As Much Purple as You Will Ever See on This Site

Not the most uni-notable season opener, but it had its moments, especially the revelation that the Revolution Speed helmet doesn’t mesh too well with the Vikings’ horn decals (although, as you can see, it provides a perfect little shelf or ledge for showing off the green dot).

In other observations:

• Oddest uni-related moment of the night came during pregame coverage on the NFL Network, as the background advertising for Madden 11 showed an NFL logo with the top row of stars missing.

• If you have to celebrate your Super Bowl championship with a patch, it’s hard to argue with one as simple and classy as this one.

• Brett Favre, like a lot of players these days, is either wearing tights or else has sock ends sewn into his pant cuffs.

• Favre also wore purple earplugs and then had his earhole taped over during the game. What a sensitive fellow.

• Speaking of eargear, Brad Childress, who wore that special headset last season because of his hearing problems, is back to wearing a conventional rig. (But as Brett Nolan has quickly pointed out in today’s comments, Childress was wearing custom-molded ear monitors, like the ones worn onstage by musicians, under the headset.)

My thanks to all who contributed observations and screen shots, including Dave Madison, Joshua Brisco, and David Pealing.

Collector’s Corner, by Brinke Guthrie

Already got the NFL Films music humming in my head, as we kick off another season of gridiron glory. Heavy on NFL this time around, ’cause that’s where our head’s at.

• Leading off, here’s a terrific NFL 50th-anniversary mug from 1969.

• I like this a lot — a vintage 1968/69 NFL appointment book.

• The hits keep coming — check this 1969 NFL Eastern Conference championship program, with single-bar goodness, too.

• Ever seen an NFL “Action Team Mate” before? Atlanta Falcons fans probably have.

• These 1970s NFL curtains would look great at PL’s house.

• What floats my boat about this auction lot is the WFL Chicago Fire glass.

• Be a Packer Backer and get a taste of the High Life at the same time.

• Question: What could be better than a set of 1970s gumball helmets?

• Answer: a 1976 NFL lunchbox.

Seen something on eBay that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Speaking of eBay, I just scored something that isn’t sports-related but is nonetheless completely awesome. ”¦ Non-FBS uni change: Lehigh is now being outfitted by Under Armour (with thanks to Michael Probst). ”¦ Pretty cool guide to the Patriots’ locker room (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ New mask for Jaroslav Halak. Wait, make it two new masks (with thanks to John Muir). ”¦ Tim Brulia points out something we should all be aware of, namely that there’s an NFL Films goldmine available on Hulu. “There are about 300 NFL Films segments, mostly of ‘Game of the Week’ and a number of individual team ‘yearbooks.’ Last night I watched the 1966 Rams yearbook, complete with some very early classic Sam Spence arrangements.” That sound you here in the background is Larry Bodnovich starting to make screen shots — or at least I hope that’s what it is. ”¦ Yesterday’s college baseball-themed entry prompted Randy Policar to send some color shots of Arizona State’s old tequila sunrise uniform. ”¦ I’ve linked to this before, but it’s worth showing again: Sox in shorts video! ”¦ Oooh, check out the awesome crest worn by the 1958 Edmonton Oil Kings (great find by Warren Humphreys). ”¦ Oh man, how cool would it be if college football officials still dressed like this? That’s Louisiana Gov. Huey Long putting the strongarm on the officiating crew prior to an LSU game. I feel like we’ve discussed this before, but I can’t remember what “SFA” stood for — anyone? (Tremendous submission by Mike Ferry.) ”¦ In addition to wearing a memorial decal, Wyoming football will also honor fallen teammate Ruben Narcisse by having his No. 12 worn by various teammates in upcoming games (with thanks to Bryan Stevens). ”¦ Splendid new hoop-striped soccer socks for Ireland (with thanks to Joe Schmidt). ”¦ The Oklahoma football web site has an interesting page featuring letters written in the 1940s by the Sooners’ very first coach, who ran the team back in the 1890s. One passage in this letter is particularly interesting: “We had only eleven suits [i.e., uniforms] and our substitutes had, in many instances, to buy large brown overalls, cut them off at the knees, and have his mother, sister, or sweetheart, as the case might be, pad them in front as an old fashioned country quilt” (great find by Dan Bewley). ”¦ The recent fuss over BC’s uni numbers prompted a communiqué from BC equipment manager David Schoenfeld, who, as it turns out, is a regular Uni Watch reader. He says: “I will certainly grant you that our numbers are not the easiest to read. Having been at BC for 10 years, it is an argument that I conceded long ago. I made the switch to gold numbers from white three years ago (not last year as stated Thursday’s blog post). Regarding the numbers on our 2010 UA jerseys, they are not smaller — in fact, they were made a little bit bigger. The main issue was that the border around the number was made larger. The combination of a larger number and the italicized nature of our font resulted in having to place the numbers closer together, thus making it pretty difficult to read. I can guarantee you that the issue has been resolved in time for game #2.” ”¦ Here’s a new one, at least to me: Chris Drury of the Rangers has Velcro on his sleeve cuffs. “According to the description in a MeiGray auction listing for one of his jerseys, it’s to make them tighter,” says Nick Hanson. ”¦ Alex Rocklein reports that the Yankee Stadium scoreboard had a little fun with Felix Pie’s surname and uni number the other day. The problem, of course, is that Pie doesn’t pronounce his name like Ï€. And even if he did, wouldn’t a slice of pie be more appropriate than Ï€, since that’s how he spells it? ”¦ New logo for the FiVB (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ “I’m more patriotic than you are, nyeh-nyeh!” ”¦ Yesterday I mentioned that I don’t care for the Nike visors because I don’t like the asymmetry of having the wordmark on one tab and the swoosh on the other. That prompted a note from Ken Weimer, who used to work for the company that’s now licensed to do many of Nike’s accessory items. “At one point I said I hated the way the eye shield looked with one swoosh and one wordmark,” he says, “but I was told I could not change it because the Nike higher-ups at felt that two swooshes would look like eyebrows and two wordmarks would not be easily readable.” Um, here’s a solution: Leave the tabs blank. Oh, right, branding trumps everything, even if it looks like shit. ”¦ Someone at Newsday has some funny ideas about uniforms (with thanks to Steve Blanco). ”¦ Padres wore a “Stand Up to Cancer” patch last night (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Check it out: Andy Pettitte in a Trenton Thunder uni. ”¦ I think we’ve seen this before, but just in case: At one point UGA was considering using white helmets and white pants. “My research suggests it was in 1964, when Vince Dooley came in (and got rid of the ‘Go You Silver Britches’ because it sounded too much like ‘bitches’),” says Davis Powell.