Monday Morning Uni Watch

By Phil Hecken

“Are you ready for some football?” Of course you are. The first week of the preseason is in the books, except for tonight’s MNF featuring the unusually early pairing of the Jets vs. Giants. We got our first looks at the 2010 unis, and, as we expected, not much has changed. We’ll get to the new Colts throwbacks in a minute, but lets take a look around the league at the other games:

New Orleans Saints @ New England Patriots: Defending Super Bowl Champs New Orleans in white tops and gold pants (which look great) against New England in blue over silver. New Orleans still can’t get their golds to match. If only they’d dump the vegas gold for old gold, that uni would be close to perfect.

Carolina Panthers @ Baltimore Ravens: Ravens in purple over white vs. Panthers in all white, which (IMHO) is their best look. It appears some of the Panthers are outfitted in the new uniform cuts, which particularly truncates the shoulder “loops” and really makes them look awful.

Oakland Raiders @ Dallas Cowboys: A good looking matchup, as always, with two classic looks. The ‘boys will sport their “50” patch all season, and looks like their pants still have that greenish hue. And the Raiders are still the black and silver, in all its glory. Seriously, is that not one of the top-10 ALL TIME great NFL uniforms?

Buffalo Bills @ Washington Redskins: Washington busts out the white at home with burgundy pants while Buffalo looks as bad as ever. New ‘skins coach Mike Shanahan keeps the classic pants (although there are still a rumored gold alternate) with the proper WHITE socks.

Jacksonville Jaguars @ Philadelphia Eagles: Philly goes with the all white look versus J-ville. What a mess the Jags’ jerseys are, with some guys wearing the classic or full cut (notice the black and white “stripes”) while others sport the modern cut where the stripes are completely bisected at the armpit. Considering the Jags just introduced this uni last year, you’d think someone would have realized that “style” might encounter problems. It’s not a good look with either jersey cut, but it looks particularly bad when both styles are worn at the same time.

Kansas City Chiefs @ Atlanta Falcons: Chiefs keep the white pants/white jerseys/white socks look for 2010 (which, although I like, they really should wear red undersocks for more contrast), and still have the AFL patch on the chest. The new jersey cut basically obliterates the red-gold-red sleeve stripe at the hem. The Falcons went with their “standard” red over white look (which is their best), despite all the bumper stickers.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Miami Dolphins: Ah…who doesn’t love a game played in the mud? Dolphins looked great in their aqua over white (and the mud of the…um…what’s it called now? Sun Life Stadium???). While I don’t like the pewter of the Bucs, they probably should have gone “helmets match pants” down in Miami for a good contrast. Jim Vilk approves of these conditions.

Detroit Lions @ Pittsburgh Steelers: More elements in play as the Lions in white and Stillers in black, each with classic contrasting pants, put on a very visually appealing game. Throw in some rain and it was nigh on perfect. Add varsity block numbers to each jersey and it would be.

Houston Texans @ Arizona Cardinals: Despite wearing their least obnoxious uniforms, these two teams are still visually not quite right. The Cardinals bumper stickers are numerous and covered before, but the Texans need to get white socks to wear with their blue pants. And has anyone noticed that most receivers are now going full-on bicycle pant and no pads at all?

Minnesota Vikings @ St. Louis Rams: Ugh. The Vikes uni just looks all wrong — like, unfinished or something — the panels on the side of the pants (which look bad enough) should really form one solid line, not start white, go purple, then end in a gold stripe. And the Rams are apparently favoring the white pants over their gold ones. Good look here at the Vikes “50” seasons patch.

Cleveland Browns @ Green Bay Packers: Probably the best looking game of the preseason. The Browns have (hopefully) scrapped the ridiculous brown pants and gone back to their iconic all white uni with white socks. Not too many teams look great with that much white — the Browns do. And of course, the Pack look spectacular as always. If you had to pick the top 10 best (or most iconic) uniforms in the NFL over the past 50 years, easily the Browns in all white and the Packers homes would be on that list.

Tennessee Titans @ Seattle Seahawks: The Titans sported their best outfit (white over powder) while the Seahawks, in what could be a new uniform direction under Pete Carroll, did not go monochrome, but instead wore suicide blue over navy blue (although it’s hard to tell in those photos). I actually watched a part of that game and the contrast was better than in the photos. While it’s not as good as dark over white pants, it’s still better than the monochrome of the past. Now, if they could just wear white socks so as to avoid the leotard look, they’d be getting somewhere.

Chicago Bears @ San Diego Chargers: Da Bears went with their sometimes-worn deep blue pants under white tops, while the Chargers were in their very nice dark royal over white. Bears players who wore the new cut jerseys almost lost their stripes, while I’m not sure what was going on with Jay Cutler’s jersey. He’s got sleeves, but that cut is absolutely bizarre.

Denver Broncos @ Cincinnati Bengals: In what may have just been a “warm weather move,” the Bengals wore white at home yesterday against the Broncos, who were dressed in navy over white. Hard to believe that that uniform was introduced by (who else?) Nike in 1997. Sure has stood the test of time, eh? (TPFIC). On the other hand, the Bengals, who have (arguably) the worst uniform in the NFL, actually look pretty good in white. No bumper sticker side panels, socks contrast with pants…and just the right amount of tiger stripes.

And finally…

San Francisco 49ers @ Indianapolis Colts: The Niners, who have returned to the almost perfect uniform, faced off against the Colts in their 1955 throwbacks. The Colts uni didn’t differ that much from their current uni (which has remained virtually unchanged since 1957), save for four differences: Blue helmets with white horseshoes, three sleeve stripes (instead of shoulder loops), single pants stripe, and three blue stripes on white socks. How’d the do? Pretty spot on; the pants stripe of 2010 appeared slightly thicker than in 1955. But aside from that, the Colts nailed it

The new jersey cuts, unfortunately, were another story. While they were perfect on QB’s and kickers, on linebackers and running backs (and anyone with the new jersey), there were just three half moon stripes. On receivers and those with not quite full sleeves, the stripes were similarly truncated. At least, however, every player had three stripes (whether full or truncated) on their jersey. Contrast this to the 49ers, who are supposed to have 3 stripes, but who range anywhere from almost three full to just barely two to maybe one visible stripe. You’d think, since this uniform was new to the 49ers last season, that they’d have been better able to design the jersey to account for the disappearing sleeve.

Alas, there is no longer any point in bemoaning the loss of the sleeve — after all Ricko already provided the solution a year ago — and the compression sleeves are already here. Just take those stripes off what’s left of the sleeve and move ’em down to the compression sleeve (and throw some white stripes on those Niner red socks). Done and done.

More pics of the Niners vs. Colts can be viewed here.

I’m looking forward, as always, to the upcoming football season. While not ONE SINGLE TEAM has introduced a new regular uniform, there will be plenty of new and old alternates and throwbacks, so the Madden generation won’t be too bored. I sure hope the Colts break out the ’55’s again, preferably in a nationally televised game, since they look great with the blue helmets and three stripes. And if the teams stick with the uniforms they wore in the opening week of the preseason, for the most part, those were some pretty good looks.

DIY Saints 1967 Jersey

Got a note from Tom M., who created a pretty awesome 1967 Saints Jersey. And I do mean sweet. Here’s Tom to explain:

Thought you might be interested in my 67 DIY Saints jersey. Since jerseys from the Saints’ first season are virtually unobtainable, I decided to make my own.

I first acquired a blank Durene jersey on ebay. Bigger than I wanted but they are getting hard to come by. Then I ordered some stock 4″ TV numbers from Eastern Lettering in black and old gold. Also ordered sheets of tackle twill material in the same colors. The old skinny font is no longer available so I had to make my own. From old photos of Bill Kilmer, I made a 10″ drawing of front numbers. It took a while to measure off the old pics and try to make it look right in that old skinny type. I used the drawing to make patterns for the front numbers, and also to make 12″ numbers for the back. The numbers were cut out of the tackle twill material, and then ironed on in the too-far-apart style of the Saints/Southland Athletic of the period. I fashioned the sleeve stripes from black nylon material with 1″ old gold stripes ironed on. I then shipped the whole thing off to my seamstress to secure the numbers and stripes with zig-zag stitching. The jersey is very stout. Could play a game in it if necessary.

Regards,

Tom, Lafayette, LA

Thanks Tom. Looks great!

Uni Watch News Ticker: Starting off today is Marc, who noted these patches, from our friend Jerry Reuss–he just uploaded them the other day. Great stuff! … More oddities with the A’s helmet decals, notes Brandon Davis. Kevin Kouzmanoff recently cracked his helmet and got a new helmet with the correct A’s decal. Not sure when it changed but as of August 8, Coco Crisp’s helmet decal is the old version when in fact he started the season with a correct decal. The last photo of him with a clear view was July 20, when he clearly had the new decal. … Great photo of the Giants vs. Redskins from 1975 (thanks to John Weghorst) — the white facemasks, the one-year “ny” decal, the blue pants — what’s not to love? … Still more out of state license plates comes from Rob Turning, who lets us know that Maryland also offers several out-of-state collegiate plates — Ohio State; Villanova; Virginia State; Virginia Tech; Miami University; The Other Miami; Clemson; and Delaware. Rob states that you can search them all in the Organizational Plates section of the Maryland MVA website. … John Holland (with this link) and Bill Sour with this link note Colorado State’s new unis. … Uni Watch Prexy Paul Lukas tops all those pics with this which “shows a better view of how the tiny ram horns look like pubic hair.” Uh. Sweet? … Jared Saltalamacchia made his Red Sox debut late in last week’s blow out in Toronto, notes Andy Chalifour. “Thank goodness it was on the road so we got to see the name spelled out on the Sox uniform. It should also be noted Salty is the second Red Sox this season (Kevin Cash) to be wearing the front facing catchers helmet.” … And just to show how UWers “think alike,” Jason Levine independently sent this thought: “Not sure if this was already brought up. I have been a fan of Kevin Cash’s front-facing helmet mainly for the sheer novelty of it. Cash is on the DL, but I didn’t realize his replacement, Jarod Saltalamacchia, is a front-facer, too. Salty has been a front-facer since his days in Texas. Gotta think no team has had two front-facers on the roster in the same season.” … Bill Scrowther was going throught some packed up boxes, and found some stuff of interest: Atlanta Falcons plush toy. “If I had to guess, circa 1982 or so.” And, a San Diego Padres magazine from 1992. Says bill, “Check out those stirrups–sweet.” … Bob Selby was looking at a 1977 Sports Illustrated article. “Look at those nasty Nike socks. Nice unis, though.” … John Muir invites us to open a ‘virtual pack’ of cards for minutes of mindless fun.. … Alex Puncochar was watching his homestate Minnesota little league team in the Midwest Regional semis of the Little League World Series, and noticed that the opposing team, Missouri, has a few players who are wearing stirrups. They are Grade A stirrups, sannies and everything. They have about 5-6 stripes. Could this mean a new generation of baseball players are going back to stirrups? We can only hope. … Gary Jop noticed a “wrong uni in an ad” with a Bob’s Home Furniture goof on the TV numbers in this ad on Patriots.com. If he was number “01” then 0 wouldn’t show on the front of his right shoulder. …Terence Kearns “Loved the post on the Nats’ curly dubya! We all know it’s similarities to that “National” drug store chain. So much so, that I DIY’d this cap recently.” … Alyssa Miller was checking out Cricinfo’s pictures of the day and “I came upon an item that absolutely must be entered into the collection of worst, most ridiculous headgear ever. Check out Scotland’s wicket keeper (I believe his name’s Simon Smith) in this picture. Normal wicket keepers wear helmets that look like the batters’ helmets, or don’t wear helmets at all.” Says Alyssa, “That…thing…on this particular wicket keeper’s face is…umm…well, the word embarrassing comes to mind but doesn’t come near describing how silly it looks. Actually, in trying to find the reasoning for Smith’s wearing of such a stupid mask, I came upon a wicket keeper’s mask from 2007 that is almost as awful. It’s as if cricket has turned into the mid-20th century NHL.” … Paul Lukas also notes the Sabres will be unveiling a new third jersey on September 18th. … Jay Gonsalves found a awesome new “sponsor” for EPL unis. … David Evertson offers this great AFL Program Art (from the great MM Bolding site). … Good one from Aaron Parrish who says, “Apparently, spelling isn’t big in ”˜Bama. Or ‘Mississippi’ is just a really hard word.” … Jeremy Fallis grabbed some twitpics of the new Penn State Nike Elite Jerseys, and the shorts. … “Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic,” apologizes Chris Short, “but spotted this real-life Ullman pin-up at my favourite brunch spot in Toronto today and fell in love.” Um, yeah. There’s no apology necessary. … More from John Muir: New Tampa Bay goalie Dan Ellis shares one side of his new mask. … Robert Turning says Division III Stevenson University (MD) unveiled their new athletics logo, “and it’s awful.” … Tim Mulgrew found an article where Carl Crawford was speaking of rups: “His uncle Jack played parts of three seasons in the Angels’ system before returning to Crawford’s hometown of Houston, where he continued to play in local leagues. Carl Crawford went to some of Jack’s games and wanted to start playing baseball — because of his uncle’s red uniform. ‘Basically I just got more interested in his uniform than anything,” Crawford said. “I wanted to wear the same uniform that my uncle had on. It was red and it was those little stirrups that I really fell in love with.'” … Jeff Hunter notes new Kentucky uni numbers. … Great spot by Matthew Blinco who spotted a New York Football Giants helmet in David Wright’s locker. … Jeff Vanden Langenberg saw this jersey at the WI state fair Thursday. “I know there’s a lot of alternate jerseys out there, authentic and otherwise, sometimes the numbers aren’t the right style or color, things like that. But this powder blue Brewers jersey has the right font and look, but that was the look of the home white jersey,” say Jeff. “The baby blue had a script Milwaukee on it. But this one, selling for 69.99, combined the two.” … Jared Camden has a few items for us: “First pick is from the Michael Vick 30 for 30. Old picture of 2 Hampton Crabbers RB’s, amazing helmets and amazing jerseys! Next is interim coach, for the Cincinnati Redleggas,’ Chris Speier’s [career 3-0 as a coach lol] odd hat bend, no idea how you get that kind of fold on a hat. Next picture is of the Redleggas’ backstop which was clearly altered during the now famous bench clearing brawl. “Reds.com, Reas.com, Eds.com“. Next picture, and maybe i am just behind the times, is Hanley Ramirez’s “Boombah” undershirt, never seen it. Aaaaaand this last one is bought to you by Jay Bruce who wants you to know how most Redlegga’ fans will always view Old Man Jim Edmonds (as a dick.)” … Jim Taggert says, “The Wilmington Blue Rocks wore this camo cap (Friday) in their game against the Salem Red Sox. Each players cap was auctioned off after the game. Also, the Rocks alts are friggin sweet.” Indeed, but why would they wear the camo cap with the powder blue top? … Josh Coney notes that to honor the memory of legendary New York Yankees owner and longtime Tampa resident and benefactor George Steinbrenner, Hillsborough County’s public school football teams will place his initials on the back of every player’s helmet for the entire season. … Still working while on vacation, Paul informs us the ram horn motif on the new Colorado State football uniforms is also showing up on the school’s new women’s volleyball uniforms. … Rob Naylor was watching the EPL match between Wigan Athletic and Blackpool and noticed the Wigan goalkeeper wearing a baseball cap. “Obviously, this isn’t a normal part of the football uniform,” says Rob. “The cap doesn’t appear to have any “logo creep” but I thought it was noteworthy nonetheless.” … Rob Ullman presents the “Inaugural Season” patch for the Penguins new building. … Good spot by Matthew Wolfram who took these screen grabs of Dodgers pitcher Ted Lilly, and asks, “Is he wearing his undershirt backwards?” … Rick Friedel has a couple of Ravens notes — Derrick Mason wearing stirrups?! Outside the show at that. Also, it was mentioned back in January about a new practice patch, so just in case someone cares Derrick figured he would forward it to us. … Donnie Kwak curates The Top 20 Kits of the European Soccer Season across all leagues on the continent. … Blue Jays bobble headhead error alert from Neate Sager who noticed the Dave Stieb bobblehead the Jays are giving away (or selling) during their Sept. 2 game, the 20th anniversary of his 1990 no-hitter, is historically inaccurate. “The figurine has him in road gray with the blue-and-white cap, which is a good seller,” says Neate. “The Jays never wore a blue-and-white cap with that uniform. They introduced a solid-blue road cap in 1989, when they switched powder blue for gray.” … Kevin Clark reports that the Lakewood BlueClaws wore these jerseys Sunday night, which were auctioned after the game to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.

Phew…that’s it for today — there will be a whole mess of NBA uni unveilings today (Cavs, Mavs, Wolves, Clips & Jazz); some of these have already been leaked, but they will become “official” later today. Paul will have something on the mothership & I will likely have much more on these tomorrow. Yay…the NBA. Where Amazing Shit Stuff Happens. I Love This Game.

Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. — Peyton Manning