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Monday Morning Uni Watch

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Good morning! Hope everyone had a good weekend, as I did.

There was a funny moment in yesterday’s Giants/Vikings game, as Vikes kick returner Kene Nwangwu lost one of his shoes as he prepared to return a kickoff (see video above). How does that happen?

As you can see, the Vikings wore mono-purple for that game, and were justly punished with elimination. (The Ravens lost yesterday as well, so we will have a purple-free Super Bowl — phew.) But wide receiver Justin Jefferson engaged in some sock shenanigans, wearing black hose while everyone else wore purple:

(He did something similar last week, wearing white while everyone else wore purple.)

Meanwhile, the Bills went blue over blue:

They did not wear the “3” patch for Damar Hamlin, but they did maintain the blue-outlined “3” on the field:

The Bills won, which means they’ll have another home game next weekend against the Bengals, and they’ll undoubtedly wear blue/blue again for that game. Moreover, if Buffalo wins that game and Kansas City loses next week to the Jags (unlikely, but stranger things have happened), the Bills would host the AFC Championship Game, and they’d almost certainly wear blue/blue yet again. And in a worst-case scenario, if the Bills make it to the Super Bowl and end up facing either the Bucs or, especially, the Cowboys, there’s a good chance that the NFC team would choose to wear white jerseys, allowing the catastrophic spectacle of the Bills going blue/blue in the big game — ugh. That’s why I ranked Bills/Cowboys and Bills/Bucs as the worst possible scenarios in my recent Substack ranking of potential Super Bowl uniform matchups.

I don’t have it in my heart to actively root against the Bills, given all that they and their city have been through lately. But as uni-philes, our duty here is clear: We must root for the Eagles, 49ers, or Giants to triumph in the NFC. As long as one of those teams emerges as the conference champion, that will ensure that the Bills will wear white, rather than blue/blue, should they make it to the big game.

As for tonight: The Bucs will be wearing white at home against the Cowboys.

 
  
 

In Case You Missed It

I know some of you don’t check out the site on the weekends, but Phil had a really sensational post yesterday that you won’t want to miss. It’s about a comprehensive St. Louis Cardinals uni/logo database created by Oliver Kodner. Really outstanding stuff that I know everyone will enjoy — check it out here.

 

On a Serious Note

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day — the day when we honor history’s greatest American. I’ll be taking some time today to reflect upon how I can do a better job of living up to his ideals of universal justice achieved by peaceful means, and I hope you will too.

The NBA has long embraced MLK Day (there’s a good recap of notable performances on the holiday here), and they’re doing so again this year. Nine games are scheduled, mostly in the afternoon, and players will wear warm-up shirts that say, “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all.”

Unfortunately, the Wizards announced their MLK Day on a web page with history’s grossest headline. Unfuckingbelievable.

Comments (35)

    Presented by Amtrak?? My God, that’s awful. Of course, since the NBA is a teflon league, it will slide. If it was MLB, they’d get killed on Twitter for days. Anyway…
    Time for me to beat a dead horse: Brutal NFL uniforms. Minnesota deserved to lose just for wearing those hideous purple monos. Hope Philly loses because they refuse to wear kelly green. Go Giants. Keeping it classic old school.

    Except for the bunch of G-Men who who committed ‘hosiery criminality’ wearing all-white socks while the majority of the team wore brilliant red.

    The Giants are not on the best-dressed list. Their white throwbacks are wonderful but their regular whites are awful. Someone should tell them they’re a blue team, not a red team.

    I think the MLK Presented by Amtrak actually tops the “This Bud’s For Jackie” ads that sullied MLB green screens a couple years back. I didn’t think it was possible…

    link

    I wish it wasn’t possible, Phil. You’re right though, this is at least as bad and likely worse. Advertising has no place in tributes, as a number of British firms learned when Queen Elizabeth passed away and those companies were absolutely roasted for advertising during their tribute to her.

    For everyone who says, it’s just a small jersey patch.

    This, this is why we hate the proliferation of advertisements.

    Idiots.

    I wonder if he would have gone with “King” or the dreaded “King Jr” on the back of a jersey.

    There was a note the other day that the Giants discouraged their players from trading jerseys after the game if they win as they plan to where their white jerseys throughout the playoffs. Not sure if this is because they will be the road team vs specific intent, but in the unlikely case that they make the Super Bowl, I don’t think it can be dismissed that they may choose to wear white.

    That note, which I also saw, doesn’t make sense. Let’s say the Giants win in Philly next week, and let’s also say the Cowboys beat the Bucs tonight and then go on to beat the 49ers next Sunday. In that scenario, Dallas would host the NFC Championship Game, and they’d almost certainly stick to their usual protocol of wearing white at home, so the Giants would have to wear blue for that game.

    The same thing could happen if the Bucs win tonight and then go on to beat the 49ers, because Tampa often wears white at home.

    Clearly the Giants will wear blue if forced to as a road team, but I read that comment to mean that if they reach the Super Bowl they will choose to wear white. I can only hope they have such problems!

    If Jerry’s Boys win, the NFC is going to have such a beautiful divisional round.

    The AFC…not so much.

    Meh.

    NFC: Eagles (likely green/white) vs. Giants (awful road unis). Not so great. At least we won’t see the Iggles in BFBS. Would look better if Giants were home team.
    Cowboys v. 49ers? Yes, that will be the best looking matchup of the Post Season. Bucs v. 49ers? Not awful, but not great (assuming Bucs in white/pewter).

    AFC: KC vs. Jax? Not great, but not terrible. Jax in black/white/teal would be great, but I’d expect they’ll go black/white/white. If they stick with the white tights look it could be brutal. Buff (mono-blue below the waist) v. Cincy (white/black … white/white). Would love for the cats to go with their white tiger look (link), but that might require special dispensation (alt in playoff). That would look great. If only the Bills would just wear white pants with their blue jerseys — that’s a top 10 NFL look. The mono-blue? Not so much.

    In your opinion. I know I’m not alone in thinking that the Giants’ away unis are great and that the two matchups would make for aesthetically pleasing games.

    Yes, of course it’s my opinion. Just as it’s your opinion that the away unis look good. What do you like about them? I’ve laid out many times on here what I dislike; just curious why you think they’re great.

    Phil, since I agree with Jeremy generally on the Giants’ road unis (I prefer gray pants to the white ones, and black cleats in general), my own reasons have to do with the use of those uniforms back in their glory days of the 1950’s up to the mid-1960s. I get the whole Big Blue thing, but when they ditched the red, their unis got almost numbingly boring (at least in my own opinion). Ditching the NY for the word Giants when they moved to Jersey made that uni even worse. Visually, again for me, the red just works a lot better. It sets them apart in a way, what with the blue helmets and all. I don’t like the white pants or the white shoes, and the all-white socks are absolutely ugly. The gray pants are a lot more interesting. The other thing about the reds is that the Giants have won five titles in the past 66 years, and in three of those title games (including the 1956 game at Yankee Stadium), they wore the blue NY helmet/white with red trim jersey/gray pants/red and white socks/black cleats. As for the worst road uni, the Pats are certainly in competition for that one these days. Talk about a dreadful re-design after TB12’s departure. But that’s for another day.

    “I don’t have it in my heart to actively root against the Bills, given all that they and their city have been through lately…”
    Between the mono blue unis and the insufferable crowning of Josh Allen, plenty of reasons to be spared from seeing additional Bills games this season.

    I like many of the color rush unis, to be honest. Yes some are better than others and yes some are just not good, but for me the biggest problem is there’s no way to compliment them regarding the opponents’ unis. A mono color uni can be fine but when the opponent is in multiple colors it looks wonky and when the opponent wears mono color as well then the matchup looks too novelty. The buccs in all pewter, the jags in all teal, the saints in all white or all black, the rams original color rush in canary yellow, and the Seahawks in all lime are solid sets imo. If the lions unis weren’t such a terrible template (number font, sleeve treatment) their light greys would be great. The broncos in their orange rush/throwback and the pats in all blue. Their all look good if you ask me, but they just don’t vibe with what’s across the line of scrimmage from them.

    I’m reading this story at ESPN.com about the Cowboys, and included is a pic of the early Cowboys with the caption “The Dallas Cowboys tackle an unidentified opponent in the early 1960s.” It’s a little ways down in the article — can anyone sleuth out the unidentified team?

    link

    Interesting…even Getty can’t ID the team link

    If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say it’s the Steelers.

    Guess the game from the uniforms! Oh wait, that’s only on the weekends. Pittsburgh is a very educated guess since they hosted the Cowboys in week 6 of the 1962 season. By then, Pittsburgh had ditched the numbers on the helmets. Plus I see a cathedral in the background of that photo. The Steelers played at Forbes Field which was a neighbor to the Cathedral of Learning on the campus of Pitt.

    Agree with Phil, looks like Steelers, Northwestern stripes, and jersey and helmet look black and gold

    I don’t hate the Bills mono-blue. Maybe because its a brighter colour and they have a white helmet, its not as dreary as (say) Seattle’s or Chicago’s mono-blue, or the Bills previous mono-blue look

    The Vikings are a mystery to me. I don’t know how the look they had yesterday was so bad, while their colour rush (which is also mono purple) looks so good.

    link

    I agree regarding the Vikings. Something about it being only purple and yellow really makes it a nice look. Though I don’t hate what they wore yesterday, maybe for me it’s that I can tell it’s their regular uniform just mixy matchy, as opposed to being a purpose-built thing like the color rush that makes it less appealing. Of course when we use this guy with the awful black accessories as an example then we are definitely looking at an inferior overall look. I think color rush has been way better than I assumed at the start. I’d love to see the eagles in mono-kelly with a silver or white helmet. I want the niners to redeem themselves from their stupid black rush unis with a red one, and the raiders to redeem themselves from that awful white uni with a black one. The rams need to bring back the all yellow, and the chargers need to do an all electric-blue uni. The dolphins need a redo from orange to aqua. And the ravens need to be black for Pete’s sake.

    Uniformwise I wish for Niners versus Bengals in all white snow tiger attire (not possible, I know). Resultwise I would like to see the Giants beat the Bills once again. But probably it will be the Chiefs beating the Cowboys, wishing for the Chiefs in red and Cowboys in blue (totally unrealistic).

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