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Reimagine The XFL Contest Entries – Part I

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By Phil Hecken

Today we’ll look at our first batch of entries for our latest contest — to reimagine an XFL jersey if the team (and league) were still in existence today. All the details for the contest are here. I’d like to again thank our partner, Steve Rosenbeck of Garb Athletics for providing the winner of the contest (as selected by you, the readers) with a custom jersey based upon the winner’s submission.

I received 31 entries for this contest (lower than our usual number of entrants, but still a nice number) which I’ll break down into two sets — the top THREE finishers in each of the two sets will become a finalist. After the first 16 submissions are posted, we’ll have voting. Readers may vote for as many entries as they’d like, but YOU CAN ONLY VOTE ONCE. I’ll reveal the first three finalists next weekend when we’ll have voting on our second set of entries. The submissions will be listed alphabetically. Click to enlarge. Descriptions (if any) will be provided below the submission.

Good luck to all the entrants! Here’s our first batch — make sure to write down your favorites as you view them for voting which follows the reveals.

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1. Matt Albaugh – Orlando Rage

A redesign of the XFL team, the Orlando Rage. They already had fairly clean uni’s, so I added a little extra that probably wasn’t needed, BUT this is the XFL and their name were the Rage.

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2. Brandon Bowker – Las Vegas Outlaws

When I think of the XFL, I think of raunchy cheerleading, cameras on the field, and He Hate Me. Here’s my update of the Las Vegas Outlaws, with the “LV” logo serving as asymmetrical sleeve-stripes, and “soccer-style” reflective gold numbers.

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3. Nathan Bryson – Memphis Maniax

No Description Provided

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4. Michael Candelmo – NY/NJ Hitmen

This is my submission for the reboot of the NY/NJ Hitmen. I removed the team’s original royal blue, leaving a minimalist Black and White look to emulate the new logo of the Hitman in Helmet I designed. The helmet is a simple block H in white white Black graphics and facemask. The H is represented on the chest of the jersey. There’s no color-rash here.

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5. Leonardo Cutini – San Francisco Demons

No Description Provided

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6. Sergio DaSilveira – San Francisco Demons

I chose the San Francisco Demons because they were by far my absolute favorite XFL identity in all of the XFL. I’m absolutely sure that if by some miracle they were still playing today, they would completely push the envelope and take full advantage of all of the modern uniform trends…good and bad: chrome face masks, iridescent chrome numbers, metallic helmets, sublimated patterns, BFBS, bright fluorescent accent color, monochromatic uniforms, and a whacky helmet pattern…Enjoy!!!

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7. Chandler Fasoletti – San Francisco Demons

No Description Provided

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8. Alan Filipczak – Memphis Brainiax

When the former Memphis Maniax came under fire for their insensitive depiction of mental illness, they pivoted to a more squeaky-clean image and became the Brainiax. This change dovetailed nicely with the rise of mainstream nerd culture in the aughts. The Brainiax took the vanity nameplate idea to the next level when they allowed players to use decimals in their uniform numbers. One player used Avogadro’s Number, which required a very small font size on his jersey.

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9. Bruce Genther – Orlando Rage

No Description Provided

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10. Alex Giobbi – Birmingham Bolts

Birmingham’s Coach was a notorious hardass who refused to allow player nicknames on the jersey. Ignoring the helmet, i think they’d still wear their 2001 lid for its uniqueness, I could see Birmingham play the straight man team and go with a low-frills classic look.

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11. Chris Glover – NY/NJ Hitmen

No Description Provided

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12. Staci Glover – Las Vegas Outlaws

Modified version of the traditional jersey along with new number font for a modern feel.

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13. Adam Hainsfurther – Chicago Enforcers

I chose my hometown Chicago Enforcers but decided to give them a bit of an update with a new Black, Silver, and Red color scheme and a less cartoonish logo.

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14. Brent Hatfield – Chicago Enforcers

No Description Provided

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15. Kenny Hughes (No Team Identified)

No Description Provided

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16. Aaron Jaffe – Memphis Maniax

No Description Provided

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REIMAGINE THE XFL CONTEST ENTRIES — PART I

[totalpoll id=”90372″]

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Once again — good luck to our first set of entrants. Reminder to our readers: you can vote for as many selections above as you’d like, but you can only vote once!

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And ANOTHER One Bites The Dust…

Last evening, with the Philadelphia 76ers playing the Indiana Pacers, another player (this time, Ben Simmons of the 76ers) suffered a jersey rip destruction, this time, at the hands of Lance Stephenson of the Pacers.

With the NBA season less than a month old, that’s the THIRD torn/ripped jersey so far, and if you count Tyler Ennis’ preseason rip, we’re now up to four torn jerseys since Nike took over the manufacturing contract.

The second malfunction (this one not as bad) happened to the game’s premier player, LeBron James on opening night. Our second in-season rip happened to Draymond Green, and it was a bad one, but at least that one happened during the course of a fight with Bradley Beal of the Golden State Warriors. You might chalk that one up to bad luck.

Nike realized they had a problem, after the LeBron incident, issuing a statement, “The quality and performance of all our products are of utmost importance. We are obviously very concerned to see any game day jersey tear and are working with the NBA and teams to avoid this happening in the future.” You can read a bit more on that here and here.

We had our fourth rip/tear last night, and this one may have been the worst of all:

I can honestly say I haven’t watched any NBA hoops action this year (due in part to other sports being on, and partly due to the jersey ads), but Twitter was all over this one, and not in a good way:


As of late last evening, I hadn’t heard whether Nike has addressed this latest incident. They’re obviously aware of the problem, but short of a recall(?), it doesn’t appear the problem will be going away. In their quest to tell a story and make everything “faster/lighter/stronger” etc., they clearly forgot the last part of that equation. This isn’t the first time an NBA jersey has torn — adidas jerseys have also ripped (although those were sometimes self-inflicted) and no garment is tear proof. But it does appear that the new Nike tops are particularly prone to destruction.

So until Nike takes steps to address this problem, I guess we’ll need to assemble a list of torn jerseys. We’re up to four now. The next will be the fifth, and it probably won’t be the last.

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And now a quick word from Paul:

Hi there. I’ll soon begin work on my annual Uni Watch Holiday Gift Guide. If you have any suggestions for items or companies that should be featured, I’m all ears. Thanks.

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Your Semi-Annual Reminder…

Don’t forget to turn your clocks BACK one hour tonight. Daylight Saving Time comes to an end at 2:00 am. There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that we get an “extra” hour of sleep. The bad news is that the sun now sets an hour earlier than it did the day before (actually it’s more like an hour and 2 minutes, give or take). I know some of you, particularly in the western ends of the time zones, probably welcome the switch (yeah, I know, it’s dark when most of us wake up), but I hate it. Now it will be dark before I leave the office, and that’s even worse, to me. And it will be like that until February.

Anyway, don’t forget to adjust your clocks (if you still have clocks that actually need to be manually set, anyway) tonight. I’ll remind you again next spring to push them ahead again.

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The Ticker
By Anthony Emerson

Baseball News: The Royals have unveiled their 50th season patch and announced it will be worn on both jerseys and caps (from Ryan Dye). … The Pirates are celebrating their 50th season of Spring Training in Bradenton, Fl., and have unveiled a nice logo for the occasion (from Alan Saunders). … Great find from Derek Linn: “While looking up a few things for Paul’s holiday gift guide, I stumbled upon this t-shirt. Read the description: In 1985, a man by the name of Art Angotti tried to bring a Major League Baseball team to Indianapolis. That team was called The Arrows. They had a logo. They had shirts. They had hats, they had jerseys. They just didn’t have a home yet. Unable to lure an existing team to Indianapolis, the group headed by Angotti eventually gave up. I live and grew up near Indy and I had no idea about this (partly because I was born in 1991). Apparently, they were going to play in the Hoosier Dome. Faaaaascinating.” Faaaaascinating indeed, Derek. … Also posted in the NCAAF section: Fenway has been all decked out for football (from Brad Tatum). … The excitement for the Astros’ World Series parade extended to the Houston Police Department’s horses (from @igTXSalazar). … Wayne State baseball players received their new jerseys yesterday, and each one has the name of a Medal of Honor recipient on the back. The design of the uniform evokes the 1918 Wayne State baseball team. (from Jerry Nitzh). … Kary Klismet fell down an Internet rabbit hole, as we are all wont to do, and discovered that the logo of the amateur Denver Browns of the NABA is just a photograph of Joe DiMaggio flipped. And in case you’re wondering about the name, they’re not named after the Cleveland football team, but for famous Titanic survivor Molly Brown, portrayed by Kathy Bates in the 1997 movie. The museum dedicated to Molly Brown’s life is one of the team’s main sponsors. Excellent stuff. … “Check out what I found on eBay!” exclaims Ray Hund. “VINTAGE Fairbanks Alaska little league jersey, pants, hat 1976 Yankees with patches.”

NFL News: Sad news out of New York: Joan Tisch, the philanthropist and HIV/AIDS activist mother of Giants co-chairman Jonathan Tisch and wife of former co-owner Preston Robert Tisch has passed away. The Giants will wear a helmet decal with her initials for this weekend’s game against the Rams (from Adam Herbst). … Here’s a good article on two Bears players, lineman Mitch Unrein and tight end Ben Braunecker, who have adopted the Vicis Zero1 helmet (from @makatski). … Ray Hund sends along some great scans from Murray Olderman’s 1973 book The Defenders. I uploaded them all into an Imgur album here with the details Ray noticed. Excellent find. … The Bengals are going with white jerseys and white pants against the Jags. … The Titans are going navy jersey over Columbia pants for Sunday’s game against the Ravens (from Lee Wilds). … Samuel Lam noticed several outdated uniforms on this Fox NFL billboard. Richard Sherman is in a pre-redesign Seahawks jersey, Julio Jones is in a pre-Nike Falcons jersey and Todd Gurley in a pre-redesign Rams uni.

College/High School Football News: Also posted in the college hoops section: should a university have one logo for academics and another for sports? (thanks, Phil). … Now for a rundown of Saturday threads: Columbia’s going all navy against Harvard (from Alex Oberwerger). … Villanova will debut new white helmets today against Richmond (from Michael Geddes). … South Carolina is wearing all white against Georgia. … The next handful are all from Phil: Mizzou is wearing all black against Florida, while Florida will go white over orange. … NC State is wearing red jerseys and white pants against Clemson. … Oregon is wearing all white against Washington. … Virginia’s going with blue over white against Georgia Tech. … Youngstown State is going with white over black against Indiana State. … Baylor’s debuting new helmets against Kansas… Trinity’s wearing maroon over white against Austin College. … Cross-listed from the baseball section: Fenway has been all decked out for football (from Brad Tatum). … Not uni-related, but a great story: a high school team is rallying around their legally blind backup center (from @TheBigJamesG). … Check out these Stars & Stripes unis from the Independence HS 76ers in San Jose (from Ethan Kassel). More looks here.

Hockey News: The Toledo Walleye of the ECHL are wearing Iron Man jerseys for Marvel Superhero Night (from Zeke Perez Jr.). The Utah Grizzlies (Thor) and Worcester Railers (Hulk) have already participated… Clarkson University’s club hockey team’s new sweaters have been revealed (thanks, Phil). … The AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins wore special “State of Michigan” jerseys last evening (from James Beattie). … Also listed in the basketball section: the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL are wearing early-90s Magic-inspired jerseys tonight and I am this close to flying down to Orlando just to try to get my hands on one (thanks, Phil). … RIT went all black last night (from Nathan Faas). … It’s hard to tell in this photo, but Robert Caplette believes that the Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ goalie was wearing the pants of his previous team.

NBA News: Check this out: a small fishing vessel came across a basketball floating 10 miles out to sea and it was absolutely covered in barnacles (from Mike Chamernik). … Here’s a rundown of what we know about the Timberwolves’ yet-to-be-revealed final jersey (thanks, Phil). … Conrad Burry has mocked up a whole bunch of NBA City Editions (thanks, Phil). … Cross-listed from the hockey section: the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL are wearing early-90s Magic-inspired jerseys tonight and I am this close to flying down to Orlando just to try to get my hands on one (thanks, Phil). … Nice green vs. blue color on color game last night between the Celtics & Thunder (from @BringinThe44).

College Hoops News: Siena have unveiled their new men’s uniforms. More photos here if you scroll down. (from John Dougherty). … Kent State men have a new alternate uni. That “h” in “Flashers” looks a lot like a “k,” no? (from Tom Nader) … Cross-posted from the NCAAF section: should a university have one logo for academics and another for sports? (thanks, Phil). … Interesting new court design for Cal State Northridge (from Jim Vilk).

Soccer News: Mexico has formally released their 2018 World Cup kit. … Cameroon have launched their absolutely gorgeous 2018 kit with the help of Cameroonian soccer legend Roger Milla (thanks, Phil) … Romania has revealed its new kits and a new crest (from Ed Żelaski). … Germany’s 2018 World Cup kit has been leaked. The design evokes the 1990 World Cup kit, which was Germany’s most recent title until 2014. … Other 2018 kits leaked yesterday by FootyHeadlines: Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Scotland, the Ivory Coast, Sweden, and Japan. … Speaking of Japanese soccer: the Japanese Football Association has a new logo (from James Lee Gilbert).

Grab Bag: A high school in Utah is changing the meaning of their “Rebel” mascot from a Confederate Rebel to an American Revolutionary “Rebel” (from @stvrulz). … Strat-O-Matic is seeking designs for a T-shirt contest until December 11. More details here (from Hans Hassell). … Jim Vilk and Charles George send along these interesting University of Hawai’i men’s volleyball uniforms. … The St. George Illawarra Dragons of Australia’s National Rugby League have new Iron Man-inspired kits as part of a sponsorship with Marvel Studios (from EP Conrad). … also from EP Conrad, the West Coast Eagles of the Australian Football League have new guernseys. … Not uni related, but David Raglin sends along this excellent gallery of abandoned resorts in the Catskills and Poconos compared with their vintage postcards. Highly recommended. … Sad news: John Mollo, the legendary costume designer whose work on the original Star Wars trilogy won him Oscars, has died at age 86 (from Tom Turner). … The biennial critique of Ralph Lauren’s US Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremony uniforms has begun (from Tom Turner).

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Comments (37)

    Phil,

    Why do drag these contests out? A full week between sets? Really? There are only 31 entries, and of course your alphabetical rule keeps the usual suspects going up against each other.

    Oh boy, I’m sure I’ll get the “If you don’t like it, run you’re own damn contest” stuff from someone.

    Any alternate proposals for how to display/vote on them?
    Again, if your design isn’t good enough to finish in the top chunk of its “bracket,” it’s probably not going to win it all.

    I don’t recall ever hearing American Revolutionary soldiers being described as “Rebels” though I suppose it’s technically accurate as most American Revolutionary soldiers were British subjects rebelling against the crown.

    Proofreading – second paragraph, first sentence after the hyphen it says “two THREE…” Is that meant to be top THREE?

    I’ve noticed more this year as we approach the end of DST how many different reminders include a jab at the idea of having clocks that need manual changing. Really? Is it now odd to have decorative wall clocks? And maybe I don’t have fancy or new enough vehicles, but I have to manually change those too.

    I didn’t think I was taking a “jab” at timepieces that need manual changing. I’m just realizing that each time I run the ‘fall back/spring ahead’ reminders, less and less of my stuff needs to be changed: just a few things that now automatically update — tv (cable), computer/pc, phone, watch; I actually have an atomic clock that also auto-updates. Things I still need to change: my analog wall clock(s), my microwave, my car clock, my digital alarm clock. Several things to be sure, but less than there once were.

    I apologize if my phrasing was confrontational, not my intent. But I stand by my point. I should also add that I’m in favor of abolishing DST. My proposal is to compromise, move time back half an hour and call it good.

    A handful of legislators in Massachusetts may want to move to Atlantic time, but the population as a whole would probably overwhelmingly vote against the idea.

    Proofreading: Last name on the Denver Browns Ticker entry is Klismet, not Kilmer.

    …or autocorrect, witch randomly inserted “I’ll” into the middle of my sentence. :-\

    In reference to the Denver Browns being named for Titanic survivor Molly Brown, the best portrayal of Molly Brown in the movies was by Debbie Reynolds in the 1964 musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” link

    Surprised that Bruce Genther #9 isn’t getting many votes. That collar cross is nothing if not creative. X for XFL or X for the Florida flag. Either way, it works. You might not win, but you got my vote.

    I thought the whole DST thing would be simple for me when I moved to Arizona from the DC area a few years ago. It is to a degree. We don’t change our clocks — that’s the part I like. What stinks is early NFL kickoffs for me go from 10am to 11am. I hate having to wait the extra hour. Something you may not know — it’s always Mountain Standard Time (MST) in Arizona, since we never switch. During daylight time we are in the same hour as those in the Pacific time zone. When they fall back, my morning listening of KNBR in San Francisco gets all fouled up because I listen to the 7am hour. When they “fall back” one hour I get the 6am hour. The moral of the story is it’s not as easy as you think with no switching of the clocks in Arizona. I’m actually a proponent of abolishing DST.

    I remember how that was back in my younger years. Saskatchewan does not change clocks as well.

    Where this contest fell on its face a little was the allowing of other elements of the uniform to be displayed. It’s a jersey contest, and it says only the jersey will be considered, BUT the overall look plays a big role in your opinion. I think this is evident in that the 2 current runaway leaders have full uniform on display. They aren’t bad, but take away the rest of the uniform that help all the swishes and swoops make sense, and I don’t think they still run away with it like that. I feel there’s one really stand out jersey, with only the jersey shown, and it’s way down in the polls(not going to mention the entry)… But everyone played within the rules set forth, so you can’t blame them. I think I’d just consider that in contests going forward…. if it’s just about the jersey, only allow entrants with just the jersey displayed.. . Just my 2 cents, I didn’t enter this time so no skin in the game :)

    If the design contest means that much to you just pay the russians a few rubles and you can get your “victory”.

    Seriously, it is just some artwork by a bunch of people who bothered to take some time to share. Enjoy it and calm down.

    #DBAP

    Purdue and Illinois essentially played a gray vs. white game. Here are some photos from Purdue’s Twitter feed: link

    PROOFREADING: The Kent State team name actually does not imply that the team members like to expose themselves.

    I see many of the entrants of this contest once again ignored the rules and once again, it didn’t matter. Why have rules if you are not willing to enforce them? They cease to be rules then!

    Just say they’re “suggestions” please because that’s all they truly are.

    What rule was broken? Note that although it says create only a jersey, it then says that you CAN create other elements, they just won’t be considered. Granted, since it’s open voting, that’s pretty goofy, but the rule says you can create other stuff. I don’t see any other rule being broken, but I could be missing something.

Comments are closed.