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Friday Morning Uni Watch

Let the record show that the ball carrier on the first play from scrimmage in the 2014 NFL season was wearing (a) a SpeedFlex helmet and (b) a Hulk base-layer shirt. That would be Green Bay running back Eddie Lacy, shown at right.

Unfortunately, Lacy later left the game with a concussion — not a good regular season debut for the SpeedFlex.

A few other notes from last night’s Packers/Seahawks game:

• I was a bit surprised to see that the Seahawks’ championship banner, which was unveiled before the game, says, “2013 World Champions.” I mean, Super Bowl XLVIII was played on Feb. 2, 2014. Yes, I realize that the Super Bowl was the culmination of the 2013 season, but it still seems a bit weird. I didn’t have time last night to look up other teams’ championship banners — do they all follow this format?

• Aaron Rodgers was apparently trying to block out the crowd noise by putting yellow tape over his earholes.

• Packers coach Mike McCarthy’s signature Sharpie in the cap appeared to be AWOL last night.

• Head linesman Derrick Bowers was wearing an “SS” cap patch. I’m assuming the other zebras wore it as well, although I can’t find any other photos. Anyone know what this was for? Was it worn during the preseason and I just missed it? (Update: Commenter Douglas informs me that it’s a memorial patch for former NFL official Sid Semon.)

(My thanks to all contributors, including C.B. Ciullo Aaron McHargue, and of course Phil.)

•  •  •  •  •

ESPN reminder: In case you missed it yesterday, my latest ESPN column is about the very different uniform cultures in pro vs. college football, and the reasons behind those differences.

• • • • •

’Skins Watch: The New York Daily News — a newspaper whose editorial policy might fairly be described as center-right — has become the latest media outlet to boycott the ’Skins name and logo. You can see one immediate result of that move here. ”¦ The Vikings/’Skins game slated for Nov. 2 at the U. of Minnesota’s stadium, which was already the subject of controversy, may soon become the subject of a lawsuit. … Good story about how the Spokane Indians have connected with a local Native American tribe (thanks, Phil). ”¦ That California high school whose teams are called the Arabs is keeping the name but scrapping its live mascot, which had drawn complaints. … A local flag football team in my Brooklyn neighborhood agreed to change its name from Redskins to Bears after parents complained. ”¦ The bad news is that some asshole Oklahoma State students suggested last weekend that Florida State’s football team should be sent home on the Trail of Tears; the good news (aside from the gratifyingly accurate apostrophe usage) is that this led to a sternly worded rebuke from the OSU student newspaper. ”¦ About a third of the way down this page is the news that ESPN’s Lindsay Czarniak won’t be using the ’Skins name on the air (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Most Americans still think the ’Skins should keep their name, although the trend shows the pro-change numbers growing. ”¦ Also, 58% of current NFL players think the ’Skins don’t need to change their name. … Comedy Central’s Tosh.0 poked some fun at the ’Skins name a few days ago (from Chris Flinn). … That “Cleveland Caucasians” T-shirt is a hot-selling item (from Jim Mason). ”¦ Buried within this article about Daniel Snyder wanting a new stadium is the following intriguing passage: “Multiple other commentators, including former Washington football team executive Vinny Cerrato, have suggested that Snyder may try to trade his racist team name for a bright, shiny stadium. The deal, essentially, would be: Give me a huge wad of cash, and I’ll name my team, say, the Washington Warriors. ”¦ [This would] serve as a face-saving ploy, allowing the owner to yield to public pressure to change the name while getting something very big in return.” ”¦ A new video to be released on Sunday, produced by a Native American group is urging FedEx to end its corporate sponsorship of the ’Skins stadium. Quote from someone connected to the video: “FedEx has a great diversity statement for their employees and corporation. We think it’s hypocritical of them to support an NFL team that uses a racist name when their diversity statement explicitly states they are against racism” (from Scott Turner).

Baseball News: Police have busted a Philly-area counterfeit MLB jersey operation. Fun quote, taken from an email from one of the ringleaders to his supplier in China: “Make sure the factory takes their time, though. People are starting to complain about some of the quality of the jerseys. Some crooked letters/numbers and buttons are coming off.” ”¦ Quiz during the YES broadcast of last night’s Bosox/Yanks game: “Derek Jeter has worn No. 2 for 20 seasons. Who is the only Yankees player to wear that number for more than five seasons?” Answer: Red Rolfe, 10 years. Play-by-play man Michael Kay proceeded to blow a gasket on the air, insisting that the answer had to be Frank Crosetti. But while Crosetti wore No. 2 for 22 years as a coach, he wore it for only two years as a player. ”¦ Speaking of the Yankees, last week they acquired longtime Uni Watch hosiery hero Josh Outman from the Indians. He went low-cuffed in his first appearance with the Bronx Bombers (I’m assuming they just didn’t have his preferred style of stirrups available), but last night he was back to his signature look. Outmania! ”¦ Here’s a great gallery of Tigers media guide covers from 1978 to the present (nice one from Wayne Koehler). … Good article on the guy who’s selling all the Jeter-related memorabilia.

NFL News: The Eagles’ green jerseys will finally be ready for Week 6. They’ll wear white at home until then. Neither Nike nor the Eagles has responded to my questions regarding the embarrassment of the jerseys not being ready in time for the start of the season. … Back in 1959, the Packers and Giants played a preseason game in Maine. It was Vince Lombardi’s first game as head coach (from Paul Dillon). … Alaska Airlines is offering early boarding to Seattle travelers who wear Russell Wilson jerseys. This is similar to the deal they had previously offered to people wearing Utah jerseys. … Here’s a rare action shot of the Saints’ black helmets, which were worn during the 1969 preseason (from Andrew Lopez). ”¦ You Have Got to Be Fucking Kidding Me Dept.: The NFL has come out with a men’s fashion guide telling fans how to integrate NFL gear into their wardrobes. For some reason the models shown on that page don’t have beer guts or mullets, but I’m sure that’s just an oversight (from Phil). ”¦ Here’s a weird one: Fran Tarkenton during his days with the Giants, wearing a No. 80 jersey (from Douglas Ford). ”¦ The only thing worth saying about that new Ray Lewis statue can be found in this headline.

College Football News: Here are this weekend’s uni combos for UNC, Duke, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, and Louisiana Tech. … Black helmet on tap this weekend for Army. ”¦ Here’s Notre Dame’s sideline jacket for the Michigan game. … No photo, but this article on 1939 Iowa “Ironmen” includes the following quote: “We won. Notre Dame changed the color of their jerseys of the second half (from blue to green), but it didn’t do them any good.” Hmmmm — anyone know more? (From Aaron Telecky.) … UAB has come out with a white version of their wacky helmet. … Good overview of Baylor’s uniforms in the Art Briles era, although it’s hard not to laugh out loud at the line, “We’re Americans — we like to look good.” Uh, right (from Ryan Patrick).

Hockey News: New alternate jersey for the Oklahoma City Barons (from Matt Montgomery). … I’ve heard from several Cincinnati Cyclones fans who say they hate the team’s new logo because it reminds them of a toilet being flushed, and it’s kinda hard to argue with them.

Pro and College Basketball News: New college hoops uniforms for Kentucky (thanks, Phil). … NBA commish Adam Silver has repeatedly said that ads on uniforms are “inevitable.” Now he thinks big-time legalized sports betting is “inevitable,” because state budgetary coffers are bare and there’ll be no way to raise funds except to promote gambling. Do you ever get the feeling that a Venn diagram of what Adam Silver says is “inevitable” and what benefits Adam Silver would basically be two overlaid circles?

Grab Bag: Hot item for tennis fans at the U.S. Open: game used wristbands. … The DJ known as Deadmau5 is involved in a trademark dispute with Disney over his mouse ears logo. ,,, Case Western Reserve University’s teams are all getting new uniforms and a new patch in honor of an alum who created Nike’s patented cushioning system (thanks, Phil). … Bit of a kerfuffle in the Indiana court system, where an attorney has been chided by a judge for not wearing socks (from Jonathan Daniel). … At least three people wearing McDonald’s uniforms were arrested yesterday in New York, part of the nationwide protests to raise the wages of fast food workers. … A 15-year-old Florida girl was forced to wear a T-shirt with “Dress Code Violation” on the front after officials at her high school determined that the skirt she’d been wearing was too short. ”¦ U.S. Open broadcaster John McEnroe wore a suit with Chucks yesterday (thanks, Phil).

 
  
 
Comments (121)

    i don’t think thats tape.. i think those are the speakers for his helmet radio. they showed it during the game and if i remember correctly they were painted yellow

    The Patriots Super Bowl banners all reflect the year in which they played their regular season games, not the year in which they played in the Super Bowl.

    I’ve never heard anyone refer to an NFL season as, e.g. “the 2013-2014 NFL season”.

    The regular season is generally all played within the same calendar year (though about half the time it does extend into the first couple of days of January), and then the playoffs (or “postseason”) are played after the season.

    This is why you never hear someone refer to, e.g. “The 1985-86 Bears”, despite the Super Bowl having taken place in January of 1986.

    The only real exception that I can think of is football videogames, which seem to insist on using the following year in the name. It’s not just Madden, either. The Fever, Blitz, Gameday, QB Club and 2k games all did the same thing. I’m currently playing through a fantasy version of the 2014 season on a game released in August of 2014, but the game is Madden ’15. It’s always kinda struck me as dumb.

    Yeah, but that’s just a marketing thing, like cars… the new model year 2015s are coming out soon, I imagine.

    The Colts’ Super Bowl banner takes the same approach Seattle’s does. Except they eliminated the repetitiveness of saying “World Champions” and “Super Bowl Champions” on the same banner, which I thought was far more odd than including the year.

    link

    Wow – great shot of the Saints wearing their black helmet in preseason. I love these periods in helmet history like the Seahawks wearing the plain silver helmet during the 1976 preseason before their helmet stickers were ready.

    Stan’s been around here for years. I don’t know if he’s ever commented on anything else, but every so often he brings up the same tired joke. It was funny once…the other 99 times, not so much.

    Theres a guy who sells counterfeit jerseys in the St. Louis area around Christmas time in a few malls. I don’t know how he gets away with it! Some are OK (like 90% quality) but some are absolutely terrible. Colors are the biggest miss, then it’s the sewing quality. They are also all over the place with fonts. I can spot a fake from a mile away at a sporting event.

    I bet there’s someone doing this in every market. Hopefully it gets cracked down since it’s visually upsetting to see!

    The Arabs link in ‘Skins Watch appears to be broken.

    Also, not related to the Uni Watch end of things, but for some reason, the SI article about the potential Minnesota lawsuit won’t load. Might just be a work thing, though; some SI articles load alright (such as last night’s NFL recap), but others (such as the Josh Gordon article) don’t. Anyone else experiencing this issue?

    I had the same issue with the SI story. I think I know the background to the story, but just reading the headline made me think somebody should tell the anti-racism group that the U of Minnesota’s nickname is Golden Gophers…

    That’s what all of us here in Cincinnati have been saying. The fan feedback has been harsh and about 95% negative. The old Cyclones logo was corny, but people were attached to it. That stated, they could have updated it and people wouldn’t have complained that much…if it wasn’t THAT trainwreck.

    We now have the Cincinnati Toilet Bowls. It’s terrible. Never had an interest in a team I root for having it’s own Buffaslug.

    That’s way cooler than the toilet bowl.

    Here’s the old logo, for comparison. Yes, it’s corny as can be…but people here liked it and loved the mascot.

    link

    I am happy to see the Seahawks use the alternate Super Bowl logo on their banner rather than the generic NFL one.

    I really hope someone comes up with something better than Washington Warriors. I got nothing, so I hope someone else has something clever. Warrior themed marketing will be insufferable…

    Can the nfl fashion people explain how the replica jersey uneven droptail is a good thing? Atrocious. If its so great, then why do they try to hide it in their online shop photos?

    The best I’ve heard floating around was either the Washington Redhogs, or simply the Washington Reds.

    I’m not Native American so I hope I’m not saying something rude, but I’d like to see a native word. The marketing would be great, and if done correctly could be a way to show their culture proudly, instead of erasing it from sports. That, in addition to a long term partnership encompassing a variety of community efforts across America.

    If Dan Snyder would embrace the idea, I’d love to see the Washington Americans, with the same logo and colors, with traditions that Native Americans help create. Take a page from Florida State’s book.

    But that whole “If Dan Snyder” thing is the part that gives me no confidence.

    See, I don’t think Snyder is as dumb as he acts. The common thread I see in his dumb moves is his desperation to be loved and respected, and the whole “We’re never changing the name” stance is all about playing to the constituents, i.e. the hardcore fans who live just outside the Beltway in Virginia.

    Race is such a fraught and perilous subject, I’ve learned the best way to approach it is to be blunt but truthful and guileless. And let the chips fall. Ideally, an Indian spokesman or two would step forward with proposals and ideas, but this hasn’t happened. Frankly, I’m somewhat disappointed no person, group, or task force with skin in this game has stepped up to the plate. Me, I’m full of ideas but as a white man my voice rings hollow.

    Frankly, I’m somewhat disappointed no person, group, or task force with skin in this game has stepped up to the plate.

    Why is it the responsibility of the aggrieved party to play branding agency for an organization valued at $1.7 billion?

    No one said it should be their responsibility – but they might get slightly better reception. I would think that something like “hey, if you really want to honor our people, you could do something like this or this” might be just a bit more persuasive than the current line which tends to be closer to “change the name you racist asshole!”

    So you’re saying, “Hey guys, here’s a less crappy way to appropriate our culture and still be all patronizing and possibly continue to advance the ‘noble savages’ meme.”

    Now, I think most of us recognize that these nicknames are mostly well-meaning, but the way Snyder & Co. have doubled down with the “honor and respect” thing does make them assholes.

    Except not really. There’s been “less hostile and confrontational” for like 40 years and no one paid attention. Now that there’s more real talk, as kids like to say, people are paying attention and there seems to be a steady, if slow, movement towards change.

    Anyway, I think you’re taking offense to an accusation that’s not actually made (or if it is, it’s rare). Pro-change folks aren’t calling people racist. They’re calling the nickname racist. Well-meaning people can be insensitive too.

    It’s been a hectic day at work; I haven’t been able to participate in this discussion as much as I would have liked. Lest it seem I’m upset at a nameless Native American for not stepping forward with a deus ex machina to solve the Redskin issue, what I want to express is concern that an opportunity is being missed. Also, I want to reassure Rad that he is not rude for wondering.

    I’m behind the low-impact approach. Change should go down easy, not stick in the throat. I really like “Redshirts”: it sounds like “Redskins” and describes the team’s appearance.

    I believe the “Washington Warriors” trademark is owned by some random guy in Virginia. Snyder did once own the “Warriors” trademark as a possible name for a DC-area arena football team.

    Also, I’ve seen the name-change-for-stadium-funding scenario mentioned in several places, but what’s the incentive for the District besides sentimentality? Given the complex land deals in the District and having gone through the morasses of Nationals Park and DC United’s Buzzard Point stadium, how much appetite will DC have for handing yet more money to rich people? Or will this be different because it’s the NFL?

    Ownership of the “Warriors” trademark doesn’t itself confer value, or at least not more than nuisance value. You still need to demonstrate the trademark’s actual use in commerce. If it’s not already in use at the time of the application, but the applicant attests an intention to use, the he/she then has to file a statement of use (SOU) within 6 months of the trademark being registered. The applicant can get one extension of the SOU deadline, and after that the trademark’s deemed abandoned.
    link
    So unless the mark’s owner attempts to field a football team in the near future, not seeing there being a realistic legal impediment to Snyder changing the Redskins name to “Warriors” if he so desires.

    Also unclear to me how that anti-racism group has the requisite legal standing to sue the Univ. of Minnesota.

    Yeah, I was going to mention that. Though if that guy had registered the mark as simply an apparel/lifestyle brand, couldn’t he theoretically sell merch like mugs and pennants, which would put “Washington Warriors” into actual commercial use?

    I’m no trademark attorney, but probably not. The word “Washington” in that phrase is a geographical description, which generally isn’t accorded trademark protection unless it’s deemed a geographical indicator, i.e., the product from that region is renowned as having a distinctive reputation or quality (think Idaho potatoes, Florida orange juice, etc.). And Warrior is already an apparel manufacturer whom, presumably at least, has obtained trademark protection – and even if they haven’t registered with the USPTO their prior actual usage of the name in commerce, much-better-known name, etc., would give them superior common law trademark rights.

    So, ummm… no.

    If only there were a trademark attorney . . .

    Oh, right.

    Without looking it up. . . oh, fine, twist my arm. . .

    I just looked up all the Washington Warriors trademark applications on the USPTO website (and I even spelled them correctly on my ergonomic keyboard). They’re all applications. The company that filed the applications needs to show use as a football team, and so there isn’t much value in those applications because to have a bona fide intent to use those applications, you also need capital to put together a football team, I would argue.

    It’s not like selling t-shirts, which are much easier to do, and, therefore, showing the bona fide intent would be much easier to do.

    Washington Whiners (Perfect for the Gubmint folks there)
    Washington Sentinels (Make Shane Falco the QB)
    Washington Gargoyles (Architecture Related)
    Washington Griffins (They seem to think RGIII is the be all end all QB so name the team after him)
    Washington Bullets (Never should have changed the Wizards)
    Capitol Blues (an homage to Blue Crabs?)

    “For some reason the models shown on that page don’t have beer guts or mullets, but I’m sure that’s just an oversight”

    Ha! This is my thought every time I see marketing for casinos.

    I dunno. How many rabid NFL fans wear mullets these days? I haven’t seen mullet mania — in the stands or on the street — for quite a while now. I agree, though, that even within the context of the fattest human populace ever, adult male NFL gear-wearers skew big.

    It’s a class issue.

    Ugh, no. I’d rather they stole the Sentinels name from The Replacements instead of taking the name of a defunct baseball team. For that matter, I’d even prefer if they used the Capital Congressmen name from the fictional baseball team referenced in Fallout 3.

    Paul,

    Thanks for posting the Cincinnati Toilet Bowls new logo. A lot of people aren’t exactly happy campers here with our own Buffaslug…and neither the organization or the local agency who designed that mess seem interested in addressing the situation in a meaningful way.

    I hope they enjoyed flushing merch sales down the toilet that is the logo.

    We (Iowa) won. Notre Dame changed the color of their jerseys of the second half (from blue to green), but it didn’t do them any good.” Hmmmm – anyone know more

    It might have been a failed motivational ploy. It might have also been an attempt to get better visual contrast; in those color-on-color days, I’ll bet Iowa was wearing black jerseys that day.

    Love the gallery of all the Tigers media guides… but what’s with the 1991 guide? Bizarre, cynical, and nothing in the graphics is even baseball-related.

    -Jet

    Really love the one from 1980. What’s up with the bizarre take on the “D” from 1982 though?

    My only thought for the 1991 cover is that the designer stayed up late in a panic the night before the deadline, popped in a VHS of Star Wars for distraction, and voila …

    I will admit to not looking at the comments from the last few days, so if this has been mentioned, I apologize. Starting last week, the “Stories You Might Like” feature has been suggesting some really filthy articles from Women’s Health. I am not a woman. I’ve never been to the Women’s Health website. I’ve never searched for any of the topics that are being suggested. Has anyone else been getting these? Is there any way to change them?

    There had been mention of some NSFW ads a couple months ago, but I hadn’t seen any of those. Lately there have been some oddities like “great sex techniques” that aren’t germane to Uni-Watch or, for that matter, to the day job.

    I feel the same way about all the “improve your golf swing” links. What kind of guy does this ad network think I am?

    Given your screen name, I’d guess they thought you were a pretty terrible human. Terrible humans are disproportionately likely to spend as much time as possible on the course, so . . .

    It’s probably a fair assumption that speaking to your partner at exhaustive length and with a zealot’s conviction about baseball stirrups, minor league hockey logos, or the probable placement of ads on NBA uniforms pretty much eliminates any opportunity you might have to try out sex techniques, great or otherwise.

    I get them too. I’m guessing you block cookies from third parties and advertisers? I do, and I think that’s the interweb’s way of saying, “Since you won’t let us track every single facet of your life, try these ads on for size. We’ll take them away if you fall in line and share all your info.”

    Or women’s self-pleasuring tips. Yeah, I don’t need to see that come up. And I don’t have anything blocked.

    Not sure how much ad revenue the “You might like” box generates, but if it’s negligible, it might be time to consider another option if crap like this keeps coming up.

    The Packers follow the same “World Champions” format. They have their championship “banners” base on the regular season:
    link

    It’s interesting that the Daily News has made a deliberate decision to no longer use not only the Washington Redskins’ name, but also the team’s logo. Meanwhile, it still features the Cleveland Indian’s Chief Wahoo logo in its “Around the MLB” section.

    link

    Sure enough, the Daily News’ Cleveland Indians page is updated with the block C logo:

    link

    … but the baseball front page still shows Chief Wahoo:

    link

    Here’s hoping the Daily News updates that soon.

    About 2 years ago, I bought a 1971 Roberto Clemente M&N jersey (pullover with sleeves) for $15 from one of those overseas, far-east websites. About 10 of us from the office got together and ordered 25 or 30 jerseys, so we paid no shipping. I got the jersey and was absolutely fascinated about the quality-level of it. I have looked at hundreds of Clemente pictures over the years and this jersey looks as legit as legit can be.

    Happy with the first purchase, I went ahead and tried for a 1939 Ted Williams road jersey. Not even close. The grey color is silver. The BOSTON lettering isn’t centered. The #9 on the back isn’t centered. The neck is as wide enough for an elephant. And there’s only 4 buttons. Awful. My wife said it best when she said, “…you got what you paid for.”

    As enticing as the prices are, you just never know what you’re going to get. I’d rather go down to the team store at the stadium and buy something off the clearance rack than to go through this again.

    My brother, who was living in Seoul at the time, told us he’d found a source for Mitchell and Ness jerseys, at $20 apiece.

    I bought four. The 1974 Buffalo Braves jersey was absolutely perfect, a real masterpiece. The 1986 Celtics jersey was made out of the wrong material, and the lettering was way, way too thick. The ’93 Bills jersey was so bad, I gave it to Goodwill the day it arrived. And the 1942 Kansas City Monarchs jersey was black, with shimmery gold lettering, and made our of 100% polyester.

    So I got a nice Bob McAdoo jersey for 80 bucks.

    Well $20 for a “chance” at a good knock-off, might be more palatable than $300 for an overpriced “authetic”, especially to people who can’t afford the $300.

    If it’s reliably 1 in 4, then $80 is still better than $300.

    You missed Marshawn Lynch wearing a designed lower sock instead of the normal white…
    link
    Alaska Airlines also offers priority boarding to anyone in a Portland Timbers jersey at PDX airport…
    link

    It’s been a while since I’ve been to a Raiders game, but I don’t recall seeing any Super Bowl banners. The entrance on the BART side has a “Commitment to Excellence” banner and an A’s banner highlighting the A’s four World Series championships while in Oakland, but no mention of the Super Bowl wins for the Oakland or LA Raiders. Anyone been to the Coliseum more recently?

    link

    Good point, is it a small part of their “Pride and Poise” mantra?

    It is a shame that it has been 30 years since their last championship. The Raiders of the 70’s were never dull, on or off the field. Imagine if some of those guys had Twitter back in the day.

    “Can’t Stop The Bleeding”… yeah, that definitely fits Ray Lewis.

    Oh, you meant the headline.

    Too late for this week’s Skins Watch, but there’s a nice FiveThirtyEight article about the other 2,000+ nicknames referencing Native Americans: link

    Though without a deeper dive, I’m going to guess that it’s more Column A than Column B. It’s probably not so much that the sales dropped, but that sales were inflated in 2012 because of:
    * New(ish) uniforms
    * RG3
    * The playoff run

    That said, buying Washington NFL gear must feel like a small political statement these days.

    Or maybe ‘Skins fans are just waiting for all that cheap unlicensed merchandise to hit the market since, you know, the team’s name isn’t trademarked anymore.

    Could you imagine if I went to court in a suit with an NFL jersey under the jacket?

    Now, look, I don’t blame the NFL for getting some male models together, putting them in some NFL-licensed apparel, and making a lookbook out of it. It’s what my apparel clients do annually. However, I lost it at the point of wearing a jersey to work.

    link

    My favorite insight is that Steelers territory spreads west to the Mississippi and south to SC, yet stops cold at the NY/PA border.

    Also, poor Jets. This year they’ve joined the ranks of the Mets and Athletics, not owning a single county in the country.

    I’m really curious as to why 2/3rds of Nevada cheers for the Cowboys instead of the Cardinals, Niners, or Raiders. I’m also wondering why the hell they used red to represent the Titans territory.

    /also the next time the Raiders go 10-6 and SanFran is 8-8, half of those red counties will turn black.

    Red for Titans makes sense because of the bordering blues for Cowboys, Colts and Panthers.

    A few years ago the Cowboys’ footprint across the west would have been much bigger than it is. That’s what nearly two decades of boneheadedness does.

    Cowboys should have been silver so as to stand out better in the little outposts from Montana to Florida.

    Cardinals have all of their own state and nothing else, and are the only team in that position.

    Sad to see no love for the Broncos from NoDak. Surprised that the Broncos are so strong in both Nebraska and Utah, but that’s probably largely due to Manning.

    Mental Floss also has this and a link to a few 2013 versions, which are noticably different.

    Interesting to see the Raiders still owning the hearts and minds of Los Angeles. It’s probably a better deal for fans in LA since they don’t have to worry about TV blackouts.

    Also, Seahawks, Broncos and Vikings are really dominant in places where there aren’t many people.

    Interesting to see the Cowboys still own South Texas. It must be by a slim margin, because I see more Texans gear around San Antonio than Cowboys gear.

    About the 1939 Iowa Notre Dame game. I had posted color screen grabs of that game. ND did indeed switch jerseys at half time. I was looking for them today but no luck yet. And when Picassa changed many of my old saved albums are no longer seen online.

    If I find them again I will post or share. I do not know the story of why they did it.

    The 1939 Iowa season had color films of almost every game but not Michigan.

    What kills me is the amount of throwback Eagles gear in that thing. Seems even the NFL gets what the Luries don’t – that Eagles fans prefer kelly green over that midnight garbage!

    Outman looks awful. High cut stirrups like that are the reason hardly anybody wears stirrups anymore. The Big Red Machine’s look should be the standard, pullover jersey, sansabelt pants the proper length, and LOW-cut stirrups.

    High cut stirrups like that are the reason hardly anybody wears stirrups anymore.

    No they’re not.

    You’re free to prefer one style over the other, but that style didn’t kill the stirrup. The ribbon stirrup did.

    I found some lines from the article describing how to incorporate nfl apparel into your wardrobe quite comical. Seriously, what dude DOESNT have a black peacoat in their closet.

    You should look at the LNAH it’s a hockey League that is listed as the toughest hockey league in all the pro hockey based out of the province of Quebec Canada

    Yes, the Seahawks putting up a 2013 champions banner although they won the Super Bowl in 2014 is correct. I looked at Denver’s for example for SB 32 and 33. Theirs were the same. Seasons were 97 and 98, super bowls in 98 and 99, championship banners say 97 and 98.

    Back before the merger, the NFL championship had always been in December, so NFL seasons were always completed within a calendar year. The Super Bowl changed things, and then expanded playoffs and a longer regular season pushed it even further back to the point where the Super Bowl is held in February.

    The NFL, though, has stuck with the old tradition of the single-year dating convention, based on when the bulk of the regular season is played (since in many years, Week 17 falls in January), rather than the two-year format (e.g. 2014-15) of hockey and basketball.

    The NCAA just confuses things, though – since the post-New Year’s bowls all use the new year in their dates, and for the non-National Championship bowls the winners are considered the bowl champions of that calendar year, rather than the year that their season that earned them that bowl bid. As for the National Championship Game, that game is also identified by the current year, but while the winner is identified as the winner of the championship game for the current year, they’re identified as national champions of the previous year in which they played those regular-season games.

    So, the question is: should football get with the times, acknowledge the reality of their seasons crossing calendar years, and adopt a two-year dating system? Or should they keep the existing tradition, and continue to confuse the crap out of people?

    The Brewers have a “BRUCE” patch for scouting director Bruce Seid.

    They may also have a new outfield mowing pattern, not sure.

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