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LA Rams Tease Possible Kenny Washington Number Retirement

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Good morning from snowy Brooklyn! I’m looking forward to going out and throwing snowballs at street signs later today.

Now then: The Rams last night posted a teaser video (shown above) that appears to indicate that they’ll be making some sort of announcement later today regarding former running back Kenny Washington, who was the first Black player to sign an NFL contract in the modern era.

When I first saw the teaser video, I thought maybe the Rams were planning to announce a yellow throwback jersey. But the jock tag shown in the video doesn’t look like something you’d see on a game jersey, or even on a retail jersey (no Nike logo, for example). Instead, it includes Washington’s signature:

That got me wondering if the Rams might be planning to retire Washington’s number. He wore No. 13 during his time with the Rams:

Retiring Washington’s number during Black History Month would be a nice gesture. But there are two things that make me wonder if I’m off-base in my speculation. First, the Rams already have a lot of retired numbers:

That doesn’t mean they can’t retire another one, of course. But given the large roster sizes and positional number restrictions, NFL teams are usually very choosy about number retirements.

Second, Washington isn’t the only Rams player who wore No. 13 with distinction. It was also worn by quarterback Kurt Warner, who was a Super Bowl MVP and a two-time league MVP with the Rams. Hmmmm.

Whatever the Rams have planned, we’ll presumably find out soon enough. Stay tuned.

 

 
  
 

Merch Reminder

In case you missed it: Teespring has just announced an upgrade to their software, the main result of which is that product listings that originally launched with an earlier version of their software will expire at the end of February unless they’re taken down and then relaunched. This affects about 95% of the T-shirt listings I’ve amassed over the past nine years.

The 17-step (!) relaunch process is cumbersome and time-consuming even for just one product. The prospect of doing it hundreds of times is out of the question. So I’ve decided to let most of our Teespring product listings go dark at the end of this month.

Here’s what this means for you:

  • If you want anything in the Uni Watch Teespring shop, I strongly suggest you order it now. A few newer items, like the 25th-anniversary products, will still be available after this month, but most of the listings will sunset at the end of February.
  • Everything in the Naming Wrongs shop will go dark at the end of the month. So if you want any of those shirts, the time is now.
  • Likewise, everything in the Uni Rock shop will also vanish at the end of the month, so it’s now or never.

My thanks, as always, for considering our products.

 

 

Can of the Day

Okay, so this isn’t actually an old can — it’s an old ad that shows an old can. There’s something amusing about the juxtaposition of the handsome, almost stately lettering and the term “aerosol bomb.” Love that big italic “kills” at the bottom, too. Tried to find a vintage example of the actual can, but no dice.

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Comments (8)

    The jock tag is courtesy of Ebbets Field Flannels (link) who make wonderful baseball jackets and football jerseys.

    Ah, interesting. Sometimes my disinterest in the retail jersey world works against me.

    So you’re saying they’re using Black History Month just to sell a new product? Ewww. Let’s hope at least the proceeds go to a good cause.

    Just checked the Ebbets Field site and there is no mentioning of a Washington number 13 jersey. They do sell other historic Rams durene replica jerseys but not (yet) a gold one with number 13.

    Maybe the Rams will not retire the number13 (mainly because of Warner also having worn it) but have some sort of ceremony commemorating Washington and his contributions while the person(s) doing that are wearing this jersey. But I would love to see the Rams break out a gold jersey with simple blue numbers every now and then. On the other hand: what about Warner being there, wearing this jersey and honouring Washington at the same time? A leauge first double retirement for the number 13?

    The fact that #13 wasn’t retired for Kurt Warner while they were still in St. Louis is baffling to me.

    Since they are showing a jersey being sown in the video I believe they are primarily bringing back the yellow throwback uniforms. But they could also possibly retire #13 for Kenny Washington

    It is entirely possible the Rams will be introducing a new uniform (alternate). They were supposed to introduce a new alt in 2022, and then that got bumped to 2023, and that got bumped again. So maybe they’ll have something new for the fall.

    But I don’t think that’s what this teaser was about. I think (hope?) it’s to retire #13 for Washington.

    As far as the now twice delayed alternate, I believe (hope?) it will be a sol (yellow) jersey AND a set of white pants, but in the current modern style. This would be a harkback to the gold/white jersey & pants (link) they wore from 1951-1957 (link). That was the uni they threw back to in 1994 (link).

    I’ve always loved the gold (well, yellow now) over white look for the Rams, so I hope this will be the now twice delayed alternate.

    I really do hope they retire #13 for Kenny Washington seeing how little recognition he got for being the first integrated modern black NFL player and getting overshadowed by Jackie Robinson a year later.

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