Click to enlarge
Amusing NOB juxtaposition during yesterday’s Giants/Packers Wild Card game, as Green Bay wide receiver Davante Adams and New York cornerback Eli Apple had some serendipitous positioning. Kudos to reader Bill Kellick for capturing the moment.
In other news from Saturday’s and Sunday’s playoff games:
• The Packers never wear captaincy patches during the regular season, because they rotate their captains each game. But they always add the “C” patches for the playoffs, when they choose one set of postseason captains. The patches made their annual January reappearance yesterday.
• Prior to the game, Giants wideout Odel Beckham Jr. wore a Lawrence Taylor sweatshirt for pregame warm-ups.
• Giants wideout Tavarres King, who wears No. 15, wore teammate Larry Donnell’s No. 84 winter hat on the sideline.
• Similarly, Steelers wideout Antonio Brown, who wears No. 84, wore teammate James Harrison’s No. 92 hat.
• It kinda looks like Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley may have cut a hole in his sideline hat in order to accommodate his headset.
• During pregame warm-ups prior to that game, Dolphins wide receiver Jarvis Landry wore a Ricky Williams jersey with alligator skin-patterned numbers.
• Turning to Saturday’s action, here’s an item that Phil had in yesterday’s Ticker, but just in case you missed it: At the Raiders/Texans game, Oakland owner Mark Davis wore a shirt with the old NFL logo.
I knew he drove a van from 1997 and used a phone from 2003 but this millionaire can't even get a new @RAIDERS shirt. @UniWatch @PhilHecken pic.twitter.com/794K2AkUi1
— Dustin Smith (@DustinCSmith) January 7, 2017
(My thanks to James Burditt, Andrew Cosentino, and Stephen Hayes for their contributions to this section, and thanks again to Bill Kellick for the splash photo.)
Being a gracious host: With the Steelers and Dolphins facing off in Pittsburgh two days ago, several readers noted that one of their previous playoff meetings in Pittsburgh — the 1972 AFC Championship Game — featured the Dolphins’ team name spelled out in one of the end zones (albeit in Steelers colors).
That would never happen today, of course, but it was actually fairly common (or at least not altogether uncommon) when I was growing up. There are lots of examples shown in this SportsLogos.net discussion board thread.
The visiting team’s name sometimes also appeared on the padding around one of the goalposts (and the padding was important in those days, because the goalposts hadn’t yet been moved to the back of the end zone). You can sorta/kinda see that in this shot from the 1973 NFC Championship Game, which featured the Cowboys hosting the Vikings at Texas Stadium in Dallas (click to enlarge):
All of this seemed perfectly natural at the time. After all, both teams were playing, and it seemed gracious and sportsmanlike for the home team to acknowledge the visiting team, plus it was a way to promote both teams and, by extension, promote the league. But if you’ve never seen it before, it probably seems weird, or even nonsensical. One guy on Twitter was astonished that it had ever happened and told me that it felt like giving up part of the home-field advantage. I dunno — seems to me that having 80,000 screaming hometown fans would outweigh a word painted in one end zone, but what do I know.
So here’s a question to ponder: Would it bother you if your favorite team painted its opponent’s name in one end zone each week? Would it feel like giving aid and comfort to the enemy? Would you enjoy the variety of the ever-changing designs?
Also: If anyone know of additional examples of this phenomenon (aside from the ones shown in that SportsLogos.net thread), I’d be interested in seeing them — preferably with visual documentation. I’d also like to know when the practice fell out of favor and stopped.
Curling update: Despite some seriously cold weather and some truly terrible ice, my curling team won again last night, 5-1. That wraps up the season for me — my three teammates will play on through mid-March, but I only signed up for nine weeks. Our record during that span was 7-2 — not bad! Big thanks to Phil for being such a great skip, and to Omoy and Doug for being such excellent teammates.
Raffle reminder ”” LAST CALL: Today is the final day to enter the raffle for a custom-painted baseball bat from the Pillbox Bat Company. Details here.
The Ticker
By Alex Hider
Baseball News: Anyone know anything about this obscure 1980s Detroit Tigers logo? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that logo before ”” or the wordmark, for that matter. (From Christian M. Zummer). … Check out this early photo of the Louisville Slugger bat factory ”” if that’s what it really is. Those scare quotes raise some doubts (from Buckner’s Knees). … Last Tuesday’s episode of the TV show NCIS: New Orleans featured a scene with a vintage framed New Orleans Pelicans jersey visible in the background. The Cardinals-style jersey design is likely due to the team being affiliated with the Cards from the 1940s through the 1970s (from Chris Adams).
NFL News: Seahawks’ WR Doug Baldwin wears No. 89 in honor of recently retired receiver Steve Smith (thanks Mike). … Weird that Tony Romo is the only player wearing a Color Rush jersey in this promotional poster (from Frank McGuigan). … Jamie Burditt was going through old photos when he found a shot of Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, then assistant coaches with the Giants. Interesting that the “NY logos on their jackets don’t match — Yankees-style for Lombardi, Mets/Giants-style for Landry. … The uniforms in this 1961 Packers/Giants game look a lot like the ones from yesterday (also from Jamie). … It’s hard to imagine a time when teams provided menswear accessories to media members (from BSmile). … Looks like Batman and the City of Gotham poached the Packers’ logo back in the day (from Aaron McHargue).
College Football News: Here’s what Alabama and Clemson will be wearing for tonight’s national championship game. … White pants are on their way for D-III Mount Union (from Adam R. Meyers). … Just about all D1 offensive linemen wear knee braces during practices, and most wear them in games as well, but there’s isn’t much evidence that they actually do any good (from Jason Hillyer).
Hockey News: We have our first on-ice look at the NHL centennial patch on the Penguins’ jerseys (from Jerry). … Speaking of the Penguins, they wore white at home yesterday (from David Shucosky). … You might already know that the Flames wear a Canadian flag on their left shoulder and the flag for the province of Alberta on their right shoulder. But Sean Robbins points out that the Flames’ AHL affiliate, the Stockton Heat, wear an American flag on their left shoulder and a California flag on their right shoulder. … The Rangers’ Nick Holden wore an old jersey with a Reebok vector logo to a charity appearance a few weeks ago (from Mike Engle). … The Bakersfield Condors of the AHL played a (rainy) outdoor game on Sunday. They wore warm-up jerseys with a Kern County (California) seal, and wore these sweaters during the game (from Brent Nelson). … The Regina Pats wore Blue Jays-themed jerseys on Friday night (from Shawn Anderson). … Jonathan Toews lost a bet to Patrick Kane on the World Junior Championship game and had to wear Kane’s Team USA jersey from the 2014 Olympics (from Marc-Louis Paprzyca).
NBA News:The Kings wore black at home last night, with Golden State wearing white on the road (from Zach Loesl). … The Cavaliers are already selling Kyle Korver jerseys, but this promotional Tweet doesn’t include a gold championship tab on the back collar (from Kevin J. Chmura).
College Hoops News: Color-on-color matchup on Saturday between Louisiana-Monroe in maroon and Louisiana-Lafayette in sleeved greys (from Travis Webb). … Wisconsin (red) and Purdue (grey) also went color-on-color Sunday (from Beau Parsons). … Fauxback uniforms the Providence women (from Joey Misdemeanor). … Not quite sure what’s going on in this 1950 UNC game program, but I dig it (from James Gilbert).
Soccer News: Anyone else know the meaning behind the number design for teams in second-tier English soccer this season? (From Steve in Florida.) … Atalanta forward Alejandro Gomez wore a Frozen-themed armband to mark his daughter’s birthday (from The Boot Room).
Grab Bag: Cyling note from Paul Holdsworth who provided a rundown of what every team will be wearing in the UCI (Cycling) World Tour this year. … Back in 1989, Mizuno developed a women’s volleyball unitard that looked a lot like a one-piece bathing suit. Japanese women’s star Motoko Ohbayashi, who wore the unitard in competition, recalled, “It was easy to move in. However, with the unitard alone, it could look like you were wearing underwear, so we had to wear a body suit (for the top with sleeves) and leggings (for the legs), so it was really difficult to go to the bathroom with the unitard on” (from Jeremy Brahm).
A life well lived: Whenever I start writing for a magazine or website, there’s usually someone on staff who I really admire, someone who makes me think, “Shit, I can’t believe my byline gets to run alongside that byline!” When I started writing for ESPN’s Page 2 back in 2004, for example, Hunter S. Thompson was also writing for P2. Granted, his powers were pretty diminished from their long-ago peak, but still — shit, I couldn’t believe my byline got to run alongside Hunter S. Thompson’s byline!
When Uni Watch began as a column in The Village Voice in 1999, I thought, “Shit, I can’t believe my byline gets to run alongside Nat Hentoff’s!” At that time, Hentoff had been America’s preeminent civil libertarian journalist for a generation, writing obsessively and brilliantly about the Bill of Rights and, especially, the First Amendment. His column was usually the first thing I read each week in the Voice. He also had a deep history in the jazz world, both as one of the scene’s top writers and also as the A&R director for the Candid Records label (I’m listening to an LP he produced as I write this, and I have lots of albums for which he wrote the liner notes). He wasn’t just someone I admired; he was one of my heroes.
Nat Hentoff died on Saturday at the age of 91. He hadn’t written for the Voice since 2009, when, like all the other grown-ups at the paper, he was laid off. I hadn’t kept up with much of his post-Voice work, but his death still feels like a major loss. He had deep, deep principles that he always stuck to, and he was really good at articulating them. I didn’t always agree with him, but I always respected him, and there were lots of times when I was faced with an issue and thought to myself, “Hmmmm — how would Nat Hentoff respond to this?” I didn’t always do what I thought he would do, but it was always useful to run the situation through my internal Hentoff filter. It was sort of like using him to be (or at least shape) my conscience.
Hentoff was, for the most part, a leftist, but not in the doctrinaire sense. He took controversial stances by steadfastly opposing abortion rights and hate speech statutes, for example. In short, he was a complicated cat, and the many facets of his persona were nicely captured in a really great 2013 documentary, called The Pleasures of Being Out of Step. Here’s the trailer:
I never got to meet Hentoff at the Voice (I rarely ventured to the offices, and I’m not sure he did either). But one Saturday night about a dozen years ago I stopped at a storefront newsstand in the West Village and there was my hero Nat Hentoff, buying the early edition of the Sunday paper. He chatted a bit with the proprietor, who asked him if he’d finally started using a computer. Hentoff said his electric typewriter had always been fine and he saw no reason to change.
I thought about approaching him and telling him how much I admired him and his work, but then I thought better of it and the moment passed — something I now regret. He had a really interesting life, and I mourn his death. RIP.
The number font being used outside the Premier League in English soccer features the logo from The Prostate Cancer charity and is part of their ‘Everyman’ campaign. The charity is the official charity of the Football League.You may also notice many managers or coaches wearing the stick man (actually called a Man of Men) figure as a lapel badge.
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Exactly what I was about to post!
Also, the dots are designed to fit with the EFL’s main logo, where there are 72 dots for the 72 teams in the EFL’s three divisions.
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The other thing to note for those unfamiliar is that the font is used for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tiers (Championship, League One, and League Two, respectively).
The Premier League has its own number font for teams to use during EPL games. Some teams use other fonts when playing in the FA Cup or in European competitions, though some do not. It would be interesting to get an account of teams that do change things up when they are not playing a league match.
For instance, Man United were wearing a non-EPL number font, while Tottenham Hotspur were wearing EPL font during this past weekend’s FA Cup.
Thanks! Did some digging yesterday and couldn’t seem to find it.
If I can recall, 1986 AFC Championship had Patriots in one of the Orange Bowl end zones. Also, end zone colors were both black.
I would not like to see my team have the opposition’s logo or name in one end zone for a home game. It’s one of those “just isn’t right” situations.
Agreed. It’s our home field, I’m not going to put the opponent’s colors and name on it.
It seems this is where one aesthetic might please fans of one generation but appear inappropriate to fans of another. Like how maker’s marks upset us old timers, but have always been a part of the visual vernacular to the young.
Didn’t the Cowboys used to have the opposition’s goal post padding in one end zone?
In a publicly funded stadium, I’m disinclined to have the visitor’s name/logo in the end zone. Silly perhaps, but I don’t want the home team wearing throwbacks from a previous city either i.e. Expos uniforms on the Nationals someday.
They did, and for as much as I dislike the Cowboys, I always thought that was kinda cool.
Yes, and it was a practice they did for a long time (the visiting team pads on the goalposts – or at least a visitng team covering). I recall seeing that for Packers games at Texas Stadium in the 90s, though I’m not sure when that practice ended (I want to say it was before they left to AT&T, though.
We somewhat did that at my high school (Green Bay’s City Stadium), since our rival high school didn’t have a field of their own. Our pads were in our red, and when they hosted games at our stadium, they had a green canvas covering that buttoned up around the base padding.
I can see the logic of the public-funding thing, if and only if the city name, not the team nickname, appears in the endzones.
Interesting analysis. I hadn’t considered the role that public funding might play in this debate.
Question: Would you also want all of the stadium’s display ads to come from local advertisers? Should the team’s roster and/or staff come from local personnel?
I don’t mean these to be “gotcha” questions. On the contrary, I’m genuinely curious to hear the extent to which you think public funding should influence or determine the team’s operations.
In a more perfect world, we’d not have public funding for stadiums. In the D.C. area, the physical plant of the football stadium and indoor arena were privately financed which is a better arrangement than many cities. Not the ballpark though.
From my point of view, the following are deliverables that should be written into the contract:
The team name is the city/state first, nickname second so no Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim nonsense.
City/state name/initial is represented on primary logo and road uniforms (easier for baseball than say hockey or football, I suppose)
If team is relocated, no on-field throwbacks to the previous city, i.e. no Montreal throwbacks for the Nats, just Washington throwbacks
There are many more, but those seem like the baseline.
Having local players on the roster is cool, but I don’t think that’s strictly necessary no matter where the stadium funding is coming from. The goal in professional sports should always be to put the best team possible on the field within the rules of the league.
Advertising, however, is a different ball of wax. If a stadium is publicly funded, if there must be advertising (and reality would seem to say that is a must, unfortunately) it seems like local companies ought to come first whenever possible.
I believe this practice was killed with the “our team, our turf” mentality that plagues the sports environment right now. As if this is a war between the blue ones and the green ones (or whatever color you need to protect).
On the other side, I look at Aussie Football and you see that the 2 teams in Adelaide and Perth share their stadium (so none can say it’s their home only) and that the 9 teams in Melbourne share 2 stadiums (compare that to soccer in London where each of the 5 EPL teams have their own stadium), and I understand why the AFL games are so family friendly with people sitting wherever they want.
…regarding the NYR Reebok jersey: It [appears] to have the Garden of Dreams patch on the shoulder. It may be an older Garden of Dreams appearance jersey that was blank and they must of just stitched his name on the back…
All Football League clubs in England (72 teams in 3 Divisions below Premier League) use the same number and letter (for NOB) font.
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The “Stick Figure” is for the Prostate Cancer UK Charity.
“Would it bother you if your favorite team painted its opponent’s name in one end zone each week?”
I would love it. I think it’s pretty cool. On the occasions when LSU would paint its field in the 1970s, it would paint the South end zone with the visitor’s abbreviation (such as UA for Alabama).
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I’m a Tiger fan and I remember that word mark. I think they were trying to be “modern”.
Yep, they used that in the late 80’s or early 90’s. I don’t think it went much farther than being used in Program and yearbook pages. It was kind of a precursor of the “Tiger crawling through a D” logo that came a bit later.
Yes, about as modern as the 1980s Tigers would get. Any team that employed Jim Campbell would be entrenched firmly in the 19th Century.
Probably for the best. Thanks!
I’m kinda torn. On one hand, I think the Superbowl style field with the NFL logo at the 50 and endzones for both teams looks better. On the other, the idea of seeing a blue & orange BRONCOS endzone in Oakland kinda makes me feel sick.
I don’t think that’s being torn. There’s a huge difference between a home game and a neutral site game like the SB or college bowl games.
Penguins actually wore white at home yesterday. They played Tampa Bay, who wore blue in Philly Saturday and must have packed only the blue uniforms.
That would make sense. If the Flyers wore their white alts on Saturday, the Lightning could easily have asked the Penguins to accommodate them so they only had to bring the one set of unis on the trip, and the Pens were gracious about it.
Well the Lightning were nice enough to move the start time back to accommodate the Steelers playoff game.
Fixed.
RIP Nat Hentoff. I attended college in rural Louisiana and discovered The Village Voice in the college library in 1979. After graduation I kept up by subscribing into the late 1990s. Nat Hentoff’s column was a mainstay. Out of step – but steadfastly principled, smart, thoughtful and provocative. They don’t seem to make them like him anymore.
Great columnists like Nat Hentoff, Pete Hamill, Guy Trebay, and the unique VV flavors like Michael Musto led me to maintaining ties and readership of the VV until I discovered UniWatch. Your sharing the VV byline got me here. Thank you both.
Pens’ white at home was yesterday, not Saturday.
Any chance the endzone practice started when games were broadcast in black and white so people knew who they were watching?
Being the younger generation I think this would be too much nowadays, especially the way stadium seats and banners are all team colors. The visiting team endzone would be too out of place.
When I was in 8th grade I read Nat Hentoff’s novel, “This School is Driving Me Crazy,” about an 8th-grader at a private school where is father is headmaster. I don’t remember much about the plot; only that the kid is a bit of a troublemaker, distrusted by his teachers, and finds himself falsely accused of bullying or extortion or something of that nature. It was one of my favorite books growing up.
I saw Hentoff at a wbgo member function easily 25 years ago. I had the same feeling: do I approach a hero? I didn’t and now regret it.
I’m no herpetologist, but that Ricky Williams jersey has snakeskin numbers, not alligator skin.
here’s another….
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Ah, good call. Thanks for setting me straight on my reptiles!
Also, looks like that LT “sweatshirt”that OBJ wore is actually the same type of “fashion jersey” over a hoodie. Maybe some kind of promotion by Nike.
During Phillies games at old veterans Stadium, the batter’s warm-up circle was the opposing team’s logo. Not sure of the material, but it would be switched out for every series.
When the stadium was being torn down several years ago, these warm-up circles were put on sale and could be purchased.
Proofreading:
“It kinda looks like Steelers offensive coordinator may have” Todd Haley’s name is missing
“with the Golden State wearing white on the road”
Fixed.
Painting the opponent’s name in one end zone would be a helpful reminder the event is an athletic contest and not a matter of life and death. I regret all the vicious and warlike promotion of football games (pro and varsity) that have turned them into wars; I’m looking at you, Michigan and Ohio State.
“Painting the opponent’s name in one end zone would be a helpful reminder the event is an athletic contest and not a matter of life and death.
+1 for this sentiment.
-1 for our culture needing this reminder.
I wonder if those jackets Lombardi and Laundry wore were officially issued jackets from the team? It appears that the “ny” Giants logo wasn’t until 1961. Prior to that they had the jumping/passing QB as their logo, and nothing on their helmet. I’m curious how they selected the small case “ny”. Also in 1975 they changed to an upper case “NY” for only one year before switching to the “GIANTS” logo with the move New Jersey. Here is the Chris Creamer sports logo site coving this:
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The probable reason for the small “ny” is its radial symmetry, but I like to pretend putting it that way makes the players look big in relation.
Always liked the Yankees and baseball Giants, now Mets, NY logos better that the football Giants. Of course this was before the Mets, but wonder how the Mets were able to use the same logo after the baseball Giants? Always thought it was cool that the Mets took the colors from both the Dodgers and Giants and the logo of the Giants.
Yeah, it is. Although I’ve long wished that they adopted the link worn for link, not the one the Giants introduced right before they skipped town.
Regarding today’s discussion about the football end zone … the Chicago White Sox put the visiting team’s logo on their dug out as can be seen in this photo.
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The Tigers used to put the visiting team’s logo as the on deck circle.
Kansas City Chiefs used to paint the two teams’ helmets at the opposing 40-yard lines – see link below for example from a playoff game in 1971, video is a little ways down the page but helmets are within the first 15 seconds.
While looking for images, I came across the following from famed KC groundkeeper George Toma’s biography (“Nitty Gritty Dirt Man”) via GoogleBooks: “Lamar Hunt and his friend, Bill McNutt…, would talk about painting logos on fields…. The Chiefs’ logo at the time was an Indian head, which was difficult to paint. Then we started painting team helmets at the 40-yard lines, where teams used to kick off. I’ll never forget a game against the Boston Patriots. I had my crew of inner-city kids painting the Boston logo when I went off to do something else. When I came back, they had made the Patriot’s face black. I said, ‘Let’s compromise. Let’s make the patriot look like he has a suntan.'”
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Minor detail (is there such a thing?), but the helmets are centered on the 45 yard lines.
For some reason, painting the opposing team’s helmet on the 45 yd line (I kinda like it) feels very different than painting the entire end zone (I hate it)
The end zone painted with the opposing team’s name/colors reminds me of the Big Ten tradition of the home team’s band playing the opponent’s fight song. I’m not sure how it started, but I’ve always viewed it as a mark of respect and a taste of home for the travelling fans.
Perhaps they should change the end zones out each quarter so you are always driving toward your team’s logo! Should be pretty easy to do with post production effects like the line of scrimmage and line to gain markings. (I’ll take credit for this wonderful idea when all you league/team/TV people come calling!)
Hi Paul — I’m not sure this proves anything, but the Louisville Slugger Museum’s webpage contains that same image of the bat factory (link).
In addition, Anne Jewell’s “Baseball in Louisville” includes that image. The text notes that the factory was located at 1209 South Preston Street. The “1209” by the door in the photo at least matches the address (link).
As a guy in his 50s, if I recall, during this time the conference championship games were not hosted by the team with the best record, but it moved through the three divisions on a rotation.
So by a modern perspective, the Steelers did not “deserve” to host this championship game, as obviously the undefeated Dolphins had a better record.
At the time, it was a bit more of a celebratory spectacle, and an honor to host the game, so the city/stadium made it more of a “event” by having both teams represented in the stadium.
I guess moving to the concept of earning home field advantage was the deathblow to this idea.
The Steelers also didn’t deserve it because by the rules of the time, they should’ve lost the previous week.
Ah yes, the Immaculate Reception.
To quote my kid’s favorite movie….”Let it go…” :)
This is a huge point. The conference championships used to be a much bigger deal – a holdover from when they were the league championships. Putting both teams in the end zones makes sense for a league championship. Makes less sense now when its just another round of the playoffs.
Bringing the end zone discussion to baseball, I know Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati used to put team names above the visiting dugout. Here’s an example from the ’75 World Series.
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Later, the Reds got lazy and just put a league identifier on there: NATIONAL LEAGUE or AMERICAN LEAGUE.
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Paul – I’ve got one that’s even more interesting than the “opponents end zone” concept. Unfortunately the full game YouTube link was taken down a while ago so sadly I can’t prove it, but I am 100% certain of it happening.
The details: In 1983 the *Redskins* played a Monday night football game against the Packers. It’s still the highest-scoring game in MNF history. Here is a short clip of the game where you can see a red-painted helmet in the endzone, representing the visiting team.
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But here is the kicker – after each Redskins touchdown, the Lambeau Field PA would play “Hail to the Redskins”. This was only the second MNF game played at Lambeau, and the first since 1979, so maybe Green Bay was overly excited to have the defending Super Bowl champs playing at their home field?
Granted no other NFL teams have fight songs, but I can’t imagine this happening any other time or place. I’ve always enjoyed college football games where the visiting team’s band would strike up their fight song after a score, but an NFL game where the home PA would go out of their way to play the other team’s signature song is bizarre to me.
“Granted no other NFL teams have fight songs”…so untrue!: link
Typo on the 3rd & final baseball item in the ticker: “Last Tusday’s episode”.
Fixed.
Proofreading:
… Just about all D1 offensive linemen where knee braces during practices, and most wear them in games as well,
Fixed.
I wouldn’t be a fan of the opposing endzones. Not out of some football as wear mentality, but rather that having the opposing endzones/field marks/whatever is something that should be saved for the Super Bowl. It gives the event a sense of grandeur and really differentiates the neutral site from a normal game. It’s similar to how I feel about the postseason patches that MLB does now. Having them for all rounds of the playoffs cheapens having them for the World Series (which while I know it’s a marketing/march thing is something I loved from an on-field persepectoce)
I’ve always been fascinated at seeing Kansas City put helmets at midfield in Municipal Stadium, and seeing the same thing done at Super Bowl IV in New Orleans. Were the Chiefs the designated home team that year? You would only see the two helmets in Kansas City, but the two helmets and the Super Bowl trophy in New Orleans. What size difference could there have been between the helmets in the two different venues?
The AFL/AFC team is the home team in even-numbered Super Bowls, so the Chiefs were the home team in Super Bowl IV.
Seeing the goalposts planted in the end zones is weirder to me than having the visiting teams represented. Ditto for old box scores showing now-impossible field goals (like Jim Turner’s 9-yard kick in Super Bowl III).
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The 1995 “Pigskin Classic” at the Big House had Virginia painted in the endzone on the right. 55:53 mark has a good shot of it. It looks as if it is in the Michigan font.
The NFL could simply put HOME in one end zone, and VISITORS in the other. Lol
Small typo in the Hockey ticker (only pointing it out since I live in Alberta) – “You might already know that the Flames wear a Canadian flag on their left shoulder and the flag for the providence of Alberta on their right shoulder” Alberta is a province not a providence. Thanks!
Fixed.
Cool thanks Paul! Keep up the great work :-)
The thing I think about with the end zones is that, once upon a time, stadiums and teams weren’t so tightly linked, not to mention that it wasn’t as easy to differentiate between college and the pros. Think about how many college teams would play at Yankee Stadium, for instance, or the fact the college all-stars would play the previous year’s NFL champions in a game in Chicago. To sell tickets, the event was more about it being a game between two great teams rather than going to root for the home team.
With the stadiums not serving as much as a shrine to the team, but trying to sell the event of the game, I can see how the pageantry of having two teams with different colors representing their own patch of painted turf makes more sense then.
Nowadays, though, every team has their own stadium and it serves the team’s, and home fans’, interest entirely.
For a neutral-site game, I love the idea. But it even begs the question of what even is a neutral site game anymore. I know a lot of Wisconsin fans were kind of up in arms about how Lambeau painted both a Wisconsin and an LSU end zone, despite the fact that was technically supposed to be a neutral-site game as well. We live in a world where everyone, here quite literally, wants as much turf as they can get for themselves and their own. That’s a bigger issue.
I like the idea of seeing the away opponent’s name in the end zone. Seems natural to me that, when you score, you score on the other team’s goal/name, not your own. Doesn’t quite work with football where they switch sides at the half, but I like the practice anyway.
I would not be a fan of “Pittsburgh” or “Steelers” painted in an endzone in Baltimore. Hell, we don’t even put Indy’s team name on the link.
Is “Cleveland” used on the scoreboard?
Nope, they’ll put Browns up there. Not sure what they do when the Ravens play in Cleveland. But I’m guessing they don’t have a problem using Ravens since the Browns kept their name.
Doesn’t seem so much like a “Tigers’ logo” as a stock tiger image that someone tossed into the page design to enliven it consistent with the fact that the team is called the Tigers.
Somehow we’ve gone from a place where teams welcomed opponents and painted their logos in the endzone, to a place where teams constantly scream “THIS IS OUR HOUSE” and threaten beatdowns if you accidentally step on the giant team logo they made a carpet out of. Ugh.
If I ever made it into a pro locker room, I’m sure I’d walk over the logo. Not out of disrespect or ignorance but because carpets are, you know, made for walking over.
Debate whether it’s a cause or a result, but our nation’s descent from decorum to turf war is well-depicted by the tenor of our sporting events.
I recall opponents’ names being in the end zone from time to time as a kid. The fact that the opposing team had their name in the end zone didn’t bother me; what grated my nerves was that teams switched end zones every quarter, while the names, of course, stood pat. I’m not sure if one’s team name should appear in the end zone one defends or the end zone in which one scores, but I do know it should be one or the other and then stay that way all game. Perhaps a decade hence someone will figure out a way to flip the names around each quarter.
I have no problem with the endzones being team specific.
As to other sport examples (as several have mentioned), baseball on deck circles and dugout tops showing who was in town.
The Orioles used to have those on-deck circles. They had one for each American League team an but a single National League logo for interleague play. They used them up until 2014 when Caleb Joseph almost injured himself slipping on one. They removed them during the game and never brought them back out.
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I discovered a great trick for meeting Uni Watch readers over the weekend: Curl at a bonspiel wearing knickers and baseball stirrups. I was kind of amazed over the three days in Eau Claire how many times folks I was curling against or drinking with would comment on my stirrups and tell me about this website I should read called “Uni Watch.”
It was also fun to see the handful of teams that wore uniforms of one sort or another. The recently minted Wisconsin men’s state champions wore their black-and-red “Wisconsin Curling” jackets with NOB; a team from the Frogtown Curling Club in St. Paul wore matching hockey sweaters with the link on the front; a team from the Chaska Curling Club seems to fancy themselves the “national team” of the micronation Sealand, and so wore link patches; and the team skipped by former U.S. Olympic curler Debbie McCormick wore matching link with nicknames on the lower back. (This was the Leinenkugel’s Open.)
If only Tiki Barber had been a Batman fan, he could’ve avoided all that all that “the G actually stands for Greatness” nonsense :-)
#TheGStandsForGotham
I think it would be cool if home teams in the playoffs would devote one end zone to the opponent.
I say that as a Seahawks fan, by the way.
And I don’t think the publicly funded nature of the stadium is relevant.
Not only would I like to see both teams represented in the end zones, I’d like to see them change every quarter when the teams change direction. Maybe if they ever figure out how to put a giant LED screen under the turf (which would also give us a first-down line in real life).
They’re supposedly working on making a field where every blade of “grass” is a fiber optic cable. If it works you could change end zones in a snap, as well as turn the field from football to soccer or anything else. Problem with that is if you’d get a computer glitch during a game.
The Star Tribune ran a column about the Wild losing either their red or green sweater and asked their readers which they should keep along with the white sweater. Ignoring the usual requests that they go back to the North Stars jerseys, a lot of the comments suggested that they keep the design simple. I’m not sure if this is an indication of the age of the paper’s readers or fans growing tired of crowded/hyper unis.
Re: Opponents names in the end zone. I think I’d be OK with this in the NFC and AFC championship games. Gives the games a feel like they’re playing for something more than just a chance to play in the Superb Owl.
Condors wore a different jersey each period and a different warm up jersey.
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NFL teams having the opposing teams name in their end zone is a cool thing. I recall it was more of a thing back in the 1970s 80s. I think it shows the graciousness of a home team toward their opponent. Unfortunately I doubt we’ll ever see it used again.
As for teams who are in a publicity financed stadium I feel that they should be free to hire whomever they choose. Things get unnecessarily messy when a business is forced to hire or not hire certain individuals.
Personally, I would be cool with my hometown Panthers putting the opponents’ name/logo in one end zone for playoff games, but probably not for regular season games.
There would be something about it that I think would add to the “big game” atmosphere and differentiate playoff games from regular season ones.
On the other hand, I know a number of Panthers fans who are annoyed by the fact that the team uses the NFL shield at midfield instead of the team logo. So I’m guessing my opinion would be in the minority here.
Off-topic a little, but I just tuned in to the National Championship game, and it’s great to see an ad-free field.
Was totally expecting the Dr. Pepper logo out there or something.
Not only should football have opposing team end zones…I’d like to see NBA courts with opposing team logos, or opposing lettering along one baseline.
In theory, quite like the idea of a tiny design top of the cap to the other team, like a special end zone or field goal pad. In practice, too much labor so we’ll never see it again. I’d prefer that that’s the reason, instead of “it’s our house, damn it.”
I still dig the previous NFL shield more than the current one. Davis should wear whatever he wants: life shouldn’t be a Nike…I mean NFL commercial where Reebok/Champion/Russell/Apex logos have to be covered up. Even NFL game coverage on one station nowadays will tell you which station you can catch the other games on, e.g., CBS will tell you that the Monday night game will be on ESPN. I remember during the 1990s, commentators will tell you about the other games (NBA, MLB, etc.) but they generally didn’t tell you which network it will be on and if they did, they definitely wouldn’t show the other network or station’s logo on the screen, IIRC.
1987, the drive game…at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the Browns put Broncos in one end zone. That game, the field became a mess to the point it was almost unlegible by the end of the game, where most of the footage is since the game went to overtime because of the drive. What was unique about that AFC championship game wa I believe that was the most recent example of home team giving a visiting team and end zone, the Broncos name was in the browns’ font and because of there was a helmet in each end zone, the broncos helmet was painted blue with an orange D, but no attempt at the snorting horse, which would have been fairly intricate to attempt. Will continue to look for an image.
RE: Romo in color rush in promo – I’ve noticed that a great majority of the Cowboys’ marketing tends to feature the player in either the blue jerseys or more recently, the color rush jerseys. This is odd considering they rarely wear either. What’s really interesting is when they do market using the white jerseys the pictures are almost always photoshopped or edited to make the blues match and the helmet and pants match, which as we all know, couldn’t be further from reality. If they go to such an effort, why not just “fix” the uniform? BTW I am talking about marketing coming directly from the Cowboys media staff, not ESPN, NFL Network, or other third party sources.