped down to his underwear and have the clothing he’s wearing cut up into swatches and put on cards.
Interestingly the trend in rugby regarding grip aids tends to be going the opposite direction. Gloves were hugely popular with players link but have since all but disappeared from the sport. Meanwhile, I’ve been noticing lately that some teams now have guys who spray the players’ hands and chest with something that I can only assume is a sort of Stickum substance as the players are running onto the field of play before a game.
In general though, having a secure grip is less important in rugby. Turning over the ball because you cough it up is nowhere near as catastrophic and in general it’s just as important that players can get the ball out of their hands smoothly as it is for them to be able to hold on.
The jerseys come with bumpy stuff on the chest area nowadays, right?
Honestly, as a winger who wasn’t sure-handed enough (or enough of pretty much anything) for my college club team, I wish I had some tacky stuff to keep me from dropping all those kicks.
Yes, though it’s a little hard to tell to what extent it is actually useful rather than merely a link link. Meanwhile, the World Cup winners in 2011 link managed it without any grippy bumps.
Steve Zipay made a mistake in his Newsday article about Ranger players not being on board with ads on jerseys. Arsenal are NOT outfitted by Adidas. Their new deal with Puma began this season.
And before they were Puma they had been a Nike team for as long as I can remember. Very strange mistake. Not that it ever needed to be made of course – what does it matter that Adidas outfit soccer teams with jersey ads? It’s not as if Adidas (or any other kit manufacturer for that matter) actually has anything to do with whether or not a team or sporting federation has jersey ads.
All in all a pointless article by somebody who obviously doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Arsenal had been link to have a deal with Adidas before the Puma deal was inked. There a ton of Photoshops and renderings floating around a coupe years ago. That might be where the mistake originated.
Not to mention that Arsenal link. They link before Nike took it over, so it’s not like the two have no connection.
Something tells me the guy who wrote it was probably not deceived by nostalgia for the 1989 title winning Gunners. Your former excuse seems the more likely culprit. Still pretty sloppy journalism and, as I said, pretty much an irrelevant point to bring up anyway.
I really like the new team specific versions of the MLS badge and the fact that each team could have multiple versions for different jersey color schemes (like NYCFC) is a really nice effect.
Paul, the link to the minimalist artwork I sent you isn’t working. I must have sent the wrong one. Readers can try this link, link. Thanks.
Wow. Those are a Criterion Collection-level of good.
No Biloxi comments? If there’s doing a “Who’s on First” skit, it may be:
“Do you have a team nickname?”
“Yes.”
“OK. When I go to the game, what will I see on the jerseys?”
“Mullets.”
“Not on the shoulders. On the front. When you sell merchandise, and the crowd is wearing your T-shirts, what will I see throughout the grandstands?”
“Mullets.”
A small thought/suggestion, and please forgive me if this has been considered or discussed before.
Regarding the term “uni-uneventful”; why not use “uni-ventful” (pronounced “YOU-ni-VENT-ful”) in place of “eventful” and “un-uni-ventful” in place of “uneventful”? Or would the former be too confusing?
Hmm, if I read “a uni-ventful game,” my first reaction would be that it was a game full of uni events. But “un-uni-ventful” might do the trick.
Right; that’s exactly the point. The term “uni-uneventful” doesn’t always read right, because of the “YOU-ni-UN-ni…” pronunciation at the beginning. That’s why “un-uni-ventful” would be better as the negative, with “uni-ventful” as its affirmative root.
It was a uni-ventful day with uni-watchers uni-venting with other Uni Watch readers about unis with non-uniform vents, over plates of uniformly portioned uni sashimi.
Back in 2013 the Australian Football League banned six types of gloves that were giving extra grip and adhesion for players:
link
I’ve written a new ESPN piece about Odell Beckham Jr.’s catch and how gloves have transformed the NFL:
link
I was asked a question.
Are there any rules on wearing gloves.
I’ve seen qbs receivers occasionally running backs and if I Remember correctly a center.
Any other folks remember more
Any player at any position can (and most players do) wear gloves.
Hard to tell who designed the Biloxi Shuckers, right?
Haha, yes it’s very Brandiose-esque.
I’m very pleased that Shuckers was the choice. Black Jacks could’ve been good too, but Shuckers is terrific.
Love that B with the oyster nestled into it.
Matheny will wear #44. Carlos Martinez will wear #18 in honor of Oscar Taveras.