Luke Godlewski’s NFL/NBA Jersey Crossover Concepts

By Phil Hecken
Follow @PhilHecken

Hey everybody! Hope you’re all doing well (or as well as can be expected) these days. Here on Long Island, where the COVID-19 hit early and hard (and we were under some severe social distancing orders for months), we’re slowly opening back up. And (knocks wood, crosses fingers) so far, we seem to be doing pretty well. Unfortunately, I see there are lots of areas across the states where this isn’t the case — so please, everyone — STAY SAFE. We can (and will) get through this, but it’s VERY IMPORTANT not to take anything for granted and to maintain social distancing. Wear your mask when you’re within six feet of someone else, please! It’s summer, and we all want to be out and about, and there are still many BLM (and other) protests, restaurants opening, bars opening (and closing again), and we generally want to try to get back to life as we know it — or at least for what passes as such during this pandemic. Please, please be smart. OK, rant over.

Looks like the US of A is going to try to start playing teams sports in a few of the leagues pretty soon. Like Paul, I’m not confident we’ll end up actually finishing anything that restarts, and clearly these seasons will all have asterisks for the record books. But until we have actual uniforms to look at on US teams, it’s time for more concepts. I apologize to those for whom concepts aren’t your cuppa, but I’m most definitely at the end of the reader submissions and today we’ll have one more set of crossover concepts (which seemed to be quite a popular type of uni tweak/concept thingy). These were sent in a few weeks back by a young man named Luke Godlewski, who is in high school. But I think once you see what he’s come up with you’ll be shocked at how creative these are! Normally, when I have an entire league, I try to split the unis up into two sets, but I am going to run the entire NFL (on NBA jerseys) from Luke today, since his descriptions are pretty short and the mockups aren’t giant.

So, please join me in welcoming Luke’s designs into today’s fold. And please let him know what you think of them in the comments below. OK? OK!

Here we go:

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NFL/NBA Crossover Jerseys
By Luke Godlewski

My name is Luke Godlewski. I’m a highschooler living just outside of Cleveland. I’m a regular Uni Watch reader with some free time, so I thought I would try my hand at some concepts. I was inspired by Eric Steplitus’ NBA/MLB crossover concepts, and thought I would make some NFL/NBA crossover jersey concepts. Please enjoy!

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Arizona Cardinals:

The Cardinals’ look could use an update. Why not go with your state flag’s colors? You can keep the red, but substitute the boring black for gold and navy, a scheme that no one else uses in the NFL.

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Atlanta Falcons:

No clown sleeves. No gradients. No airport abbreviations. Just a simple, straightforward, and recognizable look for the Falcons. I feel like if the Falcons were a 70’s-80’s NBA team, their jerseys would look something like these alternates.

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Baltimore Ravens:

The Ravens are a modern era team with a modern era look. I stuck with that here. The purple alternate is modeled after the team’s Color Rush (rash) uniform.

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Buffalo Bills:

I love the Bills’ font, and utilized it on the two blue jerseys. I’ve also always thought that powder blue could fit Buffalo well for some reason.

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Carolina Panthers:

The Panthers are another modern era team. I kept their classic striping, but updated it. I gave them a lowercase script font as well.

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Cincinnati Bengals

I took inspiration from the Bengals’ original helmets for the wordmark on the uniforms. The tiger-print on the shoulders pays homage to their current helmets.

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Chicago Bears:

The Bears’ uniforms have been the same since the 1950’s. These jerseys fit that era. Also, the two white “Chicago” jerseys take inspiration from the Cubs and White Sox through the font.

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Cleveland Browns:

The “Browns” font was inspired by the 70’s, 80’,s and 90’s wordmark. The throwback helmet and Brownie the Elf logos tie in the entire retro feel.

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Dallas Cowboys:

I updated the striping, and added a “Dallas”wordmark to match the “Cowboys” one. Other than that, the design really made itself. The Cowboys have a timeless look that is hard to mess up.

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Denver Broncos:

I kept the Broncos’ current look (with a few tweeks), for the first three jerseys, but went for more of a fauxback fourth jersey. Again, I feel like powder blue just works here.

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Detroit Lions:

Contrary to lots of peoples opinion, I actually enjoy the Lions’ current uniforms. I played off of those while adding a black alternate for these looks.

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Green Bay Packers:

In my opinion, the Packers have the best uniforms in the league. I changed next to nothing about them here.

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Houston Texans:

I lightened up the navy just a bit and used a different font for the numbers. On the gray jersey, I decided to keep the center of the o’s white as a little pop of brightness.

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Indianapolis Colts:

I hate myself for giving the Colts a BFBS jersey, but they just added black as a tertiary color, and this seems like a very NBAish thing to do.

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Jacksonville Jaguars:

In reality, I’ve never liked any of the Jaguars’ uniforms. But for some reason, these jerseys really appeal to me. I guess this color scheme just works better for basketball.

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Kansas City Chiefs:

The Chiefs have very rarely altered from their red and white jerseys and pants. It would’ve been sacreligious to give them a gold or black alternate, as cool as it might have looked.

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Los Angeles Chargers:

Like most people, I love the Chargers’ new threads. I used their old wormark, and new uniforms as inspiration for these jerseys.

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Los Angeles Rams:

The Rams’ new uniforms are awful. These go almost a completely different route. (Except for the bone-colored alternate.) Deeper colors, no gradients, and no out-of-place shoulder patches.

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Miami Dolphins:

The Dolphins’ colors have always been great. I utilized both shades of teal that the team has used over its history.

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Minnesota Vikings:

Purple and gold just seem to work well on a basketball jersey.

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New England Patriots:

The new Patriots uniforms are too dull. These put more of an emphasis on silver, rather than red as an accent color.

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New Orleans Saints:

I used more of a mustard-y gold on the white alternate to replicate the Color Rush uniform. The vegas gold alternate was inspired by the gold alternate used by the saints in the 2000’s.

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New York Giants:

I kept it simple, using the throwback “Giants” wordmark, and the current “NY” logo.

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New York Jets:

I dumbed down the Jets’ current look by using softer colors and a throwback logo.

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Las Vegas Raiders:

The first time I made the home jersey concept, I used an “Oakland” wordmark. Oops.

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Philadelphia Eagles:

I created a “Philadelphia” wordmark to somewhat match the current “Eagles” one. The second alternate is kelly green to replicate the 80’s uniforms.

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Pittsburgh Steelers:

I hate the Steelers, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that they had great uniforms. These jerseys are no different.

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San Francisco 49ers

A very simple, retro take on a classic uniform. The “49ers” wordmark is inspired by the endzones in Levi Stadium.

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Seattle Seahawks:

These 4 jerseys match up to the 4 currently worn in Seattle. Slight tweaks to the number are the only major changes.

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

Bring Back Bucco Bruce.

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Tennessee Titans:

Whether it’s taken by the Texans, or the Titans, someone needs to utilize the Oilers branding.

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Washington ‘skins

I tried to not use the name or ‘skins logo as much as possible here, for obvious reasons. I think Washington has options when it comes to former (less controversial) logos, and I displayed them here.

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Thanks so much for taking a look at my little project. I really hope you enjoyed! Feel free to comment on anything you saw above.

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Thanks, Luke! Nice job on those — and pretty amazing when we consider your age. Well done.

OK readers? Got something to say? Please let Luke know what you think in the comments down below!

Guess The Game…

from the scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from Mike Styczen.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date & location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

Threads Of Our Game

Occasionally I receive an e-mail update from Craig Brown, the designer and proprietor of the website, Threads of our Game. As the header explains, the website is a databuse of 1800s base ball uniforms. If you haven’t checked it out before, you’re welcome.

Anyway, got an e-mail yesterday with the subject line: “A few uniform stories from 1897”. The body was as follows…

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Hello baseball historians,

Previously I wrote about the odd-ball and super weird road uniform of the 1897 Boston NL team. But there are other uni-related stories from this year to tell. Here are a few (click on each link to see more):

Opening day is when you first open the box to take the uniform out.

“Opening day” was a disappointing one for the 1897 Orioles. The defending champs ordered socks with black-and-orange stripes in the style of the “old Orioles.” But the orange turned out to be “a very sickly yellow,” so Manager Hanlon “immediately wired for eighteen pair of solid black.” So much for tradition.

In Washington, the suits arrived in “big uniform boxes” which one newspaper noted the players then placed on their bicycles and “peddled serenely away.” The Senators changed the style of the “W” on their shirts in 1897, hoping for a few more “W”s.

The new St. Louis uniform did not delight. The Browns wore brown, of course, but the team’s finances were in the red. The new uniforms were described as the “cheapest thing in seven leagues” and were predicted to “shrink like a boiled sponge” in the first rain.

Window dressing in Indianapolis. The new uniforms of the Western League Hoosiers were proudly displayed in several clothing stores in town and featured something new from Spalding. Instead of “Indianapolis” on the home shirts, the letter “I” was used and displayed in a fancy script font. All in favor, say “I.”

The craft of baseball imagery.

The Phillies had a superb uniform in 1897, captured beautifully in a Leslie’s Weekly “photo drawing” (half photo, half painting) by Lewis L. Rouch. We see Nap Lajoie, bat in hand, standing at the plate in his Philadelphia uniform, with New York catcher Jack Warner and umpire Thomas Lynch behind him. All are clearly rendered.

Here’s a newly discovered gem. This beautiful newspaper illustration of the Houston team was made by artist Ole J. May. It shows the Buffalos of the Texas League in their striking dark blue uniform. Made from a photo by Charles Blackburn, but where is the photo today?

There was a double exposure in St.Paul. True, many team photos have not survived, but we have two distinctly different images of Comiskey’s crew from 1897. One of these was photo-mechanically reproduced in the St. Paul Globe on April 30, 1897. A new era had arrived: baseball imagery was now on newsprint.

Here’s the background behind the photo, literally.

The setting for this photo of the 1897 New York team was the Lakewood Hotel, Lakewood, NJ, where the Giants lodged during spring training. Sweaters, old uniforms and a multitude of caps can be found. Manager Joyce had the men run the one-mile distance to the practice field every morning — and then the team would “sprint back to the hotel for luncheon.”

Lastly, the background behind these Syracuse players has turned black. Actually this was intentional and the work of Syracuse photographer Philip S. Ryder. Describing the photo in 1897, one newspaper said that the black background represented a “new idea” and that “every admirer of baseball should obtain a copy.” Agree or disagree?

You can also see the above text on the Threads News Feed page.

Thanks as always for your time. If you know more about these or any other uniform of the 19th century, please keep the Threads project in mind.

Craig

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How great is that? Very! Thanks, Craig!

Uni Concepts & Tweaks

Time for more Uni Tweaks from the UW readership.

I hope you guys like this feature and will want to continue to submit your concepts and tweaks to me. If you do, Shoot me an E-mail (Phil (dot) Hecken (at) gmail (dot) com).

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Today’s tweak comes from Jacob Schreiber, who has a couple ever-so-slight tweaks for the Baylor Bears…

He writes,

Hey Phil,
Mocked up a tweak to Baylor’s uniforms. Last year we switched to consistent school colors among sport, and I have enjoyed the new look but at times it can look too plain so I wanted to try to spruce em up just a bit. Just changed the shoulder stripes from dark green to yellow. Wasn’t sure if I liked the helmet stripe or not. If this is worth featuring go for it, if not no worries.

Thanks,
Jacob Schreiber

And here’s a look at Jacob’s tweaks. Below, on the left, is the tweak with the helmet stripe, and on the right is sans-stripe. Original uni is below.

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Thanks Jacpb!

OK readers (and concepters). If you have some tweaks or concepts, shoot ’em my way with a brief description of your creation and I’ll run ’em here.

The Ticker
By Anthony Emerson

Baseball News: The Giants are planning on having cardboard cutouts of fans in the stands at Oracle Park (from Mike Chamernik). … WFAN has ranked the 14 worst logos in MLB history (from Kary Klismet).

NFL News: During their overlapping tenures with the Saints in the early ’80s, Reggie Lewis and Rodney Lewis both went FNOB. … Speaking of the Saints: Owner Gayle Benson is dropping the name “Dixie” from the brewery she also owns (thanks, Paul).

College Football News: In this story, former Oregon WR Devon Allen says the football team’s ever-changing uniforms were what attracted him to the program (from Kary Klismet). … Speaking of Oregon, the Ducks and Oregon State will drop the “Civil War” nickname for their rivalry (thanks, Paul).

Hockey News: The NWHL’s Toronto 6 have revealed their three sweaters. The red is home, black is away and white is alternate. Wade Heidt notes that it’s the first time in league history that all teams will have more than one uniform (from Paul and Gabriel Hurl). … This article says the Rangers need a costumed mascot. What say you, blueshirt faithful? (from Kary Klismet).

Soccer News: New Borussia Dortmund signing Thomas Meunier accidentally leaked the team’s new home shirt (from Josh Hinton). … Also from Josh: the home kits of Chelsea, Roma and Inter Milan have all leaked. That Roma kit is gorgeous. … The following are all Ed Żelaski: A side look of Celtic’s new Adidas home kit was leaked from the official photoshoot. … Scottish Premiership side Kilmarnock have unveiled their away kit. … Scottish third tier side Airdrieonians have revealed their home kit. … RSC Anderlecht have revealed their new kits. … English third tier side Accrington Stanley have revealed their new kits. … The NWSL’s OL Reign have unveiled their 2020 kits (thanks, Jamie). … Cape Verde’s national team has a new crest (from @AndrewVoodoo).

Grab Bag: Goldman Sachs has released a new downloadable font that’s completely free to use — unless you use it to criticize Goldman Sachs (from Mike Chamernik). … Here’s an article about some Buffalo Police officers are covering their nametags with black tape and adding Blue Lives Matter patches. Kary also sent along this article about the history of police uniforms and the message they’re intended to convey (from Kary Klismet). … One more from Kary: Weld Central High in Colorado is coming under scrutiny for their “Rebels” mascot. They removed all Confederate imagery from their identity three years ago. … Holy stripes! That’s the 1876 Kahnawà:ke lacrosse team from Montreal (from Michael Sullivan). … Adam Herbst sends along this Fast Company article about how Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 campaign logo and identity has inspired other progressives around the country and the world.

And finally… a big thanks to Luke for sharing his crossover concepts, and Craig for the new Threads.

Everyone have a good Saturday and be safe please! I’ll catch you guys tomorrow (and I promise it’s not going to be more concepts or crossovers).

Peace,

PH