In today’s Ticker, we’ve got some NFL rumors, the Brazilian Football Federation’s wonderfully simple nod to Pelé, and more!
Uni Watch News Ticker for Dec. 30, 2022
Posted in:
Football
NFL
- The Ravens are going mono-black against the Steelers. (From Andrew Cosentino and Adam Keil)
- Phil Simms wore No. 11 for his entire NFL career — except, it seems, for this promotional shot, where he wears No. 19. Was this an early-career preseason thing, where he switched his number for the regular season? A spare jersey he threw on just for these photos? (From Brad Eenhuis)
- Rumor has it that the Lions are (once again) looking to revamp their uniforms, and have filed paperwork with the league to do so. (From Brandon Weir)
- Rumor also has it that the Texans are seeking to revamp their uniforms. Unlike the Lions, the Texans’ look has been mostly the same since they entered the league in 2002. (From Mike Chamernik and Aaron Pinto)
College
- Oklahoma went with a pirate flag memorial decal for Mike Leach in yesterday’s bowl game. (From Blaise D’Sylva)
Basketball
College
- Bradley men wore throwbacks for a game last week. (From Paul Stein)
G League
- The Austin Spurs brought back their “Raros de Austin” identity for last night’s game. More info here. (From Kyle Burkholder)
Hockey
NHL
- A growing number of NHL players are using a product called Skate Skins, which are removable custom designs that can be applied to the outside of the skate. (From our own Jerry Wolper)
Minors/Juniors
- The OHL’s London Knights have added a memorial patch for C Abakar Kazbekov, who passed away suddenly at age 18 a couple of weeks ago. (From Wade Heidt)
- A pair of WHL teams just traded goalies, meaning that, for now, they’re still wearing gear that has their old teams’ logos. Here’s Victoria Royals’ G Braden Holt wearing his Everett Silvertips gear, and Silvertips G Tyler Palmer wearing his old Royals gear. (From Wade Heidt)
Soccer
USA
- The Major Arena Soccer League’s San Diego Sockers have unveiled their “Crossborder” jersey. The new kit will be used for the first time for Hispanic Heritage Night on Jan. 8.
International
- Brazil: Following the passing of Pelé, the official Twitter account of the Brazilian Football Federation changed their avatar to a black-and-white logo, and dropped the five World Cup stars, replacing them with a gold crown. Pelé was known as “O Rei” (“The King”) in Brazil. Santos FC, his team for his entire career before he moved to the New York Cosmos in the 1970s, changed their avatar to a rendering of a crown.
- Sticking with O Rei, his final game was in 1977, a friendly match between the New York Cosmos and Santos. Pelé played the first half for Santos (and scored), and played the second half for the Cosmos. (From Trevor Williams)
- Ukraine: ST Roman Zozulya, who now plays in the Spanish third tier, shared a photo of himself at age 9 wearing a full Dynamo Kyiv training kit. The late ’90s kit is evidently “very rare,” according to essential Ukrainian soccer news source @ZoryaLondonsk.
Grab Bag
- Lots of focus on Romanian pizza chain Jerry’s Pizza after misogynist social media influencer/human trafficker Andrew Tate accidentally revealed his location to Romanian authorities by sharing a video of himself with a Jerry’s Pizza box on Twitter after being absolutely owned by a teenager. But what @weirdsportsmerch noticed is that Jerry’s Pizza seems to have a 25th anniversary logo! It’s rather nice, too.
Comments (29)
The Texans should leave their uniforms alone.
I would guess that the Simms shots are probably a post-draft promotional thing. Kind of like when link that, to my knowledge, he never wore on the field.
That’s Ken O’Brien posing with a #16 jersey. (Keep forgetting that this new format doesn’t show link text…)
O’Brien’s a little bit of a different case, he didn’t play as a rookie in 1983 (inactive, so not listed on the roster per Pro Football Reference, unfortunately), but I believe actually wore 16 on the sidelines/when suited up that year, changing to 7 prior to the start of the ’84 season.
think the Texans need to do something they just feel very Patriots Lite to me.
I’ve always felt they looked too much like the Patriots, too, particularly the Brady-era set. Which is weird considering that the Patriots Brady-era set was only two years old when the Texans entered the league.
I love the Texans’ logo, so I hope that doesn’t change.
Houston Texans. Keep the logo. Red helmets over navy jerseys would be a good switch-up and look good as part of new look.
It’s awesome that Tate was owned by a commie, I guess.
and this is sarcasm, right?
I wouldn’t mind seeing Houston make changes. I have no investment in them. The navy they use comes off very drab to my eyes. Especially with they go mono. The striping pattern on the pants exacerbates that for me. Wishful thinking that they’d embrace a Love Ya Blue influence.
I think the Lions had it right 70s-90s.
It’s often presumed that we tend to prefer the aesthetic from our youth; and I don’t argue that. I do wonder whether as sports uniforms evolve if there’s a “sweet spot” era where the aesthetic is truly mastered. Once we deviate from that is when the wheels begin to fall off.
I believe that the Titans kept the Oilers colors when they moved to Tennessee. They were the Tennessee Oilers in 1997 and 98. I just wish the Titans would go to a Columbia Blue dominant uniform.
I expect the Texans to keep their same color scheme as those are the colors of the Texas state flag. Just hoping no BFBS.
Agreed on the Lions. They had it right before they started tinkering around the edges with secondary logos and bfbs.
The entire division, Bears, Vikes, Pack, Lions, and even the creamsicle Bucs, at one time all had really sharp traditional uniforms.
The Bears and Packers haven’t changed all that much; only small details. But you’re spot-on about Detroit, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay.
Agreed!!!!!! That division is historic as for as uniforms go. I was divided when Nike moved the TV numbers to the Bears shoulder. But, seems to look really good.
I’m ok with the new Vikings getup. It’s grown on me. But let’s get the Lions BACK to looking like the Lions of days old. The helmet/pants stripes are too wide. And not enough white accents. I’m ok with the blue pants, just add a little white to the striping to make it pop.
Seconding this and said perfectly.
Get the Oilers name back somehow. Texans stinks. The Titans abandoned Houston, they shouldn’t get to hold that name hostage.
agreed…buy the name, give it back to Houston. Texans unis and logos have always bothered me.
Nothing wrong with the Texans name or uniform, they can relocate to San Antonio. But Houston needs the Oilers!
Except for solid blue pants that look like leotards.
Didn’t the Texans wrangle the name away from the Chiefs, ditto for the Titans who borrowed their name from the Jets? There’s no way…I hope…Tennessee ownership will relinquish their hold on their old branding(and they should throwback more often to their time as the Oilers).
I will miss the neo-classic Texans if they do go in another uniform direction…they must resist the silly calls for them to look like the baby blue/red team that left town decades ago.
Pelé actually scored his final goal for the Cosmos in the first half, then switched to Santos for the second half. It makes sense that he would play his final half with the pro side he started with back in 1956.
You are correct. I remember watching some of the game when I was a kid and thinking Pele played the first half with the Cosmos. I wondered if I was mis-remembering that game and I googled it. This link has video of the game highlights and he clearly scores the goal in a Cosmos uniform: link
In fairness to the person who submitted that, I did find another link (on the hitc.com website) that said he played for Santos in the first half, so that’s probably where he got his info.
Watch the Lions return to BFBS. Sigh.
I certainly hope not!
But they do need to ditch the mono-gray Color Rash uni, the white practice pants, and the ugly number font. And, preferably, the William Clay Ford, Sr. permamemorial on the jersey. Which means it’s once again time for me to go off on the Ford permamemorial rant.
Just because a person manages to own a team for decades before his death does not mean they’re automatically deserving of a permanent memorial on what is already limited space on a jersey. George Halas was one of the founders of the NFL. Lamar Hunt was the lead organizer of the AFL. The contributions of both men played huge roles in shaping the league as it is today. And as far as I know, both owners were generally beloved figures in their fan bases (correct me if I’m wrong). This cannot be said of Ford, who was increasingly reviled by the Lions fanbase as the decades of futility dragged on. At most, any permamemorial for Ford should be relegated to a decal on the back of the helmet, like Al Davis for the Raiders.
On the Phil Simms jersey question, I’m a big Giants fan & in high school when he was drafted. I’m pretty positive those were publicity photos taken very shortly after he was drafted, that is new head coach Ray Perkins next to him. In the preseason, I’m virtually 100% sure Simms was always wearing # 11 by then. Never heard why he had # 11 (or # 19 before) because I think in college (Morehead State) he wore a single digit ( #3?).
I’m afraid the Tate pizza-box story was too good to be true. It turned out to be the invention of a serial Twitter fabulist that journos passed along all too uncritically. Still, I hope Jerry’s gets a boost out of it!
Nothing wrong with Texans uni. In essence a football uni should be clean and simple unlike for example the Cardinals Jets and the shoehorn on the Vikings sleeve. They will surely mess this up with changes just like they have screwed up the play on the field.. Something is really wrong with ownership.
McNair should leave the Texans uniforms alone. It’s a very solid uniform and any change will be for the worse.
McNair’s dad tried to get the Oilers name before naming the team the Texans, but Bud Adams refused to let him have it.
Lions need to go back to the Barry Sanders era uniforms. End of story.
Phil Simms was issued #19 because #11 was taken. #11 got cut and Simms took the #
link