Monday Morning Uni Watch

The big news in the NFL yesterday is that the Bills finally — finally! — rolled out their blue pants (lots of additional photos here). Looked swell, except for two things: (1) The pink, duh. (2) They went with blue-topped socks. As you can see above, that created a bit of a leotard effect. Boooo! They already have white-topped socks in their wardrobe, so why not use them? Come on, guys, it’s not that hard.

Fairly uni-uneventful day across the rest of the league, with a few exceptions:

• In that Bills game, the Cardinals wore their BFBS alts.

• The NFL logo on Reggie Wayne’s jersey was missing.

• Tom Brady wore a Revolution Speed helmet, I’m pretty sure for the first time ever. Too bad. (Update: Several commenters have pointed out that he wore the Speed for one week last season.)

Turning to Saturday’s college action, you should begin by checking out Terry Duroncelet’s report in yesterday’s entry. After you’ve caught up with that, here are some additional notes:

• It’s bad enough to wear glasses under your football helmet, but South Carolina kicker Landon Ard wore about the least football-y specs imaginable on Friday night. (“Plus he badly overshot the onside kick, so his prescription is probably bad, too,” notes reader Duncan Wilson.)

• Florida State backup quarterback Clint Trickett was wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins hat on the sidelines. In case you’re wondering, his hometown is Tallahassee, not Pittsburgh.

• Hawaii’s NOBs all read, “IMUA,” which means “Move Forward” in Hawaiian.

• Texas used a variety of logo-emblazoned placards for calling plays from the sidelines.

• Check this out: Not just color vs. color, but monochromatic color vs. color. That’s a pair of D2 schools, Black Hills State and Chadron State, from Saturday.

• And here’s one left over from Thursday night: Tulsa defensive lineman Derrick Alexander got a UTEP player’s helmet stuck in his own helmet.

• Also: Regarding those Wyoming train wrecks from Saturday, here’s a really good article about them. (I’m quoted in it, but that’s actually the least interesting aspect of it.)

(My thanks to all contributors, including Marc Aune, Dan Brookens, Ryan DeFilippi, Andy Henderson, Jason Hirschey, Corey Kanetake, Kevin Kurz, Jonathan Mayer, Lev Naginsky, and Duncan Wilson.)

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Uni Watch Weekend Report: You don’t have to be sitting on your ass on the sofa or at the computer to engage in some quality uni-watching. Case in point: On Friday evening I met up with my friends Jon and Karen at the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum, where we checked out this exhibit on Ivy League style. There were several sports-related items on display — varsity sweaters and the like — along with some non-sports attire that was clearly sports-inspired. Also, as you’d expect, mountains of Brooks Brothers and J. Press clothing. Very WASP-o-rama. (Or as I whispered to Jon at one point, “I don’t say this very often, but all of a sudden I feel really Jewish.”)

But what really blew us away these “beer suits,” which were apparently popular for a while at Princeton. They consisted of repurposed work wear worn to protect “good clothes” from spilled beer (click to enlarge):

I really like how the one on the right has what appears to be a uni number. The beer suits could only be worn by seniors and supposedly could never be washed. Faaaascinating, and I really like how the one on the right has what appears to be a uniform number. Gotta get me one of those.

The next day, while you were watching college football, I was walking on the west side of Manhattan (I was on my way to take a really cool walking tour), where I passed a Dunkin Donuts outlet with an ad in the window featuring Eli Manning. Interestingly, his jersey included the Giants’ logo, but the NFL logo was covered up (click to enlarge):

Seems odd that they’d have permission to use the team logo but not the league logo, no?

Finally, remember the excellent Danish Athletic Club, which I first visited back in March? A bunch of friends and I had dinner there on Saturday night. The roast pork loin was mediocre, but the company was great, as you can see here (click to enlarge):

Okay, so there was no uni-related component to that outing. But it was way more fun than watching the Tigers’ 9th-inning collapse. Fortunately, I got home in time to see them pull it out in the 12th, which made for a very satisfying conclusion to a really fun day.

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Too Good for the Ticker: This is so fucking awesome: Two weekends ago, Dartmoth somehow forgot to bring along a kicking tee for their game against Yale. The Yalies refused to loan them one (which seems like a bit much, no?), so the Dartmouth staff cut down the top of a water bottle and they used that to create a makeshift tee (click to enlarge):

How awesome is that? DIY, baby! “The game officials had to approve the handmade tee and make sure it didn’t elevate the ball higher than an inch,” says Tris Wykes. “Dartmouth used it for kickoffs all day. The tee saga was discovered and chronicled by longtime Dartmouth football observer and beat writer Bruce Wood, who writes the Big Green Alert football site and blog.”

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Show & Tell update: Photos and stories from last week’s installment of Show & Tell have now been posted on the Show & Tell web site. Enjoy.

Also: I’m in need of a photographer for next month’s Show & Tell event, which will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 8pm, at Freddy’s. If that sounds like you, please get in touch. Thanks.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: This is pretty fascinating: The between-innings security guy stationed on the right-field line at Camden Yards the other night was wearing a left-handed batting helmet, with the earflap facing the infield. Never seen that before. Did his counterpart on the left-field line wear a righty batting helmet? “Seems like a smart move if you ask me!” says Ryan Albright. … The diamondplate look still lives on the high school level. That’s Mesquite Poteet High in Texas. The “TPW” on the helmet stands for “Tough People Win,” and if you can say that — or even read it — with a straight face, you’re way ahead of me (from Brian Thompson). … When the Nats spilled out of the dugout to celebrate Jayson Werth’s walk-off homer last Thursday, most of them were wearing gray sweatshirts — except for Tyler Clippard, who wore a red one (from John Muir). … Speaking of the Werth homer celebration, who’s that with FiOB? There’s no 89 on the roster, nor is there any other Martinez. “That’s Jose Martinez, who’s on the coaching staff,” says R. Scott Rogers. ” Not sure why he has “Jo.,” though. Maybe it’s there to differentiate him from low-level prospect Estarlin Martinez, since Jose probably interacts with a lot of the younger guys at spring training..?” … New basketball uniforms for Illinois State (from John Twork). … Ryan DeFilippi wants to know what brand of glove Pedro Strop is wearing. Anyone..? ”¦ Interesting hood ornament on the Alabama equipment truck (from Jay Sullivan). … The Washington City Paper — the alt-weekly in DC — has decided to stop using the name “Redskins” and is letting its readers vote on which name the paper should use from now on. Slowly but surely, people (from Caldwell Bailey). ”¦ The O’s wore their “O’s” caps on Friday — except for skipper Buck Showalter, who mistakenly wore the cartoon bird cap, until someone pointed out his mistake (from Brig Slaughter). ”¦ There are sweatboxes, and then there are sweatboxes. And the thing is, that’s kicker Rob Bironas. Did he really sweat through his sweatbox? “No fucking way,” says a very perturbed Doug Mulliken. “That box is a fucking different colour deliberately.” ”¦ Several readers have noted that the Cardinals are still wearing their 2011 World Series Champions sleeve patches. If they beat the Giants and advance to this year’s Fall Classic, will they keep wearing that patch, with the 2012 World Series patch presumably going on the other sleeve? That’d be something, although I don’t think it’ll happen. More likely they’ll swap out the champions patch for the new WS patch. ”¦ Speaking of the Cards, does Alan Craig have an underarm sweat stain, or is that dirt from a head-first slide? (As noted by Scott Novosel.) ”¦ Here are some new photos — although not very good ones — of the new Maryland hoops uniforms. ”¦ Benjamin Antell was watching the USA/Antigua soccer match the other day and noticed that one of the Antigua subs went NNOB. All the other players had NOBs. ”¦ Whoa, check out the jersey that Brock University’s hockey team is using to mark the War of 1812’s bicentennial (from Mark Fleetwood). ”¦ Sporting goods historian Terry Proctor sent along this team portrait of the 1956-57 Rochester Royals, the franchise’s last year in Rochester (that’s today’s Sacramento Kings, don’tcha know). “Look at #14 — Richie Regan from Seton Hall — he’s wearing the 1955-56 version of the uniform, with the outlined number,” says Terry. “One of the Sand-Knit reps that handled the Royals’ order is still alive at age 90 and still lives in the Rochester area. He told me that the Royals got so many complaints about the outlined numbers being hard to read that they sent them back to Sand-Knit following the 1955 season. Sand-Knit added the top layer of red numbers over the royal blue outline.” ”¦ What’s worse the BFBS? BFBS with what appears to be purple accents, although maybe it’s just blue. Either way, what a mistake (from Tyler Keefe). … Sacred Heart football has been wearing a “PG” helmet decal for coach Paul Gorham, who required a lung transplant and the amputation of his legs earlier this year (from Tris Wykes). … New court design for the Lakers. They have 16 little stars around the center-court logo, to represent their 16 titles — which have been rendered, unfortunately, with 16 apostrophe catastrophes. ”¦ New basketball uniforms for Auburn (from Jeff McClendon). ”¦ Click through this slideshow to see the Nets’ season ticket packaging (from Louis San Miguel). ”¦ A few blocks away from the Nets’ new arena, there’s a sign with the team’s old logo. “I’ve seen it up there for at least a year, so it predates the unveiling of the new logo,” says Eric Goodman. Surprising that they haven’t taken it down, or at least updated it. … Gerald Laird’s first name was misspelled on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard during his Saturday night’s Yanks/Tigers game. “Fans noticed right away and it was corrected before the at-bat was complete,” says Mike Colvin. ”¦ Looks like some inconsistencies in the thickness of the “Nets” lettering on the team’s shorts logo (good spot by Matt Beahan). ”¦ Absolutely spectacular 1940s basketball uniform available here. ”¦ Not uni-related, but still fitting the obsessive Uni Watch mindset: Someone on Flickr visited and photographed every single town in North Dakota (thanks, Kirsten). ”¦ Fairly rudimentary discussion of the value of a good logo here (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Here’s a great varsity sweater label design. It’s from this sweater. ”¦ “I’m a big Philadelphia Flyers fan and I wanted to check out Eisbären Berlin, the team that Briere and Giroux are playing with during the lockout,” says Derek Smith. “As you can see from their splash page, the pink craze has spread overseas. More interestingly, Briere and Giroux are signed to Bauer, so they have black duct tape over the Warrior cuff logo on their gloves, but not over the thumb logo.” ”¦ Felix Jones and Jason Witten of the Cowboys both appeared on The League the other night. Oddly, Witten wore a generic jersey while, Jones wore a Cowboys practice jersey with the team name and ad covered up (from James Samsel). ”¦ I’m a whole week late on this, but buried in the midst of a Ken Davidoff blog post is the following quote from Yankees closer Rafael Soriano regarding his annoying routine of untucking his jersey after recording a save: “It’s a reminder that I did my job, I did what I have to do and now I can go hurry up to my family.” As always, I wish he (and other untuckers) would wait until he got off the field. … StubHub has launched a new blog in which they break down ticket-purchase data. Their first entry features several infographics showing how baseball vs. football ticket purchases correlate with political leanings (from Jason Christie). ”¦ Angel Pagan of the Giants had a torn underarm last night (from Stan Capp). ”¦ If TBS wants to refer to one of its own employees as “Carl Ripken Jr.,” that’s their business. But their latest on-screen typo is inexcusable.