Phil and his crew have the weekend off, so there’s no SMUW or Five Plus One today — sorry. But there’s still plenty to talk about, beginning with Chiefs safety Eric Berry, who as you’ve probably heard has been sidelined with a mass in his chest, which may be lymphoma. Berry went to school at Tennessee, where the football roster currently includes his brothers Elliott and Evan (their parents apparently really like the letter “E”), so yesterday the Vols showed their support by wearing a helmet decal, which you can see above. The “VFL” stands for “Vol for Life,” but the interesting thing about the decal, at least to me, is that it’s basically a variation on the Chiefs’ logo.
I’m trying to think of a prior instance of an NCAA team wearing an NFL logo, and I’m coming up empty. I know some NFL players have managed to sneak their college logos onto some aspect of their gear, but I can’t recall a college team wearing a pro logo. Am I overlooking anything?
I’m assuming the Chiefs will also be wearing something for Berry, especially since they’re playing in tonight’s nationally televised game, but as of this writing they’ve made no announcement. Meanwhile, here are some additional shots of the Tennessee decal (click to enlarge):
UWFFL update/reminder: Although there’s no UWFFL coverage this weekend, the league’s weekly Saturday and Sunday games are still taking place. You can vote on them, as usual, here. Full coverage will return next weekend.
Baseball News: 3B Josh Donaldson, newly acquired by the Blue Jays, is quoted thusly at the bottom of this article: “Somebody on Twitter had put me in one of those Toronto Blue Jays uniforms, the all whites. I tell you what, those uniforms are pretty sexy.” … This is fascinating, if somewhat disturbing: One of the riot policemen dealing with protests two nights ago in Ferguson, Missouri, was wearing Rawlings-branded catcher’s shinguards. Is that standard gear for riot cops? (Great spot by Laurence Holland.)
NFL News: Good article about the current concussion-management protocols. ”¦ David Rovinsky says that with the Cowboys having worn blue on Thanksgiving, every NFL team has now worn color at home at least once this season.
College and High School Football News: This is pretty amusing: a Twitter feed exclusively devoted to photos of college football equipment trucks. “Very interesting to see everyone’s take on the various designs,” says Bob Smith. … Check out the zero used by Nazareth Academy in Illinois — interesting! (Big thanks to Eric Bangeman.) … You’ve heard of teams going mano a mano, but Missouri and Arkansas went mono vs. mono on Friday. … I’m pretty sure that’s a new helmet that Southern wore yesterday (from Toby Nathan). … Minnesota LB De’Vondre Campbell got one of his dreadlocks stuck on his helmet yesterday (from Tony Tengwall). … Pretty sure yesterday was the first time West Virginia has worn white helmets with blue facemasks (from Ethan Lawrence). ”¦ Boy, the Oregon/Oregon State game was pretty brutal-looking. Pretty cool nose bumper for the Ducks, though.
Hockey News: Reader Eric Buzard notes that the “2” on the Penguins’ helmets doesn’t match the one on their throwback jerseys. … Latest team to the the ugly sweater thing: the Saskatoon Blades (from Cory Wolfe). … In this interview with Capitals goalie Braden Holtby, he’s asked why he wears No. 70. His answer: “[T]hey just gave it to me at my first camp. I got a surprise call-up my first year, played a few games and people started to buy the jersey. And I felt too bad to change it after I’d seen a couple of people pay money for the jersey, so I stuck with it” (from Nelson Warwick).
Basketball News: Here’s an assessment of the Celtics’ sleeved gray uniforms. … St. Bonaventure and Niagara both wore Buffalo Braves throwbacks when facing each other yesterday (from Pat Malacaro). … Notre Dame’s new gold uni is so gorgeous, not even Under Armour’s square collar can ruin them. Very, very nice.
Grab Bag: If you’ve been intrigued by Uni Watch’s recent coverage of rowing blazers, maybe you’ll like this rowing blazer-themed necktie. … David Firestone has done some NASCAR paint scheme rankings for Chevy and Ford. … Had brunch with friends yesterday at the Russ & Daughters Café on Orchard St., where the bathroom wallpaper featured a very cool pattern based on those “take a number” thingies. … Look at these three Aussie rules football teammates from 1963 — non-matching shorts, non-matching socks, and one guy doesn’t have sleeves (great find from Graham Clayton).
Donaldson was acquired by Toronto, not by the Red Sox. Thx Paul
How the hell did I write “Red Sox”? Now fixed.
Unless I’m mistaken, Josh Donaldson was recently acquired by the Blue Jays, not the Red Sox.
I think the Oregon game looked great. Three bright vibrant colors on the field at the same time? Awesome. Would’ve been better if Oregon went with yellow pants and OSU wore orange jerseys… but still awesome.
As far as Oregon modern uniforms go (read I really prefer their kelly green/yellow throwbacks), I concur the kelly green and yellow are beautiful and I kind of like the OSU faux-back look.
Also, how about our own 5 and 1.
5) Oregon vs. Oregon State
4) Wisconsin vs. Minnesota or Illinois vs. Northwestern
3) UCLA vs. Stanford
2) Alabama vs. Auburn
1) Notre Dame vs. USC
And 1 Grambling vs. Southern
Gators/Noles should be in the good list and the Egg Bowl too in places of UCLA (dq’d for the bad stripes and the stretchmarks) and the b1g games.
Did you notice that both teams wore the 41st Infantry Brigade emblem (Oregon National Guard) on their helmets last night? My father wore that patch for many years.
Just seeing the occasional highlight from that game burned my retinas. Awful.
I think the guy in Ferguson is a National Guardsmen.
Standard issue shin guard? No clue.
Sure looks to me that he’s wearing 82d Airborne Division link. I don’t think a police force would do that.
Looking at the uniform, yes this is someone from the National Guard. I’m sure shin guards are not “standard issue” but the idea wearing shin guards or knee pads makes sense if you think about it.
Folks deployed over the last few (many?) years to Afghanistan, where the ground could be very rocky or moving through ground covering brush would want something to protect their knees and shins from getting injured. Enter a relatively, cheap way to guard against injuries and save them from spending time in sick bay.
Thoughts?
The new Notre Dame basketball uniforms are all right. I’m not a fan of the “Irish” script; it looks a little too generic. And the color of gold you see varies depending on the photograph; I think it’s supposed to be the old gold color you see in the football team’s pants, not the athletic gold you would see with, say, Minnesota or Iowa.
Rumor has it they’ll wear matching shoes on Wednesday night when they play Michigan State.
I’m a police officer in Philadelphia, and when it comes to purchasing actual branded police equipment, it can get a little expensive. I have a lot of coworkers who in lieu of spending $60 on gloves will pay significantly less for batting gloves from Modell’s or Dick’s. So I’ll take a random guess and assume this guy was doing the same thing.
Love that both weekend posts were headlined by Knoxville sports teams! Go Vols and Ice Bears!
Not sure if this counts but UNC had a play caller wearing a Giovanni Bernard Bengals jersey yesterday against NC State.
UW covered this one time, they rotate UNC pro football player jerseys on the sideline.
The Aussie rule players are Hawthorn Hawks John Kennedy, Graham Arthur and John Peck. All three are in the Hawthorn Hall of Fame.
I think the sleeveless jumper in the center would be the standard by 1963.
Thanks, I was wondering what team they represented. Did the Hawks use a different shade of brown in the 1960s or has the photo shown it as being more red than it was in reality?
My guess it’s the printing. I don’t think the Hawthorn brown has ever been that red.
When I first saw it I thought the colors looked more like Subiaco, but they mainly wore an interlocking SFC and not stripes in the 60s.
Had to look up the issue to figure out who it was.
At least the ducks vs beavers game was not as eye shattering as the game last year
I thought it was interesting that Philip Hughes was honored across England yesterday at so many football matches.
Not only a different country, but a different sport.
It would be like an NBA team honoring a CFL player that died on the field.
Though international cricket is a big deal in England.
But you’re right, it would be hard to imagine something like this in the States because there’s no major sport that’s played at a high level overseas.
As well as playing for Australia, Hughes had also played county cricket in England for Middlesex (2009), Hampshire (2010) and Worcestershire (2012). Another sport which honoured Hughes over the weekend was speedway. The Valvoline Raceway in Sydney had a bat on display prior to the start of the meeting:
link
Everton wearing BFBS/away kit for away kit’s sake against Tottenham today, even causing shorts to clash in the process.
About those Pittsburgh Penguins helmet stickers not matching the throwbacks, it’s not just the 2 digit. It actually looks like the same font as the normal numbers, just re-colored with Steelers gold instead of Vegas gold. I guess that color match is an easier order to place than making a whole new font package, but when you take care to make white ear loops and chin straps and gloves, I’m surprised Dana Heinze went that route.
And I confirmed on Twitter that the Penguins indeed have different black helmets. So keeping the current font on throwbacks is a little odd. I might have done a simple white Helvetica instead, but what the heck, it looks good!
The ESPN NFL Playoff Machine stil uses a black and white version of the old Jaguars logo, but when you hover over it it changes to the new one.
link
I’m pretty sure this was mentioned at the beginning of the season, but the Steelers are wearing patches for the 40th anniversary of Superbowl IX today. I don’t like it. It just makes the jersey look cluttered. Plus, if you’re going to wear a patch for something like that, shouldn’t it be against the team you beat, not the team who just happens to play in the same city the game took place in?
“… Had brunch with friends yesterday at the Russ & Daughters Café on Orchard St., where the bathroom wallpaper featured a very cool pattern based on those “take a number” thingies. … ”
Made my day.
“zero used by Nazareth Academy”
During my time in the service putting a line through a zero in a navigation, engineering, radio log made it so that the reader of the log would not mistake it as an O (as in Oscar).
I guess my questions would be why do it for something that is clearly a number vice a letter. Who came up with the idea and is it signifying something “special”
I didn’t get a pic, but one of the MSU running backs last night appeared to have chips on the front of his maroon helmet. It looked like the helmets were gold, but painted over with maroon and the gold underneath was thus showing. Perhaps i missed it previously, but assuming it was a gold helmet painted, why would they do that vs simply painting or appying gold accents to the regular maroon helmets?
Sorry, MSU is Miss State above.
I love how the Penguin throwback uses the old link, the one where the TV number 2 has no serif on the bottom. So many NFL teams used that font in the 70s and I miss it a lot. I know the TV 2 was inconsistent with the larger 2, but is just looked good to me. The Steeler font now is silly…any chance they would ever go back?
West Virginia wore white helmets with blue facemasks last week against Kansas State and last year against Texas. They just swapped out the old state logo with the flying WV logo.
So I was on the MLB shop website looking at Giants jerseys and looking at the new replica cool base jerseys, and one is at the very end of the page that shows an “Alternate 2” jersey. Possible leak? link
Yup.
Odd thing I never noticed before, regarding the Penguins’ number fonts – specifically, that the 2 changed from a horizontal cross-stroke on their older uniforms to a diagonal one. It seems the new style first appeared on the 1996 alternates (which were their road uniforms from 1997-98 through 2001-02). They then used the modern font (with the diagonal stroke) on the powder blue throwbacks.
Chiefs going blood clot including the wrong socks. ugh…
They just said they are wearing them because Eric Berry loves that combo. Still it would look better with tier white socks. Go Chiefs!
Bloodclot or almost like pajamas that a 4 year old would wear.
I suspect this has been answered many times, but when did the last long sleve NFL jersey appear, I assume they officially died out in the early 1970’s – but maybe not. In these cold weather games, it would be really novel if say the punter came out with one.
There was a green stripe painted adjacent to the interior sideline at Lambeau Field today. Is this new?
link
I believe they do it since the grass is dormant for the season and it provides more contrast with the white paint on the sideline.
A few days late to the party but just wondering why Tennessee lists Elliot Berry’s NOB as Ell. Berry? And not El. Berry?