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Uni Watch

Monday Morning Uni Watch

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An eyesore for the ages yesterday in Tennessee, and the Titans went blue over blue while the Broncos once again insisted on wearing white over navy, complete with the mismatched side panels. Woof!

Here’s how it looked in action:

In other news from around the league yesterday:

  • Former 49ers GM John McVay died on Oct. 31. Yesterday was the Niners’ first game since then (they had a bye last week), so they added a “JM” memorial decal, positioned alongside the “39” decal they were already wearing for former halfback Hugh McElhenny:
  • Speaking of the Niners: Since they were playing the Chargers last night, I was a bit surprised that they didn’t wear their throwbacks as a way to echo Super Bowl XXIX. Hard to argue with last night’s gorgeous uni matchup, though:
  • KC announced on Saturday that they’d be wearing a patch “during the game” to mark the 50th anniversary of Operation Linebacker, a Vietnam War operation in which the father of eventual KC linebacker Derrick Thomas was killed. As it turned out, though, the team wore the patch only on their pregame hoodies, not during the game. A source tells me that the plan all along was for the patch to be worn only for pregame, so the team’s announcement that it would be worn during the game was erroneous (additional info on the patch here).
  • The Rams once again wore their alternate dishwater pants:
  • In that same game, Rams defensive back Jalen Ramsey once again wore yellow socks while his teammates wore blue (he was fined for that earlier in the season):
  • Not sure I’ve ever seen this before: For the overtime coin toss in the Bills/Vikings game, one of the Bills’ captains was defensive back Micah Hyde, who’s been on injured reserve since Week Two. Since he wasn’t playing, he was out there at midfield wearing sideline apparel (interestingly, there’s no rule against it):
  • In Pittsburgh, a bunch of pigeons set up shop on the field during the Steelers/Saints game:
  • In that same game, Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth lost part of a front helmet numeral:
  • Bucs quarterback Tom Brady changed the color of his undershirt at halftime, switching from red to black:
  • Only one home team wore white: the Dolphins.

Tonight: The Eagles host the Commies, in what should be a fairly normal-looking game.

(My thanks to Kevin Cearfoss, James Gilbert, Nick Rath, and L.J. Sparvero for their contributions to this section.)

 
  
 

Too Good for the Ticker

Now that’s a uniform! It was worn by Carmen Lujan of the 1936 Colton Mercury Señoritas. It’s currently on display as part of the ¡Pleibol! exhibit at the Smithsonian, which reader Mike Raymer recently checked out. Man, what a beauty!

• • • • •

Tomorrow: I’m going to have a really interesting NBA scoop. Excited to share it with you! — Paul

Comments (58)

    It’s time for The Titans to admit their mistake and start over. For a team that has a unique color and classic uni history they sure don’t know how to use it…

    Feel like you could say that about 75% of NFL teams these days. NFL went from having the best uniforms—with specific wearing strictly enforced—to a garish, sloppy free-for-all. The majority of the league needs an overhaul…and for God sakes, please keep Nike’s “designers” as far away as possible.

    I know, right? It’s like the players think they have some sort of right to freely express themselves because of some sort of amendment in a Constitution or something. Next thing you know one or more players might try and not stand at attention for the National anthem but might actually kneel or sit instead.

    I think the Titan’s Broncos game looked good, though I wish the Titans would choose the sky blue as their primary color and tone down the navy by say 98%.

    Overdramatic much? We’re talking about socks and undershirts, and contemporary uniform design here. No one’s constitutional rights are being trampled because we ask #5 to wear the same color socks as #47.

    Lee

    Yes, the Titans did muck things up when they deviated from that.
    The changes made probably should have gone no further than the helmet color; though I do like the navy, maybe a ‘Titan Blue’ one would have worked too, and possibly eliminating both the white and navy pants.
    To me, “starting over” would mean returning to some design from their Oilers history…but I can appreciate ownership’s desire to keep their powder (blue) dry on that.

    Am I the only one who thinks the word “Pleibol” is really strange?
    It seems to be a word made up by the Smithsonian, and not a legit Spanish word. I’d like to know what a native Spanish speaker thinks of it.
    On one hand it’s a clever, silly play on words, but on the other hand, do Spanish speakers see stuff like this and roll their eyes?
    And on the third hand, it’s a Monday morning and my brain doesn’t want to start work yet.

    I’m Mexican and I play baseball (beisból) most of the words used in baseball are “Spanglish” versions of the words jonrón, ampayer, picher, doble-play, etc, although we hardly see them written down, it’s just the lingo.

    There was a small part of me that hoped the Broncos would have won and continued that awful uniform combination.

    Well, instead you can keep hoping the Jets keep wearing and winning in their awful green/white/black combo.

    As a broncos fan I suspected the ugly combo was connected to their recent W. This might be treasonous, if the L means they’ll never wear this again, I’ll take it. Season is lost anyway.

    You and I are on the same page, Minnyapples! Also, if multiple losses in this awful uniform combination cements it in the minds of Broncos fans with the Hackett regime, I’m confident we’ll never see it again after this year. So go forth, Hackett, and lose every flipping game your team plays in these eyesores!

    I’m looking for a couple of sports related websites.

    One is a football helmet website that has all the college’s and leagues, drawings/computer generated not pics or mini helmets. I used to have the web address but lost it, it’s not that D’Silvo guy that has been featured here a lot.

    I’m also looking for a website with an updated and current history of the stadiums used by college and pro teams, mainly in the US. ballparls.com was good but hasn’t been updated in several years.

    Ballparks by Munsey and Suppes? link

    Ballparks of Baseball? link

    Those are two good ones (and should be fairly recently updated). Or are you looking for football?

    Years ago, MG’s Helmets was a great resource for Pro/College/High School, but it’s hasn’t been up and running for a long time : (

    Good Helmet Site is also Helmet Hut. Lots of Helmet History on numerous colleges, photos and graphics. Great chain of articles/column call “The Equipment Managers” that go behind the scenes with several Equipment Managers of Pro Teams giving backstories on lots of items. Also a Monthly Column on different former players talking about their unis – mostly college players. Lots there worthy of hours of looking and exploring.

    I would maybe clarify your language towards the top of the article about the Titans going ‘blue over blue’. Yes I know, the picture makes it self-evident that they’re using two different blues, but they also go ‘blue over blue’ quite frequently in the form of navy over navy, and have also gone light blue over light blue a handful of times as well.

    For what it’s worth though, while the light blue pants kind of stick out with this particular combo/don’t look like they fit with the rest of the uniform…but they also have way worse combos. The navy socks really helped a lot in my opinion.

    The pigeons were also present in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago when they played Tampa Bay. There have been some posts on social media highlighting the fact that the Steelers are 2-0 when the pigeons are on the field for a game!

    I was at the Steeles Jets games and the pigeons made plenty of appearances, but the Jets prevailed. Still a fun story, though.

    These pigeons might be aliens in disguise wanting the Steelers to win. My favorite combi last night was Green Bay and Dallas, although the Bills and the Vikings also looked surprisingly nice. Niners always look nice as do the Chargers nowadays. I do agree that the appeal of football shirts in general has dwindled for me, due to the weird short elastic sleeves and too small numbers being widely used. I always loved big, wide sleeves and big numbers. But I am only a football fan, players will think differently.

    All 3 of them have a really simple option…..go back to their much superior previous look. Sure the Cardinals sucked for a long time but it was never the uniform that was the problem. And the Broncos previous look is a million times better than the dated 90s look they have now.

    Titans is a little different, but go back to the Olier look just with a (new) Titans logo on the helmet.

    White socks are pretty much a given in any NFL game these days, but I noticed an excessive amount of guys wearing them in the Dallas/Green Bay game. Ruined what otherwise was a great looking matchup.

    I like Titans wearing the light blue more often. Without them they look like the Texans or Pats. I think Aaron Jones may have switched from yellow to white cleats in yesterdays game as well.

    As a lifelong Denver Broncos fan, there are many reasons why I am eager for the team to replace Nathaniel Hackett as head coach after this season. But chief among them is his role in introducing by far the worst uniform combination the team has ever worn. The mismatched side panels are an abomination, and part of me hopes they lose every game in which they ever wear them again (Hey, at this point , the season is almost certainly a bust, so I’m willing to sacrifice a few losses for the overall greater aesthetic good.)

    I’m thinking Jalen Ramsey’s yellow socks are really compression pants right? I think most players wear pants rather than only traditional socks.
    Perhaps I’ve missed some posts.
    We didn’t have those pants when I played, I think it would feel weird.

    Yes. I’m using “socks” as a sort of catchall for all the different kinds of hosiery that NFL players currently wear (tights, leggings, calf sleeves, and actual socks).

    Looking at Jalen Ramsey’s legs in those leggings, it looks like he could use some time in the weight room focused on lower body…

    I feel that the white of the cards made the rams dishwater pants that much worse– they just looked dirty. There is also something cartoonish about the Rams uniforms. On the whole, I say Broncs Titans were worse. I love the cardinal helmet, which gives this game a slight edge– the rest of the lids need rethinking.

    The biggest loser of the day– the camo towels– they looked particularly bad on the Rams.

    Probably just a sign of the impending Unipocalypse, but the Rams in blue-blue-dishwater-blue isn’t a terrible color scheme…it’s just that the execution of the details is so wrong. A yellow stripe on dishwater britches? The wacky shoulder treatement? Don’t get me started about the stupid gradient numbers.

    Take the same colors, do a traditional Rams’ horns on the sleeves, yellow block numbers with white outlines, and a blue-yellow-blue narrow stripe on the pants, and it’s a decent uniform. Without even touching the helmet.

    Am I the only one who was reminded of Tommy Lee Jones wearing his chicken costume in “The Fugitive” after seeing Ramsey in those scrawny yellow leggings?

    -C.

    Not to be “that guy” but the scene you are referring to takes place in “U.S. Marshals” the 1998 sequel to “The Fugitive”, which was released in 1993.

    As a Titans fan, I actually like the navy over light blue. It’s better than the all navy they seem to always wear, though I woud prefer they’d go navy over white or light blue over white. They use the navy pants way too much.

    But overall I do agree they need to overhaul the uniforms again. What they should have done is basically have kept the original Oiler look and just changed the helmet logo. They went to navy as the primary color back when everyone was seemingly going to either navy or black. Their best look since being the Titans was their previous look when they went light blue over white, and they only did that 2 times back in 2013.

    Now that they’ve gone back to 3 sleeve stripes, I think the Niners have the best uniforms in the league. That deep red and gold absolutely popped off the screen last night against the Chargers’ bland all-whites.

    Broncos and Titans was an abomination. Honestly, the Titans have never looked good. Blow it up and start over. We all know what Denver should do.

    The Titans’ choice to rebrand as Navy–the primary color of six other teams, including one in their division–and relegate their Houston Blue to Alternate status was baffling then and inconceivable now. Put them in the White-Blue-White of the home Oilers and the defunct Blue-White-Blue of the road Oilers, and stop being afraid of using red for contrast–it’s in your logo for cripes’ sake–and they are starting to look like a perennial 5 & 1.

    While I’m not a huge fan of the Titans overall uniform, I like the way the navy/navy/light blue looks.

    I’m not sure if “like” is the right word for it, but it’s currently the least offensive part of their ‘look’ to me. Their helmet logo is fine, I just like it better on their old white helmets.

    Lee

    The circle and flame is ok. It has motion. The TN state flag part and the Tack T – not so great. I live in Nashville. Everything is a T. Either blue or orange. Would be nice if they got away from that…

    dumb question (because I should know this) but other than the CR Jerseys, have the Broncos worn orange pants with the current navy side panels? I did a quick search and only found fan concepts. I wonder what it would look like with orange pants and blue side panels. I think it would look pretty good.

    The team has never had a set of orange pants in the current (1997-present) template. In 2016, they added the CR pants, which have only been worn with the CR jerseys

    But here, you can look it up yourself: link

    The Titans original Nashville navy over white duds with a navy helmet would be great, but the best they have looked since moving to TN was the LoveYa Blue Oilers throwback against The Bills back in Vince Young days.. The current uniforms are absurd. The funky undersleeves? The pants “splotch” instead of a stripe. Those horrible Greek engraved digits.. It’s just bad all around. They look like a USFL team at best…

    If the Broncos are going to be this nutty, they should break out the navy-“stripe” white pants with the navy uni, or the orange-“stripe” white pants with the white or orange jerseys. Because why the hell not at this point?

    This whole discussion of the Titans, I was thinking we were talking about the “original” Titans…the Jets. Maybe it’s just the great throwback article from the other day.

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