Uni Watch DIY Project: There’ll Be No Gronk-Spikes in This End Zone

With the Stupor Bowl right around the corner, reader Nick Schiavo didn’t want to leave any doubt regarding which team he’d be rooting for. So he decided to create a miniature Giants gridiron — or, rather, a part of a gridiron — in his back yard. Here’s how he did it.

My New York Football Giants Field

By Nick Schiavo

First I roped and staked out a field of 10 feet by 20 feet. Then I created four five-foot markers that would serve as the yard lines and goal lines and roped them off as well:

I began the painting process by spraying the end zone blue. This way the white boundary line, which I’d add next, would cover up any extra blue spray that went outside the lines:

Then I went and did the white sidelines. I made wooden stencils so that I could keep the sidelines tight and straight while spraying them. I placed the stencils on the outside edge of the rope lines and began spraying in sections:

From there I came across the field and did the yard lines and the hashmarks. The hashmarks were a bit tricky, as I had to find the center of the field and the center of the stencil. After I got those numbers, I then I had to calculate how to fit four pairs of hashmarks within the yardage lines:

Now it was time to do the yard marker numerals and the end zone logo. I had a “10” and the Giants’ classic “ny” blown up to the size I wanted at my local Staples — 18 inches high for the numerals and 24 inches high for the logo. I transferred the images onto cardboard and cut out the shapes with an Xacto knife to create stencils.

In the end zone, I staked down the cutout of the “ny” and trimmed it with red:

Next I took the rest of the “NY” stencil, laid it down over the red and filled it in with the white.

Then I did the yardage markers and added some directional arrows for good measure:

It was a lot of fun. I went through six cans of white paint, four Cans of blue and one can of red. I used Rust-Oleum marking spray paint, because it can be sprayed upside-down. I had to use the basic colors they offered, but luckily the blue looked very true to Giants blue when laid over the green grass.

In case you missed it, I had two ESPN columns yesterday — one about the new NBA All-Star uniforms and another about the unusual character who used to be the Patriots’ live mascot.

Philly rocks: The 2012 USA Curling Nationals will take place later this month slightly outside of Philadelphia, and Phil and I have decided to head on down for the semi-finals and finals, which will take place on Feb. 17 and 18. Several people I know will be competing: Dean Gemmell, who gave me and Phil our first curling lessons, is part of the fifth-seeded team; Craig Brown, who was my skip two years ago when I participated in the House of Hearts bonspiel, is skipping the second-seeded team; and Tyler George, who invited me to come to House of Hearts in the first place, is skipping the top-seeded team. If they all make the semi-finals, I’m gonna have a hard time deciding who to root for. Anyway, if anyone wants to join us, tickets are very inexpensive.

After the finals, we’ll repair to the Devil’s Den for a Uni Watch gathering — hope all Philly-area readers will join us there on Feb. 18, 6:30pm.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Giants are getting a new kind of helmet coating for Sunday’s game (from Terry Duroncelet). … Neglected to mention yesterday that the Timberwolves and Pacers both wore throwbacks on Wednesday night. ”¦ The Marlins have a strict short-hair policy, so Jose Reyes will have to cut his dreads — and his haircut is being televised on the MLB Network today. ”¦ This week’s New Yorker cover has a football theme. Naturally, the first thing that jumped out at me was the lack of TV numbers, but you’ve gotta like the striped socks and sleeved jerseys. … Here’s an excellent article, plus an audio report, on a shop that sells New York Police Department uniforms. ”¦ Good article about the nuances of spiking the football. ”¦ Illinois media relations guy Kent Brown did a live chat thingie the other day and was asked about those new helmet/uni photos that have been floating around. Key quote: “I know Coach is looking at several different options for both the helmet and uniform. We have to work with Nike on the uniform, and it may be too late to have something new for 2012, but you can expect changes of some kind on the helmet” (big thanks to Don Drever). … Camo has hit the world of wrestling singlets. That’s Elkhart Memorial High School in Indiana (from Steve Krah). … Dan Cichalski found an old New York Times article, from 2/25/44, about the Dodgers’ satin uniforms. “What stood out to me was the mention of a road cap that was supposed to be ‘light blue with white visors’ — nothing like that in the Okkonen illustrations for that era,” says Dan. … Hmmm, does Oklahoma State have orange helmets in the works? Could be (from Ryan Hartwig). … Totally love this new Peruvian soccer kit. Look at that collar! Very tasty (from T. Manfrass). … Longhorns coach Mack Brown had this to say about the two Malcolm Browns who’ll be playing on the team this fall: “We’ve got two really good Malcolm Browns now. So I don’t know what we’re going to do with the jersey names. Probably put ‘Ma’ on one. Figure out something to do with them” (from Ken Singer). … Good story on how the NFL will deal with the looming problem of Super Bowl L (from Aaron Rich). … Bill Murray wore a Giants uni on Letterman the other day (from Alan Tompas). … Here are some of New Era’s new NFL draft caps. “Much better then anything Reebok has put out in years,” says Spencer Seaner, damning with faint praise. … The ads-on-schoolbuses trope continues, this time in Houston. This is basically child abuse, and it’s horrendous civic policy to boot. Shame on everyone involved (from Paul B. Kennedy). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: UNLV added a memorial strip for former coach Charlie Spoonhauer the other night (from David Heit). … “I recently stumbled upon a tweet posted by a 2012 EMU football recruit showing a picture of new helmets and jersey templates, presumably for next season,” writes Scott Brockman. … “Chuck Hayes of the Sacramento Kings was named captain of the team in training camp but only started wearing a ‘C’ on his jersey on Saturday at Utah,” reports Dave Anderson). … Canadian remix: This music video shows a guy wearing a Blue Jays cap rendered in the old Expos beanie-cap colors — or, if you prefer, an old-style Expos cap with a Blue Jays logo. Either way, pretty cool (from Kellen Dargle). ”¦ Here’s the green BP jersey that the Mets will be wearing on St. Paddy’s Day. ”¦ New white football helmet for Southern University (from Prentice James). ”¦ Hey, it’s great that Nike can exploit Black History Month as a new way to sell sneakers. “All it really means is swooshie now has (what they consider to be a reasonable) excuse to do even more BFBS,” writes Jake Hurley. ”¦ Here’s your obligatory “Feds seize counterfeit Stupor Bowl merch” story that every media outlet is required by law to run this week (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Bill Kellick was watching a Cowboys/Cardinals game from 1970 and saw something interesting: There was a moment of silence for the Marshall football team, which had just perished in that plane crash, but the moment of silence took place after the two teams had lined up for the opening kickoff. Odd timing. ”¦ Some clever felons working in a prison design shop managed to sneak a pig into the logo that adorns Vermont State Police cars.

As for Sunday, I’ll be watching the game with Phil, and at some point we’ll raise a glass to our late fathers, both of whom were big Giants fans and would have loved to see their favorite team playing for another title. Whatever your Sunday plans are, enjoy the game, and don’t forget to watch the Puppy Bowl during halftime. Go Big Blue!