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Uni Watch

Monday Morning Uni Watch

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Some unfortunate mono-color action in the NFL yesterday, as the Cardinals did the blood clot thing and the Browns wore solid brown. Yuck and double-yuck.

What else went down around the league yesterday? Let’s take a look:

• The Giants wore their white alternate pants for the second time this year. To my knowledge, they are not planning to wear them again.

• In that Browns game, Cleveland added a memorial decal for Mike McCormack. Interesting decal design there — the Browns don’t have a helmet logo, so they just used their helmet as the logo, which resulted in a decal of a helmet being applied to a helmet.

• It was cold in Green Bay — but apparently not that cold.

• In the Cardinals/Colts game, Patrick Peterson of the Cardinals wore cleats with Peanuts characters.

• And yet another item from that game: Referee Bill Leavy was wearing the old-style jersey with the serifed numerals.

• Cold weather means ripped helmet decals. That’s Chad Greenway of the Vikings. Here’s how his helmet looked after the game.

• Logan Mankins of the Patriots had some helmet decal issues of his own.

• Here’s another example of a helmet shell switcheroo: Last month Danny Woodhead of the Chargers had a Rawlings helmet in his locker, but yesterday he had a Riddell Revolution Speed. Both of those shots provide good views of the Chargers’ uni-numbered chinstraps, too.

Turning to Saturday’s college action, Phil and his contributors had good coverage in yesterday’s entry. But here are a few more tidbits:

• Man, if you’re a captain on Arizona State, you’re wearing a shit-ton of patches.

• At the Vanderbilt/Tennessee game in Tennessee, the Kentucky flag was flying upside-down. Human error or gamesmanship? Tennessee plays Kentucky next week.

• It’s hard to see in these photos, but Lafayette players and coaches wore blue “AB” decals in support of Aubrey Baumbach, a first-year student and member of the crew club, who was recently struck by a hit-and-run driver.

• In that same game, bit of a sideline typo for Lehigh.

• A Yale player was wearing last year’s pants — and promptly got injured.

• Sacramento State went with gold alternate jerseys.

• Southeastern Louisiana went BFBS.

(My thanks to all contributors, including Jason Christie, Andrew Domingo, Matt Duprey, John Furstenthal, Raymie Humbert, the Jeff, Jerry Lawless, Mike Monaghan, Gregory Olsen, Peter Schultz, David Steinle, William Yurasko, and of course Phil.)

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Still More NBA Sleeves: In case you missed Phil’s coverage of this over the weekend, 10 new sleeved NBA jerseys have leaked. As you can see above, six of them are for this season’s Noche Latina program (Lakers, Knicks, Spurs, Bulls, Heat, and Suns, all of which have some sort of sublimated pattern on the back), two are for St. Paddy’s Day (Bulls and Celtics), and the other two appear to be just standard alternate jerseys (Timberwolves and Nets).

The most surprising entry here is the blue-trimmed Nets jersey, because blue isn’t one of the team’s colors. SportsLogos.net writer Demetrius Bell quickly speculated that the gray/blue color scheme might be some sort of shout-out to the Brooklyn Dodgers, which sounds plausible.

The NBA and Adidas sure are putting a lot of eggs in the sleeved basket, eh? I’ve heard some folks say that this must mean that NBA jersey sales are down, so the league is getting desperate, etc. But according to this article, NBA jersey sales are extremely strong. Here are the numbers:

The NBA already generates $900 million annually in jersey sale revenue, second only to the National Football League, which generates $1.2 billion annually, [sports retail analysist Matt Powell] said. Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League each pull in about $400 million.

I would never have guessed that the NBA was doing more than twice as much jersey sales revenue as MLB — not in a million years. So when it comes to creating sleeved jerseys (or anything else) that fan will want to purchase, maybe the NBA knows what it’s doing.

Of course, how those jerseys will look on the court is another matter entirely. But that seems to be a secondary consideration these days.

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Blazers-redesign contest: As we noted in the Ticker last week, the Blazers are considering a uniform redesign for 2015-16. While they’re working on that, let’s have a Blazers redesign contest. The deadline is Dec. 9, and the results will be published on ESPN soon after that.

So all you designers should get crackin’, yes? Yes!

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’Skins Watch: A school district in upstate New York can’t decide which of its Native American-based logos is the best (from Jude Seymour). … “I found this cap at a recent Indiana State football game,” says Marc Viquez. This was one of the last reminders of when the school used Native American logos for its athletic teams.”

Baseball News: Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Here’s the ultimate combination of baseball and felines (amazing find by R. Scott Rogers). … Here’s the embarrassingly miserable GI Joe cap that the Mets will be wearing with their embarrassingly miserable GI Joe jersey. Of course, there’s still time for the Earth to be hit by an asteroid before next April, so there’s always that slim ray of hope. … Not uni-related but still interesting: The first MLB team to travel by airplane was apparently the 1938 Cardinals (nice find by Jerry Wolper). ”¦ Interesting story about the connection between the poison symbol and the Pirates logo (from Brad Iverson-Long). … Former Oakland A’s farmhand and current Gary RailCats outfielder Mike Massaro got married over the weekend, and it was a very stirrups-centric cemeony (from Mike Rohde).

NFL News: Holy crap, look at the size of the logo on the back of this Bucs sideline jacket. That’s Steve Young, from 1985 (great find by Bill Kellick). ”¦ Really fascinating story on how each NFL team has footballs made to its QB’s specifications. Highly recommended (from Don Silsby). ”¦ Love this ticket stub from a 1962 Steelers/Browns game (from Todd Radom). … Here’s a two-part video tour of NFL HQ — part one and part two, the latter of which has lots of chatter about team logos (from the Hungry Hungry Hipster). … Also from HHH: An article about NFL animal logos.

College Football News: “I’ve never seen a conference patch look like this before,” says JJ Sledge. “San Jose State used to be in the WAC, and it’s possible that they are using last year’s jerseys with the Mountain West patch covering the old WAC patches.” … Notre Dame conducted a Twitter poll to see what the coaches should wear for the upcoming Stanford game (from Warren Junium). … Clark Ruhland has created a Virginia Tech uniform builder/history site. “It allows fans to select their own Virginia Tech uniform combination and view the entire history during the 26 years of the Frank Beamer era, including bowl jerseys,” he says.

Hockey News: The Sabres wore their new alternate uni for the first time last night. Can’t say I’m a fan. … Flames goalie Karri Ramo’s new mask is based on Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven” (from David Hutchison).

Soccer News: Reader Jason Fry says articles we’ve previously linked to about FIFA’s World Cup uni rules have “misinterpreted the FIFA regulations pretty badly,” and that there’s a good discussion of the topic in this discussion board thread. ”¦ New home kit for Brazil. Here’s a look at the shorts.

College Hoops News: North Carolina A&T wears crazy side panels and a minimalist chest logo (from Mike Raymer). … Virginia Tech debuted two new road uniforms over the weekend: maroon and orange (from Andrew Cosentino).

Grab Bag: Major thanks to Terry Proctor for sending along this awesome 1929 Spalding uniform/equipment catalog. … Not sports-related but interesting: a site devoted to logo theft. “A sports version of this would break the internet,” says Gordon Blau. … I was poking around in my corner bodega’s freezer case the other day, in search of an ice cream sammich, when I came across a bag of ice with a surprising promotional message: “Ice Is Food!” Uh, right. … Bit of a typo in Oklahoma (from David Wilson). … I didn’t know CFL players could wear No. 0 until JJ Sledge sent me this photo. … “Mark Webber raced in F1 for the last time on Sunday,” says Omar Jalife. “After completing the race, during the slow-down lap, he managed to remove his helmet and drive helmetless back to the pits. This is the first time this has been done and may create a new trend as it was fucking awesome.” Further info here.

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What Paul did last night Saturday afternoon: On Saturday Heather and I went to the annual WFMU Record Fair in Manhattan. I saw a bunch of friends, won a free lunchbox that I didn’t want, saw some amazing videos based on this book, ate some crummy pizza, and so on. But the highlight, by far, was a presentation by Michael Cumella (that’s him above), who provided a guided tour through an exhibit of his massive collection of flexi-discs (which you can learn more about on his website). I took a coupla dozen photos, which you can see below:


 
  
 
Comments (111)

    Watching the Patriots-Broncos game last night: After Stevan Ridley coughed up the ball in the first quarter, he took it out on his helmet. I wonder how that squares with the “one helmet for the whole season” philosophy.

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    ed

    Paul/Phil have already pointed out a few players who have switched shells this season. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the NFL’s “one helmet rule” is a steaming pile of bullshit.

    I thought Paul pretty much covered this by saying that things like damaged helmets could be replaced (duh) and also with malfunctioning radios, etc. “One helmet” obviously means no alternates, etc.

    Sort of hard to compare MLB jersey sales to the NBA and NFL. I’d think most fans don’t feel the need to purchase authentic baseball jerseys, instead buying T-shirts, often with a player’s name and number on them, and ballcaps for their wardrobes. I think a more apples-to-apples comparison would be total merchandise sales for the sports, not just “jersey” sales.

    Makes sense – the easiest thing for a baseball fan to show support for the team of choice is with a hat. There’s no on-field/court equivalent for NFL or NBA, unless helmets suddenly become fashionable.

    Then again, I think there’s *some* desire in the market for “authentic”, which is why NFL fans are willing to pay more for polyester than cotton, and why NBA is rolling out sleeved jerseys for fans who don’t dig the tank top.

    Basketball appeals to all races. The drops in African-Americans in baseball correlates with a drop in African-American fans…and African-American consumers. That’s a decent chunk of our population who aren’t interested in purchasing a jersey.

    But MLB dwarfs NBA in attendance, both total and average. So even if MLB has become whiter, it still gets the most asses in seats of any sports league in the world (though NBA has overtaken MLB in TV ratings over the last decade).

    My thought was that NBA jerseys are sold globally, whereas MLB jerseys are almost exclusively a North American thing. Remember all those photos from the Arab Spring or Libya, you definitely saw NBA jerseys – rarely did an MLB jersey make an appearance.

    Plus, there’s China where basketball is huge and baseball is barely a blip.

    re: Hornets and the “Paint This City Again”

    Looking at the promo, it seems like the purple is emphasized more this time around. In their first go-around, purple wasn’t that prominent except on the alternate jerseys.

    Also, I like how they’re building up all this excitement while the Bobcats are toiling in obscurity.

    I haven’t doubted that NBA jerseys sales are down. I’m not a fan of the league, but I know that it is popular. Of course, the sleeved jerseys give the NBA another piece of official gear to sell. But where they benefit more with the sleeved jersey is in its use. Kids are able to wear a football jersey to school (where it’s dress-code permitted). A kid is less likely to be able to wear the tank-top style jersey to school. The sleeved version will offer kids an “official” jersey option to wear in public places like school. We have had opportunities to wear jerseys here at work. (We can pay $5 or something to able to wear a jersey to work and that money goes towards Morale stuff like a holiday party.) Of course, you’re going to see adults wearing football and hockey jerseys. But you’re probably not going to see a middle-aged person wearing an NBA tank-top to the office.

    But where they benefit more with the sleeved jersey is in its use. Kids are able to wear a football jersey to school (where it’s dress-code permitted). A kid is less likely to be able to wear the tank-top style jersey to school.

    Honestly, I don’t think the sleeves are going to matter that much to that demographic. When I was in high school (late 90’s) it certainly wasn’t uncommon to see my fellow students wearing an NBA jersey on top of a t-shirt. I think they’ll see increased sales initially just because the sleeved jerseys are new, but overall I don’t see it being a drastic improvement. Ultimately there’s only so many people that care about wearing an “authentic” jersey, while most are content with a t-shirt/hat.

    The, dress codes are more common in public schools now than when you were in school. Tank top of any kind over sleeves just isn’t allowed in some codes, even in schools that allow sleeved sports jerseys on certain days. Note that Jason wasn’t discussing what kids would be willing to wear – teenagers are idiots and will wear anything – but what kids “are able to wear.” As in, allowed by rules.

    Makes me glad I finished high school in the early 90s. Dress codes were strictly for private schools back then, and we didn’t have any of this “zero tolerance” baloney either.

    Well, thanks for that. I’m glad I don’t have kids of my own, because I’m starting to think I’d end trying to home-school them, and I’m not entirely sure if that would be a good thing.

    This.
    I never had a basketball jersey as a kid, because my public school didn’t allow them in the dress code. Wearing a sleeved t shirt underneath would have made it acceptable, but my mom thought that was an ugly look.

    But… but haven’t we ben told that if you tell little Timmy he has to take his hat off in class or tell little Susie that she can’t dress like a crack whore in school, or Heaven forbid you have any dress code or (GASP!) school uniforms, you’ll irrevocably damage their delicate little psyches and turned them into mind-numbed atomotons incapable of independent thought?

    That was sarcasm, of course, but I’ve heard that opinion expressed in other places. Hey, I went to Parochial school back in the sixties and seventies when the dress code was a notch below the Marine Corps, and some of us were capable of independent though and even rational thinking! Go figure!

    That was sarcasm, too. Go about your business, citizens.

    Yeah, I know about the t-shirt underneath thing. I haven’t been to an NBA game in years, but I’m sure people wear the t-shirt underneath even at the games. The tank top isn’t flattering on most people. Plus, it’s friggin’ winter for a large chunk of the NBA’s season. Giving the fans a sleeved jersey eliminates the need for a t-shirt underneath.
    We’ll see how this goes.

    LEIHGH!

    By the way, that Channel 69 bills itself as “Family Zone TV.” I have a friend who used to be a photographer for them and wore the 69 coat while skiing once. Lots of people wondering if it was a real channel.

    Oh, the irony. Saw this on Fox’s pregame yesterday, about the NFL trying to create a groundswell among players to rid the league of the n-word (and other racial epithets as well, I suppose). Which is perfectly admirable, until you remember that one of the recent incidents cited featured a player for the ‘Skins, and the league doesn’t seem all too interested in changing Snyder’s mind for him.

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    Redskins and “the N-word” are not equivalent. Unlike the N-word, redskin started as a self-identifying term. The Natives of ~200 years ago identified themselves as having red skin, and thus were called redskins. The word didn’t start as a slur, and it isn’t used that way by most people today.

    Couldn’t you make a similar argument that most people today use the N-word as a term of endearment?

    I mean, most people don’t use the r-word because, you know, as most dictionaries point out, link. “Most people” who use it are people who happen not to see offense in the term.

    Also, it’s interesting to see you claim the term is a self-identifying term used by a group of non-English speakers.

    The’s etymology of “redskin” is highly disputed among linguists. There is, for example, no written evidence for the hypothesis – though that’s an inherent problem with sourcing anything to oral tradition.

    But it’s also irrelevant. “Nigger” was also born in a morally neutral usage. It descends from the Latin for “black”, and was no more (or less) a pejorative for long stretches of its early history than “black” or “negro.” It was only in the early 19th century that the modern use of the term to denote white-supremacist attitudes became the dominant meaning. (For example, in the Illinois Senate debates of 1858, published press transcripts record both Lincoln and Douglas as saying “negro,” whereas observers consistently recorded that Lincoln pronounced “negro” while Douglas said “nigger.” This indicates the degree to which even the racist white mainstream of antebellum Illinois understood “nigger” to be a dishonorable thing to say, as well as the degree to which Douglas felt that using the word “nigger” could appeal to white voters.)

    Anyway, if the supposedly non-derogatory early use of “redskin” makes the word wholly unobjectionable today, then that reasoning would also command us to regard “nigger” as an unobjectionable word.

    “…Major thanks to Terry Proctor for sending along this awesome 1929 Spalding uniform/equipment catalog. … ”

    Wonderful.

    “… New home kit for Brazil. Here’s a look at the shorts…”

    Close to perfection. Perfection would be yellow top/blue shorts/green socks, but the world is a vale of tears, after all…

    Ryan Fitzpatrick beard verging on awesome.

    Green socks? Brazil has never worn those with the yellow shirt and blue shorts.

    Green and yellow stripes on the white socks? Sure. But green socks would be wrong.

    I dont remember seeing it mentioned here,, but a’s josh reddick lost his beard ccontest with wwe wrestler bryan danielson and got shaved last weekm

    Surprised there is no mention of the Durham Bulls doing an all day uniform reveal today in the ticker

    from their FB page
    Happy jersey unveiling day! We’ll be revealing our new jerseys in this order today:
    1:00pm – Road jersey
    3:00pm – Alternate jersey
    5:00pm – Home jersey
    Each jersey will be revealed at link, so make sure to follow us to get the first look at our new uniform tops!

    So they’re the Texas Blue Jays now?

    The spiky Durham script with the black drop shadow? Not bad. Using the famous D logo in place of jersey-front numbers, like the Blue Jays? Great idea. But since the D’s are radically different, and since one element has black drop shadow and the other has flat keylines, ne’er the twain should meet. Looks like the Bulls wound up liking elements of different conceptual threads in the redesign and just threw them together. Unfortunately, for every one time this sort of juxtaposition produces chocolate filled with peanut butter, nine other times it produces mashed potatoes on an ice cream cone. Durham looks to be winding up with the latter.

    A quick look at the Nets schedule shows that they host the Knicks on April 15th, so I would assume they’ll be wearing the “Dodgers” jersey that day.

    The sleeved jerseys are a gimmick maybe they’ll catch on, maybe they won’t but I can’t help but be disappointed by the blue and grey Nets jersey. The team has done such a great job developing and embracing the minimalism black/white look and this just kills it. Their gimmicky Christmas jerseys from the past year and this year even emphasized the look instead of detracting from it. Even the banners at Barclays were rendered in grey scale which I thought was cool look. link

    The blue and grey jersey’s will probably be worn for 1 game and forgotten but the legacy of it will live on in merchandising. As a fan of the Sabres (their hideous new thirds aside) it kills me to see the few banners we have in the rafters with blue and gold and then the abrupt entrance of black and red back to blue and gold. While it’s lessened the black and red can still be seen throughout the arena. I love the idea of continuity in a brand, the look doesn’t have to stay the same but you should be able to see the progression and evolution of where it came from, not an abrupt change. The Nets were killing it in that department and this new blue/grey really hurts the brand they’ve built.

    I can provide a bit of context to the “Ice is Food” label. It’s not intended to suggest that ice has any nutritional value, it’s instead a warning to avoid contamination as the ice will come into contact with actual food and drink. I used to work in a print shop that printed signs detailing proper ice-handling procedures and they had the same phrase in big letters at the top.

    The Royals announced new road alts. I assume these will be replacing the blue tops with the “Royals” script, though the tweet doesn’t mention that. (Nothing on their website, yet either.) It sports the “KC” cap logo on the chest for the first time. Of course, in traditional baseball fashion, this “KC” doesn’t actually match the cap “KC”. I don’t think they Royals have ever had piping down the front of a jersey, either. So that’s new, and pretty un-Royals.

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    Interesting aside on the pics of Woodhead’s helmets, in the image of the Riddell helmet you can clearly see the medical and patent info printed on the inside edge of the strap on the chinstrap. The outer facing company logos for the manufacturer (in this case SportStar) are still removed as per league rules though. With Riddell’s exclusive deal ending next year, will there be a sudden rush of logos on chinstraps as well as the helmets? Also cool to see the Vikings do such a good job of adapting their bumper logo to the Rawlings lid as worn by Greenway. Most teams have just been popping out the little rubberized Rawlings badge on the front bumper and leaving a little oval cavity.

    Here’s the embarrassingly miserable GI Joe cap that the Mets will be wearing with their embarrassingly miserable GI Joe jersey. Of course, there’s still time for the Earth to be hit by an asteroid before next April, so there’s always that slim ray of hope.
    Hey Paul you’re a piece of garbage for using the words embarrassing miserable gi joe as a description of the Mets salute to the military with camo jerseys and hats! They are one of the most considerate franchises in sports in regards to saluting the military regardless of their place in the standings! I for one, as a veteran and current service member have many great memories and a lot of gratitude towards them for the things they’ve done for the military! But a brainless moron like yourself who apparently has no respect for the people who risk their lives on a daily basis for their country’s freedom i guess doesn’t get it and never will! But that’s ok we’ll still keep fighting the goid fight and standing up for what we believe in which is free will and American values in order to protect people like you who have no respect for us at all! Of course, there’s still time for a freak small enough asteroid to hit a specific location and take care of that issue, so there’s always that slim ray of hope.

    Nicely done, SSG Coe. You assume you know what exactly what Paul thinks about the military, then identify yourself as military and move right along to name-calling.

    I won’t bother recapping any further, but how about reading previous columns and getting some context on why certain words were used a certain way.

    I’m from a military family myself, so thank you for your service, but you knee-jerk reacted here.

    “…They are one of the most considerate franchises in sports in regards to saluting the military regardless of their place in the standings…”

    You know, I think if I was military and liked the camo salutes, I would be horrified to see a last place team wearing the camo and “saluting” me. As military I would want no association with a last place team.

    we’ll still keep fighting the goid fight and standing up for what we believe in which is free will and American values

    Yeah Paul, stop expressing opinions! Respect American values!

    Yeah! Let the military protect those freedoms, not some garbage document drawn up over 200 years ago!

    “But that’s ok we’ll still keep fighting the goid fight and standing up for what we believe in which is free will and American values in order to protect people like you who have no respect for us at all! Of course, there’s still time for a freak small enough asteroid to hit a specific location and take care of that issue, so there’s always that slim ray of hope.”

    If that’s the way you feel about your fellow Americans, I’m not sure I want you protecting us.

    Geez, it’s bad enough the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about has become so insidious that what we now have is a “military-aathletic complex.”

    The sad part is that it’s attitudes like this that make me resent military members and vets to a point. The way we are going with this military worship mentality, pretty soon they will issue rings to all enlistees for us all to kiss in order to show proper respect.

    Couple of NFL items:

    While checking out the photo of Giants’ white pants I noticed that Jason Witten must have the smallest thigh and knee pads allowed.

    I want Santa to bring me a Tampa sideline jacket like the one Steve Young wore (and also wish that Tampa would permanently return to creamsicle uniforms).

    There are also players on Montreal (Bo Bowling), Winnipeg (Johnny Sears, Jr.) and Calgary (Quincy Butler) who wear No. 0. No double zeroes, though, so maybe that’s not allowed. There are some other No. 0s listed on the CFL website but I’m not sure if they actually wear 0 or of they just weren’t assigned a number and the “0” is a placeholder (those players are either on the injured list or the practice roster).

    J.T. O’Sullivan wore No. 0 for the Roughriders last season when he was the No. 3 quarterback.

    What’s most interesting to me about the jersey sales numbers is the light they shed on the NFL’s revenue stream.

    $1.2 billion is just under 13% of the league’s total revenue, or about 1/8th. In jersey sales alone. Not even jerseys and caps and tshirts and shot glasses and pennants and banners and coasters and underwear and watches and wheel covers and flags, but just jersey sales.

    An additional 4 billion comes from television, which means that over half of the league’s income comes from people sitting at home watching on television while wearing a jersey.

    No wonder they’re finding ways to relax the blackout rules – people in the stands must seem more important as background extras on the broadcast than as actual paying customers.

    Good leagues make their money off of media. That’s where the majority of money in good leagues come from. You can only fit so many people in a stadium…but getting the rest of them at home is key.

    That triangle / football player logo in the middle of the Steelers’ ticket stub would make an awesome t-shirt.

    Fun fact for the Arizona cardinals… they are 13-3 when going blood clot and have won 7 games in a row while wearing them. ive been keeping track since they switch to these new unis :D

    What do NFL and NBA jerseys have in common with each other? No buttons. If MLB wants to close the gap, they need to do away with archaic, nonsensical button-front “jerseys” face reality and bring back pullover jerseys. “Tradition” dragging down baseball as usual.

    That’s true…button-down shirts and polos don’t sell due to their buttons.

    I can’t remember the last time I bought a pair of blue jeans that had buttons. I like mine pull-up style with major elastic. Sometimes I go crazy and get zipper-only jeans.

    “Man, if you’re a captain on Arizona State, you’re wearing a shit-ton of patches.”

    I’ve seen Third World dictators with less fruit salad on their uniforms.

    Since the Browns use their logo-less helmet as their logo, then couldn’t they put a logo on their helmet? It would be a helmet with a logo of a helmet with a logo of a helmet with … INFINITE REGRESSION!!!

    Paul, can you recommend a sub $100 record player for someone just getting in to vinyl collecting? Don’t need USB or any modern tech. Just stereo outputs.

    If you’re looking for quality a quality sound, I’d say stick with one of the well known brands: Stanton, Numark, Audio Technica. All make professional turntables at a number of price-points.

    You may laugh at “Ice is Food,” but that caused a lot of problems here in Dallas.

    Up until about 4 or 5 years ago, no bar was allowed to have an open air section where the serving bar was because all food preparation areas had be closed off by at minimum, bug screens. A good law for sure, but since Ice was considered a food item, bars were food prep-areas and couldn’t be exposed to the outdoors.

    Only recently can bars now have things like rooms that turn into open-air areas with garage doors or something else. Yay bureaucracy!

    Chad Greenway’s helmet of the Vikings looks like he just came from a hard fought battle.. cool.

    As much as I liked the Giants’ Grey pants and how distinctive it made them look….I really like the white pants! Its just an optical illusion of course…but don’t the jerseys look so much darker when paired with the whites! Almost look Navy blue!

    “That’s the tech-corporate one (Twitter/Facebook/Vimeo/AOL/IBM/Dropbox etc.). Is there a sports version too?”

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    Wow, the Texas Rangers ditched the black! Paul’s Twitter is on the news.
    I’m still partial to the Hank Blalock-era, when the NOB and number font was normal block instead of matching custom, but removing the drop shadow upgrades the font package from “muddled, clunky, and awful” to “trying a bit too hard, but acceptable.”

    I’d like to see you highlight the new Royals Road alternate jersey tomorrow and get your thoughts. Thanks!

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    In the same news that shows the blackless Texas Rangers, it shows new acquisition Prince Fielder with #84. I see no #28 on the Texas roster, so my hypothesis is that Fielder multiplied his normal #28 by his third team to request his new and offbeat number.

    That works too! Nice find.
    As an aside, as a fan of numbers, I cannot help but notice how “it’s my birth year” has become such a common reason for taking a number. I mean, athletes who made their money in the 80’s and 90’s didn’t really pick numbers in the 60’s.
    Once upon a time, those high numbers were rare. Alex Mogilny’s #89 for his freedom from Communism and his draft slot, Jeremy Roenick’s general sticking-out-like-a-sore-thumb brashness with #97, Gretzky’s #99, even Eric Lindros’s “feels like The Next One” #88…so iconic in that time frame.
    Now? Off the top of my head, “it’s my birth year” is worn by Mikhail Grabovski #84, Sidney Crosby #87, Patrick Kane #88, Sam Gagner #89, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins #93. And that’s just hockey, without considering ex-NHLer Wojtek Wolski #86.
    I guess this phenomenon was, on some level, foreseeable and inevitable with the calendar working as it does. But with this generation of young kids who were raised on satellite/cable TV, the internet to follow any and all players, and more widespread merchandising to buy any player’s jersey and bedroom poster, the era of high jersey numbers is definitely coming to a head.
    These are numbers that, once upon a time, meant, “You have no chance of sticking with the big club, so take this random jersey with a high number on it because it’s an old jersey we have and it seems to fit you.” Now, these same numbers are fashionable. I don’t begrudge this at all–I LOVE it when players have a true reason to pick a number of their choosing when they can pick one. I guess what I’m saying is, it’s a lot less interesting when “it’s my birth year” is such a common reason for picking uncommon numbers.

    Here’s an interesting piece of symmetry regarding #84…according to Joe Siegler’s Texas Rangers uniform database, Ian Kinsler wore #84 in spring training for Texas back in 2004. The last on-field appearance was Josh Hamilton’s personal coach in 2012. Considering that Fielder was traded for Kinsler as a way to make up for the power that the Rangers lost when Hamilton went to the Angels, it’s kind of interesting to see how the number has its own inner history.

    “While they’re working on that, let’s have a Blazers redesign contest. The deadline is Dec. 9, and the results will be published on ESPN soon after that.”

    In completely unrelated news, Paul has an ESPN deadline shortly after Dec. 9 and needs to come up with an article! Har, har, har.

    Um, I’m always facing new deadlines and always have to come up with articles in order to meet those deadlines.

    And for your next trick you’ll discover fire, yes?

    In Canada, the CFL has only eligible and non eligible numbers as opposed to the NFL which assigns numbers by position. That’s why someone can where number 0.

    Those matte helmets seem to have trouble holding the decals in cold temps. The Vikings had issues, and on Saturday, the Minnesota Gophers had similar problems.

    Decals on all helmets have trouble staying on in cold weather. The fact that those 2 examples are matte is not a large enough sample to come to any conclusion (not saying decals don’t stick as well to matte shells, just saying that there isn’t enough proof at this point).

    “Ryan Fitzpatrick beard verging on awesome”.

    I’ve never met a woman interested in beards, but it mysteriously makes me interested in a woman that finds a beard awesome..

    kudos to Clark Ruhland, he even got the modified jerseys that VT had to wear when some of their jerseys went missing in Atlanta back in 2007.

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