Archive for November, 2007
Back when I invited people to apply for the Uni Watch intern’s position, one of the finalists was David Sonny. Although he didn’t make the final cut, he had already set up an interview with Bengals equipment manager Rob Recker, which I encouraged him to go ahead with. He readily agreed. Here’s how their chat went down:
David Sonny: How did you get to the position of Cincinnati Bengals equipment manager?
Rob Recker: Well, I actually started off as a trainer for OSU. While there I began to intern with the Browns, but I left for the assistant trainer job with the Bengals in 1991 and continued in that role until 2000.”
DS: And then you made the jump to equipment manager?
RR: Well up until then Tom Gray was the equipment manager and I was a guy who would help anyone out that I could. So basically in 1999 you could have called me the assistant equipment manager. After 1999, Tom Gray retired and Mike Brown offered me the promotion from assistant trainer to equipment manager.
DS: And so you took the job.
RR: Well yeah, when the boss tells you he’d like to move you from one area to another, promote you, and make you the head of a department, you don’t say no. Let me just say this, Mike Brown is a very intelligent man. He sees a lot… he sees everything. He really made it nice here.
DS: Nice? How do you mean?
RR: Well, I took over the first year we moved into Paul Brown Stadium, and at that time many people had very negative views of the franchise, which often happens when you lose. Mike Brown changed all that. There was a time when you would hear players complain about not getting a lot from the team, like clothes, shoes, gloves. Now we get players coming in from other organizations that come in and are wide-eyed in amazement about everything they get for free. I mean, players are actually shocked that they get all of this [referring to the seemingly endless amount of merchandise, from hoodies to gloves and anything else that can be ordered]. If I need anything for this department, I just have to ask Mike Brown, he has never once said no to anything.
DS: So what do you feel your goal is?
RR: For players to get everything they need to perform on the field. I need to do what needs to be done for us to win, whether that means getting a player the shoes he requests, gloves, pads, whatever makes that player feel comfortable on and off the field.
DS: What are your thoughts on the new NFL logo?
RR: It is what it is. I like the old NFL logo, it has a sort of classic look to it, but things change. I like the new one too; it is going to be a ton of work for me switching over, though. It’s on everything [begins pulling out business cards, jerseys, nameplates, helmets, stationery, etc.]. I have to make sure that all of the old logos are replaced by next year so that we’re in compliance.”
DS: What about other logos, such as Reebok?
RR: A big part of my job is making sure that product is on the field. Like I said, it is what it is, don’t underestimate just how much money that company makes, and puts into the game. It is my job to make sure that it looks its best.
DS: I’ve noticed that on the fieldwear and fanwear, the Reebok logo seems more toned down than in the past…
RR: Yeah, the logos seemed to get out of hand a while back. But the NFL is very strict and there are now more restrictions on logo size and placement.
DS: So what about the helmets? I have seen the decals for sale to make your own and such…
RR: We no longer use decals on our helmets. That was one of the first things I changed when I was promoted in 2000. It got to a point where we were just wasting time; I would have three or four guys out there repairing helmet decals for two or three hours straight the Monday after a game. The paint holds up better and looks better, now I just have a guy look over all the helmets after a game and anything that is too scratched or damaged we just send away to have painted. The helmets are my favorite part of the uniform, they are important to me.
DS: And the uniforms…
RR: I like the new uniforms; I liked the old uniforms as well. It’s funny, I had just developed new patterns [different tailoring cuts for different positions — one for linemen, one for wide receivers, and so on] for all of the old uniforms and then we made the switch. I don’t think people realize just how tough that is; the patterns didn’t transfer over at all, so I had to make a whole new set. The new uniforms were not designed for football players though. Designers came in and came up with something that could be marketed to fans, which makes it difficult. The stripes on the sleeves, for example — I still am not satisfied there, because each pattern ends up affecting the stripes in a different way, which you just can’t get right. Take Justin Smith — he came to me early on and we sat down to discuss what he wanted in a uniform cut. Justin is very specific, he doesn’t want loose material and doesn’t want sleeves, so I basically have to butcher every one of his uniforms to get it right, and look at the stripes [laughs], count them.
DS: So you do most of the alterations yourself?
RR: I wouldn’t say that I do most of them. I will hem a jersey if a player comes to me, but there are times when you get 10 to 15 guys coming to you wanting their jersey to be hemmed — then I’ll send them out. It’s a time thing.
DS: But you do the custom jobs yourself, correct?
RR: Yeah, I’ll sit down with a player and go over anything he wants done and I’ll make most of those alterations myself.
DS: And what about repairs?
RR: I’ll do most of those myself. If something is ripped, I’ll just whip out the sewing machine and take care of it. I can usually just add a small amount of fabric behind the tears and stitch it up, but there are times when it becomes more extensive. When that happens, we weigh whether it’s worth the time fixing it or if we’re better off just getting a new uniform.
DS: And if a player gets a tear on the field [during a game]?
RR: Oh, I’ll just grab my needle and thread and stitch it up right on the sidelines, I did that for Rudi [Johnson] a couple games ago.
DS: And if the tear it too extensive to repair on the field?
RR: Well, we have a backup jersey on hand. If something were to happen, though, it’s either fix the uniform, get a new one on him, or he has to come out of the game. It’s as simple as that.
DS: How do you keep the jerseys so tight to the pads?
RR: We run strips of double-sided tape across the pads and pat the jersey down. Some teams use Velcro, but I prefer tape. It really adheres and keeps the jersey from moving around.”
DS: So who are the players who really care how they look out there?
RR: Carson [Palmer], Chad [Johnson] and Rudi [Johnson]. They are my fashion designers.
DS: While we’e on the subject of Chad, where did he get the black and orange chinstraps?
RR: Not from me, that’s for sure. He went out and bought them himself.
DS: And…
RR: And the NFL called me complaining about it. He’s a grown man, I supply him with the correct chinstrap, and he chooses whether or not to wear it. Chad is a smart kid, he knows what he is doing… and he is going to do it anyway.
DS: What do you think about it?
RR: I really like the look; I think the whole team would look great with them. If I could do it I would have the whole team wearing them.
DS: Anything else interesting about Chad’s uniforms?
RR: Before one game a couple of years ago he comes to me and says ‘I want sleeves.’ He wanted, you know, baggier, looser sleeves. It was a fashion statement. I told him ‘Chad, they’re going to be grabbing all over you if you go out wearing sleeves.’ But he insisted, so I made up a jersey with sleeves for him.
DS: How did that work out for him?
RR: After the first few plays he came running to me on the sideline saying ‘Rob! Rob! They are grabbing all over the sleeves, I needs another jersey.’ I said, ‘No shit.’ That experiment lasted one drive.
DS: Anything else?
RR: Shoes, he has more shoes than he can ever possibly wear.
DS: Was there anything you tried during the uniform change that you still wish you could get right?
RR: Striped socks. Mike Brown and I both love simple striped socks. We tried really hard to get that to work, we were going for a similar sock stripe that the team used to wear. After some time we just decided that with the modern uniform the striped socks just looked out of place, especially with the Bengals’ stripes.
DS: One last thing before I go: facemasks.
RR: Oh yeah, we have tons of those, especially with all the new helmet styles and manufactures. For instance, look at the difference between the Revolution kicker’s facemask [left] and the standard kicker’s facemask [right]. The Revolution facemask attaches at the bottom, so it has a completely different look. It also has less eye protection and you could easily get your whole hand in there. Then look at Willie [Anderson]’s facemask — I’m surprised no one else wears it. It’s much lighter than most facemasks out there and provides great protection. It is the look, everyone is making a fashion statement these days, even with the facemask.
DS: Like L.T.?
RR [laughing]: Yeah, just like L.T. His facemask is a personal statement, just like a lot of these guys with shoes. It provides no more protection, but the look is what he wants.
=======
Speaking of the Bengals, David came up with an interesting story while doing research for the interview — look here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Phillies finally unveiled their new alternate uni yesterday, and it looks pretty damn sharp. My only gripe: Since the design is based on this, why did they use this font on the back? … Quite a week for memorials, as decal maven Chris Willis reports that the Browns will be wearing a “BW” decal for Hall of Famer Bill Willis, who died earlier this week. … Fun factoid: If the Cowboys had worn their usual white at home last night (instead of their blue throwbacks), the Packers would have had to remove their Lambeau Field 50th-anniversary patches from their green jerseys, because the patch is only meant to be worn at Lambeau. And then they would have put the patches back after the game. But since the Cowboys wore blue, the Packers wore white and didn’t have to fuss with the patches. Details here. … As expected, both teams wore a “21″ decal — which turned out to be huge — in memory of Sean Taylor. … Speaking of Taylor, check out what someone did to a McFarlane figure of him (nice find by Timothy Fesmire). … Texas prison guards are getting new uniforms (rare non-sports contribution from Brinke Guthrie). … According to this article, next season NFL players will have the option of wearing a new high-tech helmet design. The good news is that it offers a very high degree of head protection; the bad news is that it looks like a cheap Halloween costume. … Yesterday I imagined what sort of horn-based helmet design would be worn by a football team called the Unicorns. I was kidding, but Mike Stegemoller actually found a European team with that name. Unfortunately, they have a boring helmet design (and even more unfortunately, they wear the McDonald’s logo on their thighs).
November 30th, 2007
My latest ESPN column, which I thought was going to run today, ended up running yesterday while I was traveling. Some of you have already seen it; for those who haven’t, look here.
While researching that column, I received a contribution from reader Steve Johnston, who sent me a shot of the Hinsdale (Illinois) Central High School Red Devils. He wanted me to know about the “PTR” on their nose bumper, which is short for their slogan, “Pound the rock,” but I was actually more intrigued by their helmet design, with its little devil horns. “They’ve been wearing the horns for as long as I’ve known them,” Steve explained. “My dad wore them in the ’60s, and I’m sure it was going on a lot longer than that.”
Horns have always been an appealing helmet motif. They were, of course, the first design ever applied to a football lid, and people routinely tell me that the Rams’ helmet design is the NFL’s best, “because the design is part of the helmet, instead of just a logo put onto the helmet,” or words to that effect (plus I occasionally hear similar things about the Vikings, although their horns have always struck me as less attractive, because they’re supposed to be sticking outward, which means they’re more of an applied logo than an embedded design).
Until Steve sent me that Hinsdale Central photo, however, I’d never seen little horns on the front of a helmet. But then two photos showed up on Chris Creamer board, showing that very similar horns had been worn by the West Texas State Buffaloes in the 1960s and the Colorado Buffaloes in the mid-1950s.
Colorado, as it turns out, has used a surprisingly wide variety of horn designs over the years. In addition to the front horns in the mid-’50s, they wore this stylized design from 1959-61 (further info here) and this version — which happens to be my favorite — in the late 1960s (additional info here).
Antlers aren’t quite the same thing as horns, but they’re close enough for our purposes. But I’d never seen antlers on a helmet until a few days ago, when Riley Adair sent me some pics of the Buckhorn Bucks, an Alabama high school team (additional pics here and here).
This raises some interesting possibilities, because there are lots of other horn and antler styles out there. Imagine if there’s ever a team called the gazelles or the reindeer. Best of all, imagine the unicorns — now that would present a good design challenge.
Membership Update: A new batch of membership kits went out in the mail on Tuesday, so those should start showing up in your mailboxes momentarily.
Meanwhile, I had originally set this weekend as the deadline for placing orders for discounted gift memberships, but I’ve decided to extend that deadline to next Wednesday, the 5th.
Also, for those who keep track of such things, we’re now just a few orders away from our 500th member. My thanks to everyone who’s made the project such a big success.
As for today’s showcase design, it’s based on the early-1970s California Golden Seals.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Several people have mentioned to me that the mid-field logo at Sun Devil stadium had been altered for the Thanksgiving USC/ASU game, so that the devil was skewering a turkey leg, but nobody had a photo. But now Andrew Ranck has come up with one. Wish more teams would do holiday-themed tweaks like this. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The U.S. Army is retrofitting a million of their uniforms due to “crotch durability problems.” Yes, really. … Decal maven Chris Willis reports that the Sean Taylor memorial decal will look like this, but I’m still holding out hope that some of the ’Skins will do something stripe-related. … The double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats have unveiled their new uniforms and logo designs, which you can see in this PDF file. Naturally, I like the color scheme and the vertically arched road-jersey insignia, but the rest of the design looks painfully rinky-dink.
November 29th, 2007
By Bryan Redemske
Of the hundreds of posts here on Uni Watch, the ones I find most interesting deal with the unique tweaks and modifications athletes make to their equipment.
Todd Helton’s Mizuno-clad Nikes were a revelation, much like the first time I saw Nomar was wearing Reeboks in disguise. The Bill Buckner lucky batting glove thing caught everybody by surprise. I think what makes those things so interesting is that every athlete — pro or otherwise — does little things to their uniforms or equipment to make them their own. It’s just that most of them aren’t noticeable until you take a closer look.
With that in mind, I remembered something a guy at the local bike shop told me when I walked in with my Lance Armstrong model cycling shoes: “You know, those things are so uncomfortable, Lance actually had Shimano soles glued on.”
Brief cycling lesson for those not in the know: Shimano is a Japanese component giant — it makes all of the individual parts on most of the bikes in America. Shoes are one of the company’s specialties as well. Before Lance joined NikeWorld, he wore Shimano shoes for several years.
So what the guy was getting at was this: Lance has Nike uppers glued onto a Shimano sole, which is like gluing a Nike running upper to an Adidas sole. We’ve seen disguised shoes and equipment before, but Frankenstein-style gear is hard to come by.
Here’s what the bottom of the production Lance shoe looks like. The cloudy white area just to the right of the toe is an air vent. That will be important later.
According to this article (first item), Lance ordered custom soles for the 2005 tour — ones with more curve to them than the standard Nike sole. Provided with a good look at both, they’re clearly different. The standard sole is pretty much straight where it attaches to the upper, but the custom version curves up.
The article makes it sound like something Lance did for the 2005 tour, but evidence proves otherwise. He had similar soles — if not identical ones — in 2003, possibly earlier. The curve where the sole and upper meet is present here. For comparison’s sake, here’s the production version, featuring a pretty straight joint.
And what about the vent? Take a look at this one again. On the sole, just to the right of the black toe piece, are two slit-shaped vents. Here’s a similar shot from 2004. Vents are nothing new — many shoes have them. But Shimano soles generally only have one vent, and the Nike production vent is a completely different shape.
There’s one more thing, too. Note the cleat — white with blue tips. For mere mortals, Shimano only has two choices: black with yellow or black with red.
So what’s the deal with the white cleats? And exactly where did those soles come from? They don’t match up with any Shimanos I’ve found, and they’re definitely not standard Nike issue.
Perhaps more importantly, though — who else is doing this? Given the pickiness of athletes in every sport, Lance can’t be the only one, right? If you know of any other Frankenstein-style equipment out there, send info here.
And for what it’s worth, I think basic Lance production model fits fine. But it’s possible that Lance might have slightly higher standards than I do.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Paul here. Greetings from Austin, where a small but enthusiastic group showed up last night for a Uni Watch gathering. Unfortunately, I left my camera back at the hotel, so no pics. At some point in the evening, Devin Curry asked if I’d noticed that the Nebraska football team wears “Huskers” on their chinstraps. This was news to me, so he sent me photographic proof after he got home. … The Phillies will unveil their new alternate uniform (already leaked months ago) tomorrow at noon. … Very odd NOB format for the Tunisia volleyball team, which uses the player’s last name, then a space, then a period, and then first initial (additional view here, with thanks to Jeremy Brahm).
November 28th, 2007
Sean Taylor, who died last night after suffering a gunshot wound, was no angel. Off the field, there were drunk driving and weapons charges; on the field, he once spat in an opponent’s face and was known as a late-hit artist. But whatever else you can say about Taylor, this much is certain: He loved his stripes. If there was a part of his uniform that didn’t have stripes, he simply created his own — on his fingers, on his facemask, and, of course, on his socks.
Taylor’s signature moment came on November 6th, 2005, when he and Clinton Portis engaged in some serious sock shenanigans during a game against the Eagles. Portis, who went solid-burgundy on one leg and striped-burgundy on the other, just looked ridiculous, but Taylor looked spectacular in his candy-striped hose. He was fined $5,000, but I’m sure he felt it was worth it, and of course I agree.
The ’Skins will no doubt wear some sort of memorial for Taylor for the balance of this season. If anyone in the team’s front office is reading this, please, don’t take the boilerplate route of a helmet decal or jersey patch. If you really want to honor Taylor, have the whole team go with candy-striped socks or some other stripe-driven tribute. He would’ve wanted it that way.
Shorts Breezers Pants Update: Remember our recent discussion of the Belleville Bulls and their uni-numbered pants? Jonathan Deery was curious, so he contacted the team to ask what was up with the unusual number placement. Here’s what he heard back from the team’s communications director:
I spoke with Bulls Equipment Manager Tom Frater today about your questions regarding the numbers on the pants, as he is the one who makes those decisions. He informed me that his reasoning for adding numbers to the pants were twofold.
First, he always likes to try to add something unique to the uniforms and he liked how the numbers looked. Secondly, he uses it as an identifying tool, as he has found that just numbering the tags with a Sharpie does not prevent players from taking equipment from each other. He’s used the same sort of logic with adding players’ names on the back of the helmets this year as well.
“I was quite surprised by his last comment,” writes Jonathan, “so I went looking at the team’s photo gallery to find evidence of the names on the helmets. It looks like the equipment manager has matched the font used on the jersey to the helmet. Nice touch if you ask me.” Agreed.
Austin Reminder: By the time most of you read this, I’ll be on my way to Austin. Looking forward to meeting lots of you tonight at the Salt Lick. There’s a 7:30 reservation for Lukas, so just ask for that.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Looks like River Hill High School in Maryland has is using the U. of Iowa helmet design (nice find by David Cline). … You may have been too busy gorging on leftovers last Friday to have seen the lnk to this story about a high school hoops team that was called for 18 technical fouls due to a uniform violation. That reminded a Chris Willis of a story from his student days at Alabama-Hunstville in 1979: “Our team came out in unis that had either ‘Chargers’ or ‘Huntsville’ with a tail sweep [i.e., a flourish-y underline — PL]. After the shootaround, we watched in amazement as the trainer went and cut the tail sweeps out of each jersey. The story was that the opposing coach had talked the officials into believing that the jerseys violated a ’simplicity rule,’ and that a technical foul would be called for each player who checked in with those jerseys on. We lost the game, and pictures in the paper next day showed a UAH player in a uni with a hole in the middle of the chest.” … According to a small item in the middle of this page (sent my way by Jeffrey Soderberg), Boston College’s Jamie Silva, “who normally wears No. 44, wore No. 31 yesterday in honor of Jay McGillis, a defensive back for the Eagles in the early 1990s who died of cancer. A scholarship is endowed to the athletic department in his name and each year it is bestowed upon a BC defensive back. That DB then wears McGillis’ jersey number during the final home game of the season.” … Good article here on how the Hawks’ new look was developed (with thanks to Chris Mercanti). … The Mets officially unveiled their “Shea goodbye” patch yesterday, although it had actually been leaked months ago. I like it (and not just because it was designed by Uni Watch pal Todd Radom). … Speaking of the Mets, Greg Prince notes a mistake in that press release I just linked to, which mentions that the team wore this patch for “America’s Bicentennial (1976).” But as the patch itself notes, it was actually for the National League centennial. … Peter King earned himself some major Doesn’t Get It™ points with this column. Key quote: “[The Browns’ throwbacks were the] weirdest, most inconsequential throwback outfits ever. The only way you could tell was the numbers on the helmets.” I guess King doesn’t care about sock stripes, helmet stripes, or pants piping. … Lots of chatter here about Bowling Green’s brown uniforms (with thanks to Tom Konecny).
Gone Fishin’: I’ll be off the grid for most of today and tomorrow. Bryan will be minding the store, so e-mail him if you have any site-related issues (abusive commenters, spam filter problems, etc.). Ticker material can still come to me.
November 27th, 2007
Back in March I wrote an ESPN column about athletes wearing sunglasses. At the time I wasn’t aware of any football players who’d worn shades on the field, but readers provided several examples that I later listed in a follow-up item: Mark Clayton (who wore sunglasses with the Dolphins and the Packers), Derrick Mayes, and Vai Sikahema. The most intriguing tidbit, though, was that Raymond Berry of the Colts had worn a set of homemade sun goggles during the ’50s and ’60s. But although several people told me about Berry’s eyewear, none of them provided a photo, and my own research efforts came up empty. But now, thanks to reader Jason Taylor, we’ve got a photo — and more.
Let’s start with the photo itself, which is a doozy. Eat your heart out, LaDainian Tomlinson — your tinted visor’s got nothing on this!
But here’s the kicker: The actual goggles recently sold on eBay for about $155. According to the auction listing, “With no commercially available product to address or correct his vision and sun-sensitivity problems, Berry took the initiative to make his own. Utilizing Bausch & Lomb swim goggles as frames, he inserted heavy shaded lenses supported by trainer’s tape and a primitive headstrap.”
How did the Hall of Fame miss out on this?
The Issue That Just Won’t Die: In case you were too busy scarfing down leftovers to read Friday’s comments, it’s now clear that Dallas Clark’s American flag decal has been missing for quite some time — not just on Thanksgiving or the week before that, but all the way back to Week 8.
In an incredible stroke of luck, it turns out that bench coach Bryan Redemske actually knows Dallas Clark, because Bryan’s wife and Clark went to high school together. So we’ve got an inside line on this one — stay tuned.
Austin Reminder: Uni Watch gathering tomorrow night, 7:30 p.m., at the Salt Lick. BYOB (not to be confused with FNOB).
Uni Watch News Ticker: While researching something else, I noticed that you can see the brand on Tony Romo’s flak jacket right through his jersey. … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Note the inconsistent 7s here. … Speaking of numbers and typography, remember a few months back when we discussed the differing treatments of the 5 on the sleeve and chest of the Packers’ jerseys? Adam Seabury was just at the Packers Hall of Fame, where he discovered yet another version of the 5. He also snapped great pics of jerseys, helmets (check out the odd facemask here), pants, socks (someone please break into that display and steal those for me, pronto), cheerleaders’ outfits, programs, and a lot more. There’s a slideshow of all his pics here. … Great historical slideshow here of the Turkey Day Game between Kirkwood and Webster Groves, a centurty-long St. Louis Thanksgiving tradition. Some of the older pics are amazing — worth clicking through. … “I was at the Oregon/UCLA game at the Rose Bowl on Saturday,” writes Ryan Whitacre, “and at least one member of the Oregon fan base was exhibiting some classy dress. We can only hope this will filter down to the athletes themselves.” … Virginia retired Tiki Barber’s number on Saturday. … “These pics are of a few old mining company baseball and basketball teams from the 1910-1930,” writes longtime Uni Watch pal Doug Kalemba. “According to my grandfather (who is 96!), each mine had its own team, many filled with ringers who got cushy jobs in return for playing. The competition between these teams was serious business, with games often ending in brawls (or worse). My grandfather was a catcher and played for a few different teams. He claims a lot of the players were good enough for the bigs but never caught a break.” … While researching something else, I came across this photo from the 1959 NFL title game. Take a look at Jim Patton (No. 20) — the “2″ on his helmet appears to be backwards. … Aaron Levine notes that in this fight between Stan Jonathan and Paul Stewart, Stewart has NNOB and really big uni numbers, while the rest of the Nords have NOBs. … Man, those Browns throwbacks looked my-t-fine (additional pics here, here, and here). But John Ryder notes that the “c” on Willie McGinest’s jersey was almost as big as the other letters on his nameplate, while the “c” on Brandon McDonald’s jersey was teeny-tiny. … Jeremy Brahm, ever alert to unusual uniforms in far-off parts of the world, notes that the Singapore Slingers of the National Basketball League of Australia have an interesting design for their shorts and rear jersey. … Has anyone else noticed that Sheldon Brown practically wears a towel on his chinstrap? … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Adrian Peterson is the latest Bear to have suffered a torn helmet decal.
November 26th, 2007
In case you were wondering, Coppin State’s initials are CSU. I saw it somewhere. Here too. And in case you were also counting eagles on those Coppin State threads, the number is four. One on the collar, one on the waistband and one on each side of the shorts. — Bryan
November 25th, 2007
Lost in the shuffle of monochromatic college uniforms, no NFL throwbacks, and Dallas Clark’s missing flag decal was the passing of Tom Johnson, a Hall of Fame defenseman for the Bruins and Canadiens. His 30-plus-year career with the Bruins included a stint behind the bench for the team’s last Stanley Cup in 1972.
While his contributions to the game were great, those stripes are pretty sweet, too. So honor the past with a smile and a nod, think about the good old days of Original Six hockey, and go polish off that last helping of mashed potatoes. If you don’t eat them, I will. — Bryan
November 24th, 2007
As many of you know, kickers and punters are exempt from shoe color rules, so it’s not unusual to see a punter wearing black cleats while the rest of the team is wearing white, or a kicker wearing one black shoe and one white. But Mike Comeau noticed two particularly interesting things about Falcons kicker Morten Andersen last night:
(1) He wears one Nike shoe and one Reebok. Not sure how common it is for someone to be wearing two different brands. (2) The shoe on his kicking (left) foot was black, just like the rest of the Falcons. It was his plant (right) foot that differed from the rest of his team. Usually it’s the kicking foot that is “out of uniform” because the kicker is more comfortable with a particular shoe.
That last bit is a genius observation. Why would Andersen need a special plant shoe? And why would it have to be white? And it’s not like this is his lucky left shoe that he’s been wearing for years, because he was wearing something else just last month. Weird.
Meanwhile, several readers report that Dallas Clark of the Colts was once again playing without the American flag decal on his helmet last night. No visual evidence yet, but here’s a shot of a flag-free Clark from last week. If Clark’s flagless status from last night can be confirmed, that means our streak of at least one NFL player being sans flag for every week of the season remains intact.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Bizarre story out of Tennessee, where a high school hoops team was cited for wearing illegal uniforms, resulting in 18 technical fouls being called. The resulting free throws were the deciding factor in the game. Details here. … More numbers on shorts: the Butler hoops team (with thanks to Mike Miller). … While researching something else, I came across this awesome Cardinals helmet prototype on the Helmet Hut web site. … Latest chapter in the NHL jersey debacle here. … When the Blackhawks introduced John McDonough as the team president, they gave him an honorary jersey. But David Soline notes that they didn’t use a lowercase “c.” … The Browns will be wearing their throwbacks this Sunday. … What’s the point of beach volleyball if you can’t wear a bikini? (With thanks to Jeremy Brahm.) … Todd Radom, Tom O’Grady, and I are all quoted in this article about the state of uniform design. … Jim Pericotti reports that the Ducks’ AHL affiliate, the Portland Pirates, are wearing a Stanley Cup patch on the back of their jersey.
November 23rd, 2007
|
what does levitra look like steroids in baseball triphasil pills temazepam tablets prozac withdrawal symptoms lortab online lexapro more drug side effects is ativan addictive vicodin without a prescription discount valium valacyclovir generic valtrex cost what is temovate adderall mexican pharmacy antivert dosage lipidos orlistat rosiglitazone maleate medicine fluconazole generic zestril actos lawsuits arava side effects vicodin side effects histex buy fioricet w codeine hydrocodone overdose xanax prescription online cheap soma watson about spironolactone side effects of adipex flovent dosage fexofenadine peyronies lorazepam without prescription lasix side effects online fulvicinfurosemide preven morning after pill famvir coupons skelaxin side effects about valium order tamiflu online no prescription what is paroxetine cheapest ultram proscar finasteride order fioricet imitrex statdose cheapest sildenafil keppra acne how to help preven anorexia cozaar sex histex 10mg what is estradiol ultravate substitute without prescriptionvalacyclovir celexa and acne xanax alprazolam clomid success buy nicotrol inhaler spironolactone medication side effects of famvir nexium and pregnancy cialis uk starting klonopin miacalcin cause pancreatitis buy diethylpropion rohypnol buy discount meridia methylphenidate kid retin a treatment imitrex coupons soma for sale side effects of prevacid coreg oxazepam on drug screen buy celebrex what is mescaline ketamine for sale minocycline side effects articles ritalin buy promethazine without prescription where to buy vicodin snorting oxycodone lanoxin side effects patanol opht buy cheap lescollevaquin discount acyclovir no prescription tadalafil cialis discount tricor ritalin effects oxycodone pills side effects prozac buspar buy phendimetrazine drug vioxx protonix generic butalbital fioricet