Maybe Romo Should’ve Worn One Too

Kevin Mawae used to do a link out of athletic tape on his facemask when he was with the Jets. Don’t know how he got this past the uniform police.

[quote comment=”39162″]I thought when i was watching the Colts game Saturday, Joeseh Addai’s jeysey had the 9 way above the 2 on his chest, and after finding some pictures, it looks like that was the case.

link

link

Looks to me like a bad tape job on his shoulder pads.

Paul,
A few months ago (around Thanksgiving) you had a great article on the Browns subtle uniform changes. I may have overlooked it but I didn’t see any mention of the color of their numbers. The brown jersey obviously has white numbers and I assumed that the white jerseys have brown numbers (like the stripes) but it is difficult to tell if it is brown or black. Any info?

Soccer-uni-related: Adidas has released the new “templates” on which all jerseys of the upcoming season will be based. See link, link and link. With new goalie jerseys link, link, link and link.

Was it just me or did Eli have something written on the forhead bumper of his helmet yesterday?

[quote comment=”39185″]Was it just me or did Eli have something written on the forhead bumper of his helmet yesterday?[/quote]

Yeah, I think it said “It’s been nice knowing you, Tom Coughlin”.

Actually, no… there was nothing there other than the link.

Maybe Romo Should’ve Worn One Too… maybe Tony should have borrowed one of TO’s gloves!!

can’t find any pics, but i know Antonio Pierce was wearing a plastic cup chin strap that had a small “NY” on it…hadnt seen anything like it before

[quote comment=”39192″][quote comment=”39180″]Soccer-uni-related: Adidas has released the new “templates” on which all jerseys of the upcoming season will be based. See link, link and link. With new goalie jerseys link, link, link and link.[/quote]

Can’t say anything about the keeper templates, because as we saw yesterday, keepers are just link.

Don’t like the asymmetical designs, though.[/quote]
Luckily I support only one adidas team (Red Bull NY)…. those templates suck!

Reminds me of the situation — different but related — where Ben Roethlisberger got in trouble for writing “PFJ” on his cleats back in 2004. The full story is link.

[quote comment=”39198″]Pfft, old ladies playing basketball is nothing compared to the Mascot Hockey I saw at a Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) game on Saturday.
Apparently when it’s a mascot’s birthday they invite the mascots of every team or business nearby to come party with them.
The game featured teams of Team Bruiser: Bruiser (Bulldogs), Stripes (Tiger-Cats) Ace (Toronto Blue Jays), Sarge (Brampton Battalion OHL), and Spike (Guelph Storm OHL) vs. A sausage, Home Depot mascot, Pizza Pizza mascot, and a country radio station mascot.
I really thought it was weird to see so many teams with no affiliation at all cross promoting like this…then again I’ve seen the Bulldogs (Habs colours) wearing long sleeved football jerseys as an ugly cross promotion with the Ti-Cats so really there’s no level left to sink to I guess.

(Do mascots count as uni-discussion?)[/quote]

You mean like link? (btw… notice Mr. Met is in black!)

While we’re at it, I’d like to sing the praises of T.C. Bear, because that guy can rip some shots. The Twins trot him out for a softball homerun derby before Saturday games at the dome against local “celebrities” (Vikings, T-Wolves, radio personalities, etc…) and he hits bombs. They set up a plate behind 2nd base and he launches upper deck shots… They have those curtains in the upper deck of right field with the big pictures of retired Twins, and I saw him hit Kirby Puckett in the face.

I don’t think he’s ever lost a derby. He’s unbelievable. I’m convinced they put Justin Morneau in the bear suit.

Has anyone answered why Plaxico Burress’ link is affixed to his link and not his face mask?

[quote comment=”39188″]Was it me or does Eli Manning just plain stink? Sorry, not Uni-related, just a frustrated Jints fan.[/quote]

I don’t think he had a particularly bad day (he did throw 2 TDs, after all). The Giant defense just couldn’t stop the Eagles when they needed to.

[quote comment=”39199″][quote comment=”39192″][quote comment=”39180″]Soccer-uni-related: Adidas has released the new “templates” on which all jerseys of the upcoming season will be based. See link, link and link. With new goalie jerseys link, link, link and link.[/quote]

Can’t say anything about the keeper templates, because as we saw yesterday, keepers are just link.

Don’t like the asymmetical designs, though.[/quote]
Luckily I support only one adidas team (Red Bull NY)…. those templates suck![/quote]

While I don’t find the templates particularly hideous, I think this is the essence of why we hate on Nike and Adidas. By creating templates for team uniforms, it removes the unique nature of each team. The same problem exists with Nike and its college basketball template.

Check out this link about Raven’s playoff fever here in Baltimore. Paul might want to avoid the general area for the time being (what with his dislike of a certain color which shall not be named)! Check out the second video next to the story for more visuals.

There is an article today on Espn.com ranking current NHL uniforms.

link

[quote comment=”39216″][quote comment=”39199″][quote comment=”39192″][quote comment=”39180″]Soccer-uni-related: Adidas has released the new “templates” on which all jerseys of the upcoming season will be based. See link, link and link. With new goalie jerseys link, link, link and link.[/quote]

Can’t say anything about the keeper templates, because as we saw yesterday, keepers are just link.

Don’t like the asymmetical designs, though.[/quote]
Luckily I support only one adidas team (Red Bull NY)…. those templates suck![/quote]

While I don’t find the templates particularly hideous, I think this is the essence of why we hate on Nike and Adidas. By creating templates for team uniforms, it removes the unique nature of each team. The same problem exists with Nike and its college basketball template.[/quote]

I agree with your stance on templates, but you can’t hate on adidas yet, because these are just generic templates for youth club/high school teams to buy. When they come out with the first Germany or Argentina jersey using one of those templates, then we can go crazy. After all, after years of using templates, Nike redeemed themselves in this last World Cup. adidas still has a chance to do the same.

Nike doesn’t use soccer templates though…

That’s the funny thing. They used to (see 2002-2004), but recently saw the light. Too bad only the soccer department has seen the error of its ways. My guess is that the market for soccer gear is considerably bigger than the market for replica college unis. So why not save dough and leverage existing designs?

Top european clubs and entire nations have huge fan bases and from the looks of it, they buy tons of merch. But how many college hoops or football jerseys do you see people wear (besides, maybe UNC basketball)?

[quote comment=”39192″][quote comment=”39180″]Soccer-uni-related: Adidas has released the new “templates” on which all jerseys of the upcoming season will be based. See link, link and link. With new goalie jerseys link, link, link and link.[/quote]

Can’t say anything about the keeper templates, because as we saw yesterday, keepers are just link.

Don’t like the asymmetical designs, though.[/quote]

Goalkeepers are definitely a different breed. You have to be a little crazy to play that position.

Who could forget Jorge Campos? link

More Campos: link

Anyone remember when Tony Meola had a mullet? link

As a rule, I hate templates for uniforms (uniforms afterall are supposed to be unique to each team), and I really hate goalie templates, but those are at least better than this: link

Pat, I see you beat me to the Jorge Campos reference. Kudos to you on that.

I don’t see how anybody could discuss soccer uniforms and not at least make mention of Campos. The nicest thing I can think to say is that he certainly wore the most unique uniforms in the sport.

[quote comment=”39231″][quote comment=”39228″][quote comment=”39217″]Anyone have any photos of the Nike sweaters that selected college hockey teams wore during the holiday tournaments? Post ’em if you’ve got ’em.[/quote]

link

I watched this one one tv, and those gold jerseys without the horizontal striping at the bottom are brutal.[/quote]

link a better look at them without the horizonal striping. *cringe*[/quote]

Ouch…they look like practice jersey’s

quote]Nike doesn’t use soccer templates though…[/quote]

Sure they do. It was less obvious in this last World Cup, but the 2002 Nike Soccer uni’s were almost entirely one template.

The current Nike template is far less apparent, but they all do have the off color “sleave notches”.

I noticed Roy Williams pull down his shirt, but I couldn’t tell what the logo was. I assumed that it was some corporate logo (looked like a Coca-Cola logo to me).

And after it happened, I thought to myself, “I wonder what will be said about this on UniWatch.”

Also link of Olympiacos from Greece weaes nuber 1 in the Champion League.

Not to nitpick too much, but this site is about attention to detail: Technically a crucifix includes the body of Jesus, so the majority of those pins Paul is referring to are crosses – the crucifix/cross being the most important sign of Christianity.

[quote comment=”39223″]Ohio State finished #1 in the final BCS rankings, making them the home team for tonight’s game. However, they will be wearing their road white uniforms for the game and Florida will be in their home blues.

GO BUCKS![/quote]

We heard rumblings about this back in November, but I didn’t realize they actually already made the decision.

Just read this in on Page 2:
[quote]Chiefs running back Larry Johnson shaved the logo of hip-hop label Roc-A-Fella Records into his head for Saturday’s game. I suppose that was a pretty good way for Johnson to show he is “keeping it real,” but it still pales in comparison to the huge “Thug Life” tattoo Peyton Manning has on his chest.[/quote]

First of all, if he did that, then cool. link is probably not the easiest thing to shave into someone’s head. Second, anyone have visual evidence of it?

Throw your diamonds in the sky if you feel the vibe.

Florian beat me to it. Damn ;-D

[quote comment=”39237″]quote]Nike doesn’t use soccer templates though…[/quote]

Sure they do. It was less obvious in this last World Cup, but the 2002 Nike Soccer uni’s were almost entirely one template.

The current Nike template is far less apparent, but they all do have the off color “sleave notches”.[/quote]
I’ve noticed. There are certain design elements that are the same among jerseys, but none are exactly the SAME. It’s nowhere near like Puma, where everything’s identical, or adidas, where argentina’s dark blue shirt is not much more than France’s blue shirt with different body and accent colors.

[quote comment=”39253″]Just read this in on Page 2:
[quote]Chiefs running back Larry Johnson shaved the logo of hip-hop label Roc-A-Fella Records into his head for Saturday’s game. I suppose that was a pretty good way for Johnson to show he is “keeping it real,” but it still pales in comparison to the huge “Thug Life” tattoo Peyton Manning has on his chest.[/quote]

First of all, if he did that, then cool. link is probably not the easiest thing to shave into someone’s head. Second, anyone have visual evidence of it?

Throw your diamonds in the sky if you feel the vibe.[/quote]
link

[quote comment=”39259″][quote comment=”39252″] I agree with your stance on templates, but you can’t hate on adidas yet, because these are just generic templates for youth club/high school teams to buy.

Thing is they’ll use the same for pro teams and even national teams. Compare for instance link with link or link jersey. Or this link with link, link or link jersey.[/quote]

Go back and read Paul’s pre-World Cup round up of all the uniforms. Al the jerseys are linked there and you can see that a number of teams are using these “new” adidas templates. (You need Insider to view it at ESPN.com but here is a few links:
link
link
link
link
These were, of course, great ways to market their new templates. Seems to me if we ARE going to get up in arms about these and their use in professional soccer now is the time since they have already been implemented.[/quote]

The templates posted in the comments today are newer then those used in the World Cup.

Ah, damn, how did that happen. This is what I wanted to say:
Very cool. I was hoping it would be the other logo, but that one works for me too. Flashes of Anthony Mason going through my head as we speak.

[quote comment=”39262″][quote comment=”39259″][quote comment=”39252″] I agree with your stance on templates, but you can’t hate on adidas yet, because these are just generic templates for youth club/high school teams to buy.

Thing is they’ll use the same for pro teams and even national teams. Compare for instance link with link or link jersey. Or this link with link, link or link jersey.[/quote]

Go back and read Paul’s pre-World Cup round up of all the uniforms. Al the jerseys are linked there and you can see that a number of teams are using these “new” adidas templates. (You need Insider to view it at ESPN.com but here is a few links:
link
link
link
link
These were, of course, great ways to market their new templates. Seems to me if we ARE going to get up in arms about these and their use in professional soccer now is the time since they have already been implemented.[/quote]

The templates posted in the comments today are newer then those used in the World Cup.[/quote]

True, but they are the same basic idea with the exception of link. I think the thing people are kind of upset about is the use of a template at all. And, that article is clearly proof that a template is used for a number of uniforms.

Maybe the Lord will reveal some better pursuit angles to Roy this off-season before he gets owned by Jerramy Stevens again.

Paul,

Got a playoff uni question for you. I know the NFL teams are restricted to wearing their alts/throwbacks to twice during the regular season. Is there a rule that prevents them from wearing them in playoff games? Why only twice?

Also, how much of a financial commitment does it take for the teams to revamp their logo and redesign their uniforms. Thanks.

If you take the USA whites, with the stripes down the left side of the chest, and compare that to the Croatian Dark, it’s the same design. Unfortunately, I can’t find a link to the croatian jersey.

Here it is:

link,

[quote comment=”39288″]Is link also wearing a black armband, possibly for mourning the loss of someone. I know it can’t be for Darrent Williams, link had the “band” on against Philly on Christmas too.

Or is it something else?[/quote]

It looks like it could be the sleeve to a shoulder brace. I had several teammates where them in high school.

Something that has bugged me the last couple of weeks: the Cowboys helmets have a small blue sticker on the back, right at the base. What is on that? It looks like it could have the player’s name on it, since the Cowboys don’t have numbers on their helmets.

You can see the sticker I’m talking about on link photo of Jason Witten.

[quote comment=”39270″]Paul,

Got a playoff uni question for you. I know the NFL teams are restricted to wearing their alts/throwbacks to twice during the regular season. Is there a rule that prevents them from wearing them in playoff games? Why only twice?

Also, how much of a financial commitment does it take for the teams to revamp their logo and redesign their uniforms. Thanks.[/quote]

Along those same lines, if a team (NFL) decides to change its primary uniform design, are there league guidlines for making such a change.

i.e. requests for league approval; a grace or waiting period before a newly approved uniform can be worn on field?

I imagine the “No Fun League” would have rules like this for the same reason as restricting throwbacks and alternates, to prevent merchandisers from getting stuck with unsold stock of old designs.

With that, if a team had not worn alternate jerseys their alloted 2 times (or even if they had), *could* a team wear alternate jerseys in a playoff game? Anyone?

[quote comment=”39272″]If you take the USA whites, with the stripes down the left side of the chest, and compare that to the Croatian Dark, it’s the same design. Unfortunately, I can’t find a link to the croatian jersey.

Here it is:

link
To link to subside images, click “ZOOM” and link to that image, FYI.

Croatia has always had the picnic cloth in some form in their blue jerseys, while the US jersey is inspired (loosely) by the US 1950s shirts with the diagonal sash. Unique IMO.

[quote comment=”39252″] I agree with your stance on templates, but you can’t hate on adidas yet, because these are just generic templates for youth club/high school teams to buy.

Thing is they’ll use the same for pro teams and even national teams. Compare for instance link with link or link jersey. Or this link with link, link or link jersey.[/quote]

Something’s fishy about the “ü” in “Bayern München”. My knowledge of the German language isn’t THAT great, but that certainly doesn’t look like a standard umlaut to me.

[quote comment=”39195″]Anybody know where I can get a brand-new SF Giants “Barry Zrito” jersey?[/quote]

Yeah…

Just look in, um, last place for the next few years. Should be plenty of Zito and Giants stuff there for a while.

the new adidas soccer templates look a lot like these

link screwed up but its supposed to b a picture of the memphis tigers uniforms

Anyone notice how Brian Dawkins of the Eagles wasn’t wearing his typical dark visor last night? I can’t remember seeing him wear a clear visor before. His dark visor is as much for intimidation as it is for his eye condition.

link

Dark Visor

[quote comment=”39321″]why do the tennessee vols women’s basketball team have light blue on their jerseys? do any of the other tennessee teams have any blue on their unis?[/quote]
The women’s athletics programs at Tennessee have added blue to their color-scheme (this happenned a while back). In fact, the women’s programs have their own dedicated website: link.

I kinda liken it to how the men’s teams have added black to their color-scheme: link.

Personally…I like the blue in the women’s teams…but the black needs to go.

[quote comment=”39308″][quote comment=”39272″]If you take the USA whites, with the stripes down the left side of the chest, and compare that to the Croatian Dark, it’s the same design. Unfortunately, I can’t find a link to the croatian jersey.

Here it is:

link
To link to subside images, click “ZOOM” and link to that image, FYI.

Croatia has always had the picnic cloth in some form in their blue jerseys, while the US jersey is inspired (loosely) by the US 1950s shirts with the diagonal sash. Unique IMO.[/quote]

The “picnic cloth” design is part of the Croatian national coat-of-arms.

Something’s fishy about the “ü” in “Bayern München”. My knowledge of the German language isn’t THAT great, but that certainly doesn’t look like a standard umlaut to me.

As a native speaker of German I can assure you that you’re instincts are right about this not being a standard Umlaut. A regular “Ãœ” has two dots, not just one. I guess they used that for some obscure (or not so obscure?) design reason.

As for adidas not having used the new templates for club and national teams, I talked somebody working at adidas who is responsible for “selling” the templates to the teams (interesting, by the way, that there’s one guy for all the teams in the Bundesliga and one guy solely responsible for Bayern Munich) and AFAIK at least Nuremberg (my team in the Bundesliga) are going to use a template again fro their new home shirt coming out this summer. They’ll do something “special” for Nuremberg again, since they’re the team closest to adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach, like they did the years before with a black back instead of a red back or the use of maroon on the “Apollo”(?) template, but they’ll still use a template, so I guess they won’t be the only ones.

[quote comment=”39327″][quote comment=”39321″]why do the tennessee vols women’s basketball team have light blue on their jerseys? do any of the other tennessee teams have any blue on their unis?[/quote]
The women’s athletics programs at Tennessee have added blue to their color-scheme (this happenned a while back). In fact, the women’s programs have their own dedicated website: link.

I kinda liken it to how the men’s teams have added black to their color-scheme: link.

Personally…I like the blue in the women’s teams…but the black needs to go.[/quote]

Not that anybody really asked, but the UT men and women have different color schemes (and different web sites) because they are separate departments. (Separate ADs, Sports Info, AT, budgets, etc.)

For all intents and purposes, they are as different as UNC and NC State. They just happen to go to class in the same location.

Remember the early 90’s adidas equipment templates?

link

link

link

link

link

link

Hit the “proximo” text to scroll through a ton of National team kits. Notice something similar with early 90’s Adidas sopnsored sides?

Case closed?

Notice something similar with early 90’s Adidas sponsored sides?

The 1992 Bulgaria jersey is the same template as was worn by link in the 91/92 season (the year Nuremberg wore their well-loved link which were also styled by adidas).

@specs: I can talk a little bit about the process at adidas, b/c, as I said, I talked to the guy doing most of the dealings with the Bundesliga teams. (Hope I’m getting this right, was a while back) He said that they (adidas) come to the teams with their templates and some first design ideas. The officials (usually chairman, managing director, coach) then decide on some of the ideas, give their own feedback on posible changes. After that adidas comes back to them with three choices and the officials choose one. I guess it’s kind of an economic decision for the teams not to design the unis themselves. You’d have to contract the design process out, spend money on that, then find someone to manufacture it. When the suplier does all the design work you save money on that side and b/c the manufacturer produces large amounts of the jerseys beceause they’re templated anyways. While I gues for large-market teams like Bayern Munich it might be lucrative to do all that themselves for small-market teams the amount of jersey sold usually isn’t high enough to warrant an autonomous design-manufactoring process, I guess.
(Little sidenote, Nuremberg actually did “manufacture” their alternate jersey for this season, they just bought a regular set of templated jersey without any logo or sponsoring on it, like any rec-league team would do, put their badge and sponsor on it and had an alternate jersey for their match at Cottbus (See link, link or link.) Naturally because of the really small number of jersey made these will be real collector’s items real soon.)

[quote comment=”39355″]@specs: I can talk a little bit about the process at adidas, b/c, as I said, I talked to the guy doing most of the dealings with the Bundesliga teams. (Hope I’m getting this right, was a while back) He said that they (adidas) come to the teams with their templates and some first design ideas. The officials (usually chairman, managing director, coach) then decide on some of the ideas, give their own feedback on posible changes. After that adidas comes back to them with three choices and the officials choose one. I guess it’s kind of an economic decision for the teams not to design the unis themselves. You’d have to contract the design process out, spend money on that, then find someone to manufacture it. When the suplier does all the design work you save money on that side and b/c the manufacturer produces large amounts of the jerseys beceause they’re templated anyways. While I gues for large-market teams like Bayern Munich it might be lucrative to do all that themselves for small-market teams the amount of jersey sold usually isn’t high enough to warrant an autonomous design-manufactoring process, I guess.
(Little sidenote, Nuremberg actually did “manufacture” their alternate jersey for this season, they just bought a regular set of templated jersey without any logo or sponsoring on it, like any rec-league team would do, put their badge and sponsor on it and had an alternate jersey for their match at Cottbus (See link, link or link.) Naturally because of the really small number of jersey made these will be real collector’s items real soon.)[/quote]

That makes sense, and to me somewhat validates the use of templates, at least for professional teams. While it would be nice to see every team in the World Cup have a unique jersey, it just doesn’t seem like a realistic option for club teams, or for college basketball teams for that matter. I think it just means that you have to evaluate and critique those uniforms differently than North American football, basketball, baseball, and hockey uniforms.

Who has the better unis in the BCS Championship game tonight? I personally linkits a link…

I really like Florida’s blue/orange pairing…too bad they don’t rock the throwbacks that they wore earlier this season…shoulder stripes, white helmets. They were pretty link.

At least they’re not wearing link.

(Hope the links work…)

I think it just means that you have to evaluate and critique those uniforms differently than North American football, basketball, baseball, and hockey uniforms.

That’s to a point what I mentioned yesterday when I said that having grown up with suppliers’ logos on the shirts of my teams (club and national) I never found anything wrong with it. It’s a different sort of “uni-culture” (which, btw, isn’t homogenous all across Europe, the number of replica shirts worn in the stands in England is significantly higher than, say, in Germany). However, the use of templates (while they’ve always been used) has come to more attention over the years. I guess it’s a mixture of more widespread ability to see teams from other countries (wearing the same uniform-styles as your team), more recognizable templates, a heightened general interest in uniforms (and replica shirts) and a general frustration regarding corporation-football-relations in general.

The reason Florida is wearing their homes and Ohio State is wearing their aways is due to the alphabetic position of their schools. Typically the first school alphabetically in bowls will wear their home jerseys. I am unsure if they even have a choice (i.e. LSU first alphabetically, but I am unaware if they wore their traditional whites for the Sugar Bowl. And Roy Williams’ black band could be a Sully (a constrictive rubber sleeve worn over the torso) or strap attached to shoulder pads, both of whose functions is to keep the shoulder from popping out of place – to elaborate on a previous post.

Just a few football “accessories” questions I thought up while going back for the first day of class today. Wondered if maybe someone here could answer them.

1. Do players tend to stick to the same old equipment in the NFL? I noticed this on the fact that players often wear gloves that are a few years old, when there are newer, nicer models available. Also linemen often wear cleat models that are close to way out of date.
Is this what they wore in college and chose to keep it in the NFL? Maybe they can get anything they want, probably the case, but why keep old gear?

2. Why are gloves in NCAA football only allowed to be gray, while the NFL is not really strict at all on colours? You see ALL or as far as I know all college football teams wearing gray gloves, even though that may not match their teams colours.

3. Do players actually wear Turf cleats (No spike plate on the bottom) while on grass-imitating Field Turf? link a pic that I took of Ben R.’s “cleats” when he played on the Falcon’s field turf. I often notice this on linemen also, which seems like it really puts you at a disadvantage for sticking a block, as you could easily lose grip.

I play for my highschool’s football team and we have Field Turf. I have a pair of football turf shoes for the weight room, and don’t think I would feel comfortable going out to play on the actual field with these.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance to any answers!

It is absolutely amazing how the Buckeyes can pull off the white jerseys with red number on top of the gray pants, but the NY Giants make them look like complete shit. Take a note from Ohio State, gray pants only look good with a white jersey if you have a gray helmet.

can anyone tell me who the team in the yellow is on that link

I can’t figure it out.

dont know if anyone else caught it but one of floridas DBs is wearing one of his mis-matched gator print sleeves on his head brian dawkins style. guess thats one way to un-mismatch your sleeves

Dont know if anyone in New York caught it, but they had the guy from Stitches, the business that does all the uniform work for the mets. He talked about sewing Pedro’s “mesh panel” into the jersey, and Edgardo Alfonso having his socks sewn into the bottom of his pants, has anyone heard of that before?

gotta check out the link in 94

Ah yes, the famous Texas Stadium quote. I was living in Dallas at the time and made it to one of the very first games- what a thrill. The quote is attributed to DD Lewis:

Built to replace the aging Cotton Bowl, Texas Stadium was to have originally been a domed stadium, but the stadium could not support the weight of the entire roof, and public funding ran out before the roof support structure could be modified. This resulted in most of the stands being enclosed but not the playing field itself. This unusual arrangement – more commonly seen in European soccer stadiums – prompted Cowboys linebacker D.D. Lewis to make his now-famous quip that the “hole” in the stadium’s roof was there “so that God can watch His team.”

[quote comment=”39321″]why do the tennessee vols women’s basketball team have light blue on their jerseys? do any of the other tennessee teams have any blue on their unis?[/quote]

It’s not blue, it’s actually gray, which is UT’s “third” color. It comes across blue on TV and also, I think, because it’s just a weird shade.

I’d thought this before too, but after some extensive research…it’s grey.

And the Women’s BBall team isn’t the only one’s you’ll notice this on, so it can’t be just that specific uniform. I’m apt to think it’s some weird new template color they’ve adopted.

[quote comment=”39352″]Okay, I admit my “innocent-until-proven-guilty_ approach with this year’s line of adidas uniforms was stupidly optimistic. However, I think there’s another aspect to the debate on soccer templates. There are a TON of professional/national soccer teams. While there is no excuse for suppliers to cop out and use templates for the relatively small number of teams in the World Cup, it is unrealistic to expect adidas, Nike, or anyone else to come up with a different design for every single professional team. In the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, the uniforms are all different, but don’t the teams design the uniforms themselves (not to mention that they change much less frequently than soccer uniforms)? In soccer, how much fault is that of the suppliers, and how much of it falls on the individual teams for not designing their own uniforms?[/quote]

In the US, teams do the design once, and it transcends years and manufacturers until they feel like changing. In soccer, they change every year or every other year, depending on the leauge (Celtic change their home shirt in one year, and their away in the next)…

When did this start? I’ll guess in the 80s when it got all corporate and shirt sponsorships started. Would be interesting to investigate.

[quote comment=”39352″]Okay, I admit my “innocent-until-proven-guilty_ approach with this year’s line of adidas uniforms was stupidly optimistic. However, I think there’s another aspect to the debate on soccer templates. There are a TON of professional/national soccer teams. While there is no excuse for suppliers to cop out and use templates for the relatively small number of teams in the World Cup, it is unrealistic to expect adidas, Nike, or anyone else to come up with a different design for every single professional team. In the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, the uniforms are all different, but don’t the teams design the uniforms themselves (not to mention that they change much less frequently than soccer uniforms)? In soccer, how much fault is that of the suppliers, and how much of it falls on the individual teams for not designing their own uniforms?[/quote]

One thing that many people might not be aware of is that Rangers in Scotland actually did design their own uniforms each of the last three years (but not this year). I’m not sure exactly how they handled it, but their Umbro kit last year, along with their Diadora kits the two years prior to that were not standard templates. Instead, they designed their own and Diadora/Umbro paid to basically have their name on the shirt. For all I know, they may have even manufactured them – but they didn’t design them.

Another thing that separates soccer jerseys from other sports is their affordability. If you want to wear an NFL or MLB jersey that is remotely similar to what the pros wear, you can look forward to spending about $250. In soccer, however, you can get a jersey that is only very slightly different from what the pros wear for a maximum of about $75. When the season is over, that number goes down considerably.

The reason the NCAA mandated gray gloves was because a few years back offensive lineman were wearing gloves that were the same color as their opponents jersey (a sort of camo for their hands in the thought that it would reduce holding calls). The only school with a gray jersey at the time was, I believe, Eastern Michigan, so gray was decided as a neutral color for all NCAA teams to abide by. I’m assuming that the NFL simply gave orders to the uniform police to crack down on this practice.

And many players wear turf shoes on the AstroPlay/FieldTruf, it is a sort of personal preference thing between turf, rain turf (which was invented years ago-longer nubs for slick turf that apparently didn’t work so well, but was reintroduced with the advent of FieldTurf/AstroPlay) and the molded 10 stud (or so) plastic spike as opposed to the standard seven spike grass football cleat, which does typically provide substandard footing (to the other variations of shoes) on AstroPlay/FieldTurf.

“Nike’s been good to us so we gotta be good to them” -Urban Meyer after winnin the title….gotta love the free commercial

One of the Florida players interviewed had one of the mismatched undershirts on but both sleeves were cut off and written on the shirt was “You can do things with CHRIST.” or something like that. I think it’s a little apropo with our discussion on Roy Williams and his church’s sticker.

Being a life-long Milwaukee Brewers fan, I am pretty embarassed to announce that the Crew will be recognizing the 25th anniversary of making it to the World Series this year. Now, I am from Wisconsin, I love Wisconsin sports but come on! I mean, it was bad enough the Packers celebrated their anniversary of a Super Bowl 10 years ago this year, but to celebrate losing a World Series? They havn’t even made the playoffs since that World Series loss. Here is what the website said:

“he marquee attraction will be on Thursday night in Miller Park’s .300 Club, an invitation-only gathering to be broadcast live at brewers.com, on FSN North television and on 620-AM WTMJ radio. The shows will feature live interviews with players, including newcomers Jeff Suppan and Johnny Estrada, plus the unveiling of plans to honor the 25th anniversary of the Brewers’ only World Series appearance.

Thursday’s agenda also includes Suppan’s first in-house press conference, and a live chat with general manager Doug Melvin and manager Ned Yost on MLB.com.

“It’s got a lot of moving pieces, but we’re looking at three days of baseball being all over the news, and that’s exciting,” said Tyler Barnes, the Brewers’ vice president of communications. “It’s time to start thinking about spring again, and that means talking about baseball.”

Commissioner Bud Selig, legendary broadcaster Bob Uecker and a number of the 1982 Brewers will be on hand to help introduce the team’s plans to recognize that squad, which took St. Louis to a seventh game in the World Series. The Brewers will honor the ’82 team throughout the 2007 season with special events, giveaways and appearances.

“It’s certainly going to be prominent on our promotional schedule,” Barnes said.

During the broadcasts, the Brewers will unveil a ticket offer available over the phone. Select calls will be fielded by Brewers alumni, a group scheduled to include Jerry Augustine, Jim Gantner, Larry Hisle, Ben Oglivie and Gorman Thomas.”
– From Brewers.com

They are recognizing not making the playoffs in 25 years! This is insane. The article didn’t mention anything about patches on the unis or anything so that is good, but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Let’s hope not.

Ted Ginn, Jr. has been mentioned before for his unusual facemasks, but tonight he had multiple uni infractions… first, link (instead of the usual OSU black) with black tape over them. This is similar to what Chad Johnson’s done all year with his orange cleats and black tape… but that was minor.

link… he pretty much wore a play-calling wristband as a belt buckle on a loose red belt. It reminded me of when Shinjo wore his link in the summer… and reminding anyone of Shinjo is certainly not a compliment.

Other news, from Nike World… Nike’s Huarache 2k4 shoes have now hit link, in addition to already being seen in link and link. Is the design that good that they can’t come up with something better?

Some football uni history that, for some reason or another, I never realized existed on my own university’s history page.

Shot from the first Indiana-Purdue Old Oaken Bucket (being held by the guy in the coat on the right) game in 1925 showing off some referee duds and some nice stripes on the football player in the back: pic

[quote]You can buy a Jack Traschner jersey on MLB.com. Only problem is, the player’s name is actually Taschner (good catch by Kevin Cunningham)[/quote]

I think the real question here is, why was anyone trying to purchase a Jack Taschner jersey? ;)

[quote comment=”39418″][quote comment=”39352″]Okay, I admit my “innocent-until-proven-guilty_ approach with this year’s line of adidas uniforms was stupidly optimistic. However, I think there’s another aspect to the debate on soccer templates. There are a TON of professional/national soccer teams. While there is no excuse for suppliers to cop out and use templates for the relatively small number of teams in the World Cup, it is unrealistic to expect adidas, Nike, or anyone else to come up with a different design for every single professional team. In the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, the uniforms are all different, but don’t the teams design the uniforms themselves (not to mention that they change much less frequently than soccer uniforms)? In soccer, how much fault is that of the suppliers, and how much of it falls on the individual teams for not designing their own uniforms?[/quote]

One thing that many people might not be aware of is that Rangers in Scotland actually did design their own uniforms each of the last three years (but not this year). I’m not sure exactly how they handled it, but their Umbro kit last year, along with their Diadora kits the two years prior to that were not standard templates. Instead, they designed their own and Diadora/Umbro paid to basically have their name on the shirt. For all I know, they may have even manufactured them – but they didn’t design them.

Another thing that separates soccer jerseys from other sports is their affordability. If you want to wear an NFL or MLB jersey that is remotely similar to what the pros wear, you can look forward to spending about $250. In soccer, however, you can get a jersey that is only very slightly different from what the pros wear for a maximum of about $75. When the season is over, that number goes down considerably.[/quote]
Ewwwww, Rangers!

But seriously, this year’s shirt doesn’t look that templatey.

“Just remember… God has the Redskins in the pool.”
-Sonnny Jurgenson

[quote comment=”39387″]can anyone tell me who the team in the yellow is on that link

I can’t figure it out.[/quote]
That’s the Packers.

[quote comment=”39339″][quote comment=”39327″][quote comment=”39321″]why do the tennessee vols women’s basketball team have light blue on their jerseys? do any of the other tennessee teams have any blue on their unis?[/quote]
The women’s athletics programs at Tennessee have added blue to their color-scheme (this happenned a while back). In fact, the women’s programs have their own dedicated website: link.

I kinda liken it to how the men’s teams have added black to their color-scheme: link.

Personally…I like the blue in the women’s teams…but the black needs to go.[/quote]

As I recall, there was a time when UT’s men’s teams — football, at least — also sported some blue (more of a royal).[/quote]

Normally I’m against adding black, but Tennessee’s shade of orange is so light that you really need that bit of black trim on the numbers and letters so you can read them from a distance. It wouldn’t bother me to see them add the black trim to the white numbers on the orange jersey.

Regarding the light blue trim – I remember the men’s basketball team had a bit of blue trim on the jersey letters/numbers and on the shorts back in the mid-1970s. The Sports Illustrated site is blocked here, but there was a cover of Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld (sp?) wearing those from circa 1975-1977.

[quote comment=”39232″]Pat, I see you beat me to the Jorge Campos reference. Kudos to you on that.

I don’t see how anybody could discuss soccer uniforms and not at least make mention of Campos. The nicest thing I can think to say is that he certainly wore the most unique uniforms in the sport.[/quote]

No, you’re wrong, the nicest thing we can say about Campos is that he’s retired. :)

[quote comment=”39273″]link[/quote]

this is very sharp!

[quote comment=”39195″]Anybody know where I can get a brand-new SF Giants “Barry Zrito” jersey?[/quote]

As a matter of fact, yes…

link

…because the link is dynamic. You can give it any name/number combo you want…

link

Oh, and way to Go Gators!