Monday Morning Uni Watch

Packers RB John Kuhn is a cerebral, introspective fellow. So this whole brouhaha regarding the team’s “G” logo has been particularly vexing for him. Does it stand for “Green Bay”? Does it stand for “greatness”? Does it stand for “gullible”? Does it stand for “Tiki Barber’s as lazy and stupid as most ‘real’ journalists”?

As you can see in the photo at right, Kuhn was so flummoxed by these choices that he decided to scrap his helmet logo altogether. That shot was taken in the first quarter. Later on, though, he decided the G stands for “Goddamn, that is the worst rendition of the national anthem I’ve ever heard,” at which point the Pack’s equipment staff was able to fix him up with a right proper logo decal.

In other Super Bowl-related news and observations:

• By far my favorite uni-related detail from the game: During the first quarter last night, Mike McCarthy forgot to replace the cap on the red Sharpie he was keeping in his cap, making it look like his neck was bleeding.

• Aaron Rodgers had some serious pad exposure.

• Anyone else totally hate those digi-purple sideline shirts that both teams were wearing? They looked much more purple on teevee than in that photo. In any case, they didn’t match either team’s color scheme and looked like shite.

•  Speaking of the world’s most accursed color, I thought it was a little odd that Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were both wearing purple ties. Ditto for Trent Dilfer over on ESPN. Coincidence, or was this one of those lupus-awareness campaigns (or whatever)?

• It’s hard to see, but a couple of readers noticed an odd crimp in Walt Anderson’s cap.

• At the very end of this John Clayton column about the Super Bowl match-up, there’s this line: “The other potential problem facing [Aaron] Rodgers is using the Super Bowl football, which has a painted spot that often causes problems for quarterbacks. Rodgers doesn’t think it will be a problem, but he can’t know for sure. [Ben] Roethlisberger has been through two Super Bowl games, so it shouldn’t be an issue for him.” Hmmmm. This “painted spot” is presumably a reference to the Super Bowl logo. I think “painted” is not an accurate term here, but I can absolutely confirm that the logo on the balls in Ada felt a little slick or slippery — I was surprised by that. Didn’t know it had ever been an issue with QBs, though.

• Party tricks: Reader Logan Light attended a Super Bowl party with Packers- and Steelers-themed cupcakes, Scott Peterson made a Packers cake, and someone who didn’t give his/her name was at a party with a very artfully arranged salad.

• When Darth Vader isn’t moonlighting in that annoying Passat ad, he’s rooting for the Packers.

• The storm troopers, however, are Steelers fans.

• If a product sits around on the shelf without selling for three years, it’s usually marked down. But not in Super Bowl-onomics. When Tim Reyes visited the NFL Experience on Saturday and bought a stuffed toy for his two-year-old daughter, he found it had been for sale at least since Super Bowl XLII and actually had its price marked up this year. (The toy in question, incidentally, appears to be this. Note that he’s wearing a baseball cap atop his football helmet. Overkill, methinks.)

• Mark Rybczyk attended the NFL Experience, too. “They had headless mannequins that you could pose behind and have your picture taken in your favorite team’s uniform,” he says. “Sadly, every mannequin featured all-white socks and a long-sleeve white cotton undershirt. So much for attention to detail.”

• The top five moments in Super Bowl history are much more interesting when animated in food.

• Here’s a super-detailed look at one of the Packers’ championship rings from Super Bowl I. The weird thing, at least to me, is the mash-up of the NFL and AFL logos on the side. Never noticed that before.

• And here’s a bit of a bombshell to go out on: As most of you probably know, Super Bowl I was broadcast by NBC and CBS, neither of which retained a tape of the game. So the reason you always see those same boilerplate highlights of Max McGee’s juggling catch is that there’s literally no other surviving footage to show. But now, in a major discovery, it looks like a tape of the game — most of it, anyway — has turned up. (Cue Ricko saying, “I remember that game like it was yesterday. I started with the CBS broadcast, but the signal was a little static-y and I didn’t feel like climbing up on the roof to adjust the antenna (most of you probably don’t realize every house had a TV antenna on the roof in those days — there was no internet either, just so you know), so I switched to NBC. And then…”)

And that’ll do it for this NFL season. Congrats to Chance, Jeff, Johnny O., and all our other Packer Backers, and condolences to Kek, RyCo, and the rest of the Yinzers. May all future Super Bowls be this aesthetically pleasing.

(My thanks to all contributors, including Geoff Poole, Rob McLaughlin, R. Scott Rogers, and Jason Greening.)

Uni Watch News Ticker: My in-box almost exploded on Friday afternoon when the Dodgers announced that they’d be letting fans vote on a new throwback to be worn for six weekday afternoon games this season (i.e., when nobody’s watching). I’d totally go for the blue satin uni, except that it won’t be rendered in satin, plus there’s no point in wearing a satin night uni for day games, so I’m officially endorsing the 1911 design with the CNOP (city name on placket). ”¦ New uniforms for Women’s Professional Soccer. ”¦ It’s not often that beautiful striped socks are the least interesting element of a baseball uniform, but take a look at the College of Siskiyous squad. That is one weird-ass uni, on so many levels (big thanks to Roshan Sathyanarayana). ”¦ The folks at Black Fives have put together a good photo archive. ”¦ Hockey sweaters and Jell-O pudding — two great tastes that taste great together (nice find by Joey Talbert). ”¦ The Puerto Rican team the Caribbean Series is wearing quite a variety of pants stripes (good spot by Jonathon Binet). ”¦ New baseball uniform for Rice. Has a swoosh ever looked more douchebaggishly out of place than it does against that old English typography? ”¦ Throwbacks on tap for Louisville hoops. “Hopefully they’ll look like these great ones they wore a few years ago,” says David Merrill. ”¦ The German Volleyball Federation has new uniforms and a new logo (as noted by Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ Also from Jeremy: The Kashima Antlers — that’s a Japanese soccer team — have new uniforms and a 20th-anniversary logo. ”¦ Here’s a weird one: Gene Upshaw kicking. “Was he ever a kickoff specialist?” asks Bill Kellick. Good question — anyone..? ”¦ New sleeve patch for the Giants’ road jerseys. Also, the team’s retail authentics being sold online show a new championshp sleeve patch, although I don’t know yet if that’s just a merch thing or if it’ll be worn on the field. ”¦ Back in December it was briefly reported, in the middle of a larger article that had nothing to do with uniforms, that the Broncos were hoping to go back to orange as their primary jersey color in 2012. Now we have confirmation. ”¦ Here’s a slideshow featuring lots of details of the Bucks’ new throwbacks (with thanks to Josh Dirkse). ”¦ I don’t usually talk about music here, but if you go to Apex Manor’s MySpace page and play “Teenage Blood,” you’ll hear what’s likely to go down as one of the best songs of 2011. ”¦ Sounds like an sketch from Portlandia, but it’s true: Some high schools in Oregon couldn’t afford pink-themed uniforms for cancer awareness, so a sporting goods dealer created a pink-trimmed uni set that rotates from school to school (with thanks to Mike McLaughlin). ”¦ Check this out: Back in 1961, Tennessee held an exhibition football game at a NASCAR track. “Today it’s evolved into a 165,000+ stadium, fourth-largest in the country,” says Jory Fleischauer. ”¦ ’Tis the season when we see lots of video clips about MLB teams loading up their gear for spring training (with thanks to Matt Robinson). ”¦ Interesting story about the design of the Colorado State alternate logo (with thanks to Ben Thoma). ”¦ The Clippers are embarking on an unusually long road trip, which has uni implications. For details, go here and search on the word “equipment” (with thanks to Matthew Wolfram). ”¦ Check out this crazy Illinois hockey jersey. Never seen a design treatment like that on a hockey uni. ”¦ The NYC Fire Dept. is replacing a bunch of heat-resistant gloves that weren’t so heat-resistant after all, and now the glove manufacturer is closing its factory. ”¦ Pretty cool video clips of the Predators’ ice surface being broken up and then replaced (with thanks to Lee David Wilds). ”¦ Miami hockey wore “BB” memorial jerseys on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the death of former student manager Brendan Burke. All of the jerseys had “Burke” as the NOB. ”¦ WBC super flyweight challenger Nobuo Nashiro quite an entrance costume for his bout over the weekend (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ This has to qualify as one of history’s greatest backplates. That’s Princeton’s Rachel Weber, who hails from Hudson, Wisconsin (major thanks to Tris Wykes). ”¦ Gibby Davis reports that George Canyon sang the national anthem at Saturday’s Flames/Kings game and had a special jersey with a musical note instead of a number. ”¦ Franken-pads sighting by Jimbo Huening, who writes: “Blackhawks center Dave Bolland was being interviewed during the first intermission of Friday night’s Chicago/Vancouver game. Looks like he was wearing extra padding (with huge Bauer logos) sewn on top of some Reebok shoulder pads.” ”¦ Check out the Jets-themed uniforms at Leeds High School in Alabama. “That’s where Charles Barkley attended,” says Jeff McClendon. ”¦ Sad, powerful story about high school football helmet safety (with thanks to Sean Kautzman). ”¦ D-League news from Tim Moore, who writes: “Saturday night was Blazers Affiliate night for the Idaho Stampede. The Stampede wore full Blazers home attire against the Reno Bighorns. Thought the readers might find an aging, laboring Antoine Walker in a Blazers jersey entertaining. All the players had sewn-on nameplates, with the exception of Armon Johnson, who’s on assignment with the team.” ”¦ The list of things that the new Lightning logo resembles just got a bit longer, because Allison Ambrous sent me this. “I only noticed it about a month ago,” she says, “but I would like to find out if it was used before Stevie Y left Motown for Tampa.” ”¦ Cass Hunt says a jersey that’s supposedly an LSU Amateur Armistice design has been making the rounds on the LSU message boards. I have no idea whether it’s legit, although my gut says nuh-uh. ”¦ Very cool non-uni-related item, vol. 1: My buddy Shane Arbogast spotted this awesome sign in a Manhattan shop yesterday. I love how they show the skeleton — you know, just in case you didn’t know what “Animal Bone” means. ”¦ Very cool non-uni-related item, vol. 2: I collect salesman sample catalogs, so I was particularly excited when I saw this suitcase that essentially acts as its own catalog. Was gonna bid on it, but it’s pretty tiny — only 15″ by 10″, which is more or less the dimensions of my laptop. Considered using it as a briefcase, but it isn’t even big enough for that. Seems more like a toy, not enough gravitas, etc., so I passed. Still a very neat item, though.