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The NFL Draft begins this Thursday, which means two things: a new set of draft caps, which you can see above, and a new set of uniform unveilings. The Jaguars will reveal their new uni set today at 1:30pm Eastern, with the Vikings and Dolphins following on Thursday evening.
Pegging the uniform unveilings to the draft makes sense: The unveilings will help generate excitement for the draft, and the draft in turn will help showcase the uniforms, because the Jacksonville, Minnesota, and Miami draft picks hold up the new jersey designs in their obligatory photo-ops.
NFL teams have been doing their uni unveilings during the lead-up to the draft for several years now, to the point where many of us have been conditioned to expect a series of new uniform releases each April. It really shows how the league has managed to standardize almost every aspect of its operations. They haven’t yet branded the notion of an “NFL Uniform Unveiling Week,” complete with its own logo, but would anyone be surprised if that happened?
Compare that to the other Big Four leagues, whose new uniforms tend to dribble out at random points in the off-season, with no set schedule. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it doesn’t do much to build a critical mass of enthusiasm for your league.
Of course, the NFL has an advantage in this regard, because the draft is a high-visibility event that coordinates well with the unveilings. The NBA, NHL, and MLB don’t have any off-season events of that magnitude. Then again, why is it necessary to have the uniform unveilings tied to an event? What if MLB simply decided to have all of its off-season uni unveilings in, say, the first week of December? It would generate some buzz during an otherwise sleepy period for the sport. The NHL and NBA could do something similar. After a few seasons, fans would learn to expect the unveilings to take place during these designated times, which would be good for the leagues and good for the uni-verse — at least in theory. (In practice, the coordinated events might turn out to be too scripted, too corporate, too stupid, etc.)
Anyway: Once I get a look at the Jags’ new attire this afternoon, I’ll summarize my thoughts in an ESPN piece about it and post the link here, in the comments, and on Twitter, so stay tuned, okay? Okay. Here you go. Also: The Vikes and Dolphins uniforms have both leaked!
Click photos to enlarge
Collector’s Corner
By Brinke Guthrie
As you can see above, we may have found the ultimate Uni Watch item, sitting squarely at the intersection of two of Paul’s favorite things: sports logos and meat. Now, we’ve seen those 1960s Hormel NFL helmet trays before, but never a full set of them, all in one auction. The Browns one even has the “CB” logo!
Here’s the rest of this week’s Collector’s Corner haul:
• This 1970s 49ers helmet plaque, complete with requisite single-bar facemask, would be perfect for Uni Watch HQ.
• We’ve all seen the 1970s NFL helmet magnets like this one for the Bills. Haven’t seen them packaged on that display card before, though.
• I like the sleeve striping on this 1980s Cleveland Indians jacket.
• Speaking of MLB jackets, this Chicago Cubs jacket is just … I can’t think of a word for how bad this design is. [I beg to differ. Love it! ”” PL]
• A longstanding Collector’s Corner rule: If it’s 1970s and made by Sand Knit, it’s most likely cool. Case in point: this New Jersey Nets pullover top.
• That same seller has four 1970s NFL mini-helmet buggies up for sale.
• Very nice-looking NFL Starter parka. Never seen the old “Pro Line” badge on the chest like that, or seen “Staff” on the chest for that matter. And here’s an NFL shield pullover from DeLong. (While we’re on DeLong — a favorite of mine — how about a cool New York Giants varsity jacket?)
• From reader Stuart Alford: an awesome Baltimore Clippers corduroy jacket with Brooks Robinson tagging!
• And we wrap up this week with an interesting poster showing the evolution of NFL uniforms.
Seen something on eBay or Etsy that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The jersey Reggie Jackson supposedly wore while hitting three home runs in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series was recently put up for auction, but now it has been pulled. The article doesn’t say why, but I’m assuming it’s because of research by Peter Nash that cast doubt on the jersey’s authenticity. … “Here’s a short promotional video pimping K-State football tickets,” says Dale Allison. “It features some helmet detailing that Uni Watch readers will like.” … Michael Waltrip used Boston Marathon bib-style numbers on his car on Sunday (from Tom Van de Kieft). … New white jersey for the newly relocated and renamed Iowa Wild (from A.J. Frey). … If you’re gonna wrap a player’s injured hamstring, you may as well do it with tape that says, “Fragile.” That’s a player from the Stade Francais Rugby Team (from Wesley Eustis). … Rangers skipper Ron Washington was caught smoking in the dugout the other day (from Mike Engle). … Very unusual baseball pants for Grand Valley State. Unusual striping on the softball team’s pants, too (from Bryan Kimball). … Here’s the latest on the voting for Sparky’s new look at ASU (from Nathan White). … Michigan State football wore a Boston decal for their spring game. … The Yankees began wearing pinstripes 98 years ago yesterday. … Someone got married in Blackhawks jerseys with fun NOBs (thanks, Phil). ”¦ The plaque at AT+T Park that marked Barry Bonds’s 756th home run has disappeared (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Rich Aleman spotted a car with a Wisconsin sports logo mash-up window decal. ”¦ Here’s another story about that 1919 footage of plantation workers playing baseball in Georgia. Jake Wallace explains the best part: “They were able to determine what year the footage is from by comparing the stirrup striping on the players in the film with still images they had collected.” ”¦ The Dodgers have a player at triple-A with one doozy of a hyphenated NOB (from Frank Frank Mercogliano). ”¦ RIP, Christina. Nobody ever looked better in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform, fishnets, and a face smeared with lipstick.
I think NHL teams are starting to reveal uniforms at the NHL draft. I remember the Caps had their new jerseys revealed at their draft party and had their draft pick (Karl Alzner) model both home and road for pictures. I think a few other teams unveiled new looks similarly.
MLB could show new uniforms during the winter meetings in Dec.
Would work well with holiday shopping, which has always been baseball’s advantage over the other sports.
In the pre-internet days, NBA teams would usually unveil new logos at the draft, although there wasn’t usually a lot of fanfare – it was more like “here’s the new logo, now let’s get on with the important stuff”. This always made the draft doubly exciting for me, as I waited to see which teams would be getting new gear…
I remember the Caps, Blue Jackets, and one other team (I forget which now) unveiling their Edge uniforms at the 2007 NHL Draft. In the past, there have been a few unveilings at the draft as well; I can remember the 1998 Draft including the debut of the Islanders’ new uniforms at the time, replacing that wavy navy-orange-teal-gray mess that was left over from the ill-fated fisherman era.
Wow. I cannot adequately express my disappointment with all three NFL unis. Completely uninspired and unimaginative. I expected so much more from Nike. I suspect that their creative staff was stiffled by old people making the final decisions within the respective organizations. While I am sure that majority of the douche-hipster communistic constituants of this website will decry anything that doesnt look “old school,” I am surprised to read that Paul doesnt like them. He’s usually in favor of anything that looks like its taken from the late 80s or eary 90s. Really, non-matching pants and jerseys??? While Reebok was terrible at design, at least the last Jags uni set was modern. Verticle pants stripes? Horizontal seeve stripes? Yikes.
– Speaking of MLB jackets, this Chicago Cubs jacket is just … I can’t think of a word for how bad this design is. [I beg to differ. Love it! – PL]
Just a heads up, the Cubs jacket link also directs to the Indians jacket on Etsy.
Link to the Cubs jacket is actually the link to the Indians jacket…
Thanks — now fixed.
The number 56 NASCAR car is owned by Michael Waltrip, but driven by Martin Truex, Jr. Waltrip has competed in the Boston Marathon in the past.
Michael Waltrip used Boston Marathon bib-style numbers on his car on Sunday (from Tom Van de Kieft).
That’s actually Martin Truex, Jr.’s car. Michael Waltrip and Clint Bowyer also did it…pictures at the below links.
link
link
Mikey didn’t run in the STP 400.
The MWR entries were Clint Boywer(15), Mark Martin(55), and Martin Truex Jr (56)…all 3 cars placed in the top 10!
The PCL is Triple A.
Fixed.
The doozy hyphenated last name for the Dodgers farmhand lead me to remember something I have needlessly pondered. When will two people with hyphenated last names marry and one spouse get a double hyphenated quadruple last name? For example Joe Collins-Smith marries Edith Kovaleski-O’Callahan and she or he becomes Kovaleski-O’Callahan-Collins-Smith.
An episode of South Park touched upon that very subject. I’ll posit the kid eventually has a “Rikki Tikki Tembo” episode of enlightenment, and lops off everything after the first hyphen.
Makes sense. I like Rikki Tikki Tembo No So Rembo Cherry Berry Booshy Pip Perry Pembo reference.
I always remembered the book as “Rikki Tikki Tembo”, but when I recently received a copy as a gift, it was titled “Tikki Tikki Tembo”. What’s up with that? Are we all mis-remembering?
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a children’s story about a mongoose. It was written by Rudyard Kipling. We’re probably mixing up our Rikkis and our Tikkis.
Paul, that’s a Michigan State helmet, not Michigan, with the Boston decal.
Fixed. Can you tell who was trying to do too many things yesterday?
I see it’s been fixed. Interesting that they just went with the Red Sox “B”.
The way Hendrick Motorsports (one of their shop employees is the brother of slain MIT officer Sean Collier) modified the Bruins’ “B” for their sticker memorial was a bit more creative:
link
Here is the Dolphins draft hat:
Front view: link
Side view: link
I was in a sporting goods store here in Buffalo on Friday, and saw this on the racks. I was going to snap a pic of it, but couldn’t remember if it had already been revealed or not, and since I was the only customer in the store I thought people would have found it weird.
From the Yankees pinstripes article:
Contrary to a popular myth, the stripes weren’t meant to camoflauge a rather, er, rotund Babe Ruth.
Aside from never hearing of this myth, it’d be pretty impossible to begin with, considering he was still with the Red Sox at the time!
Thats just one of those ‘myths’ that never disappear – the worst one is that Baseball somehow juiced the ball up in 1920, when the truth is that they banned the spitball, and thanks to Ray Chapman, started putting a clean ball in play after it got marked up.
Hopefully the Yanks will seize the opportunity in 2015, and roll out a PLAIN pinstriped uni in honor of the 100th for one game.
I live in Wisconsin and I see the Badger/Packer/Brewer logo mashup everywhere. It’s on T Shirts, Hoodies, Hats, Cars. Everywhere. I couldn’t find a local site selling the merch, but here is an ebay posting.
link
Mashups must drive the folks who set brand identity standards for the teams crazy.
Poor Bucks.
who?
Exactly. The Bucks really are the odd team out here; far less popular than Packers/Badgers/Brewers. The store I work at doesn’t even carry any Bucks merch. Those mash-ups have been around for at least a couple years, totally unofficial of course.
When the mashup really gained traction in 2011 (Brewers in the playoffs, Packers starting the season unbeaten, Badgers … well, I root for Marquette, so screw them), the Bucks posted something on their Facebook page that added antlers. The picture proceeded to get lambasted in the comments because the Bucks, at the time, were quite mediocre.
Often times during its debut, the name given to the mashup was “WINsconsin,” and with the Bucks not winning (nor really ever having a chance to in the modern NBA), a lot of folks didn’t take kindly to the mashup being defaced in such a way.
Of course, those of us with smarter sensibilities have a variation we prefer: link
Here is a logo mashup that includes the buck’s antlers
link
“… Rich Aleman spotted a car with a Wisconsin sports logo mash-up window decal. …”
Characteristically brilliant Cheesehead stuff. Coincidentally, the relevant sub-committee submitted to the Board of Trustees this morning its nominations for the Top Ten States in the federal union.
1. Massachusetts
2. Wisconsin
3. Arkansas
4. California
5. New Mexico
6. North Dakota
7. Maine
8. Montana
9. Kansas
10. (tie) Washington / District of Columbia
Special Commendations for Regional Excellence within States of Significant Insufficiencies:
1. New York City
2. Southeast Arizona
3. South Beach, Miami
4. Appalachia
5. Wind River Range
6. Big Bend
7. Taconic Plateau
8. Snake River Valley
9. Winona County, Minnesota
10. (tie) Prairie Potholes; Zydeco Territory; Memphis; Cranston (RI); Outer Banks; Gettysburg; Chicago.
???
RE: the Reggie Jackson jersey getting pulled from the auction….
I read one report that they were not confident it was teh actual jersey he wore during that 3-homerun game.
Looking at the Nash article, and people wondering how there could’ve been two jerseys that night… well, if you look at Reggie during the Uecker interview, his jersey’s unbuttoned. Chances are he removed his gamer when he went into the clubhouse, but then when he was called upon to do the interview, he needed to throw his jersey back on, and it would seem he grabbed a spare (or someone handed him said spare).
Maybe he wanted something that wasn’t champagne soaked for his conversation with Uek?
It’s also *possible* that he changed into that second jersey some time during the game, but the one screencap on the Hauls of Shame site clearly establishes that he wasn’t wearing it during the whole game.
In any case, good on the Hauls for exposing yet another fraud.
I thank God every day that I’m not a Cubs fan but if I were, I’d have to have that jacket.
re: NFL uniform launches
NBA uniforms, on the other hand, often get leaked through video game screencaps. Just this offseason, new unis for Knicks, Nets and OKC Thunder (blue alts) showed up in video game previews before the teams announced them, IIRC.
You’d think the NBA would be on top of this.
The NBA is too busy arguing with itself about how to put ads on its jerseys to worry about video game leaks.
That Nets top in Collector’s Corner is more likely from the mid-80s, based on the tagging.
Indians and Cubs jackets are both from the 1990s, not “80s” and “vintage” as the listing references them.
I caught that too–the Indians jacket has the script “Indians” on the back that was unveiled in 1994 with the opening of Jacobs Field.
He’s Peter Nash now, but he’ll always be Prime Minister Pete Nice to me!
Thanks for that – I knew he’d become a baseball historian, but I didn’t make the connection.
I’m with you, Paul. That Cubs jacket is pretty cool.
Re: the Hormel NFL “plaques”
They all seem to be high-quality artwork as far as processed meat tin lids go… except for the Giants’ logo. Looks hand-drawn.
And what’s with the colored backgrounds? Couldn’t they at least have chosen coordinated colors? Green for the Cowboys? link Love the single-bar, tho.
The only thing I can say about the different colored backgrounds is: it was the sixties.
I really love the single-bar face mask. Fuck the NFL for outlawing it.
With the new Wild logo in the AHL (which will be seeing many changes for next season, along withthe likelyhood that the CT. Whale will become the Wolf Pack again), I figure it would be good to shine a light on how a level A hoceky team in Connecticut called the Whalers does a logo right:
link
How do you like the chances of that being adopted as the road uniform of the parent club? I’m not saying they couldn’t do better, but there is a precedent: The Rangers made white versions of their “liberty head” sweaters from Hartford Wolfpack jerseys, lo those many years ago.
I know they probably will, which really disappoints me. The Wild have great red and green sweaters, I’m sure they could design something equally good for the white one.
A few things about the Hormel cans. I really like the helmets on the off-color backgrounds (Dallas on green, Detroit on red). They really make the helmets pop out – as opposed to a team color blue background.
Looks like there was a mix-up: upper Detroit helmet is in silver-blue, while the Cowboys are just silver.
And, one of the most underrated helmet striping is Detroit with two blue stripes and silver in the middle. Very classy look. Why they added the white to make them look like Dallas, I’ll never understand.
I noticed that, too, and thought it was odd. And while it’s tempting to file it under Jacksonville relocation paranoia, they did just change their uniforms today, and maybe they thought about tinkering with their moniker–to expand their regional fan base (although they should have thought about that before they went alliterative to start with). Maybe they thought about being the Florida Jaguars.
Sorry…wrong thread. Please delete?
So why does evey NFL team have their city name on the bottom of the caps, but the Jaguars do not? Hmmmmm, more LA consiparacies!
well technically the Panthers don’t have their city either. they have their regional moniker not the name of the city they play in.
You want to be technical? The Vikings, Cardinals, and Titans list states instead of cities, the Patriots and Buccanners list regional monikers, and the Giants and Jets list the common name of their greater metropolitan area, even though neither team plays within the city (or state of the same name) proper.
:P
Though it is a good point that the Jags list their team name rather than their location name on the underside of the brim.
I think “Jacksonville for now, but possibly Los Angeles, maybe London, wait, how about Monterrey, if you’re feeling ambitious?” is too long to fit on a hat.
Where’s that damn “like” button?
I noticed that, too, and thought it was odd. And while it’s tempting to file it under Jacksonville relocation paranoia, they did just change their uniforms today, and maybe they thought about tinkering with their moniker—to expand their regional fan base (although they should have thought about that before they went alliterative to start with). Maybe they thought about being the Florida Jaguars.
They have got to stop with the new NFL caps 3 times a year. There are only so many decent designs and they were exhausted several years ago.
Even MLB only comes out with new BP cap designs every 2 years.
Funny how the NFL pimps more BASEBALL caps than MLB.
You can do that when the caps aren’t tied to the team’s identity. Yankees fans won’t, say, buy an “NY” hat with blue and white Zubaz stripes – chances are, they’ll opt for the plain blue hat.
Which is why things like this exist.
link
Well, there will always be a market for ugly ass shit. It’s just that, at least for baseball hats, NFL’s Ugly Ass Shit market is relatively larger than MLB’s Ugly Ass Shit market.
I love the two tone LIONS on Detroits draft cap. Off the top of my head I’m not sure if we see that a lot apart from the old old old Lions logo.
I assume you’re referring to link
Also, curious that the Jets hat resorts to black, considering they haven’t had black trim on the uniform since adopting the retro design in 1998. Of course, that hasn’t stopped teams without black on their unis from using it on team merch before…
The Jets hat using black makes about as much sense as the Colts hat using silver. Then there’s the Broncos being the only team to not use 2 colors on the text for some reason.
The Lions should have never used black to begin with, I hope this hat proves to be the new norm and they fade back the amount of black that they use.
I’ve seen Philly sports mash up logos everywhere
“too scripted, too corporate, too stupid, etc.”
Dead on. I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but the NFL has become so boring and omnipresent. It just NEVER GOES AWAY. It’s like McDonald’s.
I saw baseball pants identical to Grand Valley State’s at a local high school game a couple of weeks ago. They looked awful then and they look awful now. Having Adidas on the baseball field is scary. I don’t want to see any Fruit Stripe baseball uni’s anytime soon.
They look like cricket uniforms.
My thoughts exactly.
Some tidbits on the Yankee pinstripes. A cursory search of Dressed to the Nines reveals that the Yankees first wore pinstripes in 1912. In that same year the Dodgers, White Sox, Senators, Giants, and Pirates all debuted pinstriped uniforms.
link
Incidentally, the Yankees wore the away version of those 1912 uniforms last year at Fenway.
link
The truly amazing thing about the Yankees is that from 1917 until 1935 they wore nothing EXCEPT pinstripes. No logo, no script, nothing.
Blew my mind when I realized that Babe Ruth never wore the “classic” Yankee jersey, and every single photo of him in one was taken during an Old Timers’ Game.
I believe the ONLY times the Babe actually wore the NY uniform were the War Bond game in 42, when he batted against Walter Johnson, and the 1948 25th Anniversary of Yankee Stadium celebration about a month before he died.
Not including, of course, Pride of the Yankees..
As a Cubs fan who knows that his team has been wearing pinstripes — thought not continuously — since 1907, before the New York Highlanders ever did, it bothers me to see the word “pinstripes” used to refer to just the Yankees.
A few years ago near the trade deadline some fool reporter made the offhand comment that three or four players he liked “would look great in pinstripes”. They were playing for the Reds, Marlins, and Twins: so all the players mentioned were already wearing pinstripes.
Raise the issue again when the Cubs approach their 27th championship.
How different are the Vikings uniforms going to be?
Is it a re branding / new logo like the Dolphins and Jags?
The only thing we’ve heard is that it’s going to be a “traditional uniform”, so best guess says it’ll probably something similar to, but not quite the same as what they wore in the 70’s.
Ah, back in the days of Chuck Foreman and Alan Page.
so don’t expect white helmets with purple horns and yellow alternates ?
It would be cool if the Browns wore the “CB” sticker on their helmets at least once. You know, to mix things up a little
I know this is a common enough phrase in our community, but I cringe every time I read it.
“Mix(ing) things up a little” is about the absolute WORST reason I can think of for any uniform design.
Worth noting that MLS did all of their new kit unveilings in one week this year. That was a first. But then again, MLS clubs change kits in two-year cycles, so there are always at least a few teams debuting new looks each offseason.
I have to ask. Who is Christina and what’s with the Catholic school girl outfit? Anyone have any ideas?
Christina Amphlett. Lead singer for the Divinyls.
Chrissy Amphlett, lead singer of the Divinyls.
link
The Clippers jacket has been pulled from sale? NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I wanted to bid on it. :(
Everything about that Baltimore Clippers jacket is beautiful.
It was pulled from Ebay, then put back up as a BIN for $325 after someone clearly contacted the seller. I was gonna go $900 on it, if the person that won it is reading this and wants to make some quick money.
That “Today in Sports” post is way off and poorly researched and really kind of lazy. The Yankees started wearing “the pinstripes” in 1912. They abandoned them for the 1913-1914 seasons and then brought them back for good in 1915.
Also, The famous “ball & hat Yankee logo” didn’t appear until 1947.
The famous interlocking NY first appeared on the cap & uniform sleeve in 1909. That logo was originally used as an insignia for a medal for a police officer shot in the line of duty in 1877.
The interlocking NY first appeared on the front of the uniform in 1912 (with the pinstripes).
The interlocking NY became the official logo of the Yankees in 1913 and lasted as the primary logo until 1946 and was replaced by the famous hat and bat logo in 1947.
So the 1915 date is significant because it was the “re-introduction” of the famous pinstripes. The interlocking NY had already been used since 1909 and first appeared with the pinstripes in 1912. The only difference with 1915 is that the interlocking NY wasn’t the official logo in 1912.
The “Yankees starting wearing pinstripes to cover up Babe Ruth’s fat,” is a famous urban legend and really kind of ridiculous because they started to wear the pinstripes 8 years before Ruth joined the team.
Even the whole “Yankee Pinstripe” thing is a little silly because they weren’t even the first team to wear pinstripes.
Just starting in 1900, I know the 1907 Cubs and the 1907 Doves (Braves) wore pinstripes. The 1908 Indians & 1908 Cubs wore pinstripes. The 1909 A’s, 1909 Cubs, 1909 Indians wore pinstripes. The 1910 Browns, 1910 Cubs wore pinstripes. All of those teams used the pinstripes on the road.
The 1911 Dodgers, 1911 Giants, 1911 Phillies wore pinstripes. The 1911 Giants & Phillies were the first to use pinstripes at home. The Giants actually used pinstripes both on the road and home.
The 1912 Red Sox (road/home), The 1912 Yankees (home), 1912 Senators (road/home), 1912 Dodgers (road/home), The 1912 Giants (road/home), 1912 Pirates (road/home).
So if anything the Yankees were kind of late to the pinstripe look and really they were just following a trend. There’s nothing particularly ground breaking about their look. Actually it looks like the were just copying the dominant team in New York at the time, the Giants. So the pinstripes were probably a copy of the Giants and the interlocking NY was a copy on a 40 year old NY police medal insignia.
As a footnote perhaps: Although there are many teams that currently use pinstripes, I believe the Yankees are the only team that uses them with raglan sleeved jerseys.
Then theres the whole uni numbers thing, where Cleveland tries to claim the first time, due to the Yankees getting rained out on Opening Day. Of course Cleveland only wore the numbers a few times, whereas the Yankees had COMMITTED to it for 1929.
I usually try not to worry about all the little things the Mets do wrong, but honestly, who in the front office would greenlight link
Consistency fellas, it’s not that hard.
Probably reading too much into this, but … all of the NFL draft cap bills have the city/state name on the bill except Jacksonville. I grew up in Minnesota and this is what the North Stars did right before they skipped town. All the sudden the new logos, branding, etc., all said “Stars” instead of the full name, and “Minnesota” disappeared as well.
Nice to see the Falcons hat in BLACK as it belongs. Just like the uniforms. Now can we please drop those red clown suits and go back to something black, please? Like, you know, the early 90’s look that looked really good?
What, you don’t want to hearken back to the days of Steve Bartkowski? I thought those were nice.
link
They look too much like the Georgia Bulldogs.
link
As I recall, that was the plan, to pay homage to Georgia and Georgia Tech (with the gold striping on the originals)
Nope. None of that for me. I go back that far as a fan but I HATE the red uniforms. The team should be in black.
I know I haven’t been a follower of the NBA in years and admittedly a fan of alternate uniforms but the NBA is getting ridiculous with these. Anybody want to spend the time to sit down and figure out the percentage of games played between two teams in their primary looks? I’m guessing it won’t be very high. The playoffs look terrible now. Why does the Heat even list their primary look as that? Have they worn it more than about 3 times this season?
Ugh if I have to hear one more talking head banter on about “innovation” and “pride” I’m going to throw up.
Also its a game. It’s opponent not enemy.
If you played a drinking game for every time Todd Van Horn said “innovation”, you would be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning by now.
that Jaguar helmet is pretty tight. i like it
the number font is good too.
good job jags
Don’t know what’s worse the corporate mumbo jumbo or the jaguars uni itself…
Actually that was a purely rethorical question… Those duds are hideous.
Lame press conference aside, I really don’t mind the new Jaguars uniform, aside from the two-toned helmet.
That thing’s just a mess.
I hate the teal alternate with black numbers.
i love the 2 toned helmet. its something new. they made the jags logo bigger to so it doesnt look to gawdy
i think the gold and the black overpower the teal in the uniform
Yuck. Definitely NOT an improvement over the original. I can’t believe somebody actually got PAID to design that uni. Looks like something a fourth-grade kid who wears a too-large flat brim baseball cap would draw up.
BTW, whenever I see someone wearing a too-large, flat-brim baseball cap, I immediately think, “CLOWN”. Bonus points for turning the cap one-quarter to the side; double bonus points for leaving the manufacturer decals on the cap.
Soooo, sleeve caps? That’s your big innovation?
Is that player wearing tights or nylons?
Is that player wearing tights or nylons?
link
Well played.
God Awful duds for the Jags. Only thing worse than the unis is this lame-o press conference.
If the 2-toned helmet is supposed to emulate a jaguar moving forward, on the hunt, leaping from the shadows…shouldn’t it be gold (the color of the jaguar) in the front, and black (the shadow its coming from) in the back?
Uh, oh.
You’ve found the flaw in their corporate press release….
Awkward…
“They’re new and no one else has them”.
Maybe there’s a reason for that.
“They’re new and no one else wants them.”
Fixed it for ya, Jacksonville.
As a Jaguar fan, I love the uniforms, especially the teal top. The pants look nice and clean to me. The helmet, yea, that sucks. That’s just awful. Matte and gloss should never mix. Ever.
I agree with you. The helmets are just odd. I actually would have been okay if they went with an all gold or an all black model. This half and half is just weird.
They should have kept what they had before. It was better. The black/Teal/Black look was the best, followed by the Black on black.
Let explain to you a thing called the Jaguars’ new uniforms.
I’m glad that they aren’t the clown-suit sandwich that Seymour was in Final Fantasy X, but there are some things that I want to point out:
The jersey tops: Glad to see the apron stripes gone, and the number font is inoffensive, if not spectacular. Very happy to see that gold is back in the uniforms, warming up an otherwise cold color scheme. Teal-bodied numbers return to the white jerseys for the first time since 2003, which is a welcome change. However, what the hell were they thinking when they made the body of the numbers black on the teal jersey? The patch is fine.
The pants: Eh. The stripe brings nothing new to the table. If they had to use a truncated pants stripe, they should have started from the belt chambers and then cut it off. Just MO.
The helmet: link O.K., the idea is pretty cool, but the execution is very poor to my eyes. They said the effect was to mimic a jaguar’s head lurking/peaking from the shadows, but then wouldn’t it make more sense to have the gold in the front, since that’s what being shown first, and the black in the back, which is still in the shadows? Unless jaguars pounce ass-first.
Overall, an upgrade over the previous uniforms, but not by much. And that helmet makes me want to look at goatse.
Also, I’m back to commenting on a regular/irregular basis.
No, you had it right the first time. It’s a clown-suit sammich.
Not sure why they didn’t do more of a fade in the helmet. It’s a pretty abrupt transition and just looks like they didn’t finish painting. I don’t mind the bigger logo (and I think the new logo is an upgrade), but the rest of the helmet is awful. They need to put that one back in the oven for awhile longer.
“Not sure why they didn’t do more of a fade in the helmet.”
That’s exactly what I was thinking too! I just failed to mention it because I had looked at the abrupt transition about a minute after I hit “Submit Comment”. The angle of the fade is dumb, too. No realistic angle to it, just straight up-and-down, literally splitting the helmet in two.
If they left the old helmet alone and just put the new logo on I’d like that a lot more than this. That’s the worst part of the new look. The rest I view as a wash. No worse than the junk they just dropped but not as good as the original look.
The number font bugs me but not as much as the UNC or West Virginia ones do. Not great but not the worst we’ve seen recently. I guess I’m one of the few that don’t mind the black numbers on the teal alts. I am concerned they want to go mono black at home and mono white on the road though. That’ll kill the look for me. Black or teal with the white pants at home and white with the black pants on the road will look a lot better.
Jacksonville Jaguars. I haven’t yet seen a picture of black numbers on the teal tops, but sounds like a really stupid rookie mistake. Everything else seems to be a slight upgrade, but that’s like praising me for jumping higher than a snail, based on the last duds.
Except for the two-tone helmet. Yowza, bad. Wouldn’t you want your quarterback to have targets that don’t change color? …Oh wait a second, they still have Blaine Gabbert. Guess the normal rules of logic get thrown out the window then. Never mind.
Black numbers on teal jerseys: link
In the words of esteemed scribe Paul Lukas: Woof.
So, the Jaguars are going to wear all black in day games in Florida then? Sounds like a good idea.
Just more reason to drive away fans for the eventual relocation to LA…
Jags look arena league.
I’m not sold on the new Dolphins look. To be honest, it reminds me of the Boston/Portland Breakers, with less flair.
Very Arena.
For something different from the Jags’ new unis…ESPN’s Twitter feed is posting today as though it were 1983, to mark tonight’s premiere of the “30 For 30” on the ’83 NFL Draft (“Elway To Marino”). They posted a picture of the 1983 NFL Draft room, but I noticed something odd. You’ll see each team has a helmet phone on their desk, but look carefully at the Falcons’ helmet phone:
link
Sure looks black to me, even though the sign above the desk is red, the correct Falcons’ helmet color in 1983 (and for the entire team history through 1989). Why was the helmet phone apparently black?
I don’t think that’s ’83. Note that the Chargers helmet (2d table from left) is navy with white bolts/yellow outline, which debuted in ’88, not royal with yellow bolts/white outline. Since the placard shows the Falcons’ red helmet, I’d say this is probably 1990, the draft between the last year of the red helmet and the first year of the black.
One thing though, it appears the Buccaneers helmet has the larger Bucco Bruce, which debuted between the 1991 and 1992 seasons. I realize this is after the Falcons red helmet, but there is the black helmet on the table, so maybe the sign was just outdated.
So I’m guessing this could be the 1992 Draft.
Watched “30 For 30” last night, and it turns out that the filmmakers re-created the draft room in the New York Sheraton exactly as it was in 1983. The Twitter pic was from the documentary’s re-creation, even though it wasn’t cited that way in the post; you had to wait until you watched the film to see what they did. Actually, a clever idea to re-build the NFL’s draft room from 30 years ago with all the helmet signs & phones, the ESPN set and old NFL logos. This also explains the Chargers’ & Bucs’ helmets: in the doc, you see they also had the Jets helmet with the black facemask and a Pats helmet with a white facemask, so they didn’t nail everything, but a serious “A” for effort. Of course, this was an NFL Films collaboration, so I’d imagine they had pretty good access to a lot of that period memorabilia.
I just saw this on my twitter feed. Looks like the Vikes and Dolphins have been seen at Nike. link
Hmm interesting. From the looks of it the Vikings are normal again (aside from the pathetic number font) and the Dolphins don’t look too shabby. Somehow ditching the broad swaths of navy makes them feel more like the Dolphins.
Also does this mean we’re going to be subjected to another pathetic attempt to revive the Vikings’ purple pants?
Looks like the Vikes are going more traditional (not retro), save for the numeral font. Also looks like the Dolphins are seriously downplaying orange; I only see it on the gloves and (presumably) the helmet decal.
Well, if the Jaguars just had a solid black helmet, they’d look pretty good. Alas, the split-colored helmet just makes them look stupid.
I guess the Vikings decided to fauxback to the 60’s rather than the 70’s. The purple pants are good, but I was really expecting shoulder loops on the white jersey.
As for Miami, it’s sorta weird to see a Dolphins helmet without any white gaps in the striping. I think they look a little bit too plain, considering the flashy new logo. It feels like they should have a sleeker number font and some kind of striping on the jerseys.
Agreed on the Jaguars and the Dolphins. I’ve been scratching my head at them modernizing the logo and then going so plain for the uniforms. I hope there’s a set of teal or aqua or whatever they’re calling it now pants for road games that haven’t been seen yet to give some more color. Way too plain.
It’s like they saw the Seahawks and Jaguars looks and said “None of that for us. Make ours the opposite of theirs and look like practice uniforms, please!”.
The Vikings don’t look too bad. Nice change for them. I hope the purple pants will see the field more than the previous ones though.
These new three, together with the new kits last year for Buffalo and Seattle, seem to indicate the league backing away from the astoundingly craptastic overall look (Atlanta, Phoenix, prior Buffalo, prior Minny) in favor of new looks that are mostly ok but with a few remarkably crappy isolated features (Seattle’s swoosh-frame, Jacksonville’s helmet and that inane flywire collar).
I hated the Falcons look but love the new logo since the change. It was almost OK when they were wearing the black at home and the black pants on the road but the current look is now probably the worst in the NFL. I’m hoping they come up with something new if not now then at least in time to move into the new stadium in a few years. It pains me to watch them in that stuff every week. But then again sometimes I’m afraid to hope for a new look. Is it better to roll the dice hoping for an improvement when there’s a chance that something awful will come out or is it better to just keep with the suck I know?
I like that the Jags added gold trim back to the numerals, but holy mackerel; this uni set is just full of fail. Black numerals on the teal jerseys are going to piss off a lot of broadcasters, and the two-tone helmet can’t help Jaguar QBs spot receivers (more on that in a moment). The black unitard looks awful (like all black unitards), and makes no sense for a Florida team.
The helmets remind me of the Mets’ 2006-11 two-tone helmets, and suck just as much if not more. Forget spotting receivers; it just looks bad. And, if the idea is a “jaguar coming out of the shadows,” shouldn’t the front be gold and the back be black? The decals face the front, right? So it looks like the jaguar is facing into the shadows, not coming out. A two-tone fade treatment like this might have worked if, say, the sides were black and the top-center (forehead to neck) was gold, or vice-versa. This just doesn’t make sense.
My initial take on the Jags:
link
Also: Dolphins and Vikes unis have leaked:
link
If anyone’s seen the side view on the Dolphins, the sleeve patches look pathetically tiny.
The dearth of orange is also a joke.
Maybe if you changed the numbers on the teal jersey to gold and wore it with white pants they might have something.
Even though the image reads 2011 and ticker saying Ron Washington caught “the other day” smoking in the dugout” is funny. Having a Marlboro once in a while is alllright.
Why are the Broncos the only ones to not have 2 colors in their name on the draft caps? Odd.
There is two colors, they’re just both blue.
It’s hard to confirm, even zooming in, on the Evolution of NFL Uniforms poster, but the player representing the Seattle Seahawks appears to be wearing #10, which was Jim Zorn. Zorn was a lefty, but the player in the illustration is launching with his right hand. Coincidentally, this poster was marketed for Super Bowl 40, the only one Seattle has made it to.