PurpleHayes

"WOTB?"

Kind of hypocritical for the NFL to claim that a college alt uniform jeopardizes their intellectual property because viewers will think the Oilers are playing, while at the same time approving alternate uniforms for NFL teams that don't look anything like the teams' primary uniforms (Texans), allowing teams to shoehorn black into their uniforms (Commanders), allowing all-black and all-white unitards (the rest of the NFL)... all of which further dilute the brand by making it hard to identify teams in the first place!

Goodell might as well sue the sky for resembling 'Columbia Blue.' The NFL really shouldn't have gone down that road with their 'cease and desist letter' because UH has called their bluff. Goodell has to respond because clearly using a former team's color for a college is a major threat to the intellectual property of an NFL team... Or maybe Goodell will send around a couple of goons to intimidate the AD of UH..."Nice football team you have here. You know, it'd be a shaaaaaaaaaame if something were to happen to it." (Pushes AD's runner-up trophy off the desk so it shatters on the floor.)

University of Houston plans to buck NFL, use Columbia Blue From PFT The University of Houston has taken a page from the late Bud Adams’s playbook. Specifically, the school has given a double-barreled-middle-finger to the NFL and the Tennessee Titans. After abandoning an alternate Columbia Blue color scheme at the direction of the league last year, the University of Houston has reversed course. “We’re doing it,” athletic director Chris Pezman told Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle. “We’ve reviewed everything and come to the conclusion that we are going to proceed.” Houston has informed the league of its position. As of Tuesday, the NFL had not responded. “We’re giving them two or three weeks to respond,” Pezman said. “We’re waiting on a response to see if we get one.” Pezman explained the about-face on standing down. “We literally have a story we can show the city uses it,” Pezman said. “This isn’t a reach. This is a layup. We’ve got a very defensible position.” It’s hard to imagine anyone having intellectual property rights to a color. And it surely helps the University of Houston that the Texans recently introduced an alternate uniform that uses the color. Even if a plausible argument can be made, Big Shield will look like the big, bad wolf if it sues the University of Houston. (I'd tell the NFL to go ahead and sue, I'd love to see this wind up in court with Goofball Goodell trying to make a claim on the Titans' columbia blue...)

"That's right....MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

Say, where are those images from?

The original USFL used to play 18 games, although they had shorter playoffs. I'm not even sure they had preseason games...they had one 'postseason exhibition' in London in 1984. One thing I've wondered about...what if the NFL season is so long that the Super Bowl has to be played on Valentine's Day? How will that go over?? I can imagine a lot of fights that day...

True, but PFT pointed out today that the owners can just lock the players out if they don't agree to the 18th game, which is what they did in 2011. Hopefully that never happens...although the genie is out of the bottle, I wish they'd go back to 16 games.

Just wait 'til they add the 18th game on top of that, which Goodell pretty much admitted to over the weekend. ...more games = more injuries = bad games + increased revenue anyway.

The MLB's pants/jersey problem could easily be applied to all the overhauls Nike has made since they took over (below is from today's UniWatch): “This has been entirely a Nike issue,” the memo to players read. “At its core, what has happened here is that Nike was innovating something that didn’t need to be innovated.” “As many of you know, concern with Nike changes is not new. We cautioned Nike against various changes when they previewed them in 2022, particularly regarding pants. MLB had been, and has been, aware of our concerns as well. Unfortunately, until recently, Nike’s position has essentially boiled down to — ‘nothing to see here, Players will need to adjust.’” Truer words were never spoken.

Well it was only a matter of time before PFT chimed in: https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/texans-reached-compromise-with-nfl-titans-over-use-of-oilers-style-blue Last year, the NFL forced the University of Houston to ditch alternate uniforms that included Houston Oilers-style Columbia Blue. This year, the NFL and the Tennessee Titans gave the Houston Texans permission to use the color in an alternate uniform. During a Tuesday appearance on SportsRadio 610 in Houston, Texans ownership explains that the two teams and the NFL worked out a compromise that returns Columbia Blue to the Houston NFL team’s color scheme. “We worked with the NFL, and there was some push and shove and we came to where we . . . could get to with the NFL, giving us a compromise, and sort of a certain percentage in the uniform,” Cal McNair said. “And I think our fans would like more. And we’re probably in that same boat, but we’re working with the powers-that-be with the league and all that stuff to get to where we could get.” “I think there was some talk,” Hannah McNair added, “I think even publicly we discussed that we were going to be able to use a different color than Columbia Blue, and so when that was released and we got approval to do that, that’s when we started getting pushback. . . . And then it got to a point where they just said, ‘No, you can’t,’ and then we compromised. The situation traces to the fact that, when the Oilers left Houston, Houston made no effort to retain the names or the logos or the colors (unlike Cleveland). So the Oilers took their logos and colors and ditched them for the Titans and now use the Oilers as a throwback, even though it makes zero geographic sense to think of the Oilers as a Tennessee property. Frankly, Houston should own the Oilers name and logo. It’s good that a compromise was done. It would be better if the Texans had the Oilers option. It would be best if Nike would quit cajoling teams into having umpteen uniforms. The ditching of the one-helmet rule has unlocked a new universe of combinations which will have multiple NFL teams looking like Oregon — all while having more jerseys and helmets to sell, sell, sell.

While the Broncos and Texans new duds are 'meh', none of the unis unveiled so far this year are anywhere near as bad as those three uniforms. Let's hope that was the low point in Nike's tenure.

Technically they could add them at any time, since the 5-year rule only applies to jerseys and helmets. No one buys NFL pants, otherwise the NFL would be just as strict about changes to them as well.

I think it's OK in the NBA or other leagues since they play so many games...but not the NFL, where there are only 17 (soon to be 18) games.

Ice?? In Houston??

Ssssshhhhh, don't give them any ideas.

And the Steelers.

I can live with it. What helps was having three different pants, and I'm glad the orange pants are finally back in the mix.

Here's another example of why players should NOT be in charge of uniform choices (Calvin Johnson in this case): https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/detroit-lions-black-uniform-legend-lobbies-home-game/2ce0f84b2d0a9a3d6bbb051c In fact, he likes it so much that he's ready to start a petition to have the team wear them for every home game. Tell me where to sign up, Megatron. “All I got to say is, I am going to start a petition so we can wear these bad boys every home game,” Johnson said, per Brandon Carr and Mara MacDonald of ClickOnDetroit.com. “The jersey is reminiscent of the Reebok ones we wore back in the day. They’re bringing back the blocked numbers but in a new, fresh, modern style.”

I think "badazz" is allowed.

I've never been a fan of teams (like the Islanders) doing that for that very reason. Can you imagine if the Yankees did that, with their 27 championships??

Not sure why they would want to bring up that era again...that's the game where fans were chanting "WADE MUST GO" when they got spanked by the Raiders.

On Woody: never a good sign when a 77-year old cheapskate asking this kind of question

Translation: "We already made all the design choices and wanted to make it look like we actually cared what the fans think."

Hopefully the Texans didn't hire Tanya Snyder...