Today in the Ticker: Part of the soccer world goes nuts at the Spanish federation, some early-season NFL and college football items, and more.
Uni Watch News Ticker for August 28, 2023
Posted in:
Baseball
MLB
- The Dodgers are holding Salvadorean Heritage Night this week, including a jersey giveaway. (Thanks, Phil)
- Outfielders increasingly have little cards telling them where to stand for each batter. The writer of this article noticed Atlanta CF Michael Harris II keeping his card in his glove last week and, Uni Watch-style, went back through pictures and videos to figure out how long he’d been doing that. The answer appears to be since the beginning of this season. (From K.C. Kless)
- The New York Times ran a piece on batting gloves on Saturday. (From Tom Turner)
- In MLB.com’s Phillies newsletter, C Garrett Stubbs talked about why his nickname on his glove is “Day Games.” (From Kurt Esposito)
Minors
- The Triple-A Worcester Red Sox became the “Wicked Worms” recently. (Thanks, Phil)
Football
NFL
- On Saturday, the Broncos wore white at home for the first time, preseason or not, since 2003. That’s not counting Super Bowl 50, where they wore white as the home team-designate. (From Kary Klismet)
- Lions QB Teddy Bridgewater switched to No. 17 from No. 50 on Friday. I’m sure some of you are disappointed. (Thanks, Phil)
- Raiders RB Josh Jacobs also has a new number. (Thanks, Phil)
- This week’s group of uniform rankings includes 10 NFL teams who the writer thinks needs new uniforms. (Thanks, Phil)
- The Panthers debuted their new shade of blue jerseys this weekend. (Thanks, Phil)
College
- Michigan WR Roman Wilson got the No. 1 jersey for this season, which isn’t an award as such but the article asserts that it’s often given to the team’s best receiver. I’m skeptical of those sorts of claims about numbers — they’re never true 100% of the time unless there’s a rule as to who can wear it. (Thanks, Phil)
- Meanwhile, LSU’s No. 7 jersey actually is an award, meant to go to the team’s best player from Louisiana, and this year it was given to OT Will Campbell. However, he’s going to wear it as a patch instead of wearing the number. (Thanks, Phil)
- Some Alabama players have new numbers. (Thanks, Phil)
- San Diego State has a robot that paints some of its field controlled by a person with an iPad. (From Stephen Lucas)
- Applachian State is retiring No. 14 for Armanti Edwards Nov. 25. Edwards was a quarterback in college — including for the 2007 win against Michigan — but a wide receiver in the NFL, CFL, and 2020 XFL. (Thanks, Phil)
- Southern California will add a No. 12 memorial helmet decal for RB Charles White. (Thanks, Phil)
- Here’s one writer’s list of the 10 worst college uniforms ever. (Thanks, Phil)
Soccer
USA
- The NWSL’s Angel City’s captain Ali Riley posted a picture on Instagram of a double-width “One Love” armband for her on Thursday, saying “Now that’s what I call an armband, FIFA.” Of course, there weren’t any Pride armbands at the women’s World Cup. So Riley, who also captains New Zealand, painted her nails in the colors of the rainbow flag and the trans Pride flag and they were clearly visible on TV after New Zealand’s first match. I’m not sure if she wore the armband yesterday, though.
- Every NWSL team wore wristbands saying “Contigo Jenni” (“with you Jenni”) this weekend. Pachuca midfielder Jenni Hermoso was forcibly kissed by Royal Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales following the World Cup final last week, which already sparked a scandal before it blew up after he refused to resign on Friday. That was the trigger for female players — and an unacceptably small number of male players, including Spanish striker Borja Iglesias and some others below — to further amplify their support of Hermoso and other Spanish players.
International
- Germany: SC Freiburg fans brought two banners supporting Hermoso to their men’s Bundesliga game on Saturday, also throwing in a shot at Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, a former CEO and current board member for Bayern Munich who defended Rubiales last week. One said “Power relationships play out; women win the World Cup, toxic masculinity on everyone’s lips.” The other said “Fist instead of a kiss for Rubiales and Rummenigge — sorry, with all due respect, that’s absolutely okay.”
- Mexico: Tigres’s women’s team posed with a shirt with Hermoso’s NOB and No. 10 on Friday.
- Mexico: Hermoso’s club Pachuca and their opponents on Friday, FC Juárez, posed with a really big “Estamos contigo Jenni” (“we’re with you Jenni”) banner. (Hermoso was not in Pachuca’s matchday squad.)
- Spain: Instead, Hermoso was at former club Atlético Madrid’s game against AC Milan in the friendly tournament The Women’s Cup on Saturday. Atlético midfielder Leicy Santos scored the only goal and celebrated by holding up Hermoso’s Spain shirt. The shirt reappeared at their trophy celebration afterward.
- Spain: Sevilla’s men’s team walked out wearing shirts saying “Se acabó” (“it’s over”) on Saturday, probably directed at Rubiales. The goalscorer from the women’s World Cup final, Olga Carmona, was at the game.
- Spain: Cádiz’s men’s team walked out with a banner saying “Todos somos Jenni” (“we are all Jenni”) on Saturday.
- Sweden: Players on BK Häcken of the men’s Allsvenskan also wore wristbands yesterday like those in the NWSL.
- England: In non-Spain news, a matchup in the men’s seventh tier between Gainsborough Trinity and Guiseley on Friday was roughly purple vs. purple, or at least looked like that. (From Patrick Neligan)
- Scotland: Right on cue for today’s lede, two Scottish Women’s Premier League 1 matches yesterday saw both teams wear their second kits. Aberdeen and Heart of Midlothian went black vs. pink for some reason rather than Hearts wearing their white third kit, which makes me skeptical that the women’s team will get to wear it. Partick Thistle and Montrose saw Thistle do a promotion with the breast cancer charity CoppaFeel! using their partially-pink second kit.
Volleyball
- In this Twitter thread, people got to ask questions about Nebraska’s outdoor women’s doubleheader at football’s Memorial Stadium on Wednesday. The two matches are Division II Nebraska-Kearney and Wayne State, followed by Nebraska and Omaha. (From G.J. Marmet)
Grab Bag
- The fashion brand Buck Mason just bought a sewing factory and cloth mill (NYT link) in Pennsylvania in what sounds like an attempt to self-sufficiently make T-shirts. (From Tom Turner)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina’s military has new uniforms. (These four items are from Kary Klismet)
- Saint Joseph’s revealed a new hawk mascot on Friday that we’d mentioned was coming last week.
- Southern Illinois revealed a new academic logo, which is part of what seems to me to be a growing trend of sports identities being involved in schools’ non-sports logos.
- The University of San Francisco is considering dropping its “Dons” mascot because of its connection to Spanish colonialism.
Comments (24)
The list of 10 NFL unis that need changing is almost spot on. The only one I feel doesn’t belong is Carolina.
Absolutley. Defiantly a bias opinion. But for a newer team, they havent changed them much at all. theyre a classic and timeless style with bold colors of their own. Glad they fixed the blue and the shoulder stripes. But the uniforms just for for the team. I will take what we have over the jags and cardinals every day of the week
Concur. If a light-blue team should be on the list for uniforms desperately needing change, it’s the Lions, not the Panthers.
Agreed. They end up on so many of these lists and I don’t get it. They’d 100% be a team that, if they ever did redesign, people would miss their outgoing set and realize it was taken for granted within minutes of the announcement.
For Carolina I would simply the remove the shoulder stripes. Rest of it is fine.
I actually also don’t think the Jags belong. I like their current set. Very simple and clean. Actually would be fun if the Jags keep the current set, but then introduce a throwback original version from the 90s since it was such an absurd jersey.
That’s been the problem with all of these throwbacks, they’re almost universally better than the current set. Seattle & Philly being the most glaring examples. You want it the other way around. The throwback should be the fun, crazy uniform that looks silly but that’s okay because that’s kind of the point.
The last Lions QB to wear 17 was Dave Krieg, back in 1994, when he was brought in to back up Scott Mitchell (incidentally the last Detroit QB to wear 19 to date), and ended up playing the back half of the season and the playoff loss in Green Bay. Krieg ended up signing with Arizona for 1995, and didn’t do as well as he had in Detroit, while Mitchell was decent enough but not really great.
1994 was a funny year for the Lions, as they had to replace their entire QB corps from 1993. Rodney Peete went to Dallas to back up Troy Aikman for a year before reviving his career in Philadelphia; Erik Kramer went on to Chicago where he worked his way up to their starter, and Andre Ware never played another NFL down again, ending up in the CFL in 1995.
The #1 at Michigan is, I believe, an homage to Anthony Carter, is it not? (I mean, still a traditional thing – different schools have different numbers that historically go to achievers or internal award winners or what have you – but I think Michigan’s originated as a nod to AC.)
The #1 uniform at Michigan is indeed a tribute to Anthony Carter. Others to have worn the jersey include Greg McMurtry, Derrick Alexander, David Terrell, and Braylon Edwards.
Does anyone know who got cut/waived from the Lions that allowed Teddy Bridgewater to change to no. 17? Or was it always available and he just chose no. 50 and the team allowed it for one game because it’s fun/preseason.
Not a Lions fan, so I only did quick research. Couldn’t find any player listed as 17 during this preseason. My guess – he just chose to switch.
Two things regarding Philadelphia colleges.
St. Joseph’s seems to be wanting to call themselves “The Crimson Hawks.” It is on sideline merchandise and the TV commentators for a couple of their Olympic sports have been using the moniker.
Temple has added a small owl head to a shield logo with the split “T” that has been used for decades.
*But the uniforms just WORK for for the team
the Broncos wore white at home for the first time, preseason or not, since 2003. That’s not counting Super Bowl 50, where they wore white as the home team-designate.
That Super Bowl would have looked SO much better if the Broncos weren’t such superstitious cowards. If you’re afraid to wear your orange jersey, why even have it?
Just go back to your original brown and yellow.
I never liked the look of the post-’96 orange tops…they certainly weren’t born out of necessity, as the navy worked just fine – even though the overall uniform design then required 2 sets of white pants (the blue pants should never have been an option).
Brown-and-yellow Broncos? I support that impossibility.
Think it was cowherd who said that he thought Peyton Manning preferred orange jerseys once he got to the Broncos because he was an older QB and could spot his receivers quicker and easier… don’t know if that’s true, or the rules on who was picking colors then or now for Super Bowls
Re: the college Top 10 – a few thoughts:
1. FAMU in green and orange should never change and they make it look good.
2. Wake Forest has used a Times New Roman monogram for decades; had the writer done his research, he would have known that.
3. No Worst 10 list of college football uniforms is complete without BYU’s jerseys that were white on the front and navy in the back, which had to be a violation of the rules and caused confusion on the field.
Only thing wrong with the Wyoming set mentioned was the yellow ‘love handles’.
OK, those make it not good, but not the 1 of the worst ever.
The outfielders carrying a little card to tell them where to stand piece..go back and watch a game from the 70s and 80s. The outfielders didn’t have cards. They had all of that memorized. Peo
but analytics also means there’s lot more information available to them to know
This was a good roundup of the worldwide support for Hermoso. Thank you for sharing Jamie.
Hopeful Uni-Watch T-shirt in 15 years: “I Still Call Them the Dons.”
LOL.. but I read the attached article and it made sense, one of the few times I’m in favor of a name change for a mascot…But they gotta listen to their community…
look at the mess Washington is in right now doesn’t matter what they changed their name to or if they never change again they may never be able to make all their fan base happy
Just wondering do most on this page believe uniforms need to be changed just to change? There are unis I hope never go away and some i wish I had never seen.
In that Gainsborough Trinity vs Guiseley game footage, there appears to be some discolouration – Trinity’s home kit is definitely blue in person. Guiseley’s primary kit includes white shirts, though, so we should have probably seen a mis-matched mash-up of their white home shirts with their purple away shorts and socks for this game.