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Uni Watch

Monday Morning Uni Watch

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As you can see in today’s splash photo, the Packers added captaincy patches for yesterday’s game in Philly. Much like the Red Wings using straight block NOBs during the NHL preseason, this is one of those nice little annual rituals, because Green Bay goes without the “C” patches in the regular season, but they always add them when the playoffs begin. One of those dependable team protocols you can set your watch by.

In other observations from this past weekend:

• Why would Packers safety Atari Bigby, who was inactive for the game, be wearing a ski cap in Vikings colors? (Update: Several readers say it was a navy/gold throwback cap, but I sure thought it looked purple on TV.)

• The Reebok logo was missing from both of Eric Berry’s sleeves yesterday. Wasn’t like that last week or the week before.

• Looks like Willis McGahee’s gloves had cut-out palms yesterday — interesting. Anyone know more about this?

• All season long, the Colts had the old AFC logo in their end zones. They finally fixed that for Saturday’s playoff game against the Jets, but the red stars from the old version were still showing through.

• As some of you are aware, for about 10 minutes on Friday it was being reported that the Saints would wear solid-white against the Seahawks. Imagine: The Saints in white pants! It turned out to be a false alarm, and the initial report was quickly amended, but it raised an interesting point that few fans are aware of, namely that the Saints did indeed wear white-on-white for one season: 1975. I’ve only been able to find photos from two games — one against the Redskins and the other against the Falcons (or at least that’s what the caption says). If anyone has more photos, let’s see ’em.

• Looking back to Friday’s Cotton Bowl, several readers noted that the purple swoosh on LSU’s jersey didn’t match the other purple graphics. And yes, a purple swoosh is pretty much my definition of hell. (As an aside, why must every bowl game now end in a shower of confetti, even though the winning team hasn’t won a championship, or anything else of particular note?)

(My thanks to all contributors, including Paul Gaiser, Tim Burke, Charles Neiswender, and Dan Ballance.)

Contest reminder: Grey Flannel Auctions is giving away two gift certificates to the Uni Watch readers who come up with the best oddball-uni photos. Details here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Here’s a weird one: The Hershey Bears, who’ve won the AHL title for the past two seasons, are wearing shoulder patches featuring the logos of the two teams they defeated in the last two championship finals. Further info here. ”¦ Speaking of minor league hockey, goaltender Adrien LeMay got himself an Ed Belfour-themed mask, and then got Belfour himself to autograph it (with thanks to A.J. Frey). ”¦ New cycling kit for Team Leopard-Trek. “Where are the spots?” asks a disgusted Sean Clancy. ”¦ Remember those throwback helmets that Miami U. wore in the Web-Hosting Services Bowl? Coach Lance Guidry talked about them in his pregame speech to his players, which you can see here (with thanks to Gordon Fall). ”¦ If anyone doubts that Oregon is really Nikegon, read this. ”¦ Pepperdine and San Diego went color-vs.-color back on Thursday night. ”¦ Louis Gaunch reports that South Charleston High in West Virginia uses TNOB. ”¦ The Rams have sacked their equipment manager. ”¦ Check out the great Batman uni illustrations on the cover of the Steelers’ 1967 media guide. ”¦ The Missouri Mavericks wore Kansas City Scouts-themed throwbacks on Saturday (with thanks to Craig Sallinger). ”¦ Why would you design a brooch of a punter with his pants unbuttoned? ”¦ One of you out there should really snap up this 1971 NFL serving tray. ”¦ Courtside fans in Milwaukee got signed sneakers from Brandon Jennings on Friday (with thanks to Josh Exline). ”¦ Paul Krenek reports that Bed Bath & Beyond is selling drinking cups with throwback Jets and Chargers logos. ”¦ Completely awesome Orioles usher’s uniform up for auction here (big thanks to Chris Flinn). ”¦ Great DIY project from Sean McCarthy, who came up with a Bengals helmet-tweak idea and then executed it on a mini-helmet. ”¦ Diacritical alert! That’s Arthur Bouëdo, a French player on Wyoming’s hoops team (big thanks to Frank Mercogliano). ”¦ Stunning old hoops uni available here (great find by Mike Hersh). ”¦ No photos, but Brent Jones attended a college hockey game and saw two Michigan players — Carl Hagelin and Luke Glendening — both wearing the captain’s C. Anyone know more about this? ”¦ Steven Wojtowicz notes that the new “NHL on VS” commercial appears to have a player wearing a jersey with a tag on the lower-left hem area, which would mean that it’s a replica jersey. Weird. ”¦ Lots of good indoor baseball photos in this blog post by Mike Hersh. ”¦ Here’s something you rarely see: a cursive NOB. “That’s from the 1975 pre-season NASL indoor tournament,” explains Michael Orr. “Red shirts are LA Aztecs, white shirts are Vancouver Whitecaps. The practice of wearing long pants was common among goalkeepers at that time, particularly when playing on turf or indoors.” ”¦ New identity set for the Orix Buffaloes, including a new primary logo, script, headwear logo, home whites, road grays, softball alts, and mascots (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ Matt Harris on Chris Drury: “Dude’s making $8 million this year. Think he could get a new pair of pants?”

 
  
 
Comments (456)

    That Packer is Atari Bigby and he’s wearing a sideline hat from their throwback gear, which is blue and gold.

    My guess is that Atari Bigby wasn’t wearing Vikings colors, probably a hat made to go with the “Acme Packers” uniforms.

    The guy wearing the Vikings-color hat may be wearing an old-school Acme Packers beanie (the colors may be a bit off–it should be navy). I watched the game at a bona fide Packers bar last night and was surprised to see two of my friends wearing Acme Packers beanies that looked exactly like that, only with navy on them. Anybody else seen these?

    Wow! You guys are FAST! I posted this comment when there were still no comments showing up and there have already been two earlier posts AND an update! Well done, UniWatch Brigade!

    I think you meant to say the Colts used the old AFC logo right? Not AFL…(I thought the AFL used a different font and blue stars)

    It’s not easy to tell from the angle, but it looks to me like they cheated… the new logo has a wider downstroke to accomodate the addition of the stars inside of it, as well as slightly altered serifs. It appears that all the Colts did, in addition to covering up the old stars, was to just paint the four stars in the existing old A.

    Hopefully, by the next time they play, they’ll get the current logo on the turf.

    All of the Colts’ field markings are sewn directly into the turf, not painted. So the original turf has the old AFC logo that was painted over and would require cutting that section out of the endzone turf, or buying an entirely new section of turf for the endzone.

    I wonder why the bowl game winners are called “champions.” As in, “Nevada is the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl Champion!” I suppose it’s like a participation trophy. Thankfully the NFL wouldn’t allow anything like that, or a team with a losing record in the playoffs.
    Oh, wait…

    A division win is a division win. If there’s any problem with the NFL, it’s just that the divisions are too small so the possibility of winning one with a losing record exists. The Seahawks are a statistical fluke, not a regular occurrence. Personally I’d much rather have a team with a losing record make it to the playoffs every once in a while than have an undefeated team not be allowed to play for a championship because they aren’t popular enough.

    I agree. In past years, I’ve defended the (admittedly insane) BCS, because generally the best team in the nation has won the national championship. Recently, though, I’ve come to be in favor of a playoff system similar to what every other division in college football employs. Unfortunately, I don’t see the BC$ changing any time soon.
    I actually don’t have any problem at all with Seattle being in the playoffs–they took advantage of being in an awful division and the divisional system is in place for a reason. If this happened every year, I’d probably feel differently, but one 7-9 team every once in awhile doesn’t bother me at all. I do think it’s kinda funny, though.

    Since it doesn’t happen a lot, I guess I don’t mind that Seattle got in with a losing record. They showed they belonged by beating the defending champs….

    But it does frustrate you a little bit because a couple of 10 win teams didn’t get in….

    I have a problem with New Orleans having to go to Seattle, actually. Yes, I know Seattle won their division. However, I think it’s safe to say that New Orleans had the better team *in the regular season*. Shouldn’t that count? Maybe it’s time to stop determining home-field advantage strictly by division winner/wild-card team, and base it on something else. I think New Orleans deserved the game at home. Just my opinion, of course.

    And to make this uni-related, um… I actually liked those pics of the Saints in white pants. Not a bad look.

    I just don’t see how it’s broken. I’m sure there’s been a ton of times where a 10-6 wildcard had to play a 9-7 division winner, and no one ever made a big deal out of it. Just because the Seahawks are 7-9 doesn’t really change anything, at least not to me. I find it a bit more upsetting that my Raiders swept their division games and didn’t win it… but then I know it’s their own damn fault for losing the other times. The system is fine. (I do think that 4 8-team divisions could be interesting, especially if the NFL goes through with the 18 game season – 14 division games, and probably no way in hell of making the playoffs with a losing record – but we all know that another realignment isn’t going to happen)

    As for the Saints in white pants… ugh. I’m glad they didn’t keep that look.

    I agree. It’s kind of fun to see what a 7-9 team can do. I really don’t understand why everyone is so down on the Seahawks. I would have had an issue if they were expected to run away w/ the division and fell in to it. They performed about as good as I expected….not their fault it was enough to make the playoffs.

    People do complain about it but its mostly just the team’s fans so it doesn’t get the national exposure. The 11-5 Falcons had to travel to the 10-6 cardinals, and the 11-5 Packers had to travel to the 9-7 Cardinals and both teams lost by a single score. This pissed me off being an Atlantian and a Packers fan 2 years in a row the team I was rooting for had to travel to a hostile environment to play the best team in the worst division and both times they fell just short. The argument could be made that the Falcons could have still lost in Atlanta, but there’s no way the Cardinals play that well at Lambeau.

    Non winning record teams should be seeded by record, they should still get into the playoffs if they win their division but they shouldn’t get a home game without winning at least 9 games.

    I think the more frequent 9-7 and 8-8 division winners are just as unsatisfying as the rare 7-9 division winner especially when teams with 10+ wins are left out. The divisions are definitely too small. I say drop the two conferences and merge the matching geographical divisions in four eight-team divisions.

    In response to Willis McGahee’s exposed palms, he’s wearing Cutters Model 017N, better known as “The Naked Glove.” For further proof I have provided a link below. You can tell because his fingers are a different color than the rest of the glove, just like on the Cutters website.

    link

    ah – thanks! I was wondering if they were made that way from the factory, of if McGahee or the team just cut the palms out of regular gloves.

    If the reporter from the Winnipeg Free Press had done about 30 seconds of research he’d have found out that the Hershey Bears do not have those logos on their shoulders on their regular jerseys.

    The Bears wore a set of home jerseys and a set of away jerseys for one game each (both times at home) with those logos on them. The dark jerseys were auctioned off to benefit cancer research and the white jerseys are being given away to local charities for them to use in their fundraising efforts.

    Gary Lawless admittedly did not do his research, but rubbing the championship wins into the face of two other AHL teams that you have a friendly handshake with is never good for business.

    Granted, Hershey doesn’t really need the Moose or Stars to visit to lead the league in attendance, but the Western Conference teams and Eastern Conference teams agree before the season to visit each other’s city before the schedule is made. Hershey appreciates the Moose coming to town, and I know Manitoba likes Hershey rolling through its building.

    The concern is that the Bears wore those jerseys in another team’s building while on the road – a slight to both teams that other fans get to see. Had the Bears just worn the jerseys at home and then auctioned them off, I’d see no problem. But when you take your show on the road, there’s no need to continue to wear the logos of the teams you defeated. That’s the slight, and that’s what has the Moose up-in-arms.

    As for Lawless, his poor research on this matter led to his outrage in his article when it could have been limited to much less vitriol.

    At the risk of being a total uptight square, maybe a little too soon for the last item in the Ticker? Been reading for a long time, and that just seems very…un-Paul Lukas to me. Or maybe I just need to relax a little?

    This is not me by the way. Different Andy. Probably need to differentiate that from here on out.

    I’m a long time reader of this site as well as Paul’s excellent work on espn.com. I only recently started posting comments, and I quickly realized that I need to use a unique name to differentiate from the more well-known Jim on the site.

    In regard to the AZ reference, I think it’s an issue of degrees. Nike’s laser show while stupid and overly showy is nowhere near the same degree of severity as the shooting. I think an analogy would be if something horrible happened to a person’s family members, and then somebody else used that in reference to something stupid, but unrelated that the person did.

    That’s certainly one way to look at it.

    Here’s another: While the state of Arizona was in a state of mourning due to a tragedy that had taken place on Saturday, Nike somehow decided that Sunday was an appropriate time to unveil its latest marketing scheme by laser-projecting a bunch of ads onto the side of an Arizona mountain.

    I’ll let you decide which one of us was displaying poor taste.

    I’m in full agreement with Michael

    Paul, if you don’t see that there’s something wrong with saying

    “As we all know, something truly heinous happened over the weekend in Arizona – something that could only have been the product of a depraved and diseased mind.”

    and proceeding to link to story about a Nike ad, there’s something wrong with you. You directly paralleled bad advertising with an assassination attempt and you know it.

    It’s indefensible. Show some maturity and delete it.

    i agree — i’ve been an avid reader for years, and find very little offensive, but i think this was a staggering lack of judgment, paul. bottom line is you are making a joke at the expense of a tragedy, and the intent in the writing was clear. everyone makes judgment errors, i know i have, even in my screenplays. (a joke that is meant to be faux-racist can turn out to be *actually* racist, etc) but this is definitely in poor taste.

    Not just “too soon.” Horrible, horrible judgment on Paul’s part. Yuk yuk, let’s compare Nike’s idiocy to a tragedy that left half a dozen dead. Yep, hilarious. Paul Lukas, you’re better than that.

    I’m waiting to hear exactly what I did wrong. Don’t just say, “Referring to the shooting is in poor taste” — explain WHY it’s wrong for me to point out that WHAT NIKE WAS DOING was in poor taste.

    Honestly, some people have lost the ability to analyze anything. Is it really so hard for you to see that what Nike did last night was appalling? I was simply highlighting that fact.

    This might simply be a wording thing. When you wrote “As we all know, something truly heinous happened over the weekend in Arizona – something that could only have been the product of a depraved and diseased mind.” Were you trying to refer to the the truly heinous thing or the Nike thing? I think the ambiguity of this statement is where I took issue.

    Yes, obviously, I was setting a rhetorical trap of sorts. Duh. And what was the point of that device? To illustrate that Nike had done something completely inappropriate at the worst conceivable time in the worst conceivable place.

    Now, I could have just said, “Nike did something really inappropriate last night…” and gone off on a rant. And many of you would have rolled your eyes and said, “There he goes again, taking any opportunity to bash Nike,” etc. So instead I took a different approach. But you’re all missing the point if you can’t see that my underlying intent was, again, to illustrate that Nike had done something completely inappropriate at the worst conceivable time in the worst conceivable place.

    Seriously, do you need people to spell it out? Ok, here you go. It would have been more than enough to call attention to Nike’s timing, and you could have done it in any number of other ways. What they did was rather bizarre, and your average reader would have seen that easily. Instead, you deliberately worded it to make people think you were talking about the shooting, and then linked to the laser story. In effect, you put them on the exact same plane of tragedy in the mind of the reader. A federal judge is dead. A nine-year-old girl is dead. But Nike goes ahead with their silly marketing gimmick, so they are the real criminals.

    I would write more (since you really don’t get why your item is controversial), but I’m too frustrated to come up with any more words.

    Perhaps the addition/subtraction of a word or two would help clarify for those who feel it’s in poor taste.

    On first read, I felt it was in poor taste. Then I go back and reread — it’s not. I see the play on words between the two sentences.

    Just a thought: “…anyone capable of THIS repellant act …”

    It’s splitting hairs, I realize. But a word or two could work wonders so the reader knows you’ve finished your thought in sentence one. And are making an indictment against the really poor timing of said clueless behemoth in sentence two.

    I think we could all agree that what Nike did was pretty awful, but there was a bit of a “bait and switch” there, don’t you think? That’s typically all fine and good, but when we’re dealing with an assassination? Maybe not so much. Especially not just a couple days after the fact.

    There is a reason why this site is laughed at by important people in the industry. Shill some more worthless memberships and stupid t-shirts, you dumb rube. EABOD.

    LOL, “…important people in the industry”

    Hey Glenn, you mean like the chuckleheads who came up with the “PRO COMBAT” line during war-time?

    Or, perhaps, the jokers who can’t actually get stripes around the entire circumference of a jersey’s shoulder yolk?

    Or, maybe even the brilliant minds who can’t actually reproduce the color Old Gold to the specifications of Purdue and Missouri … so they force the universities to change their shades of gold?

    Those important people, Glenn?

    What you did wrong was that you made a reference to the Arizona shooting making us all think that you were doing a “shoutout” to what happened (’cause, lets face it, not everyone watches the news), and then saying it wasn’t the shooting, it was the Nike laser show.

    It’s…just not a “right” thing to do. You, to an outsider looking in, seem to be downplaying what happened on Saturday with the laser show. You probably should fix that part of the ticker. It’s a very touchy subject…

    I’m not offended by Paul’s post…for most of his reader’s, you should know his creativity with words and his (insert synonym that isn’t offensive to you as a verb for aim) is always on Nike.

    If you have to say, “All I did was _______; Please explain – fully and precisely – exactly what I did wrong”, and then follow up with multiple posts defiantly stating why you did nothing wrong……

    Perhaps the issue was in starting off the blurb with “as we all know”, and using it to reference the Nike shenanigans. Because many of us did not know what Nike did. But we DID know what some whackjob with a gun did. I read that and said “oh, he’s going to say something about the Arizona shooti… or, maybe not!”

    Not that *I* got offended by it. It was just a lame attempt at… well, I don’t really know what the attempt was. But it was certainly thought-provoking.

    It’s not “thought provoking” to parallel tasteless advertising to murder. It’s being an ass or a fool. Delete it.

    Never let facts get in the way of a good witch hunt Paul. Your head. On a stake. Let’s have it. LOL

    I think the problem, more simply, is that it’s an attempt at a joke. People use humor to make serious points all the time (just look at the Daily Show, for instance), but there’s a line between when it’s used effectively, and when it appears to be in bad taste. I’d be surprised if an entity like the Daily Show tries to use humor in such a way tonight. More likely, they’ll address the event in a serious manner, and perhaps comment afterward on the reaction, and maybe use humor there. Here, those two steps were melded into one, and there was a joke in the addressing of the event, and that’s where the uncomfortableness lies.

    I think it’s a very good point about Nike, and deserves to be criticized, and wit can be used to make the point, but given the reaction, maybe it could be carried out differently.

    Here’s my issue with it: While one could justly argue that Nike’s advertisement was stupid, there is nothing inappropriate about it’s timing, as Paul suggests in one of the above replies. He claims “that Nike had done something completely inappropriate at the worst conceivable time in the worst conceivable place.”

    What about this is inappropriate to the situation? Surely, if they made a claim that the Ducks will be “faster than a speeding bullet” or would look like they were “shot out of a gun,” then there would be room to cry foul. But as far as I can tell (and I have seen quite a few pictures and videos of the laser show), all that Nike seems to be doing is projecting images of the Oregon “O” logo, the Nike swoosh, and the corporate phrase “Just Do It.” I fail to see anything “inappropriate about that. Dumb? Sure, you can argue that. But does it disrespect the real tragedy that happened in Arizona on Saturday? Not in the least.

    Paul, when I first read it I did think it was going to be pertaining to the shooting in Arizona. My thought on this is you always drill Nike for their Pro-Combat marketing ways, comparing football to war, when we have an actual war going on overseas. Well you did the exact same thing here. You compared Nike using a new marketing technique to a horrible, disgusting shooting that occured 24 hours ago and cost, as of now, 6 innocent people their lives. Been reading the blog for years and won’t stop over something like this of course but I do think it was just a lapse in good judgement but I don’t want to pile on, just show why I personally think it wasn’t the best idea which is what you looking for, someone to answer WHY. And I understand why you disagree with some of the things Nike does, but cutting edge marketing is the way to sale a product. Something new, untouched, fresh, never before seen, is the ideal way to sale a product. I grow tired of the simplicity and old-school of things here sometimes. It just seems that if you had it your way, there would be no advertising except word of mouth. Anyway, looking forward to a great write up tomorrow on the Nike vs Under Armour game tonight!

    …and the attempt to use the AZ tragedy a base for a cheap zinger goes wide right. FIRE PAUL LUKAS ALREADY!

    And the one next to the Jets logo appears to be an old raiders logo, but it may just be because it is backwards

    So Nike are as bad as the murder of six and the attempted murder of a member of Congress?

    Jesus!

    I hope you never have to deal with a nutter who is exercising his “right to bear arms”.

    You might as well just take the link down, or we won’t be able to discuss anything else today.

    I apologise for over-reacting.

    I’m just a lily-livered Brit annoyed by hearing an American on the radio this morning defending his constitutional rights. He even threw “Dunblane” into his argument. I wish I could have told him that the USA doesn’t have to defend itself against us anymore.

    Nike did nothing wrong. To compare Nike putting a laser “banner” on a mountain to the shooting deaths of 6 people including a 9 year old child is disgusting and ignorant. I have read this site for several years and find you to be an intelligent individual but you messed up on this. I wasn’t all that upset when I first read it, but to listen to you defend it is absurd. You used poor judgement on this….just own it and move on.

    >Nike did nothing wrong.

    You’re joking, right?

    First of all, projecting a series of massive ads on a natural landmark would be disgusting in the best of times. But unveiling a shock/awe laser ad show in Arizona a day after the shootings pretty much sums up this corporation’s utter disregard for anything other than its own self-aggrandizement.

    in fairness to paul, i don’t remember him “comparing” nike to anything… just calling them out for being idiots. go back and read it again

    You can comment on the timing all you want, but when were they supposed to do it. It’s not as though The BCS Championship and it’s events were canceled and Nike is off doing there own thing. Besides, I don’t care if they put a “laser” swoosh on the moon, how in any way could that be compared to or likened to the murders? These are two events that have nothing to do w/ one another, separated by 150 miles.

    YOUR STATEMENT: As we all know, something truly heinous happened over the weekend in Arizona (THE MURDERS) – something that could only have been the product of a depraved and diseased mind (THE MURDERER). I don’t have a whole lot to add, except to say that anyone capable of such a repellant act deserves our pity as well as our scorn (I GET IT…HE MEANT NIKE PUTTING A LASER SHOW ON A MOUNTAIN…HE ISN’T COMPARING THE TWO EVENTS IN ANY WAY)

    I live in Tucson, originally from Phoenix.

    The shooting was about 15 min drive from my house, less than 2 miles from my girlfriends. The majority of the victims were taken to UMC, right down the street from my house. This tragedy has hit Tucson very hard.

    But please explain to me how Nike’s laser projection for a BCS Fiesta Bowl party can even compare to what happened in Tucson? I can’t see how they can be put together.

    perhaps the ducks will wear black pants in memory of the deceased and in support of the shooting victims this evening?

    Nice eye.

    /See, blank helmets are so wrong that artists try to add logos even when they aren’t really there :P

    @ Scott – It has been mentioned before, but the Packers do not wear the captain patches because they select different captains for every game of the season. When the playoffs come around, the Packers select captains for the duration of the playoffs, and that is why they are able to add the captain patches.

    To confirm what everyone have stated, Bigby is for sure wearing an ACME Packers throwback stocking cap that the team wore in week 12 against the 49ers.
    link

    Also, check out the interview with the Packers in the locker room. They are using the old throwback logo on the player nameplates. Never noticed that before. I know they don’t use those logos for the name plates at home. Pretty interesting. Here is a video with Chad Clifton, just wait for the jump and you can see it right away at the start of the interview.

    link

    Seeing that Black, Red & White “MATS” basketball uniform just reinforces my belief that General Athletic Products of Greenville, Ohio was one great company. My experience with General was primarily with their hockey sweaters, but they also did football and basketball uniforms.

    To realize how highly General Athletic was thought of in the world of pro hockey all you have to do is look at the teams they outfitted in 1967-68. In the NHL: Chicago, Detroit, New York, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Oakland. In the AHL they had Baltimore, Buffalo, Cleveland, Hershey, Quebec, Providence and Rochester.

    That’s 14 of the top 20 pro clubs in the day when teams still bought their own uniforms. No sweet deals from Reetread or the Swooshies.

    No, General Athletic was one great company that got swallowed up by the likes of Nike, Reebok, adidas et al. Sad too, companies like the General were the sporting goods industry. They made their uniforms with pride, innovation and their own hard work and old-fashioned common sense. All of today’s above-named manufacturers wouldn’t or couldn’t make a patch on General’s ass. RIP General, you did good!

    Look at the Orix Buffaloes mascot with the Mizuno logo on his shoes!! Let alone the body armor for his arms.

    link

    I can see today’s posts will not be good reading. Come on, guys. Let’s get back to focusing on important stuff like the stripes on Auburn’s pants. Or why Oregon, in the biggest game in its history, won’t be wearing its school colors but will instead wear Phil Knight’s favorites (or are those the colors of Oregon weather?). Thanks for posting that link on Oregon and Knight. I’ll take good old-fashioned booster corruption at Auburn any day. At least that’s the college football I grew up loving, not the spacesuit-outfitted superheroes from Phil Knight U.

    I’ll take good old-fashioned booster corruption at Auburn any day. At least that’s the college football I grew up loving…

    ~~~

    yes

    so much better when we could just *pay* the athletes under the table than to attract them with world class facilities

    of course, all of these ways are to the detriment of, i donno…actual academics

    but since when was paying the guy who does research and might some day find the cure for cancer more important than fielding a winning football team?

    On another note — Phil, I don’t know why, but I loved the Saints’ uniforms Saturday. Maybe it’s the simplicity. Their other roadies are great, too. The black is just a nice alternate look.

    “but since when was paying the guy who does research and might some day find the cure for cancer more important than fielding a winning football team?”

    Not to sound like some snobby elitist, but if I were a betting man, I would guess that something like the cure for cancer is going to come out of Harvard, or Johns Hopkins, or some other high-fallutin’ smart-kid school. Oregon wouldn’t be my first choice, or second, or probably not even 100th.

    I agree with what you’re saying. You figure, a university would be more concerned with academics since a glance at its mission statement clearly states that education is its primary mission. Somewhere along the lines, the lure of $$$ from athletics took over and you have the current system, where the degree from one of these schools isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. But hot damn, they’ve made a bowl game for 10 years and counting!

    I’m one for witty sarcasm as much as anyone, and I see what you were trying to do, Paul, and yes, this is your site to do what you wish.

    I still expected better from you.

    Re: Michigan’s two captain’s patches

    College teams are not required to differentiate between captains and alternates. They only need to differentiate between captains and non-captains. My team only uses “Cs” and no “As” as you see in the NHL. This is not uncommon.

    With regard to Carl Hagelin and Luke Glendenning both wearing the captain’s C, it is because they were elected co-captains this season (to wit, the Michigan men’s hockey roster page for this season: link)

    Unusual, but not unprecedented for Michigan hockey. In 2008-09, when defenseman and captain Mark Mitera injured his knee pretty severely in the early part of the season, the team elevated junior defenseman Chris Summers to captain. Summers remained the captain and wore the C during the remainder of the season, even when Mitera came back. Mitera also wore the C and the team did not have any alternate captains that season.

    You know, a lot of the time I don’t agree with Paul, and a lot of the time I don’t like his attitude toward the things he writes about, but is anyone forcing me to read this website? No. I read it mostly for the non-opinionated content and to learn about goings on in the world of sports aesthetics.

    Would anyone’s life have been that much worse if they had just left well enough alone? Paul can write what he wants on his blog and none of us are obligated to read, digest, like or agree with what he writes. There was no need for the firestorm. If you found what Paul said to be distasteful, then stop reading him, or secretly hate him while you continue reading him, or spread nasty rumors about him. Don’t ruin the public part of Uni Watch for the rest of us with a moral debate.

    >…or spread nasty rumors about him.

    Well, that should be interesting.

    Seriously: There’s nothing wrong with anyone objecting to the Ticker item that’s being debated this morning, or to anything else that appears on the site. Feedback is always fine, even when I don’t agree with it, and the ensuing discussion is healthy.

    I just didn’t find this morning’s discussion healthy, because it didn’t have anything to do with what this website is about, really. I like reading the feedback to the ticker items/features, as long as it pertains to the purpose of the website.

    I’m an avid reader of this site. I love hearing other people’s readings of the ways in which we clad ourselves for games. Even when [or maybe especially when] I disagree with someone’s aesthetics, I appreciate others’ perspectives and am interested in their thoughts. Nike has, once again, shown poor judgment and should be called out on it. But, at this moment–after this tragedy–I am personally feeling very, very raw. Without going into the particulars — because I’m not trying to drum up sympathy [I’m simply trying to help someone I admire see how he’s been offensive to some] — this is more than just horrible news from far away to me. When I saw Paul’s very clear reference to the tragedy — even though I’d come to the website to get away from it — I felt like someone I don’t know personally, but share some interests with, was acknowledging mine [our] pain and anger. I was interested to see the perspective of the writer or organization to which he’d linked. When I saw that it was a dig at Nike, I felt as if my [our] pain was a joke. I didn’t think it was funny. I don’t think it was clever. I appreciate Paul wanting to call Nike out on being incredibly insensitive. In doing so, he was. How? By setting me [us] up to feel a part of a national mourning, only to realize that he wasn’t mourning at all. He wasn’t saying, I’m sorry. He was making a parallel between the marketing mistake of a huge company and an insane, tragic loss of life. Yes, I’ll go back to mamby pamby land, Phillip. But it sucks there. It’s a very sad and angry place back in mamby.

    My favorite TV spot in the past months.
    That and, “Hey, you woodchucks! Quit chuckin’ my wood!!!”

    So here’s the idea: Anytime we go all tangendental into politics or phrasing or something non-uni that gets noses out of joint, someone just post…

    “Quit chuckin’ my wood!!!”

    …and we’ll all try to re-focus.

    —Ricko

    Agreed, both on Sgt. Ermey’s commercial and on staying on topic.

    I also like the insurance commercial where the dog is worried about someone stealing his bone. Now I will quit chucking wood for a while.

    Both are quality commercials. I don’t know if the woodchuck one has as much meme potential. “Jack Wagons” and “Mamby Pamby land” are unique enough that people will get the reference for quite a while.

    Jack Wagons is a great SFW way to refer to a particular AFC south team. I also think it’s hilarious that some seem to have a hard time figuring out what “jack wagon” means. Are there really that many terms beginning with “jack” to describe someone wallowing in self-pity?

    Not offended by the post, offended by Nike’s display, not offended by Sarah Palin’s 11 month old graphic, offended by seeing Obama in the Oval Office.

    Phil Knight practically hands the kids a car with the lavish treatment at Nike U. It should not be allowed in the NCAA because you are recruiting the kids with stuff, not athletics and education!

    Palin and Obama may (or may not) be relevant to the shootings, but they are NOT relevant to any Nike-related aspect that we’re discussing here. Let’s not go down that road. Thanks.

    That ticker article about Nikegon:

    link

    is unbelievable. Phil Knight really, truly believes that he own a sports team. The academics portion of the school is apparently a necessary evil that he has to deal with in order to run his ballclub.

    I wonder if Phil Knight called up the governor one day and floated the idea of changing the capital of Oregon from Salem to Nike, what the reaction would be? Especially if Knight threatened to pull Nike out of Oregon? “We’ll get back to you on that one”? Or maybe “whatever is thy bidding, My Master”?

    The aggrandizement of Phil Knight knows no bounds.

    As someone who has a hard time letting go of a beloved pair of jeans or a sweater, or anything old and cozy for that matter, I can relate to this image…..

    link

    …however, the $8 million a year–sadly–I can not.

    Anyone notice that ESPN still has the green Oregon helmet when the hats the team will be wearing tonight are anthracite?

    I think that’s standard practice for ESPN. Have they had any of the pro combat/special helmets for anyone this year? I’d guess they just have one helmet for each team and don’t really care about being accurate for each individual game.

    ESPn is cheap about college stuff, if you look at the helmet you’ll notice its the original Green Helmet, the newer one is similar to Jacksonville’s helmets in that the color is actually different at different angles instead of beaing a deceptively dark green helmet. Also just about any picture of a big time player is from their first appearance I’m assuming b/c they are too cheap to purchase any newer photos from the school. Jake Locker has the old number font, and Tyrod Taylor is wearing the same jersey Marcus Vick wore when he was with the Hokies (the same ones they wore when they played that game with the orange sleeve only w/o the orange sleeve).

    how do you know they won’t be wearing that lid?

    …oh wait, it’s a school color, so it’s out

    /carry on

    I imagine they figure that for the majority of viewers who don’t keep track of things in the Ducks’ Magical Clothes Closet & Costume Department they’ll go with the “helmet of record”, so to speak, for identification purposes.

    Also, ESPN may be more familiar with Oregon’s colors than Oregon is (oh, now, that was snarky, wasn’t it; so sorry).

    —Ricko

    I understand youngsters fascination with black, thus Oregon’s black helmet.

    I understand the “carbon” helmet looks cool.

    I understand the storm trooper look is clean and cool.

    But is there a more gorgeous helmet than Oregon’s mallard green lid? And that’s what a duck looks like! link

    Why Oregon would wear anything else makes me scratch my head.

    Bed Bath & Beyond those same drinking cups with other logos as well. I was at a location in Houston and, mixed in with all the UT, A&M, Cowboys, & Texans found several with Oilers logos.

    Luv Ya Blue, indeed.

    I’ve seen those in Houston as well… and having Oilers paraphanalia in Houston is akin to wearing the logo of the team you beat in the playoffs on your jersey!
    (Yeah, I was crushed when they moved out of town. Of course, I was 18 and a life-long Oilers fan…)

    I do completely understand why many people take offense to Nike’s suffocating business methods.

    However, the streetwalker doesn’t get arrested for hawking her wares if there are no takers soliciting with booster contributions, alumni funds or television licensing fees. Not to mention a monopoly sports network no longer even bothering with the pretense of sports reporting (except for 1/2 hour on Sunday mornings). Oh how I miss CNNSI (if just for the competition factor that would curb some of the hyperpromotion on behalf of the key corporate sponsors).

    As far as Michigan hockey goes: Simply put, Michigan named Co-Captains this year. I don’t really know why, and I can’t find any articles about Red doing it, but any article about the team since the beginning of the year has just referred to them as Co-Captains without any real explanation.

    could there be a home captain and away captain? or are the co-captains wearing the same jersey?

    i know a few NHL teams will have different alternates for home and away

    They are co-captains, it was explained earlier in the thread. Home and away have nothing to do with it.

    I know you don’t really care, since you never really seem to care about what others have to say when it opposes your own feelings, but this is over the line. For you to take a tragedy where real lives have been forever changed and use it as a tool to draw attention to your indignation at the hands of the evil empire that is Nike is not just tasteless but irresponsible. I understand that this is your blog and you can say what you please, but you’re fortunate enough that your blog has garnered a fairly large audience. You are fully aware of your audience. In my opinion, to mislead that large audience towards what would appear to be a serious topic and move to such a callous item is irresponsible. Please don’t bother responding to my post because I already know what the response will be. First, you will point out something that is incorrect in my post in order to prove that your intellectually superior to me and then you will downplay it to a level of insignifance. I’ve seen you do it time and again with anybody who disagrees with you. God forbid you, for once, said maybe I messed up on this one or hey someone who might have a decent thought, even if its opposing to mine.

    >>I know you don’t really care, since you never really seem to care about what others have to say when it opposes your own feelings…<< If I didn't care, I wouldn't be responding to so many of this morning's posts.

    What, nobody’s gonna note that Micheal Vick’s season ended with an interception?

    Sure, NOW we notice that such a thing happens quite often to QBs whose teams make the playoffs.

    (Not a Favre-ist, just saying that sometimes unusual factoids aren’t all that unusual, and some insights aren’t really all that insightful)

    —Ricko

    Favre’s season ended because of an ugly sack. Just as it was suspected would happen before the season even began.

    The difference here is, though, no one is talking about Vick’s career being over (again).
    What made Favre’s picks important was at the time they were believed to have been his last NFL pass. Even if nothing more than the answer to the an obscure sports trivia question some time down the road.

    As a Trivia Question, great.
    As a kind of flukey thing, okay.

    As some kind of measure of Favre’s failings, is a joke (which seems to be the tone of much of it).
    He had several seasons end with an INT. That can happen to a QB in the playoffs, or if his team is behind in the season finale. What was the big moment in Super Bowl last year again? Oh, yeah, some buy ran back a Manning INT.

    Favre ends season with INT…Whoooo, big news, shows he’s overrated, or at least over the hill.
    Vick throws a pick and this time around nobody wants to tarnish a Showcase Season by mentioning it…when the fact is, it’s really a big “so what” and shouldn’t come up in discussing either of them.

    —Ricko

    Since this isn’t facebook, I have to type out that I like this comment. Vick ended the Eagle’s season with a bad throw. I’m a Philly fan and never liked Vick, even though he’s actually good. I hope the Big Andy resigns him and trades him for Carolina for the first pick, since Andrew Luck is staying in college.

    I’m a Panthers fan, and I don’t mind Vick (particularly since he led my fantasy team to the championship). However, I think most Panthers fans still remember Vick running wild as a Falcon (plus there never being holding calls while he was running back and forth in the backfield and the OLs practically tackling DLs every time Vick changed direction). Also, there is no way Jerry Richardson ponies up the cash to pay Vick (or a decent head coach).

    They could get him for cheap compared to a franchise quarterback. Jerry Richardson will probably care more once the CPA debacle is over.

    Y’know if Nike would project the game telecast on to the mountain tonight they probably could get into Guiness for the World’s Biggest Tailgate Party.

    I mean, people could just go sit in their backyards with a beer and it would count.

    —Ricko

    I don’t think our laser projection technology is that advanced yet. That’d be something though, watching a football game on the side of a mountain? Hellz yeah.

    I don’t want to keep this going but I just want you to know that I understand the point you were trying to make… but you could have shown your disdain w/ out the duplicitous word play. It was done in poor taste and judgement. I know you do not feel that the “laser branding” and the mass murder are comparable in any way, but sadly your statement does make that comparison. I wasn’t the first or only reader to find fault. It was not you simply referencing the murders that is the issue, it was the likening of the murderer to Nike and his deplorable acts to that of Nike’s use of grandiose advertising. As I said earlier, just man up and admit is was poor judgement and move on.

    I’m pretty sure I wasn’t talking to you man. Why don’t you run along and let the grown ups talk.

    Arrrgh!!

    Enough obliqueness.

    Paul phrased something in a way some didn’t care for.
    Vick ended season with an INT.

    Was trying to say that such things happen, and both are in the “so what” department.

    Bloggers can annoy us. QBs will throw picks late in big games.
    Something new there?

    “Quit chuckin’ my wood.”

    —Ricko

    Since I suggested we get back to talking about the stripes on Auburn’s pants, I suggest “Stripes!” to get everyone’s attention back anytime we deviate from the mission here.

    Let’s also not just throw around “mass murder.” What happened was a terrible, awful thing most done by a madman, but I don’t think six dead people qualifies as mass murder.

    I don’t want to throw around references but….According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location in which a number of victims are killed by an individual.

    What part did you not understand? Aaron did’t think it constituted as a “mass murder” but according to our government it does. You all caught up now?

    willf6: I’m pretty sure I wasn’t talking to you man. Why don’t you run along and let the grown ups talk.

    I was not aware of that classification, and I can say that I’m still not all that comfortable with that definition, but I don’t know where you’d get a more definitive definition. My objection here is rescinded.

    I don’t think those are throwbacks that Utah is wearing. Those are their regular home duds. They’ve had them since Jim Boylen took over as coach. They originally were TNOB but now they have the players’ names.

    Good: Atari as a first name
    Bad: Unfortunate wording was disappointing. I was expecting a link to a stirring tribute
    Good: Loved the Saints white pants

    FYI that those “tremendous throwbacks” that Utah wore have been their standard set for the past few years.

    I had never heard of Van Lingle Mungo before your post which prompted me to google him…here’s his wiki which is pretty damn funny:

    link

    Mookie Blaylock is a pretty good one too.

    Sorry, best sports name ever is Minnesota Wild rightwing, Cal Clutterbuck. How good would that name sound being chanted during a game by thousands of drunk Minnesotans?

    Re: Paul said, “One of you out there should really snap up this 1971 NFL serving tray.”

    I have that tray. My wide bought it for me in the mid-1980s. She asked me what year it was the day she gave it to me and I said it had to be 1972 because that was the first season the Redskins switched to their current maroon helmets from the gold helmet with the “R” inside the circle that they wore in 1970-71 the year after Vince Lombardi’s one season (1969) as coach, and the first year (1971) that George Allen coached. Allen orchestrated the change to the maroon helmets which were worn in SB VII.

    As a Tucsonan and as a teacher with a former student from my school as the hero who took care of Congressman Giffords immediately after the shooting, I am extremely disgusted with the ticker comment. I did not know and I do not think anybody else in Tucson even knew about the Nike projections 120 miles away. We didn’t expect Phoenix to stop functioning because of the events. On Sunday afternoon, the U of A mens basketball team played a game that was rescheduled from Saturday. They wore a black ribbon on their uniform for the victims. link

    If the issues are with Nike projecting on a mountain, that’s fine. To compare this or even tie it into Saturday’s shootings is plain wrong.

    I have followed you since the Village Voice and this is the first time I have ever felt that you have crossed a line and should apolgize or at least change the wording in the ticker.

    I agree with this post. Using a tragedy to draw attention to another, way less important event so soon after the tragedy is, at best, in poor taste.

    Nike certainly can be found guilty of exercizing poor judgement in the timing of this silly event. That doesn’t make this ticker entry ok.

    What was wrong about the ticker item is that it attempted to equate a stupid, non permanent, stunt by Nike with the senseless killing of 6 innocent people. And yes, I am fully aware of the sarcasm involved.

    I am a big Utah fan and those jerseys are not throwback jerseys they have been wearing those for 5 years with minor changes over those years mainly NOB and changing where the American flag goes.
    Also they played San Diego State on Saturday and one of there players was wearing a long sleeve shirt under there jersey but I can’t find a picture.

    this is certainly exposing how little I pay attention to college basketball

    ~~~

    you say that like it’s a bad thing

    but college basketball is so great with their champion crowning tournament that makes the regular season pointless. oh wait, the tourney is not worth watching either.

    It’s all pure unbridled joy, chimp. Biggest reason I want college football ending on New Year’s Day is because it already cuts into the regular hoops season.

    good corn jim, how do you watch that? but more importantly, how does ncaaf cut into your watching? is hoops not still on the teevee for you to choose to watch, and me to choose not to watch? the bucks any good? i can’t wait until i don’t watch them in the final 4.

    NFL and college football both cut into my hoops viewing experience. Yeah, I can watch plenty online, but if I want to comfortably watch double/tripleheaders on CBS, I have to wait for football to end.

    Not saying it’s always a visual pleasure, especially when two SoD teams go at it, but I love the game. A well-played close game is as good as it gets.

    Yeah, the Bucks are good. Hopefully a 16 or an 8 seed will upset them so neither one of us have to watch them in the Final Four.

    you just hate your regional powerhouse the same way i am already sick of k-state, ku, and mu.

    Don’t dislike them as much as the football team, but I don’t want them or Duke in the FF. But as long as Villanova wins it all, I don’t care.

    if I want to comfortably watch double/tripleheaders on CBS, I have to wait for football to end.

    ~~~

    that right there is the best argument i’ve ever heard for extending the NC2AF season … at least until spring training starts

    ba-dum-bump!
    zing zang zoom.
    can he get a what what.
    boy-yo-yo-ying.
    wah-wah.
    hellooooooooooooo.

    In regards to the Saints in white pants, the Saints actually wore white pants for 11 seasons (from 1975 thru 1985). They only had the all white look (jersey, pants) in 1975. From ’76 to ’85 they wore white pants only with the balck jerseys and they wore black pants with their white jerseys.

    Yeah, lots of mistakes today. Starting with your feeble attempt at witticism with the Tucson Tragedy – Nike.

    Wow. Between Mr and Mrs Cruise and some of our commenters, a lot of hurt feelings today.

    Anyway Ricko, thanks for lightening the mood.

    Last night’s Nevada-Boston College bowl game many not have been a headliner, but is sure was good-lookin’…
    link

    —Ricko

    An entry that mistakenly calls Utah’s basketball jerseys throwbacks is immediately retracted, but a comment that a significant portion of the readers find offensive is unchanged?

    Nike’s garbage notwithstanding (and we all know that Nike’s garbage is a little like the the issue of poverty: it will always be with us), the comment was in very bad taste.

    Why is it that ten years later, the thought of Spetemmber 11th jokes makes most of feel a little nauseous, but the crime scene tape is still up in Tucson, and it’s OK to use that event to make an ironic point? Way, way, way too soon…

    C’mon, Cort, you know the difference between apples and oranges: Factual errors are corrected; there’s no way to “correct” an opinion. And if I simply took it down, a good percentage of the offended parties would accuse me of trying to whitewash the situation.

    That said, the discussion has been interesting. I’ll have more to say about it either later today or tomorrow, I promise. For now, though, I have to do some actual work.

    Yeah, I don’t think deleting it is the answer. That just smacks of sweeping it under the rug. I’ll definitely be waiting for the comments tomorrow, though.

    so…..

    we have team nike vs team UA in the big game tonight

    im rooting for team nike…

    I demand a Plus-One game!!!

    Michigan should get to play the winner.

    It simply isn’t fair that adidas be arbitrarily shut out of a shot at the championship just because they didn’t have a deal with a team that played at Auburn and Oregon’s level of accomplishment.

    I’m telling you, I am absolutely spilling over with righteous indignation right now.

    Reebok? They have the consolation of oufitting the NFL; they got no bitch in this.

    —Ricko

    LOL. This post almost makes up for all the political stuff in today’s postings.

    I’m rooting for UA because it has not screwed up the classic Auburn uni. Yet.

    Emphasis on that “yet”. Stay tuned…

    And Ricko, Michigan? They got destroyed in the Gator Bowl. I believe Notre Dame and Miami U are the only adidas teams that won their bowl games, so one of them would have to be the adidas representative.

    Okay, one of them, then.
    Just saying adidas is getting seriously hosed in this deal.

    I mean, it just isn’t FAIR, keeping some little German shoe company out of the title picture. Shameful.

    (huffs, puffs, grumbles, gnashes teeth over the injustice of it all).

    —Ricko

    or yea

    only big 10/SEC lovers and defenders of those are rooting for auburn

    and anyone who doesn’t think scam newton should have been suspended

    the rest of the country…ducks baby

    how does big 10=sec phil? that is the craziest thing i have ever heard, i hate the sec. but i won’t root for phil knight. auburn is no more a traditional power that oregon is, neither of these schools are alabama or texas. and when did the pac ten become the wac? it’s a major conference, not a little guy. truly, as usual in the final game i hate both teams, and am sick of them. thankfully they only had one over-hyped post season game.

    I think I’ll make my rooting choice based on which uniform they pick. If Nike wears gray (or shock us all and wear school colors), they’re my team. If they go all-white, I take UA.

    UA stuff is SO expensive. There is a UA outlet fairly close by- 45 min or so. Thought I could get a ‘deal’ there as you usually do.

    I would be wrong.

    I’d just like to have a UA turtleneck. Otherwise, LLBean and Eddie Bauer for me.

    On the AFC logo in the Colts’ end zone:

    link is the current AFC logo. Compared to what link, all they changed was stick the stars on top of the old A.

    It’s surprising how often you still see the old NFC/AFC logos in stadiums and on broadcast graphics, even with the NFL’s major broadcast partners. Maybe the logo changes were too subtle for anyone to notice.

    I’m guessing that the logo in there is made of actual cut pieces of colored turf, whereas the stars on Saturday were painted. In order to actually replace the logo, they’re going to need to order a new white circle and ‘A’ logo cut in the proper shapes.

    Paul,

    I know it has obviously been touched upon by others, but I really believe you fail to see the harm in your final post in the ticker. I’ve been reading your site since the day it launched, and while there may be things I occasionally disagree with or don’t believe in, I stick to commenting strictly on the uniform content. I understand that this is your blog and you have the floor to speak about whatever you like, however you also hold a level of responsibility to present your material in a reasonable manner to your increasingly large audience.

    I am not the type who is easily offended or always asks for others to be “politically correct”. In fact, I am usually supportive of people having the opportunity to say what they truly believe. The problem lies in that you clearly began to reference a truly horrific and tragic event and attempt to make it analogous to something as petty as a Nike promotional event.

    The loss of life and injury suffered by multiple people should on no scale be compared to an advertising campaign by an athletic company. I fail to see how Nike’s laser piece is in any way related, besides the fact that it took place in the same state. Also, the location of the shooting and the location of the Nike event were more than 100 miles apart. Should the entire state of Arizona be put on standstill simply because of this shooting? Absolutely not. The shooting was a terrible event that took place from a deranged mind, but that does not mean we should not go forth as a society.

    I believe the attempt to compare something as awful as the loss of life and injury to multiple people to something as simple as a Nike promotional piece in preparation of the school’s biggest game is entirely disrespectful. They are in no way related on any scale and any attempt to compare them is extremely weak. Imagine what relatives of the victims would think if they read the comparison between loss of life and severe injury to an athletic company’s promotional ad! I say this as someone who rarely believes we need to strip our language down to be “politically correct”.

    Please attempt to listen to the multiple people who have explained their reasoning to you. If this was without merit, I would see your argument. However, this is not the case.

    Cheers,
    Andrew
    Reader since May 17, 2006

    OK, OK — I was going to do this later, but there’s no time like the present.

    As a writer, my job is to be an effective communicator. I have clearly failed in that capacity today. The mere fact that the point I was trying to make has been obscured and overwhelmed by the manner in which I made it means I did a very poor job. That’s bad enough right there.

    But there’s more: For many of you, I’ve clearly crossed a line. That was not my intent, but if I’m honest with you — and, more importantly, honest with myself — there’s no getting around the fact that I was trying to be clever, and that I was doing so in a context where clevertude simply isn’t acceptable. That was wrong; I was wrong.

    I greatly appreciate that many of you care enough about Uni Watch to express your opinions on this. I’ve already contacted several of you privately to express my apologies (you know who you are); for the rest of you, I hear you, and I’m sorry.

    I didn’t think you had to apologize.

    You weren’t joking *about* the shootings. You were joking about the Nike display, and using the shootings to say how offensive it was to you.

    Even so, I know I’m different from others in this regard, and that’s fine all around. But I totally separate comedy about a tragedy/referencing a tragedy and the actual tragedy.

    I believe you can be serious and funny about pretty much everything. And I don’t really believe in “too soon.”

    I’ve just never seen the connection.

    Saw no need for an apology. I could see exactly what he was trying to express.

    And as far as that “Glenn” dude goes @ 11:41- get lost.

    And you can quote me on THAT.

    Well played, Paul. Sometimes, it’s just easier to say “I kinda hosed that up, sorry”, and move on.

    I think 99% here knew what you were going for, but it was just a bit shy of the bulls-eye.

    It’s also a good time for all of us as readers to re-examine our reading comprehension.

    The two sentences DO NOT compare the tragedy (sentence one) with Nike’s ill-timed promotion (sentence two).

    The first sentence simple alludes to (or ‘sets-up’) a second sentence that condemns the actions of Nike as disrespectful.

    There is no comparison between the two. It could have been clearer. It could have been less clever. And we could read more closely.

    Come on, folks.

    He could have just saved time by sending Jared Laughner directions to Phil Knight’s house. Now THERE’S yer comedy gold, right there!

    No ScottyM, it really couldn’t have been “less clever”. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most clever, This was a -100. Easily.

    Good job, Paul. As someone who was disgusted with the original post, I must say that your apology avoids the common “I’m sorry if” problem that so many suffer from in today’s world.

    Thanks, Paul. It takes a lot for me to get offended, but I understand the POV of those who called you out. For me, it was just an unnecessary attempt at cleverness.

    Your acknowledgement of the issue was appreciated and respected. Looking forward to reading about socks and stripes tomorrow!

    I believe that the NFL mandates teams add the Captain patches for the playoffs. If I recall, when they implemented the patches four years ago (when GB made the NFC Championship game) that was stated, but does not require teams to do so during the regular season.

    Hey, question, now that the 4 stars will be filled for some players (the stars are gold for every year a player is named a captain for the same team, white stars are filler) will the NFL add a new bar next year for a fifth star?

    1) Captaincy patches are not required in the playoffs (see, for example, the Jets on Saturday).

    2) I’ve been told that they have a plan in place for next season’s captaincy patch design, but I don’t know what that plan is.

    Are there any other sports where the team captain actually wears something stating how long they’ve had that position? It seems so weird.

    This was suggested yesterday, but the Jets don’t use captaincy patches in the playoffs so it’s either not a rule or not enforced.

    Argghhh, I used to have that 1971 NFL serving tray!!! Had many a grilled cheese sandwich and hot cocoa on that tray while watching football!!!

    -Jet

    I wonder how many people in Phoenix dialed 911, thinking the “Phoenix lights” were back.
    “OMG, Lyle, intergalactic ducks!!!”

    (Okay, that only works if you’ve watched UFO HUNTERS on the History Channel, I guess).

    —Ricko

    From the “please forgive me if this has been covered” department:

    Part I
    1-15 to 7-9? Not good enough! Fire the equipment manager!

    link

    Part II
    I know I’d seen Alyssa Milano’s face selling various MLB merchandise in recent years. Not until today did I see her also selling NHL … AND NFL apparel as well!

    link

    Too bad she didn’t end up marrying Carl Pavano when they were an item.

    I SO wanted her to become Alyssa Milano-Pavano.

    —Ricko

    I’m getting tired of seeing her face on so many ads. Seems like the Google ad-server is determined to post her mug on every site I visit that uses Google ads.

    about the cups at bed bath + beyond with retro logos – they have the old raider log, too

    Not to be confused with The Old Raider Log, usually deposited by Al Davis into the nearest toilet around noon every day …

    Sorry, just wrote that quick, SVP had Kevin Plank on the phone for those tuned into the radio discussing the companys first national championship game…. in the end no, nothing new

    “Neon” is a color?

    It’s not, but if it was, it would be reddish-orange, which is the natural color the neon gas gives off. Not highlighter yellow-green.

    Wearing an autographed mask in a game… goalies are truly a different breed.

    And by “different”, I mean “touched”. XD

    It’s no worse than the everyday fan wearing an autographed jersey/merchandise to the mall or the sports bar. I mean, do those people not wash their clothing? What happens to the signature when they do?

    In addition to the retro logo on their visiting nameplates, the Packers also have that logo on their duffle bags. Check out this short video. They are the bags at every player’s locker at the start of the video.

    link

    The two michigan players are co-captains, hence the reason they both wear the C on their jerseys. Kind of odd but that was the direction Red Berenson chose to go this season.

    I didn’t think having two captains visibly on the ice was legal. (Chris Drury and Daniel Briere were co-captains in Buffalo, but a coin flip determined who would wear the C and who would wear an A.)

    Love the one bar facemask on the MacGregor made Saints helmet on Archie Manning wearing WITH the white pants!
    As far as the whole debate goes I am fine, but those calling for Paul to delete something from HIS blog I would tell them to fuck off! If you don’t like it don’t read it.

    Is it just me, or do Chris Fowler and Nick Saban look like brothers from different mothers….?

    Any university other than North Carolina wearing that Jumpman logo just comes off as totally wrong to me.

    Didn’t that brand come into being after he went on to play in the pros or something?

    —Ricko

    No new pants for Auburn tonight. I actually like it, tradition beats out corporate influence for once?

    nope, charcoal grey. Along with godawful highlighter yellow accents everywhere…

    Anyone know what the words under the comp. sleeve numbers say on UO’s uniform?

    nice traction on the opening kickoff with those Nike cleats… ;) maybe they should focus on performance rather than poshness???

    oregon does the same, but nike obviously. I think this weekend there was a link to it, how its a UA/NIKE rivalry tonight just as much as UO/UA

    Hell yeah. However, that’s just gonna make one of them that much more well-known and boisterous… Maybe add a 3rd party, like a Lion!

    Anybody else holding out hope that Oregon will come bounding out of the tunnel wearing their throwbacks?

    One can dream…

    Auburn isn’t wearing the supposed pants (my apologies if this has already been said).

    Funny note: Brent Musberger (or whoever) called the ducks unis “costumes”

    Musberger: “Auburn in their traditional uniforms. And Oregon in costumes designed specifically for tonight.”.

    Nice!

    Anyone else catch the, “Oregon is coming out in their costumes made specifically for this game” comment? I like how they were referred to as costumes…

    Hahaha! Costumes! Thank you Brent. Also since when are the Head Coaches allowed to be interviewed 45 seconds prior to opening kick-off? Ugh!! If it’s not the gear provider it’s the networks calling all the shots.

    i’m pretty sure oregon warmed up in their white on white uni that was rolled out last week. they came onto the field after warmups wearing black/dark carbon pants, unless i’m LOSING it….

    Phil Knight doesn’t care about cheerleaders.

    They still wear the school colors in their rather generic cheerleading uniforms.

    Auburn has WAR EAGLE on the back helmet bumpers. Is that the compromise for not switching pants?

    I don’t which I liked most: the Duck slipping and sliding all over the field in his fancy new shoes on the OPENING kickoff, or the number peeling off of LaMichael James’ undershirt already.

    The helmets are kind of cool. The yellow footwear and socks, sort of remind me of the California Golden Seals green and yellow skates – in that they’re both really stupid looking

    So far, I am not impressed with either of these teams. Sloppy and uncoordinated.

    The Ducks wings are superfluous. The unis would actually look much better sans wings.

    The highlighter socks might look better with white or carbon shoes.

    I agree about the play of these teams. Think TCU is watching this, wishing they had a shot to play one of them?

    Neither team has played for over a month. Wait until they shake the rust off before proclaiming TCU as the “real” national champs.

    I didn’t mean to say I thought they were the real champs. I also don’t necessarily think they could hang for four quarters with either team, but you know TCU would love to have a chance.

    The Oregon Ducks in their highlighter yellow accents is reason #2 to NOT get an HDTV. Reason #1 being Andy Rooney, of course.

    Reason #1 being Andy Rooney, Rosie O’Donnell, Glenn Beck that mayhem guy of course

    ~~~

    (fixed)

    Oregon is sure sharp looking when the get to the line of scrimmage but its bizarre looking to me that none of the cheerleaders, coaches, mascot or fans match the team colors.

    #23 Jeff Maehl in particular; gunmetal gray pants, then black shiny tights, then the yellow dayglo leg warmers….faaaachh!!! Looks absolutely stooopidiculous!!! More TDs by him and all will be forgiven though.

    Hey, Org-Dork-Phil, #54, an offensive lineman, on University of Oregon forgot his speed-juice shoes. And they should update their Duck Mascot to Super-Cyborg Duck, now he just looks like a forties cartoon, its unfortunate.

    WTF is up with the BCS sticker on Auburns helmets?! Can’t these companies leave one article of a uniform alone??? That thing is nearly the size of the damn UA logo!

    I realize I ought to know this, but I don’t: Why are college and pro hashmarks set at different widths? Was there a time when they were all the same? If so, which one changed, and why?

    it’s all about spreading the field into strong and weak sides. if nobody responds, i’ll get you later, but we have to watch this game on the computer, quick hits only.

    The NCAA brought their hash marks closer together in 1993. This was done because they narrowed the goalposts to match the NFL in 1991 and the angle for short field goals was too severe. High School has marks are still wider than the NCAA.

    After a safety in the NFL, teams have the option of a kickoff or a punt — and they *always* choose to punt.

    But Oregon just kicked off after Auburn’s safety. Does that same option exist in college, or are they mandated to kick off?

    Pretty sure a free kick (“free” meaning you’re free to use any kick style you want — punt, place or drop) is the same at ALL levels of football, with the exception that in the NFL, you aren’t allowed to use a tee, so that’s why you almost always see a punt rather than a place kick (and you can bet that ain’t nobody drop kicking it).

    …straight-on with a square-toed shoe.

    And I guess I got the meaning of the “free” part wrong:

    Kicking a Safety

    In addition to a kickoff, the other free kick is a kick after a safety (safety kick). A punt may be used (a punt may not be used on a kickoff).
    On a safety kick, the team scored upon puts ball in play by a punt, dropkick, or placekick without tee. No score can be made on a free kick following a safety, even if a series of penalties places team in position. (A field goal can be scored only on a play from scrimmage or a free kick after a fair catch.)

    From the link

    The reason teams in the NFL do not “kick off” after a safety is because they are not allowed to use a tee. Talk about a struggle

    Also… lets talk about the fair catch kick sometimes. Something that is rarely used and most football fans don’t even know it exists. I think its something UniWatchers would enjoy

    link

    One of my favorite rules, if only because it’s so inconspicuous. But I also think it’s pretty stupid.

    My standard: Anytime the ref has to preface a explanation with “By rule…,” that means the rule should either be rewritten or else scrapped entirely. *Everything* is “by rule” — a first down being 10 yards is by rule, a touchdown being seven points is by rule. But when the ref says, “By rule…,” it’s always code for, “You probably didn’t know about this little nuance in the rulebook, and I agree it doesn’t really make much sense, but here’s the deal.”

    And NOTHING is more “By rule…”-ish than the fair catch kick.

    Somewhere is this bulletin board mind of mine I seem to remember an NFL attempting a field goal after a fair catch. Can’t remember if they made it or not. Probably in the ’60s.

    I also remember how the Colts would station R.C. “Alley Oop” Owens under the goalpost. It worked. He once swatted away a field goal.

    —Ricko

    The Broncos (I’m pretty sure it was them) attempted a post-fair catch FG at the end of the first half of a Monday-night game in the 1980s. Everyone was *really* unsure of the proper protocol — players, officials, broadcasters. And me. Mass confusion. The kick missed.

    Your fellow bulletin board,
    Paul

    Ah-ha! Thought I had this in the Ricko Files, and thought Owens’ field goal block was against the Redskins. Remember watching the game.
    link

    —Ricko

    I was at that Packers/Lions game in 2008. It took about 10 minutes for the officials and coaches to figure things out for the Fair Catch Kick. Mason Crosby juuuuuuust missed the field goal. He had it right down Broadway, but fell just two yards shot.

    Musberger just said “this stadium is the home of the Phoenix Cardinals”… Yeah? When did the Arizona Cardinals change their name?…

    After brilliantly calling Oregon’s attire “costumes”, I think we should allow Brent some room here on a few dumb comments.

    Plus, how long has it been since he’s covered the NFL?
    Besides, announcers just simply are gonna mess up once in a while.
    That’s on accounta it not being Madden.

    —Ricko

    Besides, it is University of Phoenix Stadium, after all, and we know what an NCAA powerhouse the “Fighting Cyberspacers” are.

    —Ricko

    ya know, I really have only 1 gripe about the 1050 different O combos——-the duck wings. ERP.

    Otherwise, I think they’re nice and sleek. I even like the socks/shoes combo.

    Don’t hate me too much for that, k?

    they’re feathers not wings (although i wouldn’t put it past phil knight to come up with a 20 winged duck) — and those are like the best part

    Agreed. I’ve always loved the wings/feathers/whatever. As I’ve said many times (but once more can’t hurt), if the Eagles had worn the wings on their shoulders in the 1940s, we’d all think it was a genius concept and be begging for them to revive it as a throwback.

    thanks. i am going to assume tht article talks about opening up the game. the wider the hash, the more limiting your play selection when looking for a field goal. also, if you run a play wide you have a clear short side for the next play. while i was not sure of the date, it would only make sense that the college standard because the nfl version opens up the game. it also makes sende that the college standard wa the standard because college ball was the king for 60 years before the nfl began to step up. yada yada, i am sure jeffs link explains things. halftime walk shoveling time.

    No but I see phantom flags when the Steelers play, they have a gold emblem on the tv scoreboard and it always makes me think theres a flag on the play!

    Anybody notice the pregame broadcast had the silver-y Ducks helmet, but by halftime the studio crew switched it to an actual green & yellow helmet in front of the desk?

    Just witnessed the coolest thing Ive seen in sports all season. Those service-mambers surprising their kids was amazing.

    I’m disappointed the Ducks don’t “look like blur on field” tonight. Nike not living up to hype… weird…

    Paul your sarcasm is not lost on me, but I wouldn’t have been shocked if they followed in the footsteps of another famous Duck team, Coach Bombay’s USA Ducks from D2 and change uniforms mid game

    Anyone have an idea of just how many Under Armour logos are on UA’s uniforms? I can think of 10 without even looking…

    And Musburger just corrected himself with the *Phoenix Cardinals comment.

    and didn’t he just win the sportscaster of the year award or something like that? Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great one, I really enjoy his commentary, just funny.

    Hey, Frank Gifford once remarked, as a blowout got to be an even bigger blowout, “Well, you know what they say, ‘When it rains it snows.'”

    He also said, “Garo Yepremian, he’s from Cypriot.”

    —Ricko

    ok…thanks…i was still in the car when that happened, so i had the genius of gruden and tirico advising me then

    nice “TD” call by brent there…jeebus, brent…STFU

    Phil, I still think you’re confused. Oregon kicked a field goal first to make the score 3-0. Auburn kicked one (their first of the game) to make the score 19-11. That is when Musburger said “And again, Auburn has to settle for a field goal.”

    If it’s any consolation, I think he’s still more confused than you are.

    no…im more confused…but you’re not watching (listening) to me on national tv

    i was in the car for the first two scores…somehow i thought twas auburn who opened with a FG

    /time for the duckies to boogie

    did anyone else cath the auburn tiger has an under armour headband on? has that been going on all year?

    I thought it was funny when Brent said nobody left the game yet.

    Was that really a surprise to him

    Sorry if I’m treating this comment section as more of a chat board, but you all are much more intelligent than chat board trollers!

    Not to pile on with the Musburger bashing (I do actually like him), but it’s bad enough when announcers refer to a reverse as an end-around or vice-versa on a play from scrimmage (and just about all of them do it), but he called the fake reverse an “end-around look” on Oregon’s last kickoff return.

    …and just as I’m about to his the Submit Comment button, he hits us with that premature touchdown call.

    …*hit* the submit comment button…

    Fuck it, that comment was so poorly worded anyway that my typo doesn’t really make a difference.

    A couple of my Musburger annoyances, how he says “toss titos” and “Now folks….” But I’ll take him any day over Mike Tirico who’s on the radio.

    Anyone else notice that LaMichael James was wearing some new version of the Riddell Speed helmet to start the game than switched to the standard Riddell Speed helmet in the 2nd Q

    New Helmet: link

    (notice the 2 facemask connectors and different vent and facemask design)

    Old Helmet: link

    yes i did notice that! i was looking for photos from earlier in the season, and then got a closer look later and it was gone. im glad to see that i wasn’t making things up and i did see what i thought i saw.

    Everyone realizes that the worker bees at the Under Armour and Nike ad agencies are diligently working on their ad campaigns as we enjoy this ballgame, right?

    I’ll let you in on a little secret: Last month I wrote two pieces for an ESPN iPad app that will go on sale tomorrow — one for Oregon, one for Auburn. First time I’ve been involved in something like that.

    The one that doesn’t get used will be distributed free to iPad users in the Third World.

    I’m not liking that they painted the 20 yard line yellow. Makes me think, “Why is the first down line behind the quarterback?”

    I’ve officially overloaded my wife. Since 6pm we’ve been to two different basketball practices, one junior college basketball game, and since we’ve been home the Nikey UnderArmouroos game on the tube being switched back and forth with the Blues/Coyotes (now tied dammit) and it’s snowing outside so the kids won’t go to bed. And now she refuses to have a serious discussion about socks. Come on.

    Oregon. Looks like a coloring book when a kid only had one color and never finished.

    Or, we could wrinkle the old joke.

    “Honey, would you still love me if I didn’t want to talk about Oregon’s socks?”

    “Mm-huh. And I’d miss you, too.”

    —Ricko

    I’d settle for a quick chat about the mismatches in the laundry basket but she’s out cold now. And no, she never actually liked to have socks on the bar. Really amazing how we’ve made it 16+ years.

    Oregon. Looks like a coloring book when a kid only had one color and never finished.

    ~~~

    or one of mike engle’s tweak submissions

    I like UA’s Adams’ coloring job on his mouthpiece holder thingy. He’s got the Auburn stripes on it…

    Musburger keeps getting tricked by this Cam Newton “slow to get up” nonsense. Anyone who’s watched Auburn a lot this year knows that Cam plays this possum game after getting tackled sometimes. He did it a lot against Alabama and South Carolina this year… which Brent should have seen if he prepared for this game.

    One of my favorite Ducks, scrappy indeed. I was really thinking he might be in position for a game winning TD, wouldn’t be the case.

    My question is why he didn’t get the name Maehl-Man, hell such a nickname didn’t even occur to me until tonight, and I’ve been watching him carve up Ds all year long.

    Okay, let’s ruin the game on a tackling technicality. Not as bad as a salute…..but not good.

    Has anyone taken the position that Auburn’s blue jersey and pants stripes actually do match, it’s just that the outer white stripes on the jersey are unnecessary on the white pants?

    If you go with that stance, then the helmet doesn’t match. Whatever way you look at them, there’s a mismatch.

    Yes, the helmet, and the white jersey won’t match the pants stripe. But it’s funny that we perceive the blue jersey and pant stripes as different, when the blue/orange/blue pattern is the same in both.

    It is true that the interior sleeve stripes end up matching the pant stripes, but I do find myself more thinking the stripes on the pants should match the helmet.

    Ok, running a play to kill clock instead of kicking the FG at 10 seconds was rather lame. Good strategy, but lame.

    /TCU! TCU! TCU! TCU!

    i was thinkin’ aboot you when he said that vilk

    i love that old beer commercial (anyone remember) when after a team wins some kind of championship, the real players are spray champagne all over the place, and this little skinny white guy is shaking up (whatever beer it was) and acting like an idiot…

    cue the fade to black…and the tagline…

    next shot shows the guy all tied up with duct tape

    final line (from one of the steakhead players) “kickers” (said with disdain)

    anyone remember that?

    Well that wasn’t the game we were expecting, but it was a fun one nonetheless. I thought the Ducks looked terrific – the pewter and grey tones offset incredibly by the neon yellow. The designer in me overcomes the purist. And those flashy uniforms sparked hundreds of comments from the fuddy duddy’s – ha, Nike wins while Oregon lost at the gun. Congrats to Auburn, enjoy it for a year or so.

    yup…push AND the ducks lose

    minus two hundy for the season

    congrats to pineapple, who may now officially wear the title “champ” in her sig box

    It still looked like football to me. I guess they need to go back to the drawing board, they didn’t change it enough.

    I wonder how many Duck players(if any) who opted for the yellow dayglo leg warmers played on the offensive line? Any lineman on this design commitee?

    If my records are correct, sometime in the not-too-distant past this became the most-commented entry in UWBlog history. It was the first time we had cracked the top 25 in more than a year, and the third passing of the comment torch since Phil changed my records to begin with “Tony Miller Has Way Too Much Time on His Hands” 30 months ago Saturday.

    You have a point, but it’s also the most non-PL comments ever. Counting this one, this post has 420, while the 9/22/08 post had 418 (and the #3 post, 4/22/09, had 418 total comments, but only 405 non-Paul ones.)

    And you only have about 1/15 of today’s comments.

    Just bills…and yet another stupid Time Warner Cable ad. I’ve gotten more of those than there are comments on today’s piece. Take the hint, Time Warner.

    On ESPN3.com’s stream of the game, they showed the SportsCenter spot featuring the Duck A LOT. The cynic in me is thinking endorsement. Maybe I’m just reading into things too much, but I know I’ve seen a lot of other commercials on ESPN3

    i watched all the games i watched on E3, and they showed 5 commercials the whole bowl season, it was worse then chelsea dagger car christmas.

    so what do we make of the au pants we never saw? should we still expect their appearance next season?

    I didn’t notice it until sometime in the second half I think, but the Pac-10 patch on Oregon’s jerserys had to be moved down so low because of the Nat. Championship patch that the Pac-10 shield was practically in the guys’ armpits.

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