Uni Watch Tour ’24 Report: New Orleans!

Greetings from 30,000 feet! I’m writing this on the plane during my flight home from New Orleans, where we had a fun Uni Watch party last night. The big highlight for me was getting to meet Bob Andrews (shown above), the man who leads the league in Uni Watch membership cards. He brought all 21 of his cards with him (and he has two more in the pipeline):

Bob lives in Houston and has been slowed by a bad hip (he’s having hip-replacement surgery in two weeks) but still managed to get to New Orleans for our shindig. It was a genuine treat to meet him!

Here’s Bob talking to one of my best friends, Rob Walker, who lives in New Orleans but is originally from Houston, so the two of them had plenty to talk about:

Gordon Blau is one of the most gracious and supportive Uni Watch readers. I’d met him and his wife before (they used to live on Long Island before recently relocating to New Orleans), and they also brought their son, Kevin (and their daughter, Emily, but I didn’t get a good photo of her, unfortunately):

Austin Gillis has been reading Uni Watch since way back, and it was great to finally be able to shake his hand:

I don’t recall Nick’s last name, but I’ll never forget talking with him. A real Louisiana character, and I mean that in the best way:

Back in 2022, when the Bengals were getting ready to face the Rams in the Super Bowl, reader Joel Manuel sent in a story about a DIY Bengals helmet from his youth. He brought that helmet (and his membership card) to last night’s party:

Here are a few additional pics (sorry I can’t remember everybody’s name!):

Last but definitely not least: One reason I included New Orleans on the Tour ’24 itinerary is that the great Scott M.X. Turner lives there. Scott has been a key Uni Watch ally and collaborator since at least 2005. In addition to designing all 3,500-plus of our membership cards, he also designed the original Uni Watch logo (whose “hanging stirrup” icon remains part of this website today), along with hundreds of Naming Wrongs T-shirts, the Uni Watch T-shirts, the Stripe-Rite socks, and more. More importantly, he’s a great guy and a fiercely loyal friend, plus he served as my New Orleans chauffeur, treated me to dinner on Wednesday night, and took many of the photos shown in this post! It was so, so good to celebrate our long collaboration and friendship in person. I love you, Scott:

Incidentally, those are no ordinary stirrups that Scott was wearing. They were hand-knit for him by his wife, Rachell! Here’s a closer look:

How amazing is that?! Only on Uni Watch!

I’ve really enjoyed Uni Watch’s Tour ’24, but I’m looking forward to getting home, petting the kitties, hugging E, and sleeping in my own bed. My plane is about to start its descent, so I’m going to publish this and stow my laptop away. Hope you’ve enjoyed these party reports!

(Special thanks to Scott M.X. Turner and Rob Walker for making my quick visit to their town so much fun, and to everyone who came out to obsess over athletics aesthetics with us.)