Lights Out

While I prefer the logos/wordmark they have now, I otherwise agree that those uniforms were better. The only issue was the helmet finish, which looked good in photos (like that one) but was an eyesore most of the time on TV... so of course that was the one thing the Jets didn't fix.

I think it says more about the franchises involved than it does about Nike. The Jets, Browns and Bucs were all coming off some of the worst on-field eras in their history and figured they could boost sales and morale by pandering to their fans' nostalgia for better times. It's just marketing 101. It also needs to be pointed out that all three kept some of the modernized elements from the uniforms they ditched instead of throwing all the way back.

It's Steps 1 and 2 that make it the NFL's fault. At the end of the day, because of their exclusive contract with the NFL, Nike is obligated to humor all the dumb ideas that the out-of-touch suits come up with. If Reebok was still the supplier, we still would have gotten Color Rush or something along those lines, just with super-stretchy fabric and piping and panels instead. For better or worse, all of this was inevitable when the NFL moved from having several different suppliers to centralizing around one. Color Rush would have never been possible back when some teams wore Nike, some wore Adidas, some wore Puma, etc. As always, the buck stops with the league and their unlimited desire for money.

Nike is the tail. The client (the NFL) is the dog. As for "the next five years at least" - I assume Wood is just being modest. Their outgoing uniform set only lasted, what, seven years? The one before that lasted eight. And the one before that lasted six. It would be presumptuous for a team that can't go a full decade without redesigning their look to start touting the next set as their "forever uniforms." And by not making such a firm public commitment, they're also covering themselves in case the fans don't like the new ones.

Not a fan of that Chiefs concept. The colors are all out of balance and it just seems like change for the sake of change. Also not crazy about monochrome black for the Raiders. On the other hand, I like that Jets concept better than what they just unveiled. I also like your idea for Denver.

Of course they didn't fix the only flaw of their previous uniforms (the helmet finish).

Five years ago, we had the Chargers playing at a 27,000-seat soccer stadium in Carson, waiting for Kroenke to build his new stadium so they could mooch off it for $1 rent. Basically, blame Dean Spanos. The A's are just following his example.

Uhh... isn't that the goal of any coach? Especially in a high-stress single-elimination tournament like March Madness. Hurley's constant whining, jawing, and walking onto the court is irritating, but he's objectively one hell of a coach when it comes to pure Xs and Os. It shows from how diligently they move the ball on offemse. The way they calmly break the press every time like it's nothing, making the rest of the sport look like a joke for not being able to handle it nearly as well. He had the perfect defensive strategy for Purdue too. Then on the other side, you have Purdue's god-awful style of just spamming the ball to Edey so he can flop and get bailout calls from the refs, while getting away with blatant three seconds violations and offensive fouls all game. No adjustments when they have to play from behind, no plan B when a team has someone like Clingan who can guard Edey one-on-one, because Painter thinks it's 1973 and he doesn't need guards as long as he has a really tall guy on his team. At least we didn't have to watch that eyesore of a team win. It's already a bad look for the sport that their style is as successful as it is.

Could be that pitchers are the new running backs, and we'll start to see the position devalued in both draft stock and money because you can't count on them to have any longevity anymore. I think a comparison can already be made between the use of openers and strict pitch counts and the "RB by committee" approach. It's not fair since a lot of this has to do with the unnatural pressure on prospects to throw 100 MPH at 3000 RPM from a young age to even get glanced at by MLB scouts. But front offices have gotten so in over their heads with analytics that they aren't likely to change anytime soon, so it'll be future pitchers getting screwed because the current ones keep needing Tommy John surgeries every year.

There's an obvious difference with Oregon that you're ignoring. Their football program is a product of Phil Knight's wallet, so of course they're going to advertise for Nike in return. If Phil Knight owned an NFL team, you can bet they'd also be decked out in the latest and greatest of whatever Nike thinks is trendy right now. At the same time, even in college, Nike can't make Alabama or Texas wear a dozen uniforms every season. Like any other design firm, they are ultimately beholden to the client.

The team records, fouls, bonus and possession arrow are all too small and would be illegible on anything other than a big-screen TV.

The buttons are the only thing separating this from the cheapest replica t-shirts.

I like Cal, but Tubby Smith was run out of Kentucky for better results than Cal has delivered since 2019. He also doesn't help his case by being so stubborn and combative towards fans.

Black and yellow could have worked fine for the Jazz if they had put actual effort into the uniforms. The glorified Summer League gear they farted out in an afternoon would have been poorly received in any color scheme. If they had put out something like their current City Editions, but in black and yellow, I don't think there would have been as many complaints.

Turns out I was being generous by calling it "a matter of time." It's happening this year.

Some old-school favorites:

The Oilers were a tough act to follow, and the Texans' brand is too limited conceptually. I still think they made a big mistake not picking Apollos as the name.

I like the new look. It's an evolution that finally feels like their own uniform rather than a recolor of USC's.

The real reason the Grizzlies moved is because they were screwed out of the Tim Duncan lottery by the ass-backwards rule at the time that blocked recent expansion teams from getting the #1 pick for a certain number of years. There was just no recovering from that. Granted, they still might have lost that lottery without that rule, but not even giving them a chance after suffering through the worst team in the league is the last thing any league in their right mind would want to do when they're trying to establish themselves in a new market.

I'd have a hard time giving Vince more credit for that than actual Canadians like Steve Nash, or the literal inventor of the sport, James Naismith. Regardless, you shouldn't get to treat a franchise the way Vince did on his way out and still be honored by them. Especially when they won one playoff series with him and nothing else. The NBA has a huge problem with teams and their fanbases being treated like doormats for the players' egos, and this would just reinforce the problem. I'm not a Vince hater, but... throwing a tantrum because the Raptors wouldn't hire Dr. J as GM, telling the Raptors' opponents which plays they were about to run during games, making a big show of refusing to dunk anymore for the home crowd - he went out of his way to make his departure from Toronto as messy as possible and it's just not the kind of behavior that should be rewarded. Maybe if he had returned to Toronto later in his career, it would make more sense.

Disagree. That '70s style logo fits much better in the G-League at this point alongside other retro-kitsch brands like the GoGo and the Hustle. The big league club's new logo is more suitable for the modern NBA.

Those colors absolutely do contrast. Maybe they're not the absolute best colors to have touching each other, but it's not the end of the world like you're making it out to be either.

Just a quick idea I had trying to combine the San Diego colors and the unused '90s colors with the new logo: I liked the one on the left better first, but now I'm starting to prefer the sublety of how the seafoam green and light blue almost blend into each other in the one on the right.

Was anyone complaining that they were too big before? I certainly don't remember it. The smaller names make the uniforms look like how they'd be rendered in an old video game.