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Monday Morning Uni Watch

Screen shot by @Pandorasdad; click to enlarge

Now that the A’s season is over, the Raiders finally went with the gold 50 yard line markers yesterday. And as you can see above, the gold numerals — like the Raiders’ conventional white yard markers — had black outlining. Much better, I’d say, than the non-outlined numerals being used by most other NFL teams.

And that wasn’t the only field alteration made yesterday by the Raiders. They also added the old AFL logo to their end zones. I like.

In other notes from around the league yesterday:

• The Ravens wore mono-black. As you can see in that shot, the Browns wore one of their less objectionable combos (it helps when they actually bother to wear socks that contrast with the pants), although the pants are still a joke and the jersey stripes also remain problematic.

• Teams wearing white at home included the Titans, Bucs, and, of course, the Cowboys.

• As you can see from that Cowboys photo, the Patriots wore navy on the road. They’ve now worn navy for all five of their games this season. That streak will presumably end next weekend, when they’re slated to play in Indianapolis.

• The Giants/Niners game had barely started when someone on the Niners — I think it was running back Carlos Hyde — sustained some major helmet stripe damage.

• If anyone is going to have cleats with silver soles, it should be a member of the Raiders.

• This is odd: A bag on the Chiefs’ sideline carried the franchise’s old Dallas Texans logo.

• But what really knocked me out was the cheap pink sunglasses.

• How bad has Pinktober gotten? So bad that even the Eagles’ end zone logos were trimmed in pink.

• Pinktober also infected some of the footwear on NFL Countdown.

• Hmmm, do sideline personnel always have their names on their vests?

(My thanks to all contributors, including Willie Gabel, Scott Mason, Eric Wright, and of course Phil.)

• • • • •

Decipher this: I had breakfast at a diner yesterday and, as you can see above, was presented with the best, most endearingly illegible check ever. I’ll give a complimentary Uni Watch membership card to whoever can correctly decipher the most of it (please post your decipherings in today’s comments, not on Twitter or in an email). Here’s a hint: Some the items listed are shown in this photo. Another hint: The meal was consumed in northern New Jersey, which should help you identify the meat in that photo.

• • • • •

Design an ambulance

New design contest: In case you missed it over the weekend, Phil announced a new design contest to repaint an old ambulance and tranform it into a Detroit Lions tailgating vehicle. It’s a great challenge, and there will be prizes for the winners. Get the full story here.

• • • • •

The Ticker
By Paul

Baseball News: You’ve heard of addition by subtraction? Here’s a case of subtraction by addition: A little birdie informs me that all MLB teams will start wearing the silhouetted-batter logo on their rear belt tunnel next season. The logo will appear in the same team-specific color scheme used for the logos on each team’s jerseys and caps (i.e., the A’s version will be green/gold, the Mets’ version will be blue/orange, etc). Aside from being a classic case of logo creep, this move will have tailoring implications for at least one team: the Tigers, who’ll have to replace their rear belt loops with a tunnel in order to accommodate the logo. ”¦ Currently up for auction: one of Brooks Robinson’s old stubby-brim batting helmets (from Charlie Charnigo). ”¦ A fan at yesterday’s Royals/Astros game apparently had a case of divided loyalties. ”¦ Not uni-related but interesting: With Mets SS Ruben Tejada knocked out of the postseason with a broken leg sustained during Game 2 of the NLDS, the Mets have replaced him on the roster with prospect Matt Reynolds, who’s never appeared in an MLB game. If he appears in one of the subsequent NLDS games (or in the NLCS or World Series, should the Mets make it that far), he’d become the second player in history to make his MLB debut in a postseason game. The first, according to Elias, was Mark Kiger of the 2006 A’s. ”¦ For reasons that aren’t clear to me, the Cubs had breakfast yesterday on the field at Wrigley, which led to the odd sight of Kris Bryant at the omelet station behind home plate (from Dave Flapan). ”¦ Buried within this article about California public schools no longer being able to use “Redskins” as a team name is the following: “[Gov. Jerry Brown also signed into law a new measure that will] ban professional baseball players from using chewing tobacco on the playing field of major league stadiums [in California].” ”¦ New G.I. Joke uniforms for Duke.

College and High School Football News: Crazy helmets for Deerfield Beach High School in Flordia (from Jason Johnson). ”¦ Mount Union went GFGS on Saturday (from Tom Pachuta). ”¦ Inconsistent NOB fonts for Louisiana Tech. ”¦ McNeese State has been wearing SNOB. ”¦ As most of you know, many college rosters are so big that there are often multiple players wearing the same uni number. It’s kosher as long as they don’t line up on the same side of the ball, but it sometimes presents problems for special teams, where same-numbered players may end up on the field at the same time. If that happens, one player has to don a temporary jersey with a different number. Here’s video of a Kansas State player shedding his tearaway temporary jersey after a special teams play.

Hockey News: Several readers noted that the NWHL, whose inaugural season began yesterday, is going with subscript NOBs. That’s a fairly common move for women’s leagues, because of the longer hair. ”¦ “Always fun to see the French language on the ice for NHL games,” says Dustin Semore. “Don’t see it often from Ottawa, but they have ‘Mise Au Jeu 2015,’ instead of ‘Face-Off 2015.'” It appears in English on the other end of the ice.

NBA News: New socks for the Thunder (from Meredith Wills). ”¦ The Wizards played an exhibition game last night against the Brazilian team Paschoalotto Bauru, whose uniforms appear to have been a heavy influence on the Hawks’ new design (good observation by @cdublin).

Grab Bag: Here are all 40 EPL home/road kits ranked, from worst to first (from @YanksUnited). … Pretty cool piece on how the costume for the new Supergirl TV show was designed. ”¦ New name, logo, and livery upcoming next month for Malaysia Airlines. ”¦ Faaaascinating infographic on the physical evolution of the modern rugby player. ”¦ Pinktober volleyball uniforms for Phil’s alma mater, Garden City High School on Long Island.

• • • • •

Photo by Mary Bakija; click to enlarge

What Paul did last night over the weekend: The photo shown above was taken at Ramapo Valley County Reservation in northern New Jersey, where I spent most of Saturday afternoon hiking. Hadn’t been there before but really enjoyed the trails — a good mix of rocky and hilly, with lots of lakes, rivers, and cascades along the way. I’ll be back.

The hike was part of an amazing weekend road trip that also included lots of yard sales, a North Jersey beefsteak, watching Saturday night’s Mets/Dodgers game at an American Legion hall, some nice stops in Harriman State Park, a stop at New Jersey’s (and, hence, the world’s) best deep-fried hot dog emporium, and some very, very good company. If I could draw up two perfect autumn days, this is pretty much what they’d look like. Thanks, TBC — you’re the best.

As good as my weekend was, tonight may end up being even better. Which leads us to”¦

• • • • •

Play ball! Tonight the Mets will host their first postseason game in nine years, and I’m lucky enough to have a ticket. Even better, I’ll be joined by three of my favorite Mets fans: Mets Police honcho Shannon Shark, Mets by the Numbers impresario Jon Springer, and our own L.I. Phil Hecken. Can’t think of three better guys to share the game with — should be a great time. Let’s go Mets!

As an aside, remember my recent experiment with putting capers on a hot dog? I liked that so much that I plan to bring some capers to the ballpark. Full report to follow.

 
  
 
Categories
NFL
Comments (105)

    Great vacation (mini-vacation anyway) pics!

    That guest check is priceless, but lemme give it a shot:

    2 Eggs over easy
    Silver Dollar Pancakes (not sure if full or short stack)
    Pie
    Canadian Bacon (aka Taylor Ham)
    OJ
    Rye Toast (with Jelly/Jam/Marmalade)
    Coffee
    Something something something…

    Lookin’ Forward to the Mets game tonight…

    Hey, as long as you got what you ordered and the price was right, it doesn’t matter how they communicate in a diner!

    Agreed. But this check actually *enhanced* the experience! We were cracking up over it. A nice capper that made a good meal even better.

    Agreed.

    Was the server writing it as you ordered?
    I am always amazed when someone can take our order (particularly at breakfast) without writing it down, and still get it perfect!

    The Cubs had breakfast on the field because they were watching the Bears game on the new screen in Left Field.

    Ottawa always has French and English on everything, Ottawa is bi-lingual. the team’s official name is also bi-lingual; The Ottawa Senators and Les Sénateurs d’Ottawa.

    They also paint the name of their arena bilingually at center ice. As in “Centre Canadian Tire/Canadian Tire Centre”

    link

    Not sure what most of that receipt says but I’m sure the Lottoy Hay was delicious, and a pretty good deal at $3.45.

    I am really starting to like the Bucs white jersey paired with their white pants. The pewter shoulders and socks provide a nice contrast.

    Sorry, as long as the have the number font as they do, and that dumb “BUCS” word mark on the sleeves… they are going to be a no go, as far as I’m concerned.

    Ugly.

    Lee

    “For reasons that aren’t clear to me, the Cubs had breakfast yesterday on the field at Wrigley, which led to the odd sight of Kris Bryant at the omelet station behind home plate”

    The Cubs had breakfast on the field as another of Joe Maddon’s “hey, look at me” stunts.

    Well, that’s certainly the cynical way to view it.

    Or he did it because he is a master at team/camaraderie building and knows activities like this can pay dividends amid the stress of the playoffs.

    Hmm, not sure if my original post got lost in the interwebs but here’s my best guess:
    2 chocolate milks???????? (no idea)
    2 eggs over easy w/ Taylor Ham & rye toast
    Silver Dollar pancakes w/ Taylor Ham
    Large OJ
    Coffee
    Pie

    Ding-ding-ding — we have a winner!

    Marty, email me (plukas64 at gmail) regarding the details of what you want your membership card to look like. Congrats!

    Proofreading: “(it helps when they actually both to wear socks that contrast with the pants)” – “both” should be “bother”.

    So is the “Toxteth” a heapin’ helpin’ of the “World’s stickiest bogey” or the “stupidest bottom burp?”

    Always enjoy pictures of Oakland Alameda County Coliseum.

    The old AFL logo was interesting but I got a kick out of the guy who showed up early in his Howie Long jersey.

    Wouldn’t be a Monday at Uni-Watch without…

    ” although the pants are still a joke and the jersey stripes also remain problematic.”

    I know the dead horse you enjoy continually beating re the pants, but what is “problematic” with the jersey stripes? That they extend too far? Is that problematic? Or just not in alignment with your tastes? Just curious.

    Yes, they extend too far toward the chest. Turn them vertical (or at least diagonal) and they’d be the right length for shoulder stripes. As sleeve stripes, they’re awful.

    After years of teams being forced to choose between shoulder stripes and sleeve stripes, the Browns have introduced a new option: clavicle stripes.

    Rich,

    I thought you gave up on the Browns (or at least the defense of their unis). Nice win over the Ravens yesterday, tho.

    And the colorscheme yesterday was MUCH better (due to the contrasting socks), but the pants are beyond repair. If the ONLY problem with the uni were the shoulder stripes, we (or at least I) could give them a pass. But they just add to the entire clusterfuckery of the whole mess.

    VERY quick and dirty — the Browns sleeve stripes would look better if they were just on the shoulder cap (see left sleeve) instead of stretching around the front to the chest. (Click to enlarge):

    Browns sleeve stripes

    then that just means that the stripes look like the previous iteration.. which they wanted to avoid

    also if the front and back of stripe went the same distance around.. then maybe it might look slightly better

    Since the jerseys no longer have sleeves, teams try to make it look like they do and it just looks like a bad compromise. The Cleveland stripes looks worse if they were just on the shoulder cap because they’d look the same as other teams. It’s more prominent and it stands out better than teams with their mini-stripes. Some teams like Seattle win, get on TV a lot and their design gets accepted (or ignored). The Bucs get ridiculed, as they should. The Jags are growing on me (except for those helmets – a big swing and miss).

    “then that just means that the stripes look like the previous iteration.. which they wanted to avoid”

    ~~~

    Well, actually, their previous iteration had a different striping pattern, but point taken. Nevertheless, looking different (or avoiding a design that isn’t great, but looks better than what they got) isn’t necessarily a good thing. In fact, they made it worse. Maybe sleeve cap striping just doesn’t work for the Browns (or any teams, it seems) due to, ya know, the lack of actual sleeves…but in their desire to “avoid” looking like their past, they’ve failed here.

    I gave you a possible solution, which you dismissed, but surely you can’t like what they have instead better, can you? I mean, seriously, that looks like shit. Perhaps they could have gone with UCLA stripes if they wanted to change things up, or gone with a yoke (which might have worked).

    Biggest problem is still the pants, but the jerseys need adjustments too.

    i feel like this is my fault since i said something week 1 about it being mentioned during the preseason.. my bad

    Hard to tell but Giants endzone script outlined in pink. ( but not the NY logo?) Giants and Eagles have been using pink in the endzone for a few years now.

    Ladies and gents, meet TBC (short for Tugboat Captain), the orderer of the pie slice in question, and weekend companion extraordinaire.

    Why not pie, indeed.

    I’ve been known to eat yesterday’s leftover dinner (and/or dessert) for breakfast, and I frequently order from the breakfast menu if I’m at a diner in the afternoon. I can’t be bothered with “Oh, that’s just a breakfast (or dinner) food.”

    One of my goals is to get my mother to try oatmeal at dinner time. I use it to make a kind of stew, or I’ll make a side dish of it instead of potatoes (it absorbs the flavor of whatever you”re cooking), but so far she’s dead set against even tasting it. To her you only make it in a bowl with milk and a little cinnamon, and always in the morning. She doesn’t know what she’s missing.

    I have never heard of Taylor ham. I would have guessed Toy ham, since it was in little slices.

    As you can see in that shot, the Browns wore one of their less objectionable combos (it helps when they actually bother to wear socks that contrast with the pants), although the pants are still a joke and the jersey stripes also remain problematic.

    I don’t really see the problem with the Browns’ sleeve stripes. Football jerseys don’t really have sleeves anymore, so extending the stripes onto the front of the jersey seems like a logical step. Striped compression sleeves like we’ve seen a few college teams use would be better, but then you have the problem of some players not wearing them.

    I agree. The pants wordmark stinks, and I would prefer ( as a diehard fan) the Cleveland on the jersey to be shrunken a few font sizes, but it’s not as terrible and Uni Watch believes.

    The Cleveland Browns current uniforms are butt-ugly, and exacerbated by the fact that their previous set (sans the plain brown pants) were among the best.

    They used to be a shitty team with nice uniforms. Now they are a shitty team with shitty uniforms.

    Lee

    Looks like a great weekend, Paul – Harriman is one of my favorite places to take the Scout troop (although I hope you did a thorough tick-check afterwards).

    Wow! My screen shot as the lead!I was hoping to get it into the ticker and then, boom! :) Thanks Paul! And can I add, as a life long San Francisco Giants fan, GO METS!

    Here are all 40 EPL home/road kits ranked, from worst to first

    That’s a pretty lame photo gallery, since they don’t even bother to explain why kits are rated where they are.

    It does lead to link, though, which is much cooler; modern shirts with the teams’ old (and even link) sponsors. For those of us who have been watching the game a while, it’s a strange sense of nostalgia.

    AdWeek published a story about ‘How Will the Fantasy Football Fiasco Affect NFL Teams’ Sponsorship Deals?’ The graphic they used of the NFL helmets has a ton of outdated designs on it as well as duplicates of the Patriots and Buccaneers. Interesting article, just incorrect graphic of the helmets. The article says it’s in today’s print edition; I am curious as to if they used the same graphic in print too.

    link

    Regarding college players changing jerseys due to number conflicts, wouldn’t it be easier to just make two large patches with the new number rather than changing into a whole new jersey? I’m picturing something along the lines of a marathoner’s bib, but with velcro attaching it to the jersey.

    just make one player change his number to something that is not assigned to another player on that both sides of the ball

    Soon enough they’ll develop jerseys with digital numbers (electronic, not of the Bucs’ variety), so this won’t be a problem for long. Oh for the love of God, can you imagine the uni-disasters that would create?

    Its a very hard toss-up as to whats the worst aspect of the Browns Nike Mess, but i can almost believe that if they just got rid of “Browns” on the pants, and fixed the Shoulder Stripes, it wouldnt look half as bad.

    Phil at the top got most of it right, but he neglected one detail:

    2 Eggs over easy
    Silver Dollar Pancakes (not sure if full or short stack)
    Pie
    Canadian Bacon (aka Taylor Ham)

    LARGE OJ
    Rye Toast (with Jelly/Jam/Marmalade)
    Coffee

    Hey Phil…
    Canadian bacon is NOT aka Taylor Ham, or even plain pork roll.
    They are completely different.
    This is Jersey pride, north Jersey specifically, regarding our state product.

    might be your state’s pride. But it’s my home nation’s name on it, and we don’t eat that stuff.

    Unless there was some sort of special occasion to commemorate the old AFL, the Raiders shouldn’t be using that logo on their field.

    2 eggs over easy
    W/ Hash browns
    Rye toast with jelly & butter
    6 toy/silver dollar pancakes
    Side of Hot ham
    Large Orange Juice
    Side of Breakfast potato
    Slice of pie

    McNeese State has done SNOB for I don’t know how long. When I was going to school at Sam Houston State, they were doing that. I think on their away shirts they have “Cowboys” on the back. Gotta love 1-AA football and the greatness that is the Southland Conference.

    Maybe it’s the NY/NJ effect, but that seems like a really expensive diner. I can’t say I’ve spent much more than $15 for a two-person breakfast, and I’m not exactly a light eater!

    Why wouldn’t you want the black outline around the 50 yard line markers? I think the gold by itself is hard to make out, but the black makes it much more legible?

    I absolutely agree with Paul that the black outline around the gold 50 looks much better than the fields that don’t have an outline. I’ve noticed that the Dallas Cowboys field has an outline around the number, too, and it really looks a lot sharper. The gold numbers without an outline tend to fade into the green grass without enough contrast, and just look muddy and faded.

    I find the restaurant check itself fascinating. It’s ubiquitous. Does NationalChecking.com even have a competitor?

    link

    In the Midwest, if a convenience store doesn’t have a branded cup, this seems to be the default

    link

    Not really uni related but I was qatching the Raiders starting offense and they sure have a lot of people with double letters in their jersey

    Carr – qb
    Murray – rb
    Reece – fb
    Cooper – wr
    Crabtree – wr
    Penn – lt
    Webb – rg

    And also, the starting TE is Lee smith. Too bad he has smith on hisr jersey instead of Lee

    Apologies if this has been addressed recently; this is my first time on the site in forever. Anyway, ESPN’s website has a special on the 35th anniversary of Herschel Walker, then a freshman at Georgia, running over Bill Bates in the Tennessee game. Walker was wearing a plain white jersey with no stripes and NNOB. I remember seeing him in a plain red jersey that year too. And in the signature play from Georgia’s season that year, when WR Lindsay Scott is running away from the Florida secondary, he is also doing so in a plain white jersey (but Walker is wearing a regulation jersey by this point). Anyone know why UGA had players wearing what looked like practice jerseys during games?

    As replacements for original jerseys (with striping and NOB) that were torn during play, perhaps?

    I live in the midwest, and have never seen Talyor Ham – can anyone with overlap experience provide some insight to the similarities/differences between Taylor Ham and Spam?

    I see……

    2/ ov ez 6.75
    w/ Taylor Ham
    w/ Rye Toast
    Silver Dollar 7.75
    w/Taylor Ham
    1-OJ 3.45
    Coffee 1.45
    Pie 4.25
    23.65
    1.68
    25.23

    Notice the math error should be $25.33. Looks like you saved a dime!Top line is a total guess.

    “2 CLLL Allie Le”????

    Canadian bacon is not Taylor ham – or as it is properly called south of I-195, pork roll. God’s favorite breakfast meat. Or lunch meat. Mmmmm…

    I dislike the Mets blue tops also. The script LA roads are my favorite but the Dodgers do not wear them much anymore.

    I actually like the blue alts…but there is a time and a place…game 3 of the NLDS ain’t it. That calls for the traditional pinstripes. Wonder if radio guy Howie Rose made any derogatory comments.

    Not sure if the guessing game is still at play, but here’s my shot:

    – 2 eggs, over easy with Rye toast and Taylor ham;
    – An order of silver dollar pancakes with Taylor ham;
    – 1 large orange juice;
    – 1 coffee; and
    – 1 piece of pie (since it’s October, I’d guess pumpkin)

    Not sure if the contest is still open, but here’s my shot:

    – 2 eggs, over easy, with rye toast and Taylor ham;
    – 1 order of silver dollar pancakes with Taylor ham;
    – 1 large orange juice;
    – 1 coffee; and
    – 1 piece of pie (since it’s October, I’m guessing pumpkin)

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