If you’re looking for the Uni Watch take on the new Maryland uniforms that were unveiled today, we’ll have that tomorrow morning. Thanks for your patience.
Now then: Big news yesterday out of the ACC, as Florida State acknowledged that its new uniforms are a flop. The Seminoles will have new helmet colors — for the shell and the facemask — in time for the Sept. 20 game against Clemson, and the uni numbers on the white road jerseys will return to their traditional garnet tone at some point later this season.
According to the FSU site Warchant.com, there were other problems:
According to another athletic department official who declined to speak on the record, the uniform problems extended beyond the colors. Due to a manufacturer’s defect, the facemask paint chipped badly during the season opener. And the spear decals didn’t match properly with holes drilled into the helmets, which led to some peeling.
What a mess. The football season has barely begun and this is already the second major black eye for Nike (the other one being, of course, the failure to have the Eagles’ green jerseys ready in time for the start of the NFL season).
Interestingly, FSU’s press release about the situation begins with, “Saturday night at AT&T Stadium was the first opportunity we had to see the color of our helmets and facemasks under stadium and broadcast television lights.” Really? I thought new designs are routinely tested under broadcast conditions precisely to avoid snafus like this one, and I have a hard time believing it didn’t take place this time around. Seems more likely that FSU and Nike knew exactly how the uniforms would look but didn’t anticipate the intensely negative response from the team’s fan base.
Speaking of that press release, there’s no mention of Nike, at least not by name. Instead, it’s just “We are working with our equipment partners to make these changes happen as soon as possible” — a big change of wording from the “Team Unveils New Nike Uniforms” headlines that we’ve become accustomed to seeing. So when there’s glory to be had, Nike is front and center; when there’s a fuck-up, Nike suddenly becomes an anonymous “equipment partner.” Hmmmmm.
In any case, a major team making an in-season uni adjustment like this seems pretty momentous. Can you imagine something similar happening in the NFL (or any of the Big Four pro leagues, for that matter)? It’s unthinkable. But maybe this kind of thing will become more common as social media and 24/7 press coverage combine to give fans a bigger megaphone for voicing their displeasure.
ESPN reminder: In case you missed it yesterday, my latest ESPN column is about the uni-related issues swirling around Derek Jeter and the Yankees. Enjoy.
Collector’s Corner
By Brinke Guthrie
As most of you know, the Brownies will receive a uni makeover for next season. Ownership has said that the helmet won’t be changed, which sounds like a smart move — there’d probably be a fan revolt. But what if they put Brownie the Elf there, like on this helmet?
Here’s the rest of this week’s eBay finds:
• Chuck it out! Mid-1970s New York Giants helmet design Chuck Taylor patches for your Converse hi-tops.
• Here’s a 1960 NFL mini-poster; the team logos look a lot like the Chiquita NFL stickers that followed ten years later.
• Here’s an early-1970s (not 1960s as the listing says) Patriots zip-front sweater from Sears.
• Show up at Lambeau wearing this 1960s Packers stadium usher uniform and maybe you’ll get in for free!
• I’d be willing to bet that the model for this 1969 Rawlings NFL kids uni ad was Washington RB Larry Brown.
• Riiiiight, a pair of 1970s red 49ers golf slacks. Perfect for the game and then the disco afterwards. Hurry, this listing ends tonight.
• Look at the artwork on this 1960s Mets wristwatch ad.
• Here’s a mid-to-late 1970s Cincinnati Reds “Japan Tour” jacket, made by Rawlings. It has No. 48 on the label, so this belonged to Ross Grimsley.
• This early 1970s Cowboys bumper sticker sure looks familiar — it might have graced the rear bumper of our family’s Ford LTD wagon. Sticking with Big D, that’s a pretty big star on this early-1970s Cowboys helmet bank. But then, everything’s bigger in Texas.
• Great art on this 1969 NFL 50th Anniversary booklet. Nice set of 50th Anniversary thermal mugs, too.
Uni Watch News Ticker
By Mike Chamernik
Baseball News: Brewers C Martin Maldonado wore neon green-accented catching gear Sunday (from Jim Santel). … The Long Island Ducks will wear Breast Cancer Awareness jerseys today (from Phil). … Ben Fortney sent along this 1935 Dodgers scorecard from Opening Day in 1935. … Dock Ellis had a great jacket to commemorate his no-hitter (from Phil). … I picked up some MLB team-branded Pop-Tarts from the store the other day. I find it interesting they used the Brewers’ throwback/alternate ball-in-glove logo, while all the other teams used their official logo or their hat logo. Also, I love the part on the front where it says “Collect all 30 teams.” Okay, I see the back of the box is a checklist, but I like the idea of collecting and trading Pop-Tarts. All right! I got a Padres one! Let me store it in Lucite. Just six tarts left to find now.
NFL News: From yesterday’s comments: The Bears will not wear captaincy patches, instead naming their five captains on a game-by-game basis (from Ryan Lindy). … First look last night at the Lions’ William Clay Ford patch and the Giants’ 90th season patch. Neither team wore them in the preseason. … Lions RB Joique Bell suffered a jersey tear last night (from Matt Barnett). … Neither the NFL Shop nor Dick’s Sporting Goods will sell Ray Rice jerseys anymore, and a Baltimore restaurant is accepting traded-in Rice jerseys. … The fans decided on the Browns’ endzone design (from Roger Peasley). … Casey McCotter is distracted by this shot of Cardinals coach Bruce Arians: the two Cards logos are facing opposite directions. “It is like this all the time! Wonder why?” He asks. “Has to be the only team in the league that does this.” … According to this, the reason Niners WR Michael Crabtree wore blue cleats against the Cowboys Sunday was because, as a kid growing up in Dallas, he dreamed of suiting up and playing for the Cowboys (from Brinke). ”¦ Cardinals RB Jonathan Dwyer had a minor helmet malfunction last night (from Pastor Seth).
College Football News: Great submission by Mike Raymer: The NOBs of these two Arkansas State players form the name of the main character from the Vacation film series. … Temple wore black helmets Saturday (from Cliff Blake). … Cincinnati will wear all-white unis with chrome helmet decals Friday against Toledo (from Phil). … Texas Tech will wear Zach Thomas-era throwbacks (from Phil). … Notre Dame will wear these cleats for the Shamrock Series (from Phil). … Middle Tennessee State wore blue helmets for the first time since 1977 on Saturday (from Jerry Lawless). … Virginia Tech has new flag desecration helmets (from Andrew Cosentino). … A source tells Phil that Maryland will wear all white this weekend and that West Virginia is going gold/blue/gold. … Oklahoma may wear alternates this Saturday. … New white helmet for Utah.
Hockey News: The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins unveiled a retro-ish third jersey (from Phil). … Caps goalie Braden Holtby has a new mask (from Phil). … “Here are some photos from some Champions Hockey League over the weekend,” says Alec Pappas. “All teams have the red left sleeve due to the lead sponsor of the tourney. The sweaters are otherwise rather clean for European hockey. Top Scorer for each team now has a sweater to tell those who are eating his dust who actually did it.” … The Arizona Coyotes will wear throwbacks in March. … Here’s what Michigan will wear this year (from David Raglin).
Grab Bag: Bowling Green is switching from Adidas to Nike next spring (from Phil). … The Makers of Sport podcast had an interview with Adam Clement, the Team Sports Creative Director at Under Armour (from Phil). … New logo and livery for Southwest Airlines. … From Reddit, the tiger face on this bag of nuts spells out “Tiger Nuts.” … Federal law may remove the exception the military has on not having to wear American-made physical training shoes, so New Balance is salivating right now (from Phil). … Hey, penguins in uniforms! “The penguins at the Matsue Vogel Park in Matsue City, Japan, are wearing uniforms for U.S. Open finalist Kei Nishikori,” says Jeremy Brahm. “Kei was born in Matsue and visited the park in 2008 with his family and has said in interviews that he likes penguins.” … David Firestone found a ton of nice socks at Spencer’s Gifts. I’m guessing they were on display between the shelves of fake plastic vomit and the male stripper pop-up greeting card rack.
Here’s a 1960 NFL mini-poster; the team logos look a lot like that Chiquita NFL stickers that followed ten years later.
That isn’t a 1960 poster. It was created last year and posted here. link (Just scroll down past the NBA stuff)
Way to go, TJ!
Whatever their provenance, I really really like most of those team logos. Maybe it’s the hand-crafted look, or the non-ferocity.
Great catch, THE. Just one of Gary Chankos wonderful projects.
ICYMI, he’s got another one going now (Classic Ballpark Scoreboards). That’ll be a new recurring Saturday feature.
The, the ad says “NFL 1960 Team Logo Poster – 7.5×10 inch Photo;” I believe it refers to the year of the league, rather than the time frame it was created in.
Paul – The link to yesterday’s ESPN article isn’t working.
Fixed. Here’s the proper link:
link
Not completely analogous to the FSU situation, but the NBA did have the whole synthetic ball fiasco back in mid-aughts, which required a mind-season about face
That was more about a player power play though.
Lee
In light of the FSU-snafu, the latest Penn State ad featuring the words ‘simple uniforms’ seems very apropos.
FSU’s problems started when they changed the Seminole head to look like Tom Cruise jerking off. Then, the helmet just looks like Grey Poupon mustard. Add to that the jerseys just look like crap too and the garnet looks dull as well. FSU had some awesome uniforms and didn’t need an update anyhow as Uni Watch has pointed out but they had to fix them anyhow and they are a disaster.
I’m afraid I disagree. I thought the uniforms with the Aachen Bold numerals and feather-themed striping were a step backward from the jerseys that had the Seminole blanket detailing. The new uniforms are nice. Hammering out the kinks is a process.
“they changed the Seminole head to look like Tom Cruise jerking off”. I won’t be able to see that logo again without cracking up. Classic.
Interesting that Joique Bell’s jersey tear is in the same spot as the 49ers players that were in yesterday’s ticker. I wonder if there is a weak spot created because the sleeves are pulled so tight.
Ironic that the manufacturer/vendor who yelled at the coach for his kid’s sweatshirt isn’t getting called out specifically…How many times did they mention “Nike” in that email?
New Balance isn’t an American company? They were founded in Bew England and I believe they still manufacture here. I may be wrong.
New Balance HQ in Boston, they’ve long beat the “made in the US” drum, though the do have some production in the UK as well …. they claim about a quarter of their shoes are made in the the USofA
That’s better than most shoe companies.
In any case, a major team making an in-season uni adjustment like this seems pretty momentous. Can you imagine something similar happening in the NFL (or any of the Big Four pro leagues, for that matter)? It’s unthinkable.
It’s happened before. You’ve got the 1969 Saints with the pre-season black helmets, and the 1984 Browns with the orange numbers that were switched to white. Would the 1994 49ers wearing their throwback uniforms for most of the year count? Most recently, the 2012 Jaguars switching their primary jersey from teal to black, although maybe that was planned before the season started?
Nuts.
Beat me by 1 minute, The Jeff!
1969 and 1984 are ancient history in uni-verse terms — licensing and merchandising were nothing like today. Apples and oranges.
Niners continuing to wear an alternate (which happened to be a throwback) in 1994 is a completely non-analogous situation. Hell, there’s a more recent example of the same thing: The Twins wearing the Killebrew-era throwback as their primary after Killebrew’s death. But neither of those examples has anything to do with a snafu, or with *revising an existing design mid-season.*
Ditto for Jags. Nothing was revised — primary/alternate designations was just swapped. But existing designs were unchanged.
The Pittsburgh Penguins switched mid-season in 1979-80, switching from blue to black-and-yellow. I wrote about the battle between them and Boston and link in late August.
I like how the Bruins claimed at that time that they wore the black and gold for their entire history when, in fact, they started out wearing BROWN and gold (yellow), including a Stanley Cup season (1928-29).
That was the argument that the Penguins made in terms of “owning” a color scheme. If you change colors, do you really own it? lol
I actually lived through the Penguins-Bruins black and gold battle, and can fill in the back story on this issue. Nationally, this was one of those “WTF” moments, I still remember the ESPN anchor reporting this story with a smirk on his face. People couldn’t believe why the Bruins would get worked up about this during the season(or any time).
Pittsburgh already had a pro hockey team that used black and gold many decades earlier, so it didn’t make any sense for Boston to claim ownership of those colors. The incredible success of the Steelers and Pirates during the 70s definitely played a major role in the switch, but the Penguins also pointed out the fact their logo(minus the blue background) was indeed black and gold.
Merchandising wasn’t a big deal in that era, so timing of the switch wasn’t a factor. Ironically, the Pens and Bruins would eventually meet in the 1979-80 playoffs, and the experts predicted an easy Boston win. The Bruins came in 25 games over .500, while the Pens were seven games under .500. Instead, Boston was pushed to the limit in the five game series, and had to rally from a 2-1 series deficit.
Even today, Harry Sinden, the old Bruins GM, still does get it. In a recent NHL rivals show on the NBC Sports Network, Sinden talked about “infringement” when this issue came up. LOL!
The Minnesota North Stars apparently used a different jersey in pre-season than was used in the rest of the year, in 1976-68. Same colors, but different stripes, neck, and yoke. Also the logo was slightly different.
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Tidbit from that article:
“Then, in 2013 an un-named long time Twin Cities media personalities storage locker was auctioned off after the bills were un-payed. The contents of said storage locker contained a gold mine team set of the 1967 pre-season away white North Stars jerseys”
Pay your bills! Or at least grab the good stuff before the cash flow runs out!
A few years ago, the NY Rangers’ AHL affiliate changed name and uniforms mid-season, when they switched from the Wolfpack to the Whale. Thank god, the Wolfpack are back now.
Not entirely the same thing but FSU’s situation reminds me of the 1984 Browns. Cleveland wore brand new brown jerseys for their preseason opener only to discover that nearly everyone in Municipal Stadium had difficulty reading orange numbers on brown jerseys. The Browns were able to get new jerseys made with white numbers in time for the next occasion the brown jerseys were needed to be worn.
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In 2002 Purdue’s football team changed from the black jerseys they always wore at home to a gold jersey with white numbers.
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After people complained that the numbers were hard to read (and the things just generally looked bad) they switched to gold jerseys with black numerals in 2003.
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After losing their first home game in 2003 to Bowling Green, they scrapped the gold jerseys and wore black for every other home game that year, and ever since.
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Speaking of opposite facing logos, here’s something that caught my eye last night in the Cardinals game. The cheerleaders’ boots had the Cards logo facing forward on one leg, backwards on the other (rather than mirroed logos). In searching for a photo this morning I find that the Vikings’ cheerleaders apparently have the same thing going on.
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This might show the Cards gals.
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When logos are used on polos or pants (such as hip placements) some teams prefer their mark to not be “sniffing” the armpit or crotch so they are set up to face the other direction. Cards/Vikings were a few teams that I remember this rule for although it didn’t always get enforced.
I’m not sure how that applies to this situation.
Apparently fans need to brace for Derek Jeter withdrawal. Or perhaps the absence of Jeter-ations will be felt strongly enough to merit the following line in MLB’s announcement about the 2015 season schedule:
“For the record, the Yankees’ first game post-Derek Jeter is scheduled to be played against Toronto on that Monday in the Bronx.”
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Teams with a side profile logo often have rules that dictate how the logo must be applied to certain areas of a garment.
In the Cardinals’ case, the standard orientation of the bird is facing right, but when placed on the left chest of a garment, the team requests that the bird face left so that it does not “sniff the wearer’s armpit.”
Similarly, one might find a rule dictating that a right-facing logo placed on the wearer’s right pant leg should be flipped so that it does not “sniff the crotch.”
This is correct. I worked for The Cardinals for a few years, and the different facing logos always bothered me. When I asked about it, the response I received was that the Cardinal should normally face right, but when put on the left chest, the owners want the Cardinal to face toward “the heart”.
WHOSE running back Larry Brown??
“The Washington Professional Football Club”
For the love of GOD! WHY????
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We have now reached peak jingoism.
If it were any thicker, Teddy Roosevelt would climb out of his grave to arm wrestle Rudyard Kipling.
Holy shitballs does that helmet/jersey look ridiculous.
I wish I could say this is the moment before that bubble bursts. I have a hunch they have not yet begun to jing.
Looks like Maryland going all-white this weekend against WVU is true, and that all-white is a tribute to Francis Scott Key’s Star Spangled Banner.
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OK, I’m just gonna go ahead and say it – the nameplate and wordmark silliness aside, those unis are way cool.
Added bonus: the outline of Fort McHenry on the helmets actually resembles a turtle (albeit a 6 y/o’s rendering of same).
It’s interesting to read your column when you talk about helmets. You talk about helmet manufacturers like Riddell and Schutt, and sometimes even about companies like Hydrogaphics who have become popular because of their helmet paint schemes on MANY of the college teams, and on other items. How does the uniform supplier get blamed for helmet malfunctions? I’ve never seen Nike or any other uniform supplier branding on any college football helmet. I’d think that it’s a result of the manufacturer or perhaps the paint subcontractor, no? Why does Nike get the blame here?
Nike chose the color. The color is what people don’t like.
Not according to the site and per your quoting of them: “…the uniform problems extended beyond the colors. Due to a manufacturer’s defect, the facemask paint chipped badly during the season opener. And the spear decals didn’t match properly with holes drilled into the helmets, which led to some peeling.”
Blame the uniform manufacturer for the undesirable coloring of the number on what they make, not for the defects on a product of what someone else makes.
Jesus fuck, read it yourself:
Who chose the colors? Nike. Who coordinates all the uni elements? Nike.
If this was an Adidas or Under Armour uniform, I’d blame them. But it’s not theirs — it’s Nike’s. The end. Let’s please move on. Thanks.
It doesn’t seem like the biggest problem is with the actual uniform or jersey. The helmet is what’s giving the most problems (shade of gold/face mask/decal).
Does Nike make the decals and paint?
Nothing from the athletic department quote and quote you have from the press release mention the actual jersey.
Nothing from the athletic department quote and quote you have from the press release mention the actual jersey.
You are mistaken.
Quote from the press release: “As the season moves forward we will also be returning the Garnet numbers to our away white jerseys.”
But the jersey issue is a matter of number visibility. Nothing was wrong on bikes ends echoey that gold is notoriously difficult to see from a distance especially on white jerseys (see Georgia Tech’s switch to Navy numbers starting in 2003, and the switch after a single game with Gold numbers in 2011).
Some schools/fans don’t give a damn: George O’Leary wanted Tech to have gold numbers (the first thing he did upon taking over was ditch the navy jerseys and the following year replaced then with gold jerseys for when we had to wear dark jerseys) and we finally switched to them full-time sometime in 1998. Starting in 2000 we had numbers that were difficult to read (in terms of font coupled with the good sheen, the font identical to the one used on Ohio’s black alts). Tech then went to skinnier numbers (I’m convinced this was a screw you from O’Leary concerning the uniform changes that happened when he took over at UCF), it wasn’t until a year after O’Leary left that Tech went to more legible numbers. O’Leary made a similar move when he took over UCF, for a long time the Golden Knights had barely any good on their uniforms but they made the switch to his numbers and gold home jerseys with white numbers (meaning both the home and away numbers were difficult to read). UCF doesn’t have as big of a national audience and want on TV as much so the complaints weren’t very vast. Meanwhile Tech was on TV a lot during O’Leary’s tenure but the complaints weren’t being considered (it’s worth noting the outline was fairly thick from ’99-02, even if that only really helped with the ’99 font). I much prefer Gold numbers even from an aesthetic point of view, but that’s because Gold is a school color and Navy is an accent color (if I were a FSU fan garnett would be fine, because of its status as an actual school color).
You could argue that Nike should have foreseen the visibility issues and either never suggested gold numbers or thickened the outline. However some blame still falls on FSU because they approved the new look (and that includes the helmet color).
I’m with Matt on this. This isn’t on Nike but on the helmet manufacturer. Colors might not look good but it’s the ones at Ridell or whoever that screwed the pooch on this
Is there a quality control process for uniform changes? I’m sure the changes are discussed, and the uniforms are presented to the university well before gameday, but I’m wondering… where is the breakdown? Were the color mismatches a mistake, or Nike pushing an idea?
The Baltimore Ravens are offering to let fans exchange their Ray Rice jerseys.
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Gross.
Lee
Just so we’re clear, they’re offering jersey exchanges for fans who were totally cool with RIce when they knew that he’d knocked his fiancée unconcious and dragged her through the casino floor and then had her appear alongside him in a press conference where he apologized to everyone EXCEPT his now wife. But now that there’s a video and he’s no longer on the team, they’re dropping their support for a player they knew to be a wife beater?
Huh.
Right. And can we go ahead and exchange that Rice jersey of yours for one with the name and number of the link? Thanks!
“We’ll have cutting-edge uniforms”
When I hear phrases like that I shudder to the depths of my soul.
In-season fixes for major teams?
When the NHL went to dark-at-home in 2003 and the Flames started wearing a red jersey again, the names were initially black (like the numbers) and then were switched to white after a few games because the black were unreadable.
The team offered repairs or replacements for anyone who bought customized jerseys with the black names.
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The Maryland jerseys are changing the nameplate to TRIUMPH. I thought only the service academies could use something other than a player’s name?
I’m starting to wonder whether these uniform violations are being done on purpose, to drum up publicity and to ensure that the Nike/Adidas/UA/(insert maker here) tail is wagging the
university, college, or institution of higher learningteam dog. After all, what’s a 15-yd penalty when we’re talking about this stuff for days, and when a picture is forever?This is why I’m flat-out exhausted by and bored of the NCAA. God bless LI Phil, Terry Duroncelet, and the rest of the weekend gang. I just can’t. But I’m glad you do.
UMD spokesguy tells me they got a one-time exemption from the NCAA.
A one-time exemption is pretty weak. Why even have a rule at all?
The Maryland jerseys are changing the nameplate to TRIUMPH.
Perfect. Because Maryland uniforms are great – for me to poop on.
As a history buff I love the Ft. McHenry unis. I took my kids there as our last summer field trip and we had a great experience. I know it’s gimmicky but I still like it. For whatever reason I really enjoy UMD’s weird uniform designs.
Side note: the rugby team had two “Pride” jerseys and let fans choose which one they’d wear against Navy a year or so back. Good times
Not close to the scale of the FSU debacle, but when the Red Sox switched to the now-dumped boring road uniforms a few years ago, they initially wore blue undershirts, socks, and accessories. The blue was quickly ditched for red after fans loudly complained.
Wit all this talk about Florida State changing its uniforms in response to fan outcry, I’m surprised the Seminoles aren’t also reverting to their old logo. Fans link that they link, either.
*With
Is it possible that the throwback logo for the Brewers on MLB Pop Tarts is because their official logo features the word “Brewers”? I know NASCAR can not have references to alcohol sponsors on Merchandise that may be aimed at children. Since Pop Tarts are typically a children’s breakfast food, they are unable to contain a reference to an alcoholic beverage.
They could have used the cap logo in navy, with an old gold Wisconsin map behind it. Maybe the problem was that old/metallic gold doesn’t translate well to colored sugar frosting.
What I would have given to see the headline “Back to the Drawing Board for Oregon” back in the Bellotti Bold days…
A Reebok SNAFU (minor but still unacceptable). During the ’08-’09 season the NY Islanders debuted their Rbk retro alt (which is now their primary home), the sock striping was incomplete in the back. By the end of the season the striping was corrected.
Nov 2008
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Mar 2009
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You are right about FSU. What a flub that was for Nike. The helmet had a strange tint – almost greenish. The gold numerals on both the home and away uniforms seemed like a mistake from the begining. Not just because of readability but because of brand identity. The red uniforms with gold numbers looked more like Boston College than a Florida State tradition. Everything else about the uniform is fantastic though. Rebranding included.
It looked more like white gold to me. Compare it to, say, Notre Dame or Washington.
I disagree with the BC comparison, considering BC has only had gold Binet’s in their dark jerseys since 2007. The font screams FSU, as does the sleeve design. There is nothing about their new jerseys that would make me think they belonged to BC.
That said I think their home jerseys would look fine if they featured white numbers outlined in Gold.
Another Nike snafu was when they debuted the US Soccer “Waldo” uniforms with light silver numbers on a white background that were invisible on TV. They quickly changed to blue numbers and had to dump the entire supply of silver numbers that they had already manufactured to last for the life of that uni design for use by all national teams, men and women, senior and youth.
Back in 2002, Nike and Nigeria had a similar problem with link they wore in the first match, so they switched to link for the remaining 2 matches.
FSU Fail:
I think the situation seems most analogous to the infamous Dallas Mavericks silver jerseys from 2003.
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Regarding the retiring of numbers for Mariano Rivera and Harold Baines while they were still active:
Paul, you have said a few times that it’s absurd that a player should be wearing a number that is “out of circulation”.
But this misses the crucial point that, when a number is retired, it’s retired *for* a specific player. The number is taken “out of circulation” only for other players.
So, if the player himself wears the number (such as during the final games of Rivera’s career, or upon Baines’s returns to the White Sox) we cannot say that the number is being “unretired”. The number is still retired in such a case, because no one else but the honoree may wear it.
A number is “unretired” only if it is put back in circulation for anyone to wear, such as (I think) the Chicago Bears have done.
Another example of true “unretirement” of a number would be if it’s given as a special gesture to one other player, as the White Sox did with Luis Aparicio’s no. 11, which Omar Vizquel wore (with Aparicio’s approval).
NBA court design rankings!
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The Jazz would be much higher on my list, and the Nuggets would be much lower.
Sorry, Paul, but that purple Kings court looks sharp.
Mike, you should ask Jordy Kodrinski what he thinks of the list.
The herringbone pattern for the Nets’ floor was my idea. I’m glad it’s well-liked. I really think it was a catalyst for newer unique floor designs like the Hornets.
Which came first — the herringbone court, or the subtle herringbone pattern on the side stripes of the Nets’ uniforms. In either case, a nice design consistency.
Regarding the retiring of numbers for Mariano Rivera and Harold Baines while they were still active:
Paul, you have said a few times that it’s absurd that a player should be wearing a number that is “out of circulation”.
But this misses the crucial point that, when a number is retired, it’s retired *for* a specific player. The number is taken “out of circulation” only for other players.
So, if the player himself wears the number (such as during the final games of Rivera’s career, or upon Baines’s returns to the White Sox) we cannot say that the number is being “unretired”. The number is still retired in such a case, because no one else but the honoree may wear it.
A number is “unretired” only if it is put back in circulation for anyone to wear, such as (I think) the Chicago Bears have done.
Another example of a true “unretirement” of a number would be if it’s given as a special gesture to one other player, as the White Sox did with Luis Aparicio’s no. 11, which Omar Vizquel wore (with Aparicio’s approval).
What do we call the situation when a number is retired, but a current player is still wearing it? I guess it’s out of circulation with a grandfather clause?
It’s happening right now, with Greg Monroe wearing #10 for the Detroit Pistons that is otherwise retired for Dennis Rodman.
And also, notably, it happened with the Chicago Bulls. #10 was retired for Bob Love, but BJ Armstrong was on the team and the Bulls let him keep it. Armstrong left the Bulls, and eventually came back…and they gave him the #10 even though it was retired.
Those are interesting cases! I didn’t know about either one. I’d have to label both of those as examples of “unretiring” of a number, at least temporarily.
When Fla.St. rolled out the new uniforms this summer, I thought it was a huge downgrade. Upon seeing them on the field, I had to admit that I really liked them. I actually like this gold color, I just assumed that they were also changing their color scheme, so didn’t fret about it. Now knowing that this color was not intentional, really makes you wonder about what Nike and the school were thinking.
The new logo is the primary thing that sucks. They should retract that for sure. Not to crazy about the arrows crossing either.
While searching for the ever elusive watchable midday programming, I tune to NBA TV to watch Game 4 of the 2001 Western Conference Semifinals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings.
This isn’t exactly uni-related, but I was surprised to see the Sacramento Arena called “Sleep Train Arena” on the U-Verse program information rather than the period appropriate “Arco Arena.”
Could this be just a simple information error? Is it possible that the NBA is required to use current naming rights for arena names for prior games?
A couple of Arkansas related Items. The Hogs have new Helmet Stickers. They are the new Nike Hog Head they debuted this off season.
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063.1073741854.119999238140088/468332859973389
I also noticed an updated Southwest Classic logo on link . They essentially dumped the Football on the bottom center of the logo for the SEC logo.
New SW Classic logo… link
Old SW Classic Logo…
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I’m watching the Devil Rays-Jeters game tonight (Tue.). In the bottom of the fourth Comrade Chris Archer’s stirrup has slipped off his heel!
…and Outman is on the mound in the top of the eighth. But the Rays announcers don’t know how to react. He’s wearing 88 but it looks like ’82! Hat har
The West Virginia number 5 looks like their number 2 upside down and reversed.
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Dennis
Corrected link for the number 2.
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