Good morning, and happy autumnal equinox. As you can see at right, 49ers tailback Frank Gore took his signature biker shorts look to a new level yesterday. Okay, so it was only for pregame warm-ups, but still. Click on the photo, if you dare, to the get the full effect.
In other news from around the league yesterday:
• For the second time in three games, the Panthers wore their blue alternate jerseys. So the season is only three weeks old and they’ve already used up their allotment of alternate uni games.
• If the Cardinals are wearing their BFBS alts, shouldn’t coach Bruce Arians wear black instead of red?
• As you may have heard, former Titans kicker Rob Bironas died on Saturday. Tennessee didn’t add a memorial decal for him yesterday, but I suspect that will addressed prior to next Sunday’s game against the Colts.
• The Eagles once again wore white at home. My understanding is that they they will have to play at least three more games before their green jerseys are ready.
• Other teams wearing white at home (as a matter of choice, not necessity): the Dolphins, Browns, Jaguars, Saints, and Rams.
• At some point I’ll stop mentioning this every week, but for now I’m still amazed that the Chiefs are sticking with blank nose bumpers.
• Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch had one of his braids ripped out during a tackle, and didn’t seem to mind too much.
• Surprised to see Jags coach Gus Bradley and Colts coach Chuck Pagano sharing a pregame bro shake. I thought coaches use regular handshakes.
• Mike Williams of the Bills wore red socks (or red tights, or red tape, or something). He also did that in training camp, so apparently he really likes going red below the knee.
• Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward’s uni number was coming loose.
• Finally, there’s this: Last night the Panthers played the Steelers. And the day before that, the Pitt Panthers played a team that looks like the Steelers (i.e, Iowa). An interesting parallel!
(My thanks to all contributors, including Jeff Flynn, Seth Moorman, Chris Perrenot, and Jason Yates.)
Click to enlarge
PermaRec update: I’ve just become aware of a truly spectacular storytelling project involving hundreds of old police mug shots from one town — New Castle, Pennsylvania. Get the full scoop in the latest entry on Permanent Record.
New eBook Offer! Earlier this year we ran a very successful promotion around the e-version of Mike Shropshire’s classic baseball book Seasons in Hell. Now we have a new offer on another Shropshire e-title: The Ice Bowl, which is the definitive book on the legendary 1967 NFL title game and the season that led up to it. Believe me, if you’ve had enough of all the nonsense going on in the NFL lately, this book is a nice antidote.
Our friends at Diversion Books are once again offering a special price point for Uni Watch readers: $2.49, which is absolutely the lowest price currently available on the web and a full 50% off what you’ll find at Amazon, B&N, and so on. You can learn more about the book and download your copy here.
Culinary Corner: On several occasions over the past year I’ve mentioned that I’m very fond of the smoked turkey tails served at Morgan’s, a barbecue restaurant in my neighborhood. I like them so much than I wanted to make my own — I figured I’d order some turkey tails from a butcher and then took them in my smoker.
The only problem was that I couldn’t find a New York butcher that could procure the tails for me. Last fall I called a bunch of places (including Ottonanelli’s, which specializes in game birds, unusual cuts, etc.), but they all told me, “Sorry — can’t get ’em.” So then I asked Morgan’s where they get theirs, but they wouldn’t tell me.
I wasn’t thinking about any of this when I headed to Philadelphia two days ago to see this program of vintage sex ed films (which was excellent, by the way). About six hours prior to the show, I stopped in at the excellent Reading Terminal Market, which features all sorts of food vendors. Naturally, I gravitated toward the butcher counters, one of which featured an offering that got me very, very excited (click to enlarge):
Now, I had tried to source raw tails last fall, not smoked — I was going to smoke them myself. On the other hand, I probably wouldn’t have been able to carry a bunch of raw tails around with me all day — they would have gone bad. I didn’t have to worry about that with the pre-smoked tails.
I bought four pounds, which turned out to be 15 tails. Once I got them home, I warmed one of them in the oven and dove in. The verdict: They’re good (very smoky!), but I have to admit that they’re not as good as the ones at Morgan’s. I think this is due to two reasons:
• The tails I bought are larger than the ones served at Morgan’s, which may explain why they’re a bit tougher.
• Morgan’s fries the tails after smoking them. I could do this to the tails I bought, of course. Maybe I will.
Meanwhile, I’d still rather find raw tails and smoke them myself. But for now, this has been a good intermediate step.
Sticker reminder: In case you missed it on Friday, the Uni Watch 15th-anniversary logo is now available as a high-quality vinyl sticker, suitable for plastering on the surface of your choice. Wanna get one (or more than one)? Full details here.
Baseball News: It’s rookie hazing season, at least for the Mets. ”¦ Several Pirates wore two-in-ones yesterday, while pitcher Vance Worley wore genuine stirrups. The weird thing is that the stripe patterns didn’t match (thanks, Phil). … “On Saturday I did some volunteer work at the Long Island Ronald McDonald House and came across their amazing Mets-themed room,” says Gordon Blau. “They get professional decorators to do these, and it shows. One of the staff members said the designer knew nothing about baseball; he had to research everything from scratch. Pretty impressive work, considering!”
NFL News: During last Thursday’s Falcons/Bucs game, they showed a graphic that including photos of Matt Ryan, Dan Marino, and Peyton Manning. The weird thing is that the logo on Marino’s helmet — and maybe on Manning’s as well, although it’s hard to be sure — was blanked out (good spot by Treg Harris). ”¦ Remember when Terrell Suggs came out wearing a gladiator’s helmet prior to the Ravens’ second game? Turns out he’s been fined for that (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Washington QB Kirk Cousins is another athlete who wears the Qalo wedding band. If you’re not familiar with the Qalo, look here (from Tommy Turner). ”¦ Not sure I’ve seen this before: Texans center Chris Myers wears a fingerless glove on his snapping hand (from Seth Shaw). ”¦ DirecTV has one Sunday Ticker commercial featuring a guy in a Falcons jersey with Michael Vick’s old number and another commercial featuring Adrian Peterson. I’m assuming they’re still putting the finishing touches on the ad with the Ray Rice elevator video (from Dave Soline and Joseph Bailey). … John Oliver did an NFL segment last night, and he used an odd hybrid of the NFL logo: current design on top, but the old lettering on the bottom (good spot by Ferdinand Cesarano).
College Football News: NC State’s stadium has a display of North Carolina high school football helmets (from John Cole). ”¦ Serious uni number malfunctions on Saturday for Georgia Southern defensive lineman Jay Ellison. “Gotta love Adidas jerseys,” says Luke Parks. ”¦ Nebraska-Kearney did the flag-desecration thing on Saturday (from Jason Johnson). ”¦ Scott Ylinen notes that the numbers on the West Virginia scoreboard now match the font of the team’s uni numbers.
Hockey News: The Flyers’ 2012 Winter Classic jersey is now their third jersey. I’ll have more to say about this, and also about the Pens’ new third jersey, in an ESPN piece that will run either later today or tomorrow.
NBA News: Remember how the Mavericks were running a design contest to get some chump to design the team’s uniform for free to create the team’s 2015-16 uniform? The winning design will be unveiled tomorrow at 1pm Eastern. This will be the design for next season, not this coming season, which means it might be one of the earliest unveilings ever. ”¦ Also, I have it on good authority that another NBA team will unveiling a new alternate uni tomorrow. Can’t tell you which team, though. ”¦ New logos for the D-League’s Idaho Stampede.
Soccer News: “I was wondering why Sunday’s Manchester City vs. Chelsea game looked off,” writes Ben O’Connell. “Then I realized it was (sky) blue vs. (royal) blue. A quick Google search shows that usually the away team wears its second or third kits, but there have been occasions when both teams wore their home kits. Makes you wonder why American sports are so opposed to color vs. color.” ”¦ Terrible-looking G.I. Joe uni numbers and NOBs for Toronto FC (from Mark Sencich). ”¦ When AS Roma striker Gervinho removes his headband, it turns out he has a surprising hairline (from Alex Cohen). … Man U midfielder Angel de Maria keeps a photo of his wife and daughter inside his sock (from Jason Fetty).
Grab Bag: Here’s something I don’t think I’ve seen before: a bowling shirt for Canadian five-pin bowling (big thanks to Dave Kuruc). ”¦ “I noticed that the roof camera housing on NASCAR cars changed sometime this year,” says David Firestone. “The old configuration was a circular piece of metal on the roof near the front, but that has since changed to a teardrop-shaped configuration.” ”¦ You like these uniforms? That’s a screen shot from a 1970s roller derby match. As you can see from that link, MeTV will be making more of these matches available on a weekly basis — good stuff! (Big thanks to Steve Dodell.) ”¦ Yesterday afternoon I went to the Queens Museum to check out an exhibit on memorabilia from the 1939 and 1964 New York World’s Fairs. There were several uniforms on display, including this tour guide’s uni. In addition to the trylon and perisphere sleeve patch, the trylon/perisphere also appeared on the front buttons and the epaulet buttons. I also liked this press aide’s blazer. … “In 1961, Ferrari loaned a car to local driver Olivier Gendebien for the Belgian Grand Prix,” writes Graham Clayton. “The car was painted in the Belgian national racing colors of all yellow, which made it different from Ferrari’s traditional all-red paint scheme.”
So what happened with the ‘Phins aqua-out?
Turns out it only referred to the aqua T-shirts they were giving away.
Yup. The blog that *promised* the all aqua unis turned out to be wrong (and that was the only place that I saw on the Interwebs proclaiming the fish would wear all aqua). Thankfully it didn’t happen, although with the Chiefs in white pants, it would have been nice for the Dolphins to have worn their aqua pants.
They did go full aqua in the endzones from what I saw of the game which is rare when the U is still playing. Unless I’m mistaken they usually don’t go full color until their season is over.
I think the all-aqua would look a lot better with their current uniforms than with the previous ones.
would the Marino, Manning logo’s be airbrushed out as there not the current team logos?
My thought is that it may just be a bit of glare on white helmets.
The pictures are edited to make them really washed out, so it looks like that took out anything printed on white helmets.
The Colts logo hasn’t changed in decades, so no.
One odd thing I noticed in the Bills/Chargers game: Mike Williams decided to wear red socks, which the Bills haven’t done since they had red helmets. link
While I was looking for this photo, I saw a shot of him wearing red socks in practice. Red socks just must be his thing, and apparently worth whatever fine he’s paying to wear them.
link
Good one! I’ll add that to the main text.
Mike Williams enjoys wearing non-uniform socks. Last week, against the Dolphins, he wore dark blue socks that didn’t come close to matching the throwback color scheme: link
I assumed the league would have contacted him after the Dolphins game about his choice of socks, so I was very surprised to see him wear the red socks.
I missed the Bills’ opening game against the Bears, and can’t find a photo of Williams from that game, so I don’t know what he wore then.
Got to say?..love the look of those red socks with that uni.
Since Notre Dame went with Under Armor who is considered Adidas’s showcase team?
link?
link would be more relevant this century.
Perhaps, but the Adidas/Michigan contract remains the biggest one in the NCAA.
Right, but like Rob S says, it’s the biggest contract and they’re investing the most resources into UM.
It’s not like Notre Dame was all that relevant on the field, but they were relevant where it mattered for Adidas.
Also, while Michigan football isn’t so relevant anymore, Wolverines basketball is relevant again; over the last four years, they’ve qualified for the NCAA tournament each time, won the B1G title twice, and made the 2013 National Championship Game and the Sweet Sixteen last year. So there’s that…
Perhaps, but the Adidas/Michigan contract remains the biggest one in the NCAA.
Notre Dame’s contract with Under Armour is bigger than Michigan’s with Adidas. The escalator clause in Michigan’s contract merely ensures that they are Adidas’s highest-paid team. Plus, Notre Dame can take up to $1 million per year of their annual payout in UA stock. I doubt Michigan has an equity interest in Adidas.
Yeah, I botched that up. It’s still one of the biggest deals, though.
Which is unfortunate for those of us who want to see Michigan leave Adidas when the contract is up in 2016, since I have a hard time seeing Nike or UA pouring that much money into Michigan when those companies have signature programs elsewhere.
It probably helps that Michigan basketball and football got big just as sports merchandising was getting bigger in the 90s, with Nike signing those huge school-wide deals.
Plus, it’s a large, nationally recognized university with big alumni bases in Detroit, Chicago and New York. No matter how it’s performing on the field, it’s going to be rolling in money (just like Notre Dame).
KU? lol At least they offer up football unis as if they are Division I quality
re: ticker item about Man City vs Chelsea going blue on blue
They went blue vs blue in Manchester link, but link.
Meanwhile, QPR and Stoke went link and Burnley and Sunderland went link.
The odd thing about that ad with the Falcons jersey – it’s clearly branded with the Nike swoosh and the NFL shield on the collar, so it would seem to be a current model. However, the Falcons haven’t reissued number 7 since Vick. Note as well that the jersey’s NNOB.
Those Sunday Ticket commercials are just stupid anyway. “Buy our dish and our package, and you too can level your house and destroy city blocks!” Ugh.
“Those Sunday Ticket commercials are just stupid anyway.”
Yes. Yes they are.
I liked their rivalry commercials. Those were great.
link
The article is behind a paywall but Nori Aoki of the Royals had to wear hitting coach Dale Sveum’s jersey in the middle of the game on Saturday. He went in the clubhouse to change undershirts and supposedly someone switched his jersey as a prank.
link
Had is the wrong word, he unknowingly wore…
I don’t like BFBS but I really like the Cardinals black jerseys. I guess it sort of does not seem BFBS to me because a percentage of their logo is black. I also like the contrast between the white helmet and black jersey. Off the top of my head I can’t think of another team that does that.
yeah, black is one of their official colors. and i like the black jersey white helmet combo too. Just seems a bit odd since wearing red jerseys was how the team got the name Cardinals back when in their Chicago days.
One of the best looks in the NFL. There was more black in the uniform when they played in St. Louis; that’s the image I associate with them.
I can understand that. Back when they had the Arizona state flag on the white jersey’s sleeves, the blue bottom half of the flag tricked my mind into perceiving the black border stripes as blue.
trylon and perisphere sleeve patch
want.
Ditto, that patch (and buttons) are amazing! Cool exhibit…
Very cool exhibit. Aesthetically, at least, there’s just no contest between 1938-39 and 1964-65: the Thirties win by a mile. As a frequent visitor to the 64-65 version, i can attest to the coolness of many of the buildings and shows and such. The NYS Pavilion! Not to mention the Belgian Waffles. But the Trylon & Perishere beat the Unisphere all to hell, and the heroic Art Deco monumentalism of the 1938-39 national pavilions is awesome. Mind you, two of the coolest (i.e., very close to silliest) of those pavilions were Germany and the USSR, which tells you something about “heroism” and tyranny… Still and all: the Trylon+Perisphere and Rockefeller Center and the WPA posters — when has American design been so good?
One thing I didn’t realize is that the women guides wore a dress under the jacket that also had the Trylon-Perisphere patch.
link
link
Can’t find any photos of the men sans their jacket.
Naked Nose Bumpers: noticed a number of Washington’s players sporting the blank look at yesterday’s game against the Eagles. Notably Kirk Cousins, EJ Biggers and Ryan Clark. Is it their personal protest against the team’s name as other players had the brand?
link
I’m guessing that is reading a bit too much into it.
Regarding the Philadelphia Eagle’s green jerseys, does the color issue affect all types of jerseys or just the official game models? If it does not affect the replica jerseys, would it be possible for them to wear those instead since they look almost the same or does the NFL have a rule that they have to wear a specific design that they submitted as their official jersey?
Do they make replica jerseys in anything but “kicker” cuts? Is it even possible to get them in lineman sleeveless styles, never mind lineman sizes?
“South Park” is starting their 18th season on Wednesday, and their first episode goes after the Washington Redskins.
link
This year they can get a whole season’s material from just the NFL.
I’m not going to get into the Redskins issue, but is this the first time South Park has used an actual NFL team logo? I remember a few years back they had Matt Hasselbeck on the show in a not-quite-Seahawks uniform: link
Since the show is set in Colorado, they’ve referenced the Broncos several times.
Previously, Jason Giambi wore a “JG” cap while the Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers wore tinfoil hats, though they did use both the link and the link.
Does anyone know how Frank Gore manages to wear the (now required) knee pads? Or does he go without?
Sometimes he just doesn’t bother. But when he does wear them, he just wears them above the knee:
link
“… On Saturday I did some volunteer work at the Long Island Ronald McDonald House and came across their amazing Mets-themed room,” says Gordon Blau….
Thank you. I wasn’t aware of that Time cover by the sainted Willard Mullin: awesome.
The Seahawks link has a new look and link
#bringbackblitz is gaining steam. This is the 4th version of Blitz and I actually like it. Version #2 was frightening. link
I will go so far as saying this, version of the Blitz, is the best looking mascot the Seahawks have had since Seahawk 1.
The Chiefs red, along with the full white of the Dolphins (hate the aqua pants) and their perfectly green field made yesterday’s game one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in a long time. I think the grass really did it for me because I was switching back and forth from the Bronco game and Seattle’s field is just not a good color of green on screen.
Love the aqua pants.
I disagree. Miami is one of the FEW teams I give a pass on going all white (during home day games ONLY) but I love the aqua pants as well so adding that would’ve made it a lot nicer to look at. Sadly since it was a day home game for the Dolphins the nicest possible combo for this game, Dolphins in aqua over white vs Chiefs in white over red, was never happening.
With me the issue with Miami is that they have a color unique in almost all of North American professional sport and they basically use it as a glorified trim color. On top of this, the shade of aqua used in the “dark” jersey is perhaps the lightest shade of any dark jersey dolor currently in the National Football League. So, no I don’t give the Dolphins a pass. They have a great dark jersey and a great dark pair of pants that are both woefully underused. If the Dolphins refuse to wear aqua jerseys at home on Sunday afternoons, fine. But at least put on the aqua pants and give yourselves some color for the home fans.
I would have no problems with that as well. As long as the aqua pants are still worn on the road. Ironically this new logo/uni set has really grown on me from the time it was released. I didn’t think it would. I’d still like to see them bring back the aqua facemask and change that horrible number font though.
Paul, will your NHL piece cover the two Winter Classic unveilings as well? I think they’re both scheduled for tomorrow.
Shit, I forgot about that. No, that’ll be separate.
How appropriate that the Flyers’ third jersey makes its first appearance against Montreal, as all it is is a Montreal jersey in Flyers colors.
Actually, link would be Flyers recolors of the Montreal jerseys. The Flyers’ actual third is more akin to the link, link, or the early 1970s link, link, or link.
Cool Mets room. The designer who knew not of the baseball asked a Mets / baseball fan for some assistance. Banners, mag covers, newspaper pages, Starting Lineup Team. Just excellent. Best part? No bobbleheads.
Roller Derby? Joanie Weston!!
Did you go to the Maker Faire?
No. Busy day — didn’t have time, even though I was right nearby.
paul, you probably know this, but in the 70’s iowa coach hayden fry redesigned the team’s uniforms to replicate those of the steelers. i think he even ask for (and got) permission from the steelers to do it.
“The only problem was that I couldn’t find a New York butcher that could procure the tails for me.”
Maybe there’s not enough mainstream demand. Have you tried ethnic markets? Even with the great variety of ethnic foods in the supermarkets nowadays (around here, anyway), there are certain things I have to go to the Asian market to find.
It’s hard to imagine *any* cut of meat being hart to find at, say, Hong Kong Supermarket or H-Mart.
Interesting on that picture of North Carolina high school helmets how many are replicas of Pro and College logos. Does anyone even try anymore?
I’m sure someone mentioned it in an earlier comment; I scanned for it but didn’t see it. Apologies if this is a repost.
“Any more” isn’t quite right, since high school helmets have ripped off pro and college designs since the dawn of time (or thereabouts). Growing up, I watch Friday night HS football highlights (yeah, I didn’t have the most active night life) and there were all these little Notre Dames and Wisconsins and Green Bays.
True. There’s a website for my state as well and a lot of designs are borrowed. My old school uses the USC helmet but makes it look slightly better by going with a gold facemask instead of the gray. That reminds me, I need to find that site again.
USC’s helmet, I think, would look better with a cardinal face mask, as opposed to a gold one.
Yet, IIRC, USC’s current face masks have an interesting tweak. Like Notre Dame, USC has gold flake mixed in with the gray. When the light hits it just right, it gives off a glow.
link
Maybe I’m late to the party but, check these Uni’s out!
former HS/NCAA center here… I always wore fingerless glove(s) playing football. gave me better feel for the ball and I would know if it was a bad snap from the release.
Those Louisville unis the FB site just posted… Wow. That’s all I can say. Everything that’s bad about the 3 stripe all in one on that one plus a bit of camo too. Well played 3 stripes. Well played.
And they sure do get their moneys worth out of that funhouse background! Yikes! I can only hope when all these costume pictures are done the CEO takes that home and installs it in his bathroom. We can’t let such a horrible thing get tossed in a dumpster like it’s a Wrigley Field Cake! It needs to be preserved for future generations!
Let’s not exonerate UofL from blame in this. They could have refused to wear these things, but are choosing to do so.
The teardrop roof camera is new, the tracks it’s running at did not have roof cameras last year because of aerodynamic concerns and instead ran additional cameras behind the windshield. Based on some looking at photos from this season, the old cameras are still being used at the superspeedways (Daytona and Talladega) as well as at short tracks. The new teardrop cameras are better aerodynamically but only face forward, while the old ones could do a full 360 rotation, hence NASCAR’s preference to use the old ones at tracks where they have less of an effect.
If I remember correctly, BFBS was labeled so because of a trend where teams were incorporating black unis into their style guides despite black not being one of their colors. There aren’t nearly as many teams that still do it, but teams like the Eagles and Cardinals still have black alternates and I don’t think either look bad. I feel like there aren’t that many “BFBS” teams in pro sports anymore…so my question I guess is…is it really for Black’s Sake anymore or is it just a black alternative jersey?
If the purpose of it is “Black would look cool… is it a color of ours??? No? Oh well. It’d look intimidating!” then yes… it’s still BFBS.
Haven’t some teams added black to their official colors just so they could justify having a black jersey? I could be completely wrong about that though.
Black has also been designated as a “neutral color” (as white already is) by the NFL and other leagues, so that teams could use black in such items as t-shirts and sweatshirts (for example, teams like the Patriots or Packers).
So I was randomly looking at pictures of former Purdue QB Brandon Kirsch (yeah… he was terrible, don’t remind me) and I noticed a little uniform quirk I had forgotten about…
Some Purdue football players used to have a small “SA” patch on or below the collar. I think it stood for Student Athlete or something similar, denoting academic achievements by athletes. Anybody know any more about this, or similar patches with other schools?
Examples:
2004 Road
link
2005 Home
link
2005 Road
link
Thank you for sharing the story about Small Town Noir! Fantastic site. Now to figure out how to catch up on the hour + of work I just fell behind on!
link.
Eric Wood of the Bills uses a fingerless glove on his snapping hand as well. It’s funny you mentioned it because I was down near field level for warmups as was looking at what lineman wear for gloves vs. those bulky Everlast gloves they wore in the late 70’s/early 80’s.
Titans wore all white vs Bengals sunday
Yes they did, and it was terrible.
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