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Monday Morning Uni Watch

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With world attention currently focused on Paris in the wake of Friday night’s terrorist attacks, the NFL showed its support for the victims in various ways yesterday. This list is probably incomplete, but here goes:

• In Denver, Broncos safety Darian Stewart carried the French flag onto the field prior to the team’s game against the Chiefs (see above). Pregame displays of the French flag also took place in Seattle, Baltimore, Washington, and New Jersey.

• The French flag also appeared on many stadiums’ scoreboards, including in Seattle, Denver, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh.

• Several teams, along with the league itself, modified their social media avatars to include the colors of the French flag:

• Eagles coach Chip Kelly had the “Paris Peace” symbol on his play-calling card.

There was apparently an unofficial policy that players would not be penalized or fined for wearing any symbols or messaging regarding the attacks, but I’m not aware of any individual players who did that. If you know of any, please post them in today’s comments.

In non-Paris-related developments:

• With everyone else thinking about the French, Giants wideout Odell Beckham Jr. and his Nike overlords somehow thought yesterday was a good day for jingoistic footwear. Classy. (Interestingly, Beckham had worn camouflage gloves with French flag icons for pregame warm-ups, but he didn’t wear those during the game.)

• Speaking of the Giants, they wore their alternate white pants and white shoes. I’m a fan of both.

• Another item from that Giants/Pats game: Pats cornerback Logan Ryan was wearing Rutgers gloves.

• The Bucs wore white at home, forcing the Cowboys to dust off their seldom-used blue jerseys and standard silver pants.

• The Titans went mono-navy (not to be confused with the mono-light blue that they’ll be wearing for this Thursday’s Color Rash game).

• Another team going mono-navy: the Rams.

• Speaking of that Rams game, one of the end zones was missing a pylon in the early stages of the game. Then someone spotted it and they dealt with it.

• The Chiefs didn’t go mono-white even once last season (if they were wearing their white jerseys, they always paired them with the red pants), but they did it yesterday. Also, as you can see in that photo, they wore red-topped socks. According to the Gridiron Uniform Database, that might be the first time they’ve done that since 1994. In recent years they’ve accessorized the mono-white look with white-topped socks.

• Washington defensive back Chris Culliver was really pushing it with the G.I. Joke accessories.

• Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis was apparently wearing one of those team-logo visors. I’ve seen those used in practice but never in a game, where they’re supposedly not permitted. Remains to be seen if he’ll pay a price. Check that — it was just for pregame.

(My thanks to all contributors, including James Gilbert, Brinke Guthrie, John J., @jon_k98, Josh Kurp, Jamie Uthe, and of course Phil.)

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T-Shirt Club reminder: In case you missed it last week, the Uni Watch T-Shirt Club’s design for the December — the ugly sweater design — is now available. We’re offering it in three formats: a standard short-sleeve tee (American Apparel or Teespring Premium), a long-sleeve tee, or a sweatshirt. It’s a doozy of a design — dig (click to enlarge):

This shirt is only available for two more days — today and tomorrow. Again, you can order it here. Thanks.

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Membership update: We don’t often get requests for membership cards in the basic Uni Watch motif (instead of a design based on a real team), but Adam Goldberg ordered on the other day. His card, shown at right, is one of five new designs that have been added to the membership card gallery.

As always, you can order your own custom-designed membership card here, you can see all the cards we’ve designed so far here, and you can see how we produce the cards here.

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A new project — Key Ring Stories: Two weeks ago I told you the story behind the quarter that I keep on my key ring. (If you missed it and are curious, scroll down to the middle of this entry.) That inspired longtime reader Jeff Barak — editor of the excellent Third String Goalie hockey blog — to send me a photo of his own key ring, which, in a classic Uni Watch move, includes a little hockey jersey pendant (click to enlarge):

There’s a story behind this, which Jeff tells like so:

I have a 2005 German National Team jersey (home white on one side, road black on the other) on my key ring. It was given to my son and me at the 2009 IIHF U18 World Championships in Fargo, North Dakota, by a team member. The eagle crests on the front have both worn off, but the striping and shoulder logos remain essentially intact, especially on the white side.

My key ring also has a Swiss Army knife “Executive Model,” given to me by a former employer for my fifth anniversary about 30 years ago. It has two blades, a nail file, scissors and orange peeler (which is the tool exposed for view in the photo). Apparently a hardworking executive is expected to eat lunch at his desk and isn’t supposed to drink on the job, so no corkscrew.

I love this. As Jeff pointed out to me in the note accompanying his story, many people — perhaps most people — have something unique on their key rings. In fact, I keep my car keys on a separate ring, which has its own special little item. Maybe I’ll tell that story later on.

I’ve decided to turn this into a new crowd-sourced project, called Key Ring Stories (or maybe Key Ring Chronicles). Everyone is invited to participate — if you have a special item on your key ring with a good story behind it, take a photo of it and send it to me, along with the story. I’d prefer to use people’s real names (stories seem more real and credible that way), but I’ll use a pseudonym if you want me to.

I’ll start by posting the photos and stories here on Uni Watch, but my plan is to create a new website for this project, or maybe find another media outlet that’s willing to publish it. For now, though, we need some good entries to get us started, so fire away.

(Oodles of thanks to Jeff Barak for suggesting this project. Great idea, Jeff!)

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The Ticker
By Paul

Baseball News: One of the Arizona Fall League teams created an impromptu bullpen salute to the Paris terrorism victims the other night (from Christopher LaHaye). ”¦ “My son’s school had a book fair and one of the books was this ‘sticker dressing’ sports book,” says Chris Flinn. “Here’s the baseball page, and then you can apply these stickers to the player. The book has about 15 other sports, too.”

NFL News: You already knew that the Cowboys’ equipment staff puts a little Dymo tape nameplate on the back of each player’s helmet. What you might not know is that Greg Hardy’s label has his nickname instead of his surname (good spot by Todd Brock). ”¦ Whoa, check out the socks on Don Shula in this 1974 print ad! (Nice find by B.Smile.)

College Football News: “On Saturday four UCLA players honored former teammate Nick Pasquale, who died in 2013 after being hit by a car, by wearing his nameplate on their backs,” says Chris Cruz. ” A number of other players had Pasquale’s #36 marked on their arms and several coaches wore No. 36 caps or patches.” ”¦ New helmet on tap this weekend for Richmond (from James Gilbert). ”¦ Someone at Saturday’s OSU/Illinois game was dressed as Red Grange (from Larry Bodnovich). ”¦ Yesterday’s Sunday Morning Uni Watch coverage already mentioned that Marshall wore black jerseys and “75” on their helmets to memorialize the 75 people who were killed in the 1970 plane crash. In addition, the marching band’s drum major wore a replica uniform from the movie We Are Marshall (from Brice Wallace). ”¦ Good article on the Pitt script. ”¦ South Carolina QBs were wearing Under Armour golf caps on the sideline the other day.

Hockey News: The Buffalo Beauts — that’s one of the new professional women’s teams — wore French flag helmet decals yesterday (from Jordan M.). ”¦ The Hershey Bears went G.I. Joke yesterday. ”¦ An interesting Penguins prototype design has surfaced at an auction house (from Joe Spizzirri).

NBA News: Last week’s Friday Flashback piece about the Warriors’ “The City” uniforms mentioned that the team’s new throwback court was the first throwback floor design in NBA history. But Ben Gorbaty notes that the Wizards hosted a Bullets throwback night in 2003 that included, according to this game recap, a Bullets logo at center court. Not quite a full throwback floor design, but still. You can sort of see the old logo in these shots. ”¦ In a vaguely related item, check out this 1974 shot of Bruce Springsteen wearing a “The City” T-shirt (from Dave Holland). ”¦ Knicks F Kevin Seraphin, who’s from French Guyana, shaved “Paris” into his head for yesterday’s game (thanks, Mike).

College Hoops News: New uniforms for Brown, which has switched to Nike (from Joel Mathwig). ”¦ UNC uses Nike basketballs but apparently keeps them in a Spalding ball rack (from James Gilbert). ”¦ Notre Dame women’s coach Muffett McGraw was presented with these commemorative high heels in honor of her 700th coaching victory. ”¦ Sleeves are dead at the college level, right? Wrong. ”¦ Eight Adidas-outfitted school will be wearing new alternate unis that reflect camera flashes (from NESportsFix).

Grab Bag: A Lithuanian couple painted their house in an Adidas motif (from Jason Waterfalls). ”¦ Here’s a piece on the best and worst golf club logos (rare non-Notre Dame contribution from Warren Junium). ”¦ Interesting little backgrounder article on bobbleheads (thanks, Brinke).

 
  
 
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Comments (68)

    I’d figure the Giants would’ve put the “Giants” decal on the helmets instead of keeping the “NY”, making it a full throwback.

    The white pants are not a throwback design; just an alternate design. They’ve been wearing them for two games per season for three years now and have never changed the helmet logo.

    I noticed that Carson Palmer’s helmet appeared to have the ear holes covered. I feel like I am late to the game on this one but is that normal for him? Or was it to help with crowd noise on the road in Seattle?

    First of all, I am sympathetic to the plight of the French people and all of those around the globe that have been victims of terrorism.

    That being said, and I hope that the NFL has their hearts and heads in the right place, but every time I see the NFL doing a “tribute” to whatever is trending at the time, I can’t help but think that it is not about the topic of conversation, but all about the “Me! Look at meeeeeeeeeeee!” that the NFL is notorious for.

    “every time I see the NFL doing a “tribute” to whatever is trending at the time, I can’t help but think that it is not about the topic of conversation, but all about the “Me! Look at meeeeeeeeeeee!” that the NFL is notorious for.”

    ~~~

    While I don’t disagree the NFL may have ulterior motives, what “tributes” have you seen them do to “whatever is trending at the time”? It’s Pinktober and GIJokevember all the time. Yes, there are the occasional leaguewide memorial stickers and patches, but other than that…what has the NFL done of note in recent years that hops onto the “trending” bandwagon?

    Good for the NFL for recognizing the victims in Paris. For once, I’d say this isn’t about them or the fetishization of the military or the tatas.

    The only recent precedent I can think of would be the Sandy Hook helmet decals.

    I agree with Phil — good for the NFL here. I have nothing bad to say about anything they did yesterday.

    But I also understand where -DW is coming from. The NFL often appears to operate so cynically, so calculatedly, that it’s tempting to view anything they do with suspicion. In this respect, they’ve reaped what they’ve sown.

    There’s also the danger of compassion ratcheting. This was a horrific attack, and deserved a tribute. But now the league has put itself in the position of being an arbiter of international tragedy.

    If something unspeakable happens in the Ivory Coast, and 120 people are killed in a political protest, will the NFL wave orange and green flags? If not, then why not?

    Personally, I liked the tributes yesterday (especially given how some of the same national figures now waving the Tricolore made a career on deriding France and her people). But slippery slopes abound.

    “…now the league has put itself in the position of being an arbiter of international tragedy.”

    ~~~

    Should they have done nothing? Obviously heinous acts of cruelty by humans against other humans abound, but I think the few recognitions yesterday was an appropriate response and compassion from a league otherwise entirely wrapped in its own world.

    Plus, anything that takes away from the camo and militaristic chest thumping is always a welcome (if unfortunate) happening.

    ~~~~~~~~~~

    “I liked the tributes yesterday (especially given how some of the same national figures now waving the Tricolore made a career on deriding France and her people).”

    ~~~

    That almost made me choke on my Freedom Toast.

    If something unspeakable happens in the Ivory Coast, and 120 people are killed in a political protest, will the NFL wave orange and green flags? If not, then why not?

    Nobody did anything for Lebanon (myself included).

    I thought you meant golf club *maker* logos (Ping, Wilson, etc.); not Golf (I am a member of this) clubs.

    Perhaps if i *was* a member of a golf club I would have known better.

    Unrelated to sports or uni-related matters, but I find it disheartening that the world focused its attention solely and wholeheartedly on the tragic events that unfolded in Paris, yet turned a blind eye to the suicide bombing that killed at least 40 people in Beirut this past Thursday. The message sent to these people is that their lives are worth less than the lives of westerners. It just sucks.

    “I find it disheartening that the world focused its attention solely and wholeheartedly on the tragic events that unfolded in Paris, yet turned a blind eye to the suicide bombing that killed at least 40 people in Beirut this past Thursday.”

    ~~~

    Good point, but your logic is somewhat reductive. Sadly, suicide bombings have become all too commonplace in areas like Lebanon, so the world is almost immune to the tragic nature of these events. What happened in Paris, in scale and in terms or terror/body count is naturally going to attract much more widespread attention.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    “The message sent to these people is that their lives are worth less than the lives of westerners.”

    ~~~

    Couldn’t agree more, but this is still a very western/eurocentric world community. And instead of working towards an end to events that continue to divide the world and increase violence/hatred, events like those in Paris and Lebanon only seem to divide us more.

    “Sadly, suicide bombings have become all too commonplace in areas like Lebanon, so the world is almost immune to the tragic nature of these events.”
    Thank you. History, not ethnocentrism, is the cause for the different reactions.

    Brutal treatment of Mizzou students? Puh-lease.

    “Sadly, suicide bombings have become all too commonplace in areas like Lebanon…”

    I was link that this is not very accurate. Quoting the article:

    “In fact, while Beirut was once synonymous with violence, when it went through a grinding civil war a generation ago, this was the deadliest suicide bombing to hit the city since that conflict ended in 1990.”

    That doesn’t change the fact that Lebanon is located on the perimeter of a perpetual war zone.

    I believe the message is that Westerners are naturally, and justifiably, more interested in news stories that affect the Western world. Just as Middle Easterners, East Asians, etc., are all justifiably more interested in stuff that directly affects their regions.

    I believe the message is that Westerners are naturally, and justifiably, more interested in news stories that affect the Western world. Just as Middle Easterners, East Asians, etc., are all justifiably more interested in stuff that directly affects their regions.

    You’re suggesting that it’s strictly geographic. I suspect it’s more cultural. If the Paris attacks had taken place in, say, Sydney or Tokyo, I suspect our response would have been the same, even though those are not, strictly speaking, “Western” cities. Those cites are Western-ASSOCIATED, however (through heritage in Sydney’s case, and via international business in Tokyo’s).

    But “the West” and “Western” in this sense always convey a wider cultural milieu, and are never a strictly geographic expression. The words are synonyms for “the Occident.” And no, the contrasted regions are not strictly geographic entities, either. The thing that makes it reasonable to speak of Tunis, Aden, and Damascus as parts of a single “region” is not geographic proximity. The thing that makes it reasonable to speak of Hanoi and Seoul but not Vladivostok sharing a “region” is not geography. If someone speaks of the United Sates as part of “the West,” he is very much not making a strictly geographic assertion. While “the West” is vague and shifting term – for example, sometimes the speaker intends to include Russia, or Turkey, or Japan, and sometimes not – it nearly always includes countries that are members of the EU and/or NATO as well as Australia and New Zealand.

    As ArrScott says, I was using “the West” in a broadly cultural sense, rather than geographic–very roughly speaking, the lands of western Christendom and the direct cultural heirs thereof.

    Of course. If a disaster struck Dallas and Bangalore on the same day, I wouldn’t expect an Indian to be remotely as interested in the former as the latter … and nothing would oblige him to be.

    I would say part of it is the accessibility Americans have to Western Europe countries, even more so cities like London and Paris, as opposed to places like Beirut or Nairobi, where nearly 150 people were slain in a University shooting in April. Where was the huge outpouring of support for that?

    Paris is 6 hours on a plane from here, I know a bunch of folks who have been there. Kenya on the other hand isn’t a huge tourist destination, nor does it have the iconography of the Eiffel Tower.

    Also, this happened on a Friday night, the horror still very fresh in our minds (and investigations unfolding) on Saturday when football was being played. How would it have been portrayed on the field had it happened on a Monday and we had already digested it for 5 or 6 days?

    I just think its easier for us to relate to Paris (and other parts of western Europe) more so than other less accessible or desirable (or touristy?) cities.

    Our connection with France is just stronger from a historical perspective, than many other parts of the world.

    France has also been a stronger ally than other nations, so it’s not that complicated.

    And let’s be clear about the forces seeking to divide with violence and hatred, are the same folks beheading people on video.

    “France has also been a stronger ally than other nations, so it’s not that complicated.”

    ~~~

    Except when those pricks wouldn’t let us fly in their airspace on the way to bombing the Iraqi terrorists responsible for 9/11…

    I know the Chiefs wore red socks with their all-white look in 1994. Uncertain whether or not that look was a throwback to the the 1960s or not.

    I think that photo of Montana was in the throwback. With the Chiefs it’s hard to tell, but according to the Gridiron database, the Chiefs didn’t wear sleeve stripes in the early 60’s, and of the two white 94 jerseys, this one is without stripes. The other, along with previous and later years, have the three stripes.

    Strange how something as simple as a red sock with three stripes can look so crappy on today’s players. The socks in the 94 pic look – like they bothered to put them on correctly. Kids these days…

    With everyone else thinking about the French, Giants wideout Odell Beckham Jr. and his Nike overlords somehow thought yesterday was a good day for jingoistic footwear. Classy.

    “Jingoistic,” really? Really? Hardly. Just because someone doesn’t fly the French flag during this time doesn’t mean they are “jingoistic.” Maybe he’s also a “racist” for not wearing something that has a Mizzou tribute to it.

    Just because someone doesn’t fly the French flag during this time doesn’t mean they are “jingoistic.”

    I didn’t say the lack of the French flag was jingoistic; I said that the shoe design, with its absurd stars/stripes design, was jingoistic, and that yesterday was a particularly unfortunate day for such a display (not that there’s ever a good day for it).

    I thought with the events in Paris, he could have worn plain shoes or something instead of those. Maybe pull these out in a week or two?

    In the Ticker pic of the Giants white pants, Dahl?, #43, is wearing the Nike Huarache 5 Lacrosse cleats.

    link

    Interestingly, so was #17, Dwayne Harris, but in a different colorway.

    link

    He has been known to wear the Huarache 4 lacrosse cleat, as well:

    link

    Jeff, I was at that tournament! I had played against Ryan Bourque a few years earlier when he was playing in Colorado. Plan on going in 2016 in Grand Forks as well. Hopefully another USA gold!

    For what it’s worth, I’m 99% certain that Odell Beckham Jr.’s cleats are customized by a third party unaffiliated with Nike. Ugly color scheme aside (God Bless America, but awful execution), the awful contrast between the swoosh and the background screams custom job. As far as performance footwear goes, Nike’s current design ethos reflects a minimalist approach that eschews flashy graphics–any graphics or patterns tend to be subtle and understated. At the same time, the size of the swoosh seems to be getting bigger every year.

    One of the NFL uniform trackers probably can answer this: I wonder what’s the longest gaps Dallas has had between games where the Cowboys have worn the blue jersey set.

    I haven’t been able to find a clear photo, but I believe #98 from the Giants taped his wrists and hands in the colors of the french flag. I saw it very clearly during the game last night.

    I love that the Buffalo Beauts’ French flag helmet decals are just blank stickers colored by hand. It adds some additional charm and meaning to the gesture.

    Late to the party, but a couple of random thoughts regarding the tragedy and tributes:

    A few folks rightfully pointed out that its odd that we respond to what happened in France but let other near daily occurrences of tragic events go under the radar. I think, as Phil pointed out, it’s partly because in some places it’s so commonplace that we’re desensitized. But I think it also relates to the fact that what happened in France vs other middle eastern places is that it moves from being “their problem” to becoming “our problem”

    The other observation is the proliferation of the slacktivism, changing a facebook profile pic to have the french flag superimposed and such. It’s an interesting phenomenon, I think people like to create the illusion of a social conscience or maybe think it’s something they’re supposed to do, I’m not sure exactly. Maybe I’m being too cynical, it’s better to show some caring for your fellow person than none at all, I just find these gestures a little hollow and more like a show everyone puts on before going back to the day to day stuff.

    Quick t-shirt club questions for any of you you have gotten them this year. Do you have a preference one way or the other on the American Apparel vs the Teespring premium shirts?

    Again I’m in the minority.
    I hated the Chiefs in the white pants yesterday. The road look with the red pants is one of the top in the NFL. The road look with the white pants is one of the bottom in the NFL.
    I also hate those white pants for the Giants. It just doesn’t look right to me. If they want to go with white pants it would look better to go blue-red-blue only without the extra gray. And if they want to use gray pants go back to the old gray pants. The striping on the old gray pants was much better.
    And finally the Dolphins are another one I had an issue with. As much as I hate the stormtrooper look I always give Miami a semi-pass. For home day games I like seeing them in the all white. But on the road? Can they please break out the gorgeous Aqua pants? Please??? And change the facemask back to Aqua while you’re at it too! Please???

    Phil P, “slacktivism” , never heard of that but agree 100%. I was griping to my wife this morning as we were watching the Today show. It was an endless recap of the “tributes”, or show of support. Saturday Night Live, Madonna, various bands, actors, etc. The reporting on the tributes is what gets me, as if The Today Show, or Regis and Kelly or whatever talk show is on is keeping score on what tributes were tearjerkers, patriotic, sincere, etc. “Oh, wasn’t that just a precious show of support, I love it”. I then told my wife maybe i’m becoming an old, insensitive bastard, and totally out of line. I don’t know. It just all feels so insincere, so self serving, and flat out wrong.

    You’re not wrong, but come on — anyone looking for substance on morning “news” shows is looking in the wrong place to begin with.

    Sorry Paul, my redneck coal mining brother in law shot up my stereo when he heard NPR droning on about global warming. I’m stuck with Al Roker and Co.

    What happened to the Uniwatch RSS feed? It hasn’t updated since November 9th. I thought the site went under lol. Gah!

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