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Monday Morning Uni Watch

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Oh man, all that pink yesterday. You’d think I’d have gotten used to it as a standard October thing by now, but I seem to have less tolerance for it than ever. And the thing is, it’s not even pink — it’s more like fuchsia or magenta, a really rich, saturated tone that clashes with almost everything And when it doesn’t clash too badly, like for a team that wears a lot of red or orange, it’s just as bad, because it looks like the color settings on your TV are off. I hate it. Hate it. It seriously diminishes my enjoyment of the games. My favorite two teams, the Niners and Giants, are playing each other next week, and I should be all excited to see that, but instead I’m dreading how awful it’s gonna look and wishing they’d been scheduled to meet up in November instead. If they have to do this, can’t they go back to the system in which each team has one serious pinked-out home game, instead of doing it for every October? At least October has only four Sundays this year (last year it had five, a calendar quirk that will come up again in 2016 and ’17). Still, it’s a fucking nightmare out there.

Okay, end of rant. Here’s the rest of uni-notable news from yesterday:

• In a fairly major development that several readers spotted right away, the officials’ jerseys had a new typeface yesterday. The old font had been used during the first few weeks of the season by the replacement zebras, and it was also used last week when the real officials returned to action. The new font, which is called Orbit and is used by the NFL for a lot of its branding, isn’t bad per se, but it’s not a good fit for NFL officiating crews. The font is sleek and modern, while the officials are middle-aged and stodgy. Bad move.

• We got our first look at black as the Jags’ new primary jersey color. Not the worst look ever, but a huge drop down from what they once had. More pics here.

• With Colts head coach Chuck Pagano sidelined by leukemia, Reggie Wayne showed his support by wearing orange gloves and an orange mouthguard during the Colts/Packers game (orange is the leukemia-awareness color, just like pink is for breast cancer). Also, members of both teams wore “Chuckstrong” T-shirts prior to the game.

• This isn’t history’s clearest screen shot, but Cleveland running back Trent Richardson suffered a badly torn sleeve during the first half of yesterday’s Browns/Giants tilt.

• The Bengals wore solid black — well, except for the pink parts.

• The Bills started wearing white helmets last season. But the 49ers didn’t get the memo, at least judging by this ticket from yesterday’s game.

Turning to Saturday’s college action, you should begin by checking out Phil’s post from yesterday. Once you’re done with that, here are some additional tidbits:

• Penn State defensive tackle Jordan Hill was missing his NOB.

• Oregon linebacker Derrick Malone Jr. has an unusual JrOB, with a lowercase letter.

• Several notes regarding Cincinnati: (1) They use their uni number font to call their defensive alignments. (2) A few players were missing their NOBs. (3) Running back Ralph David Abernathy IV has RNOB.

• South Carolina defensive lineman Byron Jerideau has adopted the Justin Tuck-style facemask.

• Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin went color vs. color for the 87th annual Battle of the Piney Woods game in Houston.

(My thanks to all contributors, including Nathan Anderson, Jeremy Edom, Chris Flinn, Ross Hazlett, David Pealing, Geoff Poole, Matt Powers, Victor Quintana, and Austin Sterkel.)

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Show & Tell reminder: The next installment of my Show & Tell storytelling series will be this Wednesday, Oct. 10, 8pm, in the back room of Freddy’s Bar in the South Slope. Further details here.

Just curious: Are any Uni Watch readers planning to run the NYC Marathon next month? If so, let me know. Thanks.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Don’t look now, but the NBA preseason has started, and the Clippers showed up for their first game wearing what appears to be a new alternate uniform. To my knowledge, there’s been no announcement regarding this design, but it’s available for sale. Such an odd franchise. ”¦ Lots of chatter about this video game shot possibly/probably being the Thunder’s new alt. I have no idea how legit it is, but yikes. ”¦ The A’s have added a “GJN” memorial patch for pitch Pat Neshek’s son, Gehrig John, who died shortly after being born (thanks, Brinke). … Strong hints of what the Astros’ new uniforms will look like here. What do you think? … Interesting observation by Gregory Koch, who writes: “The UConn backup kicker Bbobby Puyol) and backup holder (Blaise Driscoll) both wear number 17. If both starters get hurt, one of them will need to change his number to avoid a penalty on every extra point and field goal.” … “I just updated my roster on Madden, and the update included a change to Alex Smith’s sleeves to reflect the full three stripes he wears now,” says Sam Lam. … Celtic wore a 125th-anniversary kit on Sunday (from George Chilvers). ”¦ Although the photo’s a little grainy, this appears to be an NHL color-on-color game — Penguins in blue, Habs in red, from Oct. 21, 1975 (photo found by Casey Samuelsson and sent my way by Jeff Flynn, Jr.). ”¦ Here’s something I think we may have missed (or else I just forgot): According to this item from back in April, the Jags will be getting a complete makeover next season (from Alex Lawler). ”¦ TBS’s production crew didn’t exactly cover itself with glory during Friday’s A.L. Wild Card game. First they used outdated caps for their “Due Up” photos, and then they got Cal Ripken Jr.’s name wrong (screen shots by Jason Christie). ”¦ I have a feeling we may have seen this before, but just in case: Jason Vargas has been a Zett glove — that’s a Japanese brand — but it appears to have blacked-out Rawlings detailing. Anyone know more? (From AJ Peterson.) ”¦ Joe Bailey was looking at a bunch of 2013 NFL calendars and noticed that many of the cover photos don’t have maker’s marks. That’s because the pics were taken in the Reebok era, and the publisher apparently airbrushed the Reebok logos out of the images. Or at least that’s what was done for some of the photos — for others, the logo creep was left intact. … “Ever seen an Irish hurling jersey in the wild?” asks Jason Robertson. “I ran into one — for Tipperary GAA — at a Calgary Hitmen game on Friday night. Thought you’d get a kick out of something that bloody obscure. I know I did.” … Mike Raymer recently visited the World War I Museum in Kansas City and saw some very nice military sports uniforms. … William Streit found a very odd Packers photo from 2009. What’s the deal with Charles Woodson’s jersey? ”¦ George Flory noticed a “Gatorade Only” poster in the visiting dugout at Comerica Park. I don’t know if a similar poster can be found in the dugouts at Camden Yards, but they sure had plenty of Gatorade (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ I’m a few days late with this, but it’s still pretty cool: A’s pitcher Brandon McCarthy was hit in the head by a line drive last month and ended up having skull surgery, so his teammates gave him an autographed helmet to wear during last week’s division-clinch clubhouse celebration, just in case things got a bit rowdy (from Mark Coale). ”¦ No screen shot, but I saw A’s outfielder Coco Crisp wearing a Raiders cap while answering questions at his locker following yesterday’s playoff game. ”¦ CBS Sunday Morning had a good feature on a recent All-American Girls Professional Baseball League reunion, including some classic old video footage. ”¦ This is pretty good: a slideshow of NFL players throwing out the first pitch at MLB games. ”¦ I love sports, and I love bars, but I hate sports bars. Looks like there’s a fun one in Portland, however. Anyone been? (Thanks, Kirsten.) ”¦ New court design for the Bobcats. ”¦ By now you’ve probably heard that Tigers reliever Al Albuquerque kissed the baseball before tossing it to first base at a crucial point of yesterday’s game.

 
  
 
Comments (185)

    Re: Vargas’ glove

    Its very common for MLB players to have a glove contract but to prefer another brand. They will have black out logos and apply patches from the brand they endorse to make it look like the brand. Last year Russell Martin from the Yankees took a Wilson (the brand he wore for most of his career) and made it a Rawlings by adding patches and blacking out logos. Been done for years.

    John Golomb, who is in NYC, link, does a lot of repair work for MLB guys and I know for a fact he’s done some of these brand transformations. He’d be a great interview on the subject of baseball gloves.

    Charles Woodson’s Jersey in that Packer’s pic looks like it’s rolled up and the green is from his undershirt

    I remember being annoyed by that undershirt because his tailored/untucked jersey always came flying up. Here’s another pic:
    link

    And AJ Hawk got in on the stupidity as well that year:
    link

    On the pic with Charles Woodson’s jersey, that’s his undershirt with the green stomach. His jersey is tucked up underneath the front jersey number. You can make that our in this photo. But he warms up that way, most weeks…

    LOVE LOVE LOVE the Astros look. Would love it more w/ the shooting star on the Home jerseys, but comparing CURRENT to new, it is a super improvement. Right now that look puts them in the top 10 baseball uni, and maybe in the conversation for top 5.

    The general look looks great, but that may be mainly because we can’t see any real details, such as the jersey script. From what can be seen, it looks like the Astros are adopting a much blockier serif for their script. Appears to be taking the blocky serifs of the old H cap logo and applying them to the script. That’s a huge mistake for this team. Would have been better to keep and update the sleeker, more modern angled serifs of the old script and apply it to the cap logo.

    Other positives include the orange bill on the cap and the piping on both the inside and outside of the placket on the headspoon. Both nice touches.

    It looks like they are running away from anything stylized, something they seem to have an over-reliance on lo these many years.

    Pacman Jones (playing for the Bengals) wore solid pink socks instead of the usual black yesterday.

    I too hate the pink but the NFL has saturated us with so much of it that I hardly even notice anymore…it’s just white noise, so to speak.

    I can’t stand the pink either. When it first started it was something that didn’t really bother me, But now that we have the NFL at the point of just about doing Pink Unis each October, College teams actually doing pink Unis, the WWE getting into the action now. (John Cena, the top babyface has a new black/pink shirt that says “Stand up to Cancer”, the Komen for the Cure logo on the entrance ramp, and the middle ring rope is pink) Honestly, what is the need for Madden to get into the Pink for BCA game, other than it happens in the NFL, so they have to mimic it.

    The pink looks awful no matter how many or few times you see it. Either make the pink more understated and only allow it in one small area of the uniform or if the NFL is going to keep going so hardcore with the pink they should limit it to one week instead of one month.
    A jokingly third option would be for the team to lose one of it’s colours for the month and replace it with pink or make the players wear something very similar to the women’s fashion jerseys (I can’t see that going over well).

    Paul,

    Is there a chance that the Thunder “alternate” jersey is just a placeholder? What I mean is that the video game production company (either EA or 2K Sports) knows there is a new alternate jersey coming, but won’t put it in the game until after it’s officially released to the public. Then, gamers can download the “new” jersey for free into their game.

    That’s the only thing I can think of to explain that hot mess.

    Plausible theory. I have zero idea how accurate it is (or how legit that video capture is).

    In short: All we have now is speculation.

    i think those are the real alternate unis. looks pretty cool too

    uni watch had a link that showed those exact shorts in a post last week.

    It will not surprise me if Reggie Wayne gets fined by the NFL for wearing the orange gloves. Saddened, but not surprised.

    I’d expect a public warning to not do it again, but no fine since it’s for his coach who has leukemia.

    You’d think the NFL needs less bad publicity at the moment.

    Yes. Like when Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich traded wives, Jim Bouton predicted Commissioner Bowie Kuhn would call them in and tell them never to do it again.

    I was going to ask something similar. What happens if someone decides to use black cleats, gloves, etc.

    Are the players forced by the CBA to use the pink gear or not?

    I’ll need to look harder then. Paul could start a “club” for these guys like the bare handed football players, the bare handed batters and the wedding ring guys.

    Regarding the Jags 2013 look, the scary quote is “…think Oregon on steroids.”

    Yikes!!

    Not so much for the unis, but scary that anyone involved in pro sports in any way would use the metaphor, “on steroids.”

    It’s moot now, but I wonder if the uniforms would have been improved by substituting a gold stripe for the teal one on the whites, the white one on the teals, and the white one on the blacks.

    i thought the NFL had a policy that protected the team’s identity. like NFL teams had to use their basic set up (same helmet, same uni pattern) 14 out of 16 games.

    Yeah, the NFL has it’s silly uniform rules which limit the number of jerseys and helmets. I don’t think I’d call it Oregon on steroids, but they could legitimately use at least 8 different uniform combinations in one season by simply having 3 sets of pants.

    It’s also a Tipperary (Gaelic) football jersey as, like most counties, they use the same design for both codes. GAA jersey would have been the most accurate term. That said, Tipperary is much more synonymous with hurling than football.

    We’re actually shite at curling.

    Why dont they just go ahead and name the Bobcats the Tarheels and get it over with. That is the ugliest court design EVER! my eyes are bleeding.

    link

    My first reaction is that they are slowly morphing the color set to the Charlotte Hornets teal/purple.

    I always wonder what goes on behind the scenes with teams that accidentally release new uniforms. Does the guy who made that promo picture for Houston just get innocently picked on by coworkers or does the team’s old conservative suits do something more drastic?

    Paul, for what it’s worth, I know you need to have ads, but to me, pop-unders are just as annoying as pop-overs.

    Why are they just as annoying? I’m not being facetious — I’m serious. Ek and I talked about this when considering this advertiser, and we agreed that pop-unders weren’t so bad, because they don’t obstruct your view of the text, don’t interrupt your reading experience, etc.

    I will NEVER agree to have pop-ups/overs, or sliders, or videos, or anything that obstructs the reading experience, nor will I ever put any kind of advertising in the center text column. But pop-unders? I don’t think they’re so awful.

    It’s an experiment (just like the “Continue Reading” format, which we eventually abandoned). For the record, you should only see one pop-under per day, no matter how many times you visit the site or refresh the comments (unless you switch to another computer). I’d like to think that that’s no so bad.

    Even if it is annoying to you, big deal. Paul and the other guys and gal (Catherine) put to get her a great website that we all obviously enjoy come to every day. If there is an ad or two to have to click- through in order to help diffuse some of the costs of operating the website, who cares?

    I can deal with ads (being one of the silent minority not part of the NBA ad blitz).

    The thing that annoys me most online these days are videos that start automatically when you go to a page. very jarring and unwelcome.

    Agreed. I don’t mind an occasional slider, but if a video ever starts playing with sound on a page, I don’t go back to that site for at least the next few days.

    Also hate sites that start with a video – especially ones you can’t skip. Back when I had a slower internet package they were even more annoying; they should realize there are those in more remote regions where low speed is the only option (or only affordable option). A lot of the time it seems those designing the sites sacrifice (or hide) actual useful information for bells and whistles.

    For me, they’re just as bothersome as pop-overs, because they open a new window. In Windows, that doubles the number of clicks it takes to get back to the main browser window, for example to return to reading UW after going to my email client to send a message. Also forces me to actually view the pop-under to close it. (A victory for the advertiser, I suppose.)

    If the pop-under opened in a new tab within the current browser window, rather than in a new window, I wouldn’t mind at all. In fact, I might go days without realizing it’s there.

    Bottom line for this internet user is that I often click on inline ads on sites I enjoy. Partly out of a sense of duty borne of formative days in print media, which taught me that ads support content. But partly because good sites often have good ads that offer services I value. As is the case with UW. But I never, ever, under any circumstances, click on ads that pop up, whether over or under. Never.

    I find them annoying because there’s a little shadow of a window, and then it disappears, and so my initial thought is, “what was that?” The task bar shows another window so I either hafta minimize the main window to close it or mouse over the icon in the task bar. Even though its a relative minor step, I find it slightly annoying to close it. Also-the ad also has generally nothing to do with me or this site. Google ads or whatever make sense because they’re creepily spy on my searchin’s, and the other ads are generally uni-related or something you recommend, so those i don’t mind so much.

    It’s a great site and i know you have to pay for it somehow, so if a pop-under helps keep the content, it’s certainly not the worst thing in the world.

    When I go to Uniwatch, I know that there will be ads around the side, etc. That is fine. It is all contained within the page to which I went. I can read them or ignore them as I please. But the pop-under is not contained within the confines of the Uniwatch page. It sits on my desktop and requires an action on my part to get rid of it.

    It does not matter if the ad is pop over or pop under. In either case, my screen is not restored to state that I want without additional action on my part. While the pop under does not intrude on something I was going to do immediately, it does intrude on something I plan to do. This is equally annoying.

    Kudos to the weekend crew for a good college football roundup. Especially like Ricko’s 50 Years Ago pieces.

    It is true that the uniform madness is ruining college football, but it’s happening in all sports. You cannot turn on a TV anymore and tell who’s playing, unless it’s Alabama, Southern Cal, Penn State, or Oklahoma. Even Notre Dame is looking foolish. It’s all absurd. Maryland looked like clowns this weekend.

    And will someone please explain why LSU can have decent jersey stripes but UCLA can’t?

    Tell those uni designer kids to get off our lawn please.

    Thought about this over the weekend.

    If, as we are told, the money that comes into athletic programs STAYS in the athletic programs, then they are self-sustaining side businesses run by virtually every university in the land, but from which the educational mission receives no financial benefit.

    So we should ask…why would an institution of higher learning bother? If it doesn’t make money for the entire university? Yes, I know, it “improves the college experience.” How sweet.

    The real reason? Alumni donations. Teams on TV make alumni happy. Happy alumni pledge money.

    College athletics (well, mostly football and basketball) essentially has become one big Pledge Drive on Behalf of the Rest of the Institution, seeing as it doesn’t share the swag…a more-than-weekly monster TV entertainment event in search of donations. Like PBS. All that’s missing are A) long pauses wherein the local station manager/university president asks us to give, B) a bank of volunteer telephone operators in the background and C) an 800 number on screen.

    So, whatever attracts attention this week (special uniforms, day-glo socks, the entire crowd wearing fushia) is deemed to be okay. Whatever gets folks to watch. Hey, we’ll look the other way on just about anything and the facemasks can have LED lights if it’ll get enough pledges for a new telescope.

    In that context, all we can do is shake our heads and endure. And be amazed that people think it’s anything more than that anymore.

    Just got caught up with the weekend posts today and I have to agree that the posts were pretty great top to bottom. I know Catherine continues to take some heat for her 5&1’s but I find it to be an overreaction. I certainly don’t agree with all of her picks, but, then again, I didn’t agree with all of Vilk’s picks either. That’ll happen with a subjective top. I don’t envy having to make those picks. I can’t stand a lot of these new jersey combos in college football (I’m not the target audience either), so picking wouldn’t be easy.

    I gave a similar rant that Paul just gave to some people (friends and family) I was watching the game (Steelers vs. Eagles) with yesterday. I got 3 reactions.

    #1: The “What? You don’t support breast cancer awareness? What’s your problem?” reactions. To this I explained I am all for savings breasts, it’s just that the pink is overdone and is a distraction more than it is a motivator for me to donate.

    #2: The “Quit being a fag about the uniforms and just watch the game” reaction (a.k.a. the “Who Cares….it’s still football” reaction). To this I explained that it took away from my enjoyment of the game, as well as made the team we all love look stupid and messy.

    #3: Support, however, minimal. The most I got would be a, “Yeah, I guess it’s dumb. Whatever, still football though.”

    I quickly internalized my annoyance for the pink.

    I think I am going to create a ribbon for uniform awareness. Our sport uniforms today need help and people need to be made aware of this. Uniforms are going through a tough time and being taken advantage of from the likes of sponsors, charity organizations, over zealous sporting brands, and bad designers. They are inflicted with logo creep, neon and gray color combinations, advertising patches, and faulty manufacturing. They need our help. My Uni-Awarteness ribbon will have to be unobtrusive and understated, or else it inflicts upon the uniform exactly what we are trying to prevent. I will think of something.

    I made a similar mistake. Voiced my opinion that the NFL shouldn’t wear pink for 25% of their games (or more possibly as the Cowboys and Bears got to break their’s out at the end of week 4). General consensus was that I didn’t care about people with breast cancer…so, I just gave up.

    This is the exact response I got when I said the wearing of pink is fine, but not for four games of the season. People accused me of “liking cancer”, said I was insensitive about the matter, and that I should show some respect. Unfortunately, I am the only one of my circle of friends who cares about athletics aesthetics… so I just kept quiet the rest of the game.

    By that logic the NFL should show that they really, really, really, really, really, really, really hate cancer and wear pink for all 16 games.

    Not just 25 percent of the time. What kind of half-assed commitment to a cause it that, anyway! 25 piddly percent.

    In fact, they should be pushing for an 18-game season just so they could hate it even more, by God.

    (pounds on desk)

    Uniform Awareness ribbon. This is a genius idea. How about a UW contest?

    Saw this on a car a few years back; conceptually, it’s not that far from a Uniform Awareness ribbon:

    link

    I have been thinking about this all day, but always come back to the idea of having an actual ribbon defeats its own cause. We have to have something though. I think a contest is a fun idea.

    The Packers pic with Woodson… that is just his jersey pulled up with his undershirt exposed. Him, Finley, and some others do that routinely before games.

    Those Astros uniforms look hopelessly boring. That team has such a unique theming opportunity (space), and it seems to me they’ll continue squandering it.

    It’s difficult to divorce “space” from “futuristic”, and futuristic is a mighty slippery theme. About the only graphic element they possess which has withstood the test of time is the five-pointed star: it has the added benefit of representing Texas and, from an intellectual-property point of view, it’s proprietarily (is that a word?) the Astros’ to use.

    Exactly, but it may not need to involve EITHER space or futuristic.

    Astro just means “star”.

    So the point of view of the uni design needn’t be up there among them. It also would be entirely correct to design them from down here observing.

    Yet the same critique would apply: It’s hard to imagine a type design that has less connection with the concept of stars or the cosmos than the blocky athletic serif font the Astros appear to be using. Every conceivable interpretation of the team’s name as a word makes the uniform design as we have seen it so far a failure.

    It seems increasingly likely that the Astros will have attractive uniforms that are, nonetheless, among the worst-designed unis in baseball. “Looks pretty” and “quality design” being two entirely different things.

    At Pittsburgh International Airport, there is a display dedicated to the history of the OLD airpot, referring to it as “Yesterday’s Airport of Tomorrow”.

    The Astros could have (see: should have) gone about it that way, with a design that captures the essence of what we thought the future would be like back when the club was founded. This probably would have included elements of a cosmic or space motif. Maybe a little Jetsons. But you know what, why not?

    Rogers is right, a generic, blocky athletic serif doesn’t go there, and will be a bit of a disappointment, even if (when) the overall design is an improvement over their current generic rootin-tootin unis.

    They could have gone in a pulp Rocketeer/Flash Gordon motif. Just have to be careful not to make the same mistake the Houston Rockets did with that idea and go too cartoonish.

    In yesterday’s game against the Eagles, it appears that Coach Mike Tomlin of the Steelers was wearing a “modified” Rbk sweatshirt. There was a nike logo on the left sleeve, but there was an NFL Equipment patch on the back neck. Also, there was a strange “blacked out” bar across the front of the shirt where it should have said “football” -was it to cover the Rbk vector logo/wordmark?

    What do you think, Paul?

    Yep. I got an email from the Pats last week, pimping that thing hard as the “new Belichick hoodie”.

    seems interesting that the NFL (Nike) Referees wear a new font on their uniforms called “Orbit”, yet it looks almost completely identical to what the Toldeo Rockets (Under Armour) uniform font is.

    Love the black the Cincy and Jacksonville wore on Sunday. Plus those darn Lumberjacks can’t hold water. You are up 14-3 and lose the football game 51-43. Eat Em Up Kats. Go SHSU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Is San Houston State going to change their name to the “Codpieces” or will that be only for pants stylin’?
    link

    Okay, so “We Got Your Package Right Here” will only be a cheer.

    Man, just realized those pants seriously should be for the FedEx or UPS house teams, shouldn’t they.

    (I’m just funnin’ with ya…but those ARE really stupid pants).

    I might be cynical, but I would bet that the NFL’s pink Octobers are a ploy to merchandise team apparel to women, particularly considering that the NFL shop has an entire section devoted to pink items.

    link

    These products have existed for a while, and I think putting them on the field for a third of the season is an attempt to legitimize them as fan gear and increase sales. Otherwise, why would the NFL devote so much time and visibility to this (worthy) cause while all but ignoring other worthy causes?

    I’m a man who looks good in a few different shades of pink. None of these shades have ever been attached to an NFL uniform.

    I don’t think my experience is unique; I just wanted a space to admit this in public. Who’s with me?

    Seconded. Pink is a nice color. It looks good on people and it’s pregnant with meanings. I’d put pink on a lot of things that would horrify the man in the street. It’s an uphill battle.

    “Pregnant”? (/rimshot)

    What it means in my case is that I had a couple of woman friends whose good advice I finally listened to. I’d have never picked out a pink shirt or necktie on my own, but they are now naturals to me.

    (And I don’t fuss much over my clothing, replica sporting apparel excepted.)

    There’s nothing wrong with wearing pink, in general. But wearing pink accessories with a blue & orange uniform just looks stupid. By looking stupid, it detracts from the cause that it’s supposed to be supporting.

    Hear, hear.

    But I’m not a fan of those sideline caps, which seem to be new this year, either: Pink bills, grey crowns, B&W logos.

    Remember the WFL Sun? Apart from not passing your test of mismatched helmet, jersey and pants, it was a keeper. Count me among those who would use pink as a team color. There aren’t many of us, I know.

    Technically, magenta and pink aren’t the same color any more than powder blue and Air Force Blue are the same (former UCLA football home vs. current UCLA football home)

    Most of the NFL talking heads so far have been wearing neckwear that would most typically considered “pink”…as in a cartoon Panther, attic insulation, Big League Chew or virtually every tee-shirt in every Race of the Cure.

    On the field, however, the NFL consistently opts for magenta (which is what the WFL’s SC Sun wore). I guess that, it being football n’all, they figure a more manly shade is called for.

    I was no fan of everton wearing pink as their change kit a few years ago because it seemed so out of place.

    But i quite like the pink Palermo kit (although wouldnt wear it).

    I used to be of the same mind as many of you in dislike of pink in the NFL. I’ve now changed my mind. I’m part of a youth football & cheerleading club. Most families have been effected by breast cancer and the Brighton Junior Barons family is no different. The mother of one of our players is currently fighting breast cancer. In support of her fight, all of the players on our teams and our opponent, Irondequoit, wore pink socks in yesterday’s games. We encouraged our families to talk with their kids and each other about early detection and cancer awareness. We raised $1000 for the Pluta Cancer Center.

    The mom told me that she is going to write the NFL a letter thanking them for wearing pink. She said it makes pink “cool” to the kids and greatly raises awareness. All the pink yesterday provide her with a great sense of support and her son with a great sense of brotherhood.

    P.S. The pink we wore wasn’t “official” NFL gear. Plain pink socks and pink duct tape to add a stripe to the helmets. The “official” pink gear is pretty expensive… and I wonder how much of the sale price actually goes to cancer research.

    ^^^this

    but that gray needs to be about 3 shades darker

    and that uniform is still all kinds of wrong, but it’s still better than the clusterfuck they wore previously

    Wait, what?

    How in the hell was their previous uniform a clusterfuck? Yeah, fine, you didn’t like the depressing blue color, but it wasn’t horribly inconsistent with itself or anything. If you want a clusterfuck of a uniform, look at the Bills’ previous uniform or Cowboys and their 27 shades of blue & silver.

    Said it before and will say it again: the Seahawks’ previous unis were great in that they looked and felt like Seattle.

    In a typical year Atlanta gets more rain than Seattle. What Seattle gets is cloudy days. And, on one of those slug-colored overlooking the city and the Sound the colors of their previous unis were exactly the color palette that you’d see in the panorama in front of you.

    The sprig of (or sometimes huge shot of) neon green was perfect in the same respect. When the sun shines in Seattle the green in the landscape is bright, awesome, uplifting and impossible to ignore.

    Anyone who’s spent any time there knows EXACTLY what I’m talking about.

    Sometimes a uni is about place, not the team name. So, while the previous Seahawks unis weren’t particularly colorful, they were in their own way elegant. And I think that’s why most of the bitching about them came from outside Seattle. The city’s reaction to them seemed to be, “Yup, that’s Seattle, that’s us.”

    The new ones aren’t about Seattle. They’re about Nike. All you have to do is look at how they used the shoulder chevron to determine that.

    that uniform, and the insistence on wearing monoblue was what made it a clusterfuck

    all it needed was a proper amount of gray and it could have been perfect

    i don’t mind the neon highlights, and that was never a complaint — hell, i didn’t even mind the neon green top — but it should have been worn with white (or gray) pants, not navy, and the contrasting color epaulettes also fucked shit up

    this uni, so long as they don’t go mono (white, blue or gray) is growing on me, but im still not a fan (yet)

    Five decades in the Emerald (not neon) city, may make me an expert. I disagree that we natives treat that snot green trim element, like some evergreen bough, freshly fallen, and lying in the forest. I’ll never be convinced it’s a color that belongs on a major sports team. Love Tim E’s repair job, down a few comments, on the former uni. A silver helmet would do nicely with today’s set as well.

    Phil, I agree and it seems like natural light washes out the “Wolf Gray” on the jerseys if you compare it to link.

    And that is why you don’t “design by committee.” The fans voted for blue helmets in 2000, so it probably won’t change for awhile.

    Sigh, what could have been.

    Holy Schmoley! When world collide . . .

    There were three of those stores: one in Boulder, one in east Denver and one in Southwest Denver, each owned by a different brother. The east Denver store lasted longest, staying around until about a dozen years ago, but I think it had been sold outside the family by then. I went to high school with two kids of the owner of the SW Denver store: Katie and David. David was my rival in many pursuits.

    Neat entry Paul. That man sure painted a picture in a way, each day. And those Thanksgiving roosters,,,,,errr I mean turkey’s, were a nice peek in to his personality. Small business owners back in those days, especially in a store like that one, really had their fingers on the pulse of their cities, I think.

    I’m not sure that’s “OCKd” – I think the “d” might be a quickly written “+”. Mine come out that way frequently.

    I wonder if the owner decided that business had to close because the ledger was going to be full and figured the symmetry was too perfect to miss.

    Just FYI, while I was making a bit of a joke, I am currently in NYC and considering going to the game. I probably wont because it’ll be 4 hours of transit to and from NJ, but I am/was thinking about it…

    besides, the chances of mitt having a winning season are probably greater than the jets

    I still can’t figure out what breast cancer has to do with football, or why it’s the only disease and only type of cancer that deserves “awareness”, whatever the fuck that means. Why don’t we just make every week a different “cause” week if we really want to feel good about ourselves? The players can wear red shit for AIDS week, black shit for lung cancer week, brown shit for asshole cancer week…does diphtheria awareness have a color? Let’s not forget them.

    I’m also not comfortable with the NFL shoving this pink shit down our throat at the behest of the Komen Foundation, which has plenty of political skeletons in and out of its closet. I’m well aware of the existence of horrible diseases and terrible injustice in the world. I often donate to charitable causes like breast cancer research when I’m not watching football. Am I allowed to enjoy the experience of watching a game on Sunday in peace without being beaten over the head with this garish guilt trip shit? Is that really too much to ask?

    Somebody alluded to something similar a few subjects above, but it’s high time the NFL put a ribbon on their uniforms to salute the fans who hate seeing ribbons on NFL uniforms..

    “The players can wear red shit for AIDS week, black shit for lung cancer week, brown shit for asshole cancer week…“

    Fuckin’ LOL’d XD

    “I’m also not comfortable with the NFL shoving this pink shit down our throat at the behest of the Komen Foundation, which has plenty of political skeletons in and out of its closet.”

    The latest being link.

    The pink is actually sponsored by the American Cancer Society. A real problem they’re facing… Komen “owns” the pink and you instantly connect Komen to this initiative

    One of my favorite college over indulgences in the past decade is equipment travel trailers. Uniwatch had the Boise State truck after the “cow incident” but I saw this one and liked it just because of the yard line markings at the top.

    link

    I posted that I saw the Northwestern trailer on Friday. It was getting back on I 80 heading into Pa.

    So when I looked for an image I found the Big Ten equipment trucks. I too had thought the trailers were cool.

    Maybe some day UW should do a story on them????

    Found this site.

    link

    yeah, people all over the internets hate me. Them, The Jeff…

    People in real life seem to like me, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

    LsrryB,

    In a similar vein, I know at this end of PA, fans hang out on overpasses along I-81 when the two NASCAR races at Pocono end. They wait for the tractor-trailers of the driving teams to pass by on their way back to their garages in North Carolina.

    When their drivers’ rigs pass by, they hoot and holler for the truckers to acknowledge them by tooting their horns.

    I am getting so tired of the pink. Football is only played a couple months a year. Do we really need ALL of October to wear pink?

    NFL games are hard to watch. But it is not just the NFL. College does it to some extent. Even high schools. Watch Friday night high school highlights and see pink.

    The pink thing is way out of control. Yes I have friends and family affected by cancer so I “get” the idea behind it. But when everybody just throws the color on every week and does this it loses it’s meaning. There’s a point where something goes from a good idea showing support for something to jumping the shark and just being something to do… See Livestrong bracelets… Look at all the different colors out there:
    link

    If we have to see blue for Fathers Day and pink all over to muck up the teams looks why not actually let them make a personal statement and pick the color(s) that affect them to wear. Instead of pink the Colts all could’ve gone with the orange to show support for their coach. I lost an Aunt to brain cancer, why isn’t gray out there? With everybody wearing different colors to show their support for different cancers it’d be a mess but it wouldn’t look much worse than all the pink.

    There’s a point where something goes from a good idea showing support for something to jumping the shark and just being something to do.

    I assume you feel similarly about camo, right?

    Just checkin’.

    Howzabout we just mandate that every team in every sport everywhere adorn their unis with a US flag featuring pink stars & camo stripes?

    For NFL QBs, make one of the stars green.

    You’re welcome!

    This couldn’t be more true. There’s something to be said for novelty factor; the message is coherent, everybody is on point. After that it just turns into some rote exercise, a half-hearted effort to make tradition out of nothing.

    Mind you, finding a cure for breast cancer is certainly something. Just as sure as wearing pink accessories for a month on the gridiron is most assuredly nothing.

    “Finding a cure for breast cancer is certainly something. Just as sure as wearing pink accessories for a month on the gridiron is most assuredly nothing.”

    ^^^ This this this! Bowing in your general direction, Walter.

    As a Resident Old Guy, I must tell you I sometimes just smile and think…

    “Hmmmm…after all these years, maybe this simply is The Ultimate Big Inside Joke, a laughing up their sleeve recognition of something everyone’s always known…that since the days of leather helmets, football players just can’t get enough pink.”

    To show support, but not for the corporate angle of it, I ended up using the image of a salmon colored ribbon as my profile photo on Facebook. I’ll be interested to see how many of my family and friends get it or ask about it. I’d like to see a player in any sport to something similar, but doubtful a league/companies would let him or her get away with that.

    I haven’t seen it mentioned yet unless I missed it. The Falcons have finally put up their 2012 uniform schedule:

    link

    I guess there’s no hope of seeing the black pants on the road ever again. As if the look they have isn’t awful enough I have to sit through the red at home and all white on the road now. At least when they wore the black pants on the road and the black jersey at home it was slightly less turrible. Slightly.

    This being Thanksgiving Day in Canada (most getting it off as a stat holiday), there are a couple CFL games being played today. In any case most working Canadians enjoy your time off or your extra pay if stuck working.

    A big pink car won the Talladega race yesterday, but like Ricko (I think it was him) said pink has moved more towards a fuschia, very evident in this photo. There were a few other pink cars/pink trim out there yesterday too. Am guessing the fuschia is far more prominent on TV than a light pink would be.

    link

    RE: Spirit of 77 Sports Bar. That is extremely fun. My buddy Channing Frye had his Charity Kickball Tournament after-party there.

    It’s pretty cool. Lots of open space, tons of sports memorabilia, and the Pop-n-Shoot games are free there. The beer is really spendy though, so prepare accordingly. (It’s close to the light-rail line, so you can do that safely.

    I was wondering about the orange mouth guard/gloves that Reggie Wayne was wearing. Had no idea that was the leukemia awareness color. I was just thinking that it was a poor choice of color to go with Colts blue and the breast cancer pink. Thanks for clearing that up.

    I know this is a tad dated, but I was away from the site over the weekend. On Saturday, after the game, I saw someone walking into the A’s dugout wearing a pith helmet. It looked to be a faint shade of yellow with a dark strap (green, perhaps?) on the front bill. Does anybody know who or what that was about?

    The Clippers had a road blue alternate for many years, but it’s been absent for the past two seasons. It was the only jersey with “Los Angeles” on it. The old red road uni said “Clippers,” but when they got a redesign a couple years ago, they put the city name on the red roads and dropped the blue. Don’t know what prompted the return of blue (probably the fact that people pay attention to the team now), but it looks good, I think. Here’s the old road blue:
    link

    Jonee wrote: “Don’t know what prompted the return of blue…”

    1) it looks good (like you said)
    2) team has to wait two years before adding an alternate (like boo said)
    3) the team/league will make more money selling yet another Griffin/Paul jersey

    I’m guessing #3 is the right answer, as far as Stern is concerned.

    Ah. I wasn’t aware of the two-year alternate moratorium. Seems to have expired right in time, like you say, though.

    Does every player get an Official Avengers Membership Card, too?

    Or is it Justice League of America?

    I forgot to respond to the very first comment of the day, which went like this:

    Its very common for MLB players to have a glove contract but to prefer another brand. They will have black out logos and apply patches from the brand they endorse to make it look like the brand. Last year Russell Martin from the Yankees took a Wilson (the brand he wore for most of his career) and made it a Rawlings by adding patches and blacking out logos. Been done for years.

    Why the fuck would you endorse a brand that isn’t the brand you prefer? The very definition of “endorsement” means it IS the brand you prefer. Totally fucked up, and just another example of everything that’s wrong with sports branding these days. Douchebags all around — the brands, the players, all of them.

    “The very definition of “endorsement” means it IS the brand you prefer your agent just scored another 30%.”

    ~~~

    (fixed)

    “Douchebags all around – the brands, the players, all of them.”

    I won’t go so far as to say ALL of them and I’ll spare everyone the details, but I’m of the opinion that “J. Martin” most certainly is one.

    Waaaaaaaay common in tennis, MOST tennis players play with a frame painted to look like something else. “PJs” or “Paint Jobs.” It also happens with sneakers.

    I would guess that equipment can, unfortunately for some, change. Todd Helton used to be the second-biggest Mizuno billboard in the National League behind Chipper Jones, but his elaborate Nike cleats made to look like Mizunos didn’t come until later. Were Mizuno cleats always that terrible? My money is on “no.”
    Is it wholly philosophically right? No. With respect to the same issue, in a different sport, is Martin Brodeur slightly more respectable for leaving the CCM group in favor of Sher-Wood when CCM didn’t want to make Brodeur’s special narrow-ish pads anymore? Yes. (Save the adultery jokes, please.) But I think that that’s how it goes.

    Here’s the part I don’t get: These guys are all jillionaires. They already have more money than they’ll ever be able to spend, and they don’t need the extra pocket change from Rawlings (or CCM, or whomever). But they’re presumably very professional about their work, and I can totally understand that they might be very picky about wearing this kind of shoe or that kind of glove. So why not WEAR WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT, even if it means mixing and matching brands, WITHOUT AN ENDORSEMENT CONTRACT? Just wear whatever helps make you the best athlete you can be. And skip all the branding/contractual bullshit.

    I think it’s Pandora’s box at work. If Easton wants to use Gretzky or Yzerman in their ads, then the players should get a kickback for the Easton photo in the hockey equipment catalog, and then it’s fair that the players in question go all out. (Stick, gloves, breezers, skates and helmet if applicable…)
    Would the world of sports be better without endorsement contracts? Probably. Then Sidney Crosby (Reebok guy) wouldn’t have a problem signing a Team Canada souvenir stick with a Nike logo on it, and it would probably make the players look a little bit like everymen. (Seriously…Paul Bissonette? Everyman. CCM lid, Bauer gloves, and Reebok breezers. Crosby? Superstar, because everything is Reebok. Ovechkin? Freakin’ mercenary, from CCM to Bauer. KIDDING! But there is a subliminal hierarchy that doesn’t need to exist. Too bad it’s here to stay though.)

    “Would the world of sports be better without endorsement contracts?”

    ~~~

    that was rhetorical, right?

    One thing that made me sad about the pink-month in the NFL was when I turned to the Gridiron Database and saw how glorious some of these game could have looked if not the magenta menace.

    link

    Look, I know I’m throwing rocks against a rolling tank here, but it kills me when people say “Portland” and don’t qualify it with “, Or.” Portland, Maine – my beloved home city – is one of THE best cities in America. Top 10 city: to raise kids; for a second act; for job prospects; greenest; for foodies; to retire; for small businesses; and even rated the “most liveable city.”

    Moreover, when folks founded that city in Oregon they flipped a coin to decide between Boston and Portland to decide the name. Portland “won,” and now that west coast city has completely overshadowed its namesake. A plea – out of respect for one of America’s best places, please say Portland, OR when referring to that city.

    Since Portland is about 10 times larger than Portland, ME, shouldn’t Portland ME have the qualifier?

    The Aforementioned Jordan Hill of Penn State not only was NNOB but didn’t have the Big Ten patch on the front of his jersey. Probably a jersey from last year?

    Maybe this has been brought up before in relation to all the pink on the field in October but how much money do you think the NFL League/team/players could give directly to a breast cancer awareness fund if they just didn’t buy, say, all those hideous shoes and just put that money directly towards the cause. Kind of makes me think of these that I saw in my local neighborhood,
    link
    Almost as bad as the shoes.

    Maybe it’s the lighting, but does it look like the Jets have color-corrected their jerseys?

    I noticed in the NLDS the other night (when Johnny Cueto went out after 1 batter) that AT&T Park also had the “Gatorade Only” posters in the dugout. It was a bit more prominent for the camera to see as well. Wish I’d have grabbed a screen shot of it, as it was very jarring, what with all the MLB-produced signage for the Postseason.

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