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Uni Watch

Are You Ready for Some Football?

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The NFL regular season kicks off on Thursday night, and that means it’s time for the annual Uni Watch NFL season preview, which breaks down all the uniform changes for the coming season — including the Giants’ Frank Gifford memorial decal, shown above, which was just revealed yesterday. (They’ll also have a memorial patch for Ann Mara, but that hasn’t been made public yet.) Check it out here. ”” Paul

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Wristwatch watch: Half the country flipped out last night after seeing Virginia Tech running back J.C. Coleman wearing a gold watch on the field during the Hokies’ game against Ohio State. Turns out he’s actually been wearing it for a long time — details here.

Coleman isn’t the only NCAA player to wear a timepiece on the gridiron, as you can see here:

In the NFL, longtime NFL punter Reggie Roby routinely wore a watch on the field for many years, and Washington safety LaRon Landry wore a watch during a 2009 game against the Saints (here’s an additional view). And then there’s punter/holder Steve Weatherford, who wore a watch and a wedding band (and, as is his wont, biker shorts) during a 2008 game.

That VaTech/OSU game featured a few other uni-notable moments. For starters, OSU wideout James Clark suffered a serious pant malfunction:

And Clark’s teammate Braxton Miller appeared to be violating the NCAA’s new crop-top rule:

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T-Shirt Club launch: The the Uni Watch T-Shirt Club’s latest design is now available for purchase. As we discussed last week, it’s the powder blue design, which looks really good now that we’ve added the gold outlining (click to enlarge):

An important note: If you go to the ordering page, you’ll see that we’re offering three different T-shirt brands, each of which has its own shade of powder blue. American Apparel is the lightest shade and Teespring Premium is the darkest, with Gildan in between. Here’s a photo of the AmApp and Teespring fabrics (click to enlarge):

So compare the color shades, and also use the sizing chart for each brand, to choose the shirt that’s best for you.

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Mark your calendars: As Phil mentioned a few times last month, longtime Uni Watch pal Todd Radom has curated a sports-themed gallery show in Manhattan. The show’s “opening” reception is this Thursday, Sept. 10 (even though the show actually opened a few weeks ago), from 6-8pm. Phil and I are both planning to be there, and it would be great if a bunch of you NYC-area readers came out to join us. Hope to see you there.

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The Ticker
By Paul

Baseball News: Nats reliever Drew Storen put a payphone cover over the team’s bullpen phone (from William Yurasko). ”¦ “The Salem Red Sox of the Carolina League have a player named mike Myers,” says Gregory Koch. “On Sunday they were playing at the Potomac Nationals and the scoreboard showed a very different Mike Myers.” Later in the game they showed this and this. Interesting that the Potomac folks would do this for a visiting player. ”¦ The Oakland Coliseum’s retired number wall includes a 1968 photo of Catfish Hunter wearing black shoes (good spot by Richard Paloma). ”¦ Cubs reliever C.J. Edwards, a September call-up, made his MLB debut yesterday, which is uni-notable because he wears a single-digit number (from Matt Larsen). ”¦ Love how the Charlotte Hornets, an old minor league team, had a hornets’ nest on their jersey. Here’s another view (from Marc Viquez). ”¦ Martin Milner, star of TV’s Adam-12, died yesterday,which prompted Steven Robinson to send along this photo of Milner wearing an Adam-12 baseball uniform. “It’s from a 1972 charity game at Dodger Stadium between the cast of the TV show and real LA cops,” he explains. ”¦ The Diamondbacks are doing a college cap night this Friday.

NFL/CFL News: The 49ers will wear their new (and awful) black alts for the season-opening game against the Vikings next Monday night. They’ll also have black sideline apparel, oh boy (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ The Giants have cut P Steve Weatherford, which is uni-notable because Weatherford was a longtime bike shorts stylist. Remains to be seen if he’ll hook on with another team. ”¦ “The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s website has two online exhibits, one of which is a collection of documents from Dutch Sternaman, who co-founded the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) with George Halas,” says Matt Logan. “The collection includes telegrams, contracts, equipment orders, photos, tickets, and a whole lot more dealing with the Staleys, all from the early 1920s.” ”¦ Packers TE Richard Rodgers gave his No. 89 to teammate James Jones at no charge (from Chris Flinn). ”¦ The Saskatchewan Roughriders broke out green and white throwbacks for Sunday’s game against Winnipeg (from Wade Heidt). ”¦ Have you noticed that the Browns haven’t worn their orange jerseys or pants during the preseason? I’m hearing rumors — absolutely unconfirmed — that the orange uni elements aren’t ready yet, just like the Eagles’ green jerseys weren’t ready last season. If anyone knows more, please get in touch. I’ll protect your identity, of course.

College Football News: New uniforms for Pittsburg State. ”¦ You can build your own Oklahoma State uniform on this team-builder page. ”¦ Here’s one observer’s ranking of Indiana helmets. … Texas A&M has added a memorial decal for John David Crow (from Nicholas Roznovsky). … Clemson is the latest school to have added a decal for the Charleston massacre victims (from Cole Sadler). ”¦ Navy is adding their conference logo to the back of the helmet (from Christopher Poole). … With Utah wearing red jerseys the other day, the team’s drum line had red drums. “They will have a new drum wrap for nearly every game, matching the team’s theme — BFBS, white, etc.,” explains Landon Freter. … Good article on how the South Carolina equipment staff prepares for a game (from Scott Moody. … Arizona has added an “AV” helmet decal for Andrew Valdez, a local teen and Arizona fan who passed away from cystic fibrosis earlier this summer (from Kenny Abbey). ”¦ Army players have their surnames on the front of their jerseys. ”¦ Here’s Akron’s new “Roo” helmet. ”¦ Here’s a good look at Temple’s new uniform. .. You can build your own Arizona State uniform on this interactive page. ”¦ Louisiana-Monroe wore maroon pants for the season opener. “I believe this is their first time with maroon pants since adopting the Warhawks nickname prior to the 2006 season,” says Michael Cossey. ”¦ Syracuse’s field had a typo the other night (from Rick DiRubbo). ”¦ Louisiana-Lafayette had a new helmet for their season opener, and so did Virginia. ”¦ Interesting 1974 photo of Oklahoma RB Joe Washington with a Mill-Mont mouthguard in his mouth and a traditional mouthguard dangling from his facemask. Also, note the captain’s “C” (from Bill Kellick). ”¦ Merit decals on the way for Michigan (thanks, Phil).

Hockey News: Icethetics posted mock-ups the new third jerseys for the Avs and Ducks about a month ago. Now those two designs have been confirmed, via a leak from the NHL’s online shop. ”¦ New uniforms for the Citadel. ”¦ Here’s an article from back when the Sharks first unveiled their color scheme and primary logo (from @wafflebored). ”¦ Ladies and gents, your San Diego Gulls jerseys. “I’m a little disappointed they used the same template as the Ducks, but the blue almost makes up for it,” says Mark Sencich. ”¦ Check it out: a goalie wearing No. 0. That’s Jack Norris of the WHL’s L.A. Blades in 1964 (nice find by Will Scheibler). ”¦ Also from Will: “I came across a photo of the ‘half-court hockey demonstration’ for the Memorial Dedication Ceremony of the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in 1958. That led me to a bunch of additional photos from the ceremony.” ”¦ “A friend is getting married, and he and his fiancee love hockey,” says Geoff Loughton. “Their wedding invitations are designed to look like hockey ticket stubs.”

NBA News: New court design for the Raptors D-League affiliate (from Moe Khan). ”¦ Here’s a good explanation for why the Hawks’ new uniforms suck so bad: The players had a hand in designing them (from Douglas Ford).

Grab Bag: New away soccer kit for Ireland (from Charlie Kranz). … The North Carolina city of Fayetteville may change its official city seal because it currently depicts a spot where slaves were bought and sold. ”¦ Over 100 students at a girls’ school in England were sent home after officials decided their uniform skirts were too short. Meanwhile, students at another UK school were put in isolation because their uniforms were “the wrong shade of black.” ”¦ There’s a debate currently developing over whether F1 cockpits should be closed. Further info here. … U.S. Army enlistees want to wear black socks, instead of white, with the Army’s new physical fitness uniform. … “To help launch the Purple Our World pancreatic cancer research and support charity, the Wests Tigers and St. George Dragons wore purple socks during their NRL game this weekend,” says Graham Clayton. ”¦ Good interactive piece on the childhood tennis courts where some of the world’s top players learned to play. ”¦ “All drivers in the F1 Gran Prix of Italia wore memorial decals for Justin Wilson, the driver who died from injuries sustained while driving in an Indy Car race a few weeks back,” says Matthew Solly. ”¦ Google and Lenovo both redesigned their logos recently, and both of them used the same lowercase “e” (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Rugby news from Graham Clayton, who writes: “The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks wore a yellow and white ‘hi-vis’ jersey, instead of their usual sky blue, white and black jersey, for their final regular season game of the National Rugby League season against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.” ”¦ I think we’ve linked to this before, but once more definitely won’t hurt: Check out graphic designer Saul Bass’s awesome 1969 pitch film for his then-new Bell Telephone logo (from Paul Lee).

 
  
 
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Comments (64)

    PITTSBURG STATE! (No H – Gorilla fans will come after you)

    Also, Wisconsin restored the TV numbers on the sleeves (yes!), now also have geographic outline of state on back of helmets (in case not reported previously)

    the OSU unis didn’t have the leaves that represented the championships nor did it have the Buckeye word mark either like we thought it might

    link

    RE browns unis:

    i had mentioned that the orange pants might not be ready on reddit during the last preseason game. as for the orange jerseys, can teams wear alternate uniforms in the preseason?

    also the browns wore white their two home games(which is typical for them), then vs the bucs, they wore their primary because the bucs wore white.. and wore white vs the bears because chicago was in navy

    Interesting sub-note to the Panthers’ jersey schedule:

    They say they’ll be wearing blue on Thanksgiving against the Cowboys. For several years, the Cowboys have been wearing blue at home on Thanksgiving either through their ’60s alternate or more recently with their road jersey since the single helmet rule came into effect.

    So either the Cowboys are abandoning this tradition this year after getting shellacked by the Eagles on Thanksgiving last year, or we’ll have a light blue vs. dark blue matchup on Thanksgiving.

    i hate that the Cowboys never wear blue.. it’s such a better look than their white uni with all it’s flaws

    As a supporter of my nephew’s high school marching band and drumline, it pains me to see the words “the team’s drum line” in that Utah item today. While bands are usually associated with football, one program does not represent the other; both represent the school. It’s quite a different thing from a professional team that might hire a band to perform for them.

    That’s just the way I feel about it, anyway.

    This is a very important point at the scholastic and collegiate level. Which I say as the alumnus of a high school whose football team won a total of four games during the four years I attended, while our cheerleaders went to the national championships three of four years. If anything, the gridiron players were just there to support the cheerleaders. A lot of schools have better bands/drumlines/drill teams/cheerleaders than major athletic programs.

    The Yankees used to do a gag with Felix Pie when the Orioles would come to town: the scoreboard would sometimes display “Pie = 3.14…”

    I really hope the limits on alternate jerseys change or go away completely if the league is going to do the color vs color thing. How cool would it be for the San Diego Chargers to just wear either navy or powder blue and be able to completely ditch the white over navy they currently wear on the road?

    If only they’d just ditch the navy pants (or wear contrasting color socks with them).

    What style socks would you recommend to go with the Chargers’ navy pants? I’m really not seeing any good options. Powder blue would look really dumb (but would be perfect for the Titans), and I think everyone would hate yellow socks. They did use white socks with navy stripes for a few seasons with the previous uniform, but those never really looked quite right to me, since they didn’t match the lightning bolt theme of the rest of the uniform.

    Well…white socks (similar to what the Pats do).

    Of course, the best answer is just don’t wear the navy pants, but if they have to, then white socks with stripes would work just fine.

    They did use white socks with navy stripes…

    To me, that’s the right answer. Doesn’t necessarily have to be that specific stripe pattern, but white socks with stripes is definitely the way to go there.

    Here’s one observer’s ranking of Indiana helmets.

    Wow. Absolutely no love for the helmet with the black oval, from the Antawn Randle El days. I guess I was the lone fan.

    Icethetics posted mock-ups the new third jerseys for the Avs and Ducks about a month ago.

    Y’know, lineage aside, the Avalanche could get away with wearing throwback Rockies’ uniforms. The iconography uses no words and the outline of the mountain is shaped like an “A”.

    Lions keeping the William Clay Ford, Sr. memorial patch? link

    WCF Sr., more than any other figure associated with the team, is THE symbol for the Lions’ decades of futility since their last championship. He was no George Halas or Lamar Hunt, that’s for sure, and I’m still not crazy about the idea of them – or any one person, for that matter – having a jersey perma-memorial. In any case, I’d be shocked if there were any Lions fans that actually wanted to see such a thing for this team.

    Agreed. The Lions keeping that patch is beyond stupid, and the Bears, Chiefs & Raiders all need to ditch their permanent memorials as well. Heck, in the case of the Raiders, if they really feel the need to keep Al Davis on the uniform, just change the logo to use his face (preferably from before he started looking like the Cryptkeeper).

    At this weeks DB Championship golf, TaylorMade players sported golf bags with the “M” missing as part of some sort of promotional campaign. An announcement is supposed to be sometime today.

    I was a few feet from some of the bags and they did not remove the stitched “M” from existing bags. They merely screenprinted “Taylor ade” on new bags. Although from any greater distance you couldn’t see the difference.

    On the course we heard TaylorMade is releasing a new “M” series of equipment and/or they are in the energy drink market now. We’ll see.

    link

    link

    Did Ohio State scrap their regular red and white jerseys they’ve been wearing for the past decade or so and have made their two options from last year’s playoff their main set? Did I completely miss that this offseason?

    no thats the same jersey they wore all regular season last year

    regular season white uni : link

    playoff white uni: link

    they’re slightly different

    maybe you’re right after a closer inspection though it is odd that some don’t have full stripes on the sleeves

    The Salem Red Sox’ Mike Myers wasn’t the photo of scoreboard Mike Myers in Potomac?

    Well, in the lower minors, it is link season.

    PS Roughriders wear the classy, classic throwbacks and win their first game of the season. I like the standard logo, but maybe that’s a signal.

    Sorry if I missed it over the weekend, but a question about Oregon’s uniforms on Saturday. There was a new element to their helmet I didn’t notice at first until high quality still photos started coming out like here:
    link

    What is with that random silver part of the helmet? Is that an Oregon thing or part of that particular helmet design?

    With regards to the whole watch-wearing thing, it just seems to me like it’d be too much of a risk. One good impact could break the watch, or possibly even injure the wearer’s wrist.

    I haven’t worn a wristwatch in ages. It was never comfortable to wear one while using a computer keyboard, and as pointed out already, my cell phone is perfectly capable of telling time.

    Yeah but Roby was a punter, and not apt to be in on too many tackles (making or being tackled).

    His was also PLASTIC and about a third the size of these LOOK-AT-ME yahoos.

    Off the football field, it’s much more convenient to just look at your arm to tell the time, rather than digging your phone out of your pocket.

    Also just move your keyboard a little closer so your watch isn’t resting against the desk. Comfort problem solved. I can type just fine wearing a watch.

    I should point out that I’ve had many watches where the connection point to the wristband has broken, rendering them all useless as wristwatches. By not wearing a watch anymore, I’ve solved that problem by getting rid of it altogether.

    Besides, it’s no big deal for me to reach into my pocket for my phone.

    I am reminded of the great Chuin (the Korean Master Assassin from the Remo Williams Stories and Film) comment about watches…

    Chiun: The trained mind does not need a watch. Watches are a confidence trick invented by the Swiss.

    and for wearing glasses…

    Chiun: I do not wear glasses so that I may see. I wear glasses so that I may see… more.

    How can wearing a wristwatch to play football possibly be legal? Those things are chunks of metal with sharp edges; the way a lot of people tackle, hammering down on the ball or the forearm to knock the ball loose, the watch becomes a weapon. Hell, you can’t wear a watch to play SOFTBALL, because you could injure someone with a swipe tag, so how can they allow it in football? I’m flabbergasted.

    I’d wear 0 if I were a (good) goalie. “How many goals are you going to score on me? ZERO! That’s how many!”

    Kudos to Drew Storen for funning up the Nats’ bullpen. Love the pay phone cover. If only they could replace the bullpen phone with a rotary one.

    Put one of you minions on it. ;^)

    I always/usually got a kick out of the rabbit hole to which it led.

    Maybe we will talk about this next weekend when the 5+1 comes back but the nameplates on the new Adidas PrimeKnit jerseys were a disaster this weekend. They looked like they were on the verge of peeling off of virtually every team that was wearing them, plus they didn’t have the PrimeKnit pattern on them and that only made the pattern look worse.

    I wish the mobile view could support direct responses without having to switch to desktop view.
    NFL permanent memorials. I could do without them, but for Hunt, Halas, and Davis, I think they work. They would probably work ok for Mara and Rooney too, but I like that they aren’t there. But for Ford? Reminds me of Al and Randy Lerner. “Yes, we’re sorry that your father died and you have a right to remember him, but no offense your dad wasn’t that legendary of an owner or instrumental in the development of NFL football as we know it.” Different sport, but could you imagine if Rocky Wirtz made the Bill Wirtz patch permanent? Fans would have made a bigger bonfire than the Denver Broncos clown striped socks. Remember, they booed his moment of silence.

    I’m hopeful the Ducks and Avs will use their new alts as the go to sweaters, they absolutely nailed it two thumbs up!! But I like the original Colorado sweater with the mountain peak carved into the logo instead the current triangle, but still great improvement!
    Also, what a great idea the Vikings using their number font on the field for yard markers.

    Dead link: On the Glossary page, the link in the Underbrim/Undervisor entry for green no longer works. For a view of Hank Aaron sporting a green underbrim, this would be a sensible replacement for the dead link:

    link

    Also, the bold coding on the page is pretty mangled.

    So the Islanders aren’t addressing the fact that where they play now is not represented on the image of Long Island used in their logo?

    They’re not the Long Island Islanders… they are the New York Islanders. That they decided to crop this piece of the Empire State to represent their brand back in 1972 is not an omission just a piece of sports history.

    They decided to crop only part of the island, though. Brooklyn (where they now play) is not on the map.

    And no one’s ever said they’re NY as in New York State. I don’t think anyone’s under any illusion they’re repping Syracuse or Ithaca.

    Then the NY Long Islanders should have always been their name? Shit it’s a logo not Google Maps for chrissakes.

    Not what I said, and it’s a specious argument to say so. What I’m saying is they represent part of the NYC metro area, not New York State. They specifically chose to exclude Kings and Queens counties on the original logo, but now they’re in Brooklyn that makes little sense. Brooklyn is still on Long Island, so why not have the full island in the logo?

    The modern Bell logo, with the top and bottom that looks like a vertical line without a center, reminded me of modern fonts doing the dollar and cents signs without centers.

    link

    The build your own ASU uniform site was great! My nephew came up with a few better versions than the Sun Devils wore the other night. Does anyone know of any other college sites like this wear you can come up with you own combinations? Thanks in advance.

    Thanks to whoever is in charge of the fantasy football league for deleting my team the day of the draft. I really appreciate it. Next time I won’t bother with the league if that’s how it’s run.

    There is really nothing to be done with AZ State uni to make it look good – played with the uni- builder for a while and came up with nothing. Geez.

Comments are closed.