Great game last night, and I’m really happy for the Giants (and also for weekend editor Phil Hecken and webmaster John Ekdahl, both of whom are lifelong Giants fans), but this wasn’t exactly the most uni-notable Super Bowl. Just a few items worth mentioning:
• Several Giants had trouble with their Super Bowl logo patches. Victor Cruz’s was flapping in the breeze, Jason Pierre-Paul’s was torn, and Kevin Boothe’s fell off altogether.
• Players in the Giants secondary maintained their recent habit of wearing those tzitzis-like strings hanging down from underneath their jerseys.
• Giants offensive lineman David Diehl comes from Croatian ancestry, which explains why he was wearing a Hajduk Split scarf (that’s a Croatian soccer club) after the game.
• Did you catch the “NFL Timeline” commercial, with all the old uniforms and helmets? This is the ad that was supposedly going to stress player safety. I don’t think it really did that except as an afterthought (the message was basically, “Football is really great — oh, and everyone be safe out there), but it was still a very cool ad. Here, take another look:
I hope to be able to tell you more about this ad in a day or two. Stand by.
And there you have it — the last NFL game of the Reebok era. If I missed anything, you’ll let me know, right? Right.
(My thanks to Carlos Ahmed Jalife Ruz and Rick Rutherford for their screen shots.)
Party reminder: Uni Watch gathering in Philly next Saturday, Feb. 18, 6:30pm, at the Devil’s Den. See you there.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Jags will apparently be making black their primary color in 2013. … Here’s an excellent article about QB play-calling wristbands (from Dave Rakowski). … “I dropped off a truckload of donations at our local Goodwill and saw this helmet on top of a soda machine,” says Ryan Perkins. “I asked how much they wanted for it and the guy said, ‘Just go stick it in your car”¦thanks for the donations.’ Love the Dungard facemask, but no clue what team is represented by the logo.” … The Rangers have apparently added DKNY as a practice jersey sponsor (from Terence Kearns). … The WHL’s Vancouver Giants wore special jerseys to honor co-owner Gordie Howe on Friday (from Jeremy Davis). … Cal and Arizona played a very attractive color-on-color game last Thursday (from Ash Friederich). … Here’s a video clip of the Indians’ equipment manager talking about packing up the gear for spring training (thanks, Brinke). … No video, but Friday’s episode of Portlandia featured Fred and Carrie redesigning the Portland Police Department’s uniforms, to amusing effect. ”¦ Some college baseball teams have started their seasons, and at least one of them — Florida Southern — is wearing some killer striped stirrups. Also, it’s kinda striking to see a baseball player wearing No. 42, no? (From Wayne Koehler.) … Speaking of college baseball, Southeastern Louisiana is going solid gold (from Chris Mycoskie). ”¦ The Milwaukee Admirals wore 1980s Brewers-inspired uniforms on Friday (from Jeff Sachse). … Tom Brady knows a bad uniform when he sees it he’s wearing it. That’s from the 2006 Pro Bowl (nice find by Kevin Marcum). … Jonathan Mishory reports that WGN is still using a very outdated Bucks logo. … Kyle Beaudoi recently visited the Patriots Hall of Fame and took a bunch of photos. … Coupla good finds by Ricko: an excellent view of the old AFL orange-striped zebra uniforms, and a LeRoy Neiman painting of Broadway Joe and his stirrups. … Any idea why Chuck Cooper would have mismatched numbers on his jersey and shorts? (Thanks, Kek.) … Stu Bickel of the Rangers normally wears Easton gloves. Yesterday, however, he was wearing Warriors, and Luke Rosnick thinks he knows why: “The Rangers were wearing their Winter Classic sweaters. Bickel wasn’t on the Rangers’ roster on January 2 and probably doesn’t have his own set of Classic gloves (with the vintage cream in place of white). So he apparently borrowed Woltek Wolski’s for the game (you can just barely see the “86” on the right glove), since Wolski was just sent down to the Rangers’ AHL team in Hartford. I’m not sure if the red-on-red embroidery is intentional or if Bickel colored it in to be discreet.” … Several people flipped out when I posted a link to Ripon Athletic’s uniform designer in yesterday’s comments, so here it is again — enjoy. ”¦ Ilana Hardesty made this swell Super Bowl cake for yesterday’s game. ”¦ A bottomless pit of uni-notable designs — okay, uni-laughable designs — could be coming to an end if the NFL pulls the plug on the Pro Bowl. ”¦ Gators DT Damon Jacobs has Tweeted this new helmet design. “He said they’ll be wearing it for one game this season,” says Chase Scott. An Amateur Pacifist design, perhaps? ”¦ Speaking of college football helmets, looks like UNC may finally be ready to wear that white helmet on the field (from David Carter). ”¦ Duquesne wore some nice throwbacks on Saturday night (from Jim Vilk). ”¦ Here’s the best ad I’ve ever seen for those old helmets with the padded strip down the center (big thanks to Larry Bodnovich). ”¦ Something called the Faith Bowl — described as “a roundtable discussion by sports celebrities about the challenges of living the Catholic faith amidst the glitz and glamour of professional sports” — uses a knock-off of the Super Bowl logo. And yes, that’s Vin Scully moderating (from Ryan Jenkins). ”¦ Really been digging the superb new Cate Le Bon album. I’ll be seeing her play a solo in-store set tonight at Other Music and plan to check out her full band on Thursday night at the Mercury Lounge. First reader to say hi to me at either show gets a free set of Uni Watch stickers.
Two nit-picks:
That scarf looks like more a generic “New York – Croatia” than a Hadjuk Split scarf to me. Yes the logo is similar but that’s doesn’t make it a Croatian team scarf.
Why is a “Color-on-color” game with a team wearing Gold Uni-Notable? Haven’t the Lakers been doing that for almost 50 Years?
As a Lakers fan, that’s why when I see gold vs. whatever, I go “meh.”. Now Saturday’s game between Oklahoma State and Baylor was a real color-vs-color game to me.
The Croatian national team wears a similar design as well.
+1 on scarf. Looks generic. He also has a Croatia flag-like shield on his arm.
link
Yes, and many college teams have worn gold/yellow (e.g. USC or Michigan) or silver/gray (e.g. Georgetown or Ohio State) as a home uniform for many years. Anything to that right of those colors on the spectrum is a true colorful matchup.
Is red vs. gold uni-notable? Prolly not, but here’s yet link.
If it is non-white then it’s color. Just because a few teams have been doing it well for a long time doesn’t mean it doesn’t count.
It counts. It’s just not news.
I don’t think anyone’s actually saying it’s not color-vs.-color.
It’s more that gray/yellow/gold in place of white may not really be worth pointing out because it happens so often.
Actually, Stu Bickel WAS on the Rangers roster for the Winter Classic. He made his debut on Dec. 20, and in the Winter Classic had 14 shifts and 8:17 of ice time.
Here’s a link to his game log from NHL.com – link
Yeah, good call, should have looked that up. After more digging that I should have done, I found that he was wearing Warrior gloves on the day of the outdoor game too. link
I can’t tell from that shot if those are Wolski’s or not. Every other photo I can find of him has him in Easton gloves.
That NFL history/safety commercial is chock-full of some of the worst football acting I’ve ever seen.
Did you by chance catch the 2012 Pro Bowl?
+1 XP
I was wondering about Diehl’s scarf.
Actually, I was sort of hoping it was some sort of new championship merch. American football needs more proper football scarves.
The scarf has got nothing to do with Hajuk Split.
Red-white-checked is the pattern on the Croatian coat of arms and every second Croatian club has got it in the logo (and the top league in Croatian soccer, and the Croatian soccer association, and…)
… “I dropped off a truckload of donations at our local Goodwill and saw this helmet on top of a soda machine,'” says Ryan Perkins. “I asked how much they wanted for it and the guy said, ‘Just go stick it in your car…thanks for the donations.’”…
The RB on the helmet represents an amusing semi-pro team from the 1970s who called themselves the Rationalist Bigots. Based in central Jersey, the RBs were founded by a bunch of graduate student ex-college-gridders working at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. The name comes from an encounter between one of the team founders and a self-described “highly-spiritual” friend who basically believed that any example of coincidence revealed the hidden designs of a higher level of consciousness and will. When the gridder demurred, and asked for evidence from control-group, double-blind experiments, the spiritualist said: “You’re just a rationalist bigot!” The name quickly became popular among the Princeton scientific set, and so when the semi-pro team was formed, the choice of a team name was a no-brainer. As it were.
Working on that novel, are ya, Conn?
Every word — including “the” and “but” — is completely true.
Ironic in that it doesn’t include “but”.
What!?
Chicken but?
For “but” to be true, it would need first to be present. Since it’s absent, assertion of its truthfulness is rather ironic.
My most fave blog mentioned recently (last week or maybe the week before) “every word she writes is a lie including ‘and’ and ‘the'”. Must be something in the air.
I wonder if they ever played the Rice Mathematics Department’s club team. The Eulers.
I was gonna guess Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, MO
Those are the right colors for that.
colors and letters matched!
Thanks Dwight and Winter, as well as special props to Matthew (who sent me an email via PL) on my very cool early 70’s Rock Bridge (Columbia, MO) football helmet. Glad to know its origin!
Connie, keep swingin’…
Wow, thanks for the great info. on this helmet Connie. For what it’s worth, that is the first version of the Dungard DG 210 mask, circa 1972-73.
Jacksonville going FULL BFBS for 2013? smh I didn’t think they could make any changes until 2014 anyways, as it will be five years then.
In the meantime, I think the NFL needs to ban teams from wearing black jerseys that don’t have a real need to wear them. The Steelers, Raiders, and Saints should be allowed since their other main colors wouldn’t make a good solid jersey color. (The Saints wear their white jerseys at home a lot anyways.) The Bengals, though I would prefer they wore some sort of orange jersey full-time, has historically worn black and should be allowed by default.
To the rest of the NFL? Their black jerseys should either be relegated to third jersey status (Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Jacksonville) or NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN (Arizona, Detroit, Philadelphia, every NFL team that before 2002 has NEVER used black). I know the Falcons do have their throwbacks as their third uniform and the Lions officially dropped the black alts in 2009, but still…
Re: Jacksonville going BFBS
Q. Why does the St. Johns River flow North?
A. Because Jacksonville sucks!
(being a native, BFBS fits the town like a decaying pick-up being overgrown by weeds)
Well, being a Steelers fan back in Pittsburgh, we’ve always accused the Jags of ripping us off, dating back to the time we were in the AFC Central together and the fact that Jacksonburgh has a large amount (even by our standards) of Steeler fans due to the military bases down there. The Jags have always been a defensive team, and during the Tom Coughlin days they would sign our practice squad guys the week before we played them. Now they’re going to have black jerseys like us. If they end up having the Northwestern-style stripes on the “sleeves” and have the Jaguars logo on one side of the helmet, then they are truly trying to become “Steelers South”.
It’s not really black for black’s sake, since black is a main team color. What it is, is stupid. Remember that not all BFBS looks bad and not all bad-looking black uniforms are BFBS.
*This*. Ordinarily, I’m a sane man, but I do have a tendency to favor black at the cost of logic.
Ravens are black, so Baltimore should be another team that always wear that color.
I guess the Lions should be wearing tan, and the Bears should be wearing brown, then, as should the Eagles? The Dolphins should probably be in grey, and I don’t know what color the Broncos should be, but it certainly isn’t blue or orange.
Does a team named after an animal need to be the same color as the animal? No.
Is the animal’s appearance a good justification for choosing a color? Yes.
Quit being a troll.
“Does a team named after an animal need to be the same color as the animal? No.”
Which is exactly why purple is a fine color choice for the team.
“Is the animal’s appearance a good justification for choosing a color? Yes.”
Not when one of the two most famous of all black-clad football teams plays in its own division.
No surprise about the Jaguars going with a new design. The 2009 change had to have been the most tepidly-recieved uniform in NFL history; even the monochrome Bills’ getup had its followers. Yet another example of a team getting it right the first year and screwing it up with each successive tweak.
During the Deion segment of the NFL Evolution video it says “1990” on the Faux-lton County field. That was actually the first year the Falcons wore black.
Falcons wore black the first few years of their existence.
The Jags’ uniform is in no way even remotely as ugly as the Bills’ foray into navy blue.
The UF helmet tweeted by Mr. Jacobs is one hideous piece of headwear. I hope they change their minds and it never sees the playing field. There are historical blue helmets the Gators could wear that are much better than that.
If you look at the Florida helmet picture, the orange does not appear to be a center-strip. I could be wrong, but it actually looks as though half the helmet is blue and the other half is orange.
Not this again. It’s clearly a center stripe. Why would the other half of the helmet be raised above the blue half? You can definitely see the orange portion of the helmet has a ‘thickness’ to it, much like helmet tape would. The orange also comes farther over than a true center split would, and why, if you were going to split a helmet, would you do it so close to the center, but clearly off center?
i’m finally coming to terms with college football and the 1-off traditionless unis. :(
Of course, Curtis and the Helmet ‘Hut’ Hut had a hand at the NFL Evolution commercial. Fantastic job! Love the Ollie Matson run, and Ray Lewis narrating.
link
Helmet Hut is one of the best websites out there, but the design of it is beyond frustrating. I wish I knew more about web design so I could donate some time to helping them bring their visual on par with their content.
The AFL refs wore orange, not red.
Yeah, you’re right. I’ll change that.
The AFL refs definitely were in orange/white stripes from 1960-1964. When they returned numbers to the backs in 1965, the orange definitely took on more of a reddish hue for the 1965-66-67 years.
AFL refs then wore what the NFL officials wore in 1968 and 1969 (w/o the 50/NFL patch in ’69).
The Atlanta Braves have OFFICIALLY announced the cream uniforms that we all knew were coming. Here’s how they will be scheduled (according to @AJCBraves):
“The new attire will serve as an alternate uniform for home games and won’t replace any of the other four uniforms currently worn by the Braves. The initial plan is to wear it for Saturday and Sunday home games.
The Braves’ red jerseys worn for Sunday home games in recent years will be switched to Friday home games, said Derek Schiller, Braves executive vice president of sales and marketing. Traditional white home uniforms will be worn Monday through Thursday.”
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…and here’s how it looks on Jason Heyward…
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I always thought that script looked better reversed. Way too many teams have red scripts/wordmarks.
Why can’t the blue outline on the numerals be the same thickness as the one on the lettering?
Because that would look clunky.
If they’re trying to go with political correctness by not bringing back Chief Noc-A-Homa on the jersey sleeve, then why don’t the Braves ditch the Tomahawk chop as well?
“The new attire will serve as an alternate uniform for home games and won’t replace any of the other four uniforms currently worn by the Braves.”
I don’t know baseball anymore. That’s not a team it’s a goddamned fashion boutique.
It was just a few years ago, too, that the Braves had their standard home and away uniforms, and an occasional “Turn Back the Clock” night. That was it. They were like the Yankees, Cardinals, and Tigers.
Now? You know, I noticed these changes came after Ted Turner lost control of Time Warner, although I do believe that the red jersey was already out before Time Warner sold the team to Liberty Media. The Red Sox are heading that way, too.
Hard to believe the Pirates of all teams are starting to got a little more conservative. Yes, they do wear their black jerseys from time to time, but it seems like it’s in the same manner as the Cubs wearing the blue jerseys, since the Bucs do wear them both at home and on the road on no specific day of the week.
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I love these unis…just go with the solid navy cap, or give me a red outline around that white “A!”
“I love these unis…
just go with the solid navy cap, or give me a red outline around that white “A!”“(Fixed)
#PutAnEndToTheAllNavyBravesCap
The new creams are nice, though.
That would be a perfectly good uniform … for a team that didn’t already look like the Atlanta Braves. The script works better with the tomahawk than a headspoon, and even though the Braves have lately done everything in their power to sabotage what had been the most consistent and distinctive home/road styline in baseball, they still sort of look like the Braves most of the time. In this jersey, they’ll look slightly less like the Braves.
Throwbacky cream home alternates are becoming the new BFBS. It’s a lose/lost proposition. Either the cream alts are a downgrade, so why bother (Atlanta), or they’re markedly better than what the team regularly wears (Cleveland), so why confine the good unis to an alt?
I also see WGN use the old black and orange NHL logo every morning. Well, every morning that I’m on time.
“Boradway Joe”? Is that an intentional typo?
*Jaguars all black – Awesome. Now you’re just like the Saints/Ravens/Cardinals. Way to go. Monochrome League in 2018.
I really enjoyed the NFL Evolution commercial. My favorite part was the fat 1989 Deion Sanders. He was wearing what is in my opinion, the best version of the Falcons uniforms.
The entire league will never go monochrome. The Steelers are certainly one team that won’t go that route.
Just exaggerating. Now way PIT changes. Those are one of the excused ‘black’ teams. I just wonder what goes through the minds of those in charge of these changes. I know it’s all opinion but man, each team should have its unique identity. I look at the Jags’ expansion uniform and thought to myself, what the hell was wrong with it? Ugh.
Same with the damn Saints. When the planets align, they wear those awesome 70s unis. It’s like a girl that was once pretty all of a sudden decides to go goth, pisses people off, decides to clean-up, shows off her original beauty and drops the jaws of many. All this of course a tease because she eventually just goes back to being a goth. Lazy.
Yeah, we can tolerate the occasional experimentation of the Pirates and Penguins (see the Bucs’ “Bumblebee” years and the entire period the Pens used the “flying Penguin” logo), and we even allow monochrome on the AFL’s Pittsburgh Power.
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But the Steelers? We like to keep our tradition there. Unchanged since 1968–except for the jersey numbers, which need to go back to block-style.
I hope your’re right. Fortunately, my Packers tried the mono look once, in a link. They know better now. ;)
Yeah there’s just some teams that have common sense, like the Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, etc…
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link I usually blame it on the “one coach per year” policy of Dan Snyder.
Yeah there’s just some teams that have common sense, like the Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, etc…
Cowboys? Pfft. Maybe when they figure out what shade of blue they want to be. Yeah, they don’t wear a mono-dark uniform… but they’re still a big mess.
/Why does everyone hate mono-dark uniforms anyway?
good grief.
never saw that shot before.
“Boradway Joe”? Is that an intentional typo?
No. Will fix now.
“My favorite part was the fat 1989 Deion Sanders.”
Yea right, I thought he looked a little chunky.
Gayle Sayers was fat too!
And they just had to include the industry standard football acting “player gets flipped completly head over heels” shot (Cowboy Charlie Waters I belive). yeeesh.
You know, it’s hard to believe Gayle Sayers retired 40 years ago. Considering his age, he looks like he can still play.
My apologies if previously posted, but the NY Times did an interesting – if non-uni accurate – infographic this past weekend:
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I like that they put the Eagles players in a kelly green uni, as God intended.
If that’s what God intended, then why did they start out wearing yellow (sorry, “gold”) and blue?
/This God character sure makes a lot of mistakes
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Off topic – does anyone here happen to know of a company that makes good-quality custom-embroidered wrist bands? We’d like to make something like 14-15 pairs with each player’s number for our softball team.
I’ll check back on this thread later to see if anyone wrote back. Thanks!
I might be wrong about this, bu did anybody else catch the Patriots player whose hair was coming out of one of the vent holes in his helmet? I don’t watch a lot of football–is that common?
Yeah, I saw that! Danny Woodhead.
It wasn’t Coolio was it??
Not really all that common since the leaguehas started to adopt helmets with bigger vents.
Just a bit puzzled why there’s no critique of the unis for the LFL final ;)
Was watching the Costas State of the NFL show on NBC Sports Saturday night and was rather amused by Jerry Jones’ suggestion that one was to cut down on head and neck injuries was to remove the facemask, saying that would keep people from sticking their head in.
And the Gators Amateur Pacifist helmet looks like something designed in the late 90s and sold in cheap plastic versions at Wal-Mart.
Jerry Jones said that?
He says one intelligent thing in a quarter-century and I missed it.
I firmly believe that the only way to really cut down on these injuries is to reduce padding and the corresponding sense of invincibility.
Modern leatherheads all the way, or plastic shells with minimal padding and no facemasks, if helmet logos indeed are that essential to the game.
Forgive me Costas fans, but he seems to be getting more pompous with each passing day.
I feel like I should be addressing him as Mr. Costas anymore.
The NFL safety commercial did a nice job representing the great kick returners through the decades…I tried to figure out who each guy was and who they were playing against:
20’s Bears(Paddy Driscoll?-I think he wore #1 with them) vs. ?
30’s Giants(HOF’er Red Badgro wore #17, not sure if he returned kicks) vs.(lt. blue team before the lions?)
40’s Packers(Tony Canadeo) vs. Eagles, 50’s Rams(Ollie Matson) vs. Browns
60’s Bears(Gale Sayers) vs. Packers, 70’s Broncos(Rick Upchurch) vs. Cowboys,
80’s Lions(Mel Gray) vs. 49ers, 90’s Falcons(Deion Sanders-I know,’89 uni)vs. Redskins
00’s-present Bears(Devin Hester) vs. Vikings
Here’s another uni anachronism.
Since Devin Hester’s been in the league, the Vikings have never worn the uniform used in the commercial.
I noticed that too… Kind of odd.
Yeah, but they got the Packers’ 1940s uniforms wrong.
Sheesh – link? ;)
Cool find on EBay. Quebec Nordiques Sakic jersey with the proposed new logo they were going to use before they moved to Colorado. 95-96 season.
link
Not sure if this is real as I’ve never seen a jersey template, only the logo.
Seller says it’s made by Hockey Heritage, so it’s clearly not authentic.
But, as far as I know, that’s what the home jersey link.
Depends on your definition of “real,” I guess.
James is right. I’ve only seen two “new” Nordiques uniforms that were made by CCM (who held the contract to make the uniforms at that time). The white home jersey was behind glass while the other road dark jersey was wrapped in tissue paper and stored in a locking box with no sunlight to fade the colours.
It might be real in terms of the way it looks – and it is convincing – but CCM owned the contract to make them.
I was always disappointed they moved. But after seeing that “upgrade” I’m glad they did.
Indeed. That thing screams minor league baseball.
It’s no surprise that the Jaguars would change to all-black. Just look at indoor football leagues and all the black. Whenever there is a new team or owner or gm, they come in and want to look tough and bad ass, so they get black uniforms. The problem is that this isn’t an original thought, so everyone thinks they are the tough guys and in the end, everyone wears black.
The same thing is happening in Jacksonville, where a new owner comes in and wants to make them look tough just like in ’90 with Glanville and the Falcons. Unfortunately, too many fans love the black look. I’ve even had Packer fan friends tell me that the Pack should have a black jersey. NO!!! It’s unfortunate because going back to the 20’s, it was the team colors that gave the teams their identity and the Steelers were the only(!!) black team for so long.
Sometimes, when black is paired with another color, it makes visual sense, it looks good, when it is the dominant color. IMO
I personally can’t stand teal. I have a real aversion to it. It is a color without personality or a point of view. Lifeless. If Jacksonville wants to make black their primary color, I say do it. But get it right.
The Steelers, Bengals, Saints and Falcons all began with black jerseys. And they were right to do so. When paired with yellow, gold, orange and red, black looks great as the primary color. Better than the opposite, with these colors. Honestly, it never occured to me that it made a team look tougher. It just made their jerseys look…nice.
When the LA Kings made the overhaul from purple/yellow to black/silver, it looked good (though it was a strange, unnecessary move). Same with the White Sox. Black and silver looks good, with silver as an accent color. The San Antonio Spurs look good in black with silver accent (not so good in predominately silver). It’s got nothing to do with perceived toughness.
The Colorado Rockies and Baltimore Ravens entered with black and purple but made the mistake of featuring the black (and coming up with poor designs in general, imo). Those colors clash. Same with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Dark blue and black clash.
Black is a fine team color. A fine dominant team color. And if someone wants to associate it with toughness, well, that’s their illusion, god love ’em. Just pair it with a decent complimentary color.
And don’t introduce black into your team’s uniform when it is not a team color. That’s clearly the law!
Just a hunch, but i think FL Southern’s stirrups may have something to do with the brand of cleats they are wearing.
Looks like Paul go his wish
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#FireWayneHagin
this is old news…..
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It is *not* old news. It’s been hinted at, gossiped, etc., but as far as I’m concerned it isn’t a done deal until the hiring of the new guy is formally announced. Until then, Hagin is still the incumbent. Fire Wayne Hagin already!
NO! Keep him! As long as he has a job I know he’s not coming back to the Cardinals!
I’m involved with the St. Paul Winter Carnival, and tradition is for each vulcan crewe to have a hockey jersey for their year. In 2000 the vulcans modeled their’s after the St. Paul Fighting Saints:
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Cool!
-Jet
Also, Hey Vikings! It’s not that hard to design a decent looking uniform!
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Please excuse a question from a “heretic” who’s not into football, or at least modern football, but why did the Giants wear their red-on-white throwback jerseys when they’ve always been known as “Big Blue” because their primary uni color is blue??
-Jet
That’s been their standard road jersey for the past few seasons.
Why? Because they’re dumb. Once upon a time, they wore blue and red fairly equally – then TV came along and the NFL forced them to use white jerseys. So, they used red numbers to keep the blue & red theme. Eventually they realized that look didn’t work and they switched to blue numbers, and everything was good. Then for whatever reason, in 2000 they decided to fauxback to the 60’s, first wearing red numbers that had a blue outline, then switching in 2005 to the historically accurate and stupidly mismatched throwback they wear now.
My thoughts on the matter, from four years ago:
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Do the Giants road unis make much sense? No. Do they look cool? Yup. I like them.
And they won’t be changing anytime soon given that they’ve won two Super Bowls in them. Fort what it’s worth, I alwys loved the look of the current away unis.
And they won’t be changing anytime soon given that they’ve won two Super Bowls in them. Fort what it’s worth, I alwys loved the look of the current away unis.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. They won 2 Super Bowls (also 4 years apart, oddly enough) in the GIANTS helmets. That didn’t stop them from changing those.
“Big Blue” was borrowed from IBM’s moniker. It was the fans and media applying that corporation’s appellation to the football team.
It did not originate with the Giants, nor has the club ever (to my knowledge) officially referred to itself in such a fashion. As such, it fun and appropriate.
But, while fans and the media may think of the team as “Big Blue” there is little if any indication that the team has ever considered itself as being all about blue.
Said this yesterday. Always thought the Giants returning to their look of the late ’50s/early ’60s was a way of positioning themselves alongside the Yankees as the NY teams that have been around the longest…playing for NFL titles before the Jets even existed, back to the GGEP and before.
Not so much to convey superiority, but rather constancy. To take the position of being the team that has endured.
Not a bad move, actually.
I think you’re reading too much into it.
The 1994 season made throwback uniforms cool. It started an ongoing trend. The ’96 49ers were “inspired by” the ’94 throwback. The Jets went retro in ’98. The Giants were just following their lead in 2000. We also had the Chargers wear the powder blue for a game that year. Then the floodgates opened for both throwback uniforms and alternate jerseys in general. From 2001 to 2004 we had Thanksgiving throwbacks (Lions, Packers, Broncos, etc), we had alts based on old looks (Browns, Cowboys, etc) plus the Colts bringing back gray masks. There was more focus on accuracy as well. So it was only natural for the Giants to switch from the retro white jersey to the proper throwback one.
In short, they did it because everyone else was doing it.
I think you’re reading too much into it. Sure some teams hopped the throwback bandwagon, but the Giants are one of the few that did it full time and have stuck with it thus far.
They just happen to share a building, and compete for attention with, one of those other clubs.
So maybe was the other way around. Once they did it, they realized what they had accomplished.
We shouldn’t give them too much credit, I suppose.
But we should give them too little, either.
(dammit)
We SHOULDN’T give them too little, either.
Something you don’t see nearly enough of in high school football. Team striped socks. Judson (TX) Rockets
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Bad link. Here is the new one.
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Also Found this:
link
It’s weird to see Pflugerville HS (the team that was the Dillon Panthers on NBC’s Friday Night Lights) wearing Nike instead of Under Armour. You think UA would have given them a deal since the show was using their field and they were making the unis anyway…
So… we have seen a black matte football helmet with link. But, as I was looking at link last night, I realized a shiny black helmet with matte stripes might be pretty wicked (with full color proper team logo, of course!).
Good call! I wouldn’t mind taking that Corvette for a spin either, regardless of the striping. :)
I don’t get IFC, and therefore don’t watch Portlandia, but I truly hope they didn’t redesign the uniforms of the Portland Police Department. That would have been factually incorrect, as it’s called the Portland Police Bureau. And yes, I know that only us Portlanders would notice or care!
Do people actually refer to it as the police bureau?
Cuz, like, for example, Illinois doesn’t have a Department of Motor Vehicles. You go to the Secretary of State’s Driver Services Department to get your driver’s license. But I hear people refer to it as “the DMV” all the time.
Portlandia is one of the funniest things on TV right now (but I’m biased, because I’m a huge Fred Armisen fan). The show is all tongue-in-check/pseudo sketch comedy.
Osi Umeniyora had the pink vector on his shoulder last night. photo here link
Had the “NFL Safety” ad not been mentioned here, I probably wouldn’t have known what the commercial was intended to address.
In fact, the commercial was confusing (even having an idea what the subject matter was supposed to cover). At one point, Ray Lewis makes a comment about the advent of the facemask, followed quickly by the “don’t grab my facemask” rule…then the image goes to a player making a horsecollar tackle and Lewis saying something to the effect of “what will we think of next?”.
This left me thinking “Hmmm, is he saying that players are thinking about a way around the horsecollar rule, or the league is thinking about equipment to prevent horsecollar tackles? Is that equipment even possible or practical? Is this commercial about the history of the NFL? The history of the rules? Equipment? I wanna see the Flava-flav Pepsi commercial again!”.
Oh well, better luck next time.
And those all gold baseball unis are horrible.
Just for the sake of clarity regarding the Philly meet-up, is it next Saturday the 11th or in two Saturdays, the 18th? What all goes on at a meetup?
The 18th. People meet and greet, yak, drink, say, “It’s great to hang out with other people who Get Itâ„¢,” etc.
I think I have read here that Riddell is the official helmet outfitter for the NFL. I know a lot of players choose to wear a different helmet for whatever reasons, but it seems like the Giants have a way higher percentage of players going non-Riddell. There were a ton of Schutt helmets on the field last night.
Speaking of which, is there going to be an official helmet brand in the future? I remember hearing that as soon as the Riddell contract expired (and I believe it has, now), the NFL would decline to renew the contract or to sign a similar contract with any helmet brand.
(Apparently, even though “official helmet” only means “no helmet brand can be displayed, except for our brand, because we paid big bucks,” it has a false connotation of “the NFL selects this helmet as superior.” As a result, it may be wise to avoid the conflict of interest between “official helmet” and “but it’s still not concussion-proof, and you may actually be better protected with another helmet.” Couldn’t you smell the liabilities and litigation a mile away?)
A link for the NFL/Riddell contract…
Quick question: Anyone know when NFL coaches began wearing headsets, and/or who was the first to do so?
Here’s a photo of Dick Vermeil with one in 1980:
link
Not completely on point and no pic, but a reference to Tommy Prothro using one as an NCAA coach in 1960: link
Leads me to believe that it would be pretty early
Here’s one undated of Tom Landry. By the looks of the mic, that seems to be rather old. Sorry, no actual date though:
link
Here’s a 1977 photo of one in use from link.
Here’s a 1972 photo of Packers QB coach link wearing one.
At one time I knew the answer to this. I was a cord-jocky for most of my time as an equipment manager in college as we still used wired Porta-Phone headsets. The NFL started using the headphone as a sideline communication device not long after it was used on the college level with much success. 1961/62-ish.
And Packers head coach link, which would make this 1968-70 (that’s the Super Bowl II ring on his finger, dating this to his time as HC).
Chuck Noll wearing a pretty ancient headset in this 1970’s shot: link
I found this passage in David Maraniss’ book “When Pride Still Mattered”:
(O)nce the game started, the joke on the team was that Lombardi was the most useless guy on the sideline. Starr called the plays for the offense. Bengtson called them for the defense. Lombardi never wore a headset. Red Cochran, the offensive coach in the press box, was afraid to call down to Lombardi for fear he would snap at him on the phone. “All Lombardi would do,” said Gary Knaflec, “was stand there and holler.” Hornung thought his coach “wasn’t worth a crap during the game. He was an observer. A kibbitzer. All you’d hear is, link” He was always on the go, striding up and down the sideline, watching the down markers, yapping away at the officials, correcting every call. The game itself was the superficial part of coaching for Lombardi. He had already done his work getting his team prepared.
Forgot to mention: emphasis mine, natch.
I never saw Vikings head coach Bud Grant without s headset on the sidelines. Since he started in Minnesota in 1967, I think there’s a good chance he was one of the first – if not THE first – head coach to wear a headset full time.
Also one of the first head coached to eschew the dress shirt and tie look on the sidelines.
Was anybody else really bothered by HGI’s link last night?
They looked great at the beginning of the game, but by the second half the linemen’s helmets were looking beat all to hell. They showed off every impact mark. This is the best pic I can find:
link
Just awful.
I think all helmets will tend to do that, but the HGI coating was intended to eliminate the resulting chipped paint. Now all you get are scuff marks.
I don’t remember any helmets doing it to the extent we saw last night.
Paul, has this chipping thing really been a significant problem for the Giants?
Jags going to ALL BLACK ? I bet Nike puts some sweet secondary colors on it with stripes and what-not.
Unless they do a full redesign, it’ll just be a color-swapped version of their teal jersey. So, white numbers with a teal outline and teal & white piping/trim/whatever you want to call it.
The word on the street is that the Jags will add a black version of their current jersey this season, and it will most likely be as you described, but the full all-black redesign will come in 2013.
So I’m in the middle of writing an article for Yahoo! Voices, and I’m coming up with the greatest Pittsburgh-related stars by number. I’m doing 34 for former Steelers linebacker Andy Russell, and I found an image of a trading card of him link Considering that the Steelers replaced the “Batman” unis with the current look in 1968, followed by Chuck Noll coming on the following year and gutting the roster immediately, there wasn’t too many players that wore the “Batman” uniforms with the Steelers that was part of their Super Bowl-era teams. Aside from Russell (who was part of the first two teams), I think Ray Mansfield and Dick Hoak were the only other Steeler players who wore the “Batman” uniforms that later won a Super Bowl with the team, and in Hoak’s case he was already coaching.
Call me crazy, but I’m preeeetty sure Ohio State’s nickname isn’t ‘Huskers’ (courtesy of Lost Lettermen) – link
What is it with the Huskers?
I probably mentioned this here before, but I bought my wife a Wisconsin sweatshirt at some shop in Madison about 15 years ago. I had no idea it was reversible, but when I gave it to her, she turned it inside-out and there was a Nebraska logo on it.
That’s some quality workkidship right there.
Yesterday somebody asked about this picture from the article
link
At first my guess was Giants vs Cards. But TimmyB and Phil said Giants vs Eagles.
I do remember seeing Davey O’Brien on the Eagles in unis like the ones with white helmets. So that makes more sense.
The other day for Super Bowl Media day,the papers mentioned a guy in old style football uni. I looked for a picture but no luck.
Was that discussed here last week?
Paul is absolutely right in that it wasn’t the most uni-notable Super Bowl but I would take it a step further and say it was arguably the most aesthetically boring Super Bowl in recent memory.
The uniforms themselves were fine (and covered extraordinarily well this past weekend, bravo on that guys)but the field, banners and signage had zero character. Granted, the logos and color schemes of the past have not always been the most aesthetically pleasing but at least they had some character and were identifiable if not to the city at least to the design trends of the era.
The NFL has over-branded themselves so much that they have sterilized any creativity of the host city and left us with a boring logo to be just stamped on any location of their choosing. Worst of all in era of roofed mega stadiums with neutral blue seats and field-turf fields, Super Bowls in Detroit, Indianapolis, Dallas etc. are all going to look the same.
But at least the fine folks at the NFL took the time to use two different shades of blue for the end zones.
bring back the city-centric SB logos.
and kill the Pro Bowl.
New retro jersey fro Braves won’t have Indian sleeve patch.
link
The Nets are breaking out their ABA, New York Nets throwbacks tonight against the Bulls.
link
Beautiful.
Jerry Richardson made another one of his phone calls to a fan, does any other owner do that? And this blog was posted by Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer. Let the speculation continue…
link
I’m pretty sure Donté Whitner of the Buffalo Bills had a “fan phone.”
Plus there’s that newfangled gadget mumbo-jumbo website out there…what’s it called? Twatter?
I’d imagine the numbers in the link don’t match because it was just a publicity photo where they used whatever clothing was handy.
Jags can rot in hell.
On the video where brady says the pro bowl uniforms suck link
if you go to the 3:20 mark you can see an ADIDAS logo creep on the patriots uniforms. When was that?
Ripon? Wow. Finally figured out how the world works in uniform design? Frickin’ douchebags!