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Monday Morning Uni Watch

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Happy autumn! The Browns wore their mono-turd combo with orange socks last night — definitely an improvement over the brown socks, although not enough to make this a good uniform, at least in my view:

Still, baby steps, right?

In other developments from around the league yesterday:

• The Packers wore their throwbacks. Inexplicably, they are still wearing the green facemasks, even though navy or grey would make more sense. I’ve asked them about this many times — no response (click to enlarge):

• Tough-looking game in Dallas, as the Dolphins and Cowboys went mono-aqua vs. mono-white:

• The Jets went white-over-green — the first time we’ve seen their new set in that configuration. Their best combo so far, methinks, even with the dreaded leotard effect:

• The Saints wore their gorgeous Color Rash mono-whites:

• The Chiefs had a throwback field design for their home opener (and legendary groundskeeper George Toma fully approved):

• The Browns painted/patterned their Dawg Pound seats to match their helmet stripe (they used to be solid-orange):

• After the Rams beat the Browns last night, Rams linebacker Clay Matthews wore his father’s old Browns jersey:

• Seahawks defensive lineman Ziggy Ansah wore three different shoes during Seattle’s game against the Saints:

• Something — I’m not sure what — was going on with Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco’s helmet:

• Three teams wore white at home: the aforementioned Cowboys, along with the Bills and Chargers.

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As for my weekly picks for the best- and worst-looking games of the week, you can find those over at SI.com.

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Oops: The 49ers made a surprising mistake when inducting former wideout Terrell Owens into the Niners Hall of Fame on Saturday. As you can see in the photo above, the helmet striping on his statue is the old-school red-white-red pattern — not the black-red-black that the team wore during Owens’ tenure as a Niner. Here’s a comparison:

Even worse, if you scroll back up to the first photo, you can see that they have an action shot showing the proper helmet right behind the statue. Ugh.

According to the Gridiron Uniform Database, the 49ers did wear the helmet shown on the statue one time as a throwback during Owens’ time with the team, in 2002. But if that’s what the statue is supposed to be showing, then the jersey and pants are wrong.

Come on, Niners — be better than this!

(My thanks to Samuel Lam and Taylor Eigsti for bringing this one to my attention.)

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Gumball helmet update: The first round of Uni Watch gumball helmets should ship out today, so those of you who’ve ordered them should watch your mailboxes. I don’t mind saying that I’m really happy with the way this project has turned out, and I’m excited for those of you who will be receiving these items!

In case you missed it last week, here’s how I made the gumball helmets. Full details on how to order them, and how many I still have available, can be found here. Thanks.

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ITEM! Additional patch incentives: In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m still sitting on a fairly large supply of Uni Watch 20th-Anniversary Patches. On Friday I announced that I was reducing the price to only $3.99 (and immediately sold 10 patches — thank you!). Now I’ve decided to add something else to the mix.

So: While supplies last, I will throw in a free anniversary patch for anyone who orders a Uni Watch membership card or a Uni Watch gumball helmet.

Not a bad deal, right? Okay — end of sales pitch.

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The Ticker
By Jamie Rathjen

Baseball News: The Reds’ season-long throwback program finally came to an end yesterday as they wore their 1999 design (from Christopher Schleuter). … Cardinals OF Harrison Bader had his helmet logo coming off yesterday (from multiple readers).
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Football News: A Chiefs superfan/season ticket holder known as the “puppet lady” brings puppets wearing the Chiefs’ and the opponent’s helmet to most home games (from Steve Sher and the multiple readers who replied to him). … Left over from Saturday: New white jerseys for Troy (from Clint Richardson). … In The Citadel and Charleston Southern’s matchup, one Charleston Southern player was missing a helmet number, while a Citadel player was wearing what looks like soccer socks (from @willchitty4). … Reader Paul Ricciardi tells us that Division II West Chester looks just a bit like LSU, especially because LSU wore purple this weekend. … Yesterday’s school of the day from Blaise D’Sylva‘s helmet collection was Maryland. … Alex Kalscheur sent us the BFBS uniforms for his high school, Mount Horeb (Wis.) HS. … You can see Canadian college uni tracking from Wade Heidt in yesterday’s comments.

Hockey News: Some items from the opening week of major junior hockey from Wade Heidt: the OHL’s Barrie Colts have new 25th-anniversary jerseys, as well as a new white jersey. … Some WHL teams that have made changes for the major junior leagues’ new jersey template include the Calgary Hitmen (white), who removed most of their black accents compared to last year, and the Moose Jaw Warriors, who have a new shoulder patch/helmet decal. … Now to Junior A with Wade: last week, we had the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Estevan Bruins’ white jerseys with white pants. They have a yellow-on-yellow version as well. … Alabama’s club team memorialized a fallen Tuscaloosa police officer by wearing blue tape on their socks this weekend (from Griffin Smith).

Soccer News: New third kit for English Championship team Millwall and a third shirt for Premier League Aston Villa. … Scottish team Livingston have a “Spaghettihad” hashtag on the back of their shirts below the numbers, in reference to their stadium’s advertiser, which is an Italian restaurant chain, as well as Manchester City’s stadium advertiser. They’re not, however, the first team to wear a hashtag. … Staying in Scotland, Rangers wore black armbands on Thursday in memory of former player Fernando Ricksen, who passed away last week. … A player on Northern Irish team Institute recently wore a blood shirt that had no name, number, ad, crest, or sleeve patches (from Denis Hurley). … The top tier in Wales — excluding the teams that play in England — was renamed to Cymru Premier from the Welsh Premier League, and has a new logo.

Grab Bag: A Japanese rugby union fan known as Bak-san is wearing the jerseys of all 20 Rugby World Cup teams painted onto his body, starting with Argentina, Japan, and Namibia (from @ohhhsourry). … Speaking of the Rugby World Cup, you’d think maroon/white vs. red/white would be a color clash, but apparently not. … As in previous editions of the Rugby World Cup, teams that have won the tournament before — Australia, England, New Zealand, and South Africa — wear a sleeve decal. … The AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, the primary American competition in the sport, has a new ball (from Jeremy Brahm). … India’s field hockey teams wear cap numbers below the crest, prefixed with “M” for men and “W” for women, though as not every player has one it’s unclear how they’re assigned.

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What Paul did last night yesterday: I’ve been saying for weeks now that it’s stupid to waste a gorgeous September Sunday watching football. That’s why I spent mine in the local emergency room, which is where I landed after a bike accident that happened around noontime yesterday.

The short version: I swerved to avoid a car door that was opening directly in my path, lost my balance, clipped the side-view mirror of the next parked car with my right arm (ripping the mirror right off of the car), and then crashed into the back of the next parked car after that. Was worried about my arm, which swelled up pretty badly (it’s the same one I broke seven years ago, so I was concerned about a repeat performance), but the X-rays were negative. Ended up with a black eye and a lot of stitches on my temple and nose, which at the end of the day is no big deal. I won’t be winning any beauty contests this week, but that was also the case last week, so there you go.

It could’ve been a lot worse. I was wearing my helmet, there were several good samaritans who came to my assistance, the EMTs were great, and my bike came out unscathed. I plan to take it on my daily ride in Prospect Park today, just like any other day.

Even the guy who doored me was super-nice about everything. That doesn’t excuse what he did, of course, but at least he wasn’t a jerk. I told him what I’ll now tell all of you: Please-please-please learn to do the Dutch Reach. It’s a simple, tech-free maneuver that can save cyclists’ lives.

However you spent your Sunday, hope it had less drama than mine! — Paul

 
  
 
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NFL
Comments (58)

    Paul,

    Hope you are a speedy healer, and welcome to the facial stiches’ club. In toto, I have over 40 stitches and countless black eyes, a few broken noses. Not all at once of course, like you did.

    Double thanks for telling the Uni Verse about the “Dutch Reach”, saw it in action with my own eyes in Amsterdam and the Hague. It really works. The locals we spoke with put the Dutch reach on a par with their bike friendly traffic circles (very safe) as “people helping people, not die”. The Dutch are justifiably proud of their cycling infrastructure – the bike garages are stunningly clever.

    You can see the OMG that just works vids here.
    link

    Does the 3 shades of gold not bother you with the Saints color rush uniforms? The helmet, uniform numbers and uniform striping all are different shades (especially the helmet).

    The different shades of gold annoy me. Would be nice if they could fix that up. Still a better uniform than the black over black leotard for the Saints.

    Yes, white jersey with white pants always looks worse than anything else. Why is it so hard to understand that the colors on the helmet, jersey, pants and socks should match? It something you’d expect from a budget strapped high school team.

    Saints unis are best with gold pants worn, period.

    Why is getting a throwback uniform properly coordinated so hard for the Packers to do?! I noticed the dark green captaincy patch yesterday and I just shook my head. Is it really that difficult to get either a gray or navy face mask and a navy captaincy patch for this uniform?

    It’s always bothered me how even though they constantly talk about how great their seamstress and equipment people are so great, they seemingly just don’t carer about aesthetics at all. For years it was mismatched greens. Now it’s a combo of choosing throwbacks no one wants, and not even taking the time to try to make them accurate looking. How hard would adding a gray face mask be when you’re already removing decals etc. Hell, even on the sidelines guys have a blue “retro” hoodie on over green pants…..why? Nearly every fan I know is vocally clamoring for Lombardi era unis and they sell thousands of the jerseys too. Just because your regular home uni is the best in sports, doesn’t mean you an be lazy with colors on the throwbacks.

    Eek! Glad you’re ok Paul!

    Speaking of LSU wearing purple, their next game is a home game against an out of conference foe, Utah State, so assuming they’ll wear their purple jerseys again it’ll make for three consecutive games doing that. I’ve been an LSU fan since 2003 and I can’t recall having seem them wearing so much purple in a season before, let alone in consecutive games!

    So many bike-car accidents in NYC this year. Yet this is the first time I’ve heard of the Dutch Reach. Glad you’re ok Paul and thanks for introducing me to something new

    Ouch, Paul. Glad you’re okay.

    About the red/maroon Wales/Georgia Rugby World Cup matchup, our RWC preview didn’t have a second kit for Georgia (they wouldn’t need one if they didn’t for this game) and Wales’s second kit is dark green. It’s possible that red/maroon was the least bad option.

    Glad your wounds are not serious!

    I’m not seeing the problem with the Niners statue. The statue has three stripes; one wide bordered on each side by two narrow. Just like the photo of Owens. The statue’s stripes have no color; it’s all bronze colored with slight variations in reflectivity. The two narrow stripes are polished to appear darker than the helmet or the center stripe, and the center stripe is polished to contrast with the helmet shell. Which is all exactly right given the medium. What am I not seeing here? Is this adult-onset colorblindness and the statue is actually painted vivid colors that I can’t see?

    No, I saw it the same way. Whether black/red/black or red/white/red, the darker stilroped flank the lighter stripe in any case. And the darker stripes seem to match the rink around the SF monogram, which would be black based on the rest of the uniform. You could make the argument that if the pattern is black/red/black, the black stripes should be narrower than the middle red stripe, where the red/white/red are all the same width.
    Speedy recovery, Paul. The Dutch Reach is fascinating (and sounds like a dirty double entendre…). I got doored once, riding home from high school football practice. It sucks.

    In addition to the Dutch Reach, the FBI Unbuckle helps reinforce the whole “turn your body to the left” thing when exiting the car. Before you open the door, reach with your left hand underneath your shoulder belt and slide your hand down to unbuckle the seat belt. Then guide the buckle back up to its resting position above your left shoulder with your left hand. That will naturally twist your body to be in position for the Dutch Reach opening method. Also, it will prevent you from being entangled in the seat belt in case a gunfight erupts suddenly and you need to roll out of the car and draw your pistol (the reason the FBI trains agents to unbuckle their seat belts this way).

    Best of luck on a speedy recovery, Paul. Appreciate the PSA on the Dutch Reach…I’ll try to do that when opening car doors.

    It looks to me that the bit on Flacco’s helmet is just part of his decal peeling off.

    The Jets new uniforms look great… from behind. Overall their uniform combos (besides black) has grown on me as far as on the field.

    Re: Jets, the green pants/green socks look isn’t as bad as it could be, but white socks would be better. White-over-green did look a bit better than the white-over-white we saw in preseason. Green-over-white is still (and always) their best look, IMHO.

    I’d actually like to see them try the BFBS jerseys over white pants and green socks. That might not look half-bad.

    Glad you’re OK Paul.

    I’m not a fan of the stripes in the end zones for the Browns. I would love to see them bring back the Browns script:

    link

    Huge sigh of relief that your injuries were relatively minor. And all credit to you for getting today’s post done in spite of it all.

    My word! I’m so sorry that happened, Paul. But, I am thrilled to hear you’re OK! A man was killed in front of my apartment last year when someone in a parked car opened their door without first looking.

    I’ve never heard of the Dutch Reach, but I will absolutely make it a habit from now on.

    Oddly enough, I’ve been using that Dutch Reach for years, but not because I’d read of it or was looking for cyclists in particular. The area I live in is prone to fast winds nearly every day, and when I was younger, twice had doors nearly ripped off the hinges because a gust of wind came through right as I unlatched a door. Being a righty, I always feel I have a much better hold on a door by using my right hand to hold it, while using my left to unlatch. But, knowing I’m also putting my head in a better position to see a new hazard is even better. get well soon Paul!

    Glad your injuries weren’t too serious and get well soon.

    Re the SI best/worst NFL uni matchups, the Dolphins/Cowboys game could’ve been worse. Miami could’ve been wearing that awful orange creamsicle color rash uni set.

    Ugh..Scary stuff, glad your o.k.
    Never heard of the Dutch Reach. Very clever!!
    I for one, will now be doing it, and will also have my newly licensed daughter do it too.
    FYI- small typo in the paragraph about the T.O. staute.
    It reads “not the black-red-back”…
    Again, glad your o.k.

    Glad to see things were not to serious…sounds like it could have been a lot worse. Get well soon.

    I see that the NHL has started their preseason. Can we expect an NHL 2019-2020 season review soon?

    Getting the update out after a trip to the E/R? Rock Start Status ACHIEVED!!!

    All the best,
    -Steve

    Speedy recovery of course, and then, yes please on the NHL. So many new uniforms!

    Paul, feeling your pain. Glad you’re alive to tell the tale. Can’t believe I survived being a NYC bike messenger for a few months way, way back in the day.

    Reports are circulating that they did an x-ray of Paul’s head and found nothing. (Rimshot)

    A quick note on the Chiefs throwback field… As a 2-bar facemask lover, I was happy about the mid-field helmet! One aspect that caught my eye/bothered me was the decision to outline the grey mask in RED… In comparison, the 49ers grey 2-bar mask (currently in their endzones) is outlined in black, a much better presentation in my opinion.

    Mend quickly Paul!

    49ers
    link

    Chiefs
    For some reason I can’t find a close-up of yesterday’s helmet.. trust me, the outline was red!

    1994 Week 2 vs the Oilers they wore white.
    Week 3 Monday night vs Lions they wore the throwbacks.
    Week 4 was a bye but week 5 was in Washington wearing the blue.

    About Joe Flacco’s helmet, I noticed it as well yesterday and figured it simply was the short pointy stripe on the left that was peeling off a bit.

    Paul, Glad to hear you came out of the bike accident relatively in good shape!! Be careful out there. I’ve had several close calls over the years. Phil

    Had the pack not worn their poorly-executed throwback yesterday, the Broncos would have had consecutive games against the three best-dressed teams in the league.

    Sorry, not a fan of the Raiders uniform. Nothing creative about it at all Bears and Packers look great though.

    I think the Broncos orange home is the best uni in the league, while the white is one of the worst.

    I hope you have a speedy recovery!

    I might be in the minority, but I love the Browns look. For a team named “Browns”, having a mono-toned brown uniform seems fitting and the color brown they use is sharp. I would argue the Browns are literally the ONLY team in the NFL that can pull off the monotoned home uniform.

    The only tweak I would like to see is a thin white border around the number to add some contrast and tie the helmet into the ensemble.

    I agree, dutch reach is a good thing, but the cyclist should also be looking through the windows of parked cars as they ride in a built up area. Too many times I see stories of cyclists thinking they’re riding in the Tour de France in a city and paying no attention to who’s in a parked car, that a door may open, and/or the car may be attempting to enter traffic.

    Roads were built for cars. Yes, cars need to share the road with cyclists, but the cyclist needs to remember they’re sharing the road with 2 ton machines moving faster than they are.

    Man, Paul – glad you’re okay! Thanks for teaching us the Dutch Reach.

    Hope none of your bruises turn purple!

    Glad to see your ok. Thanks for teaching us about the Dutch reach, I’ll be doing it from now on as well.

    As a previous victim of a dooring incident and several other bike accidents, very glad to see you are OK! We need to start educating people in the US about the Dutch Reach method of opening car doors:
    link

    Also wore black under their home jerseys. In 1999 they wore red underneath with the white caps.

    They actually wore the black hat and black undershirt at home towards the end of the season. They were winning so much on the road they wanted to bring the good luck home. link

    Also they did not wear white caps in 1999… they wore red crowns with black brims and black crowns with red brims starting in 1999.

    Ahh, I see. I didn’t know that! But you’re right. I was thinking back to the earlier players. Reggie Sanders, Deion, etc. in the early to mid 90’s and I was picturing the white. I was too early.
    But yeah, when I think to the later years of that uniform with Danny Graves and Dmitri Young I can then vividly remember the black at home. Thanks for the clarification!

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