Tradition schmradition

[STL FANATIC]

New York Yankees

Pick an NY and use it. Ridiculous to have two versions that are so similar but different. It'd be one thing if there was a bold version and a skinny version. That's not the case, these are different shapes. And while you're at it, get a decent road uniform. I don't care if you want to go plain, but use a new block font--one that isn't so janky in its widths.

Detroit Tigers

Pick a D and use it. Ridiculous to have two versions that are so similar but different. It'd be one thing if there was a bold version and a skinny version. That's not the case, these are different shapes.

LSU Football

The Tigers on your helmets is a mess. The LSU is odd. And please, please, please change your pants striping to match the helmet. (Or if you must, do it the other way around.)

Auburn Football

First off, get rid of those stupid new pants. Secondly, fix your striping all the way around. You have multiple options. You could make it so the striping always goes white/navy/orange/navy/white. Or you could reverse the striping depending on the background. I don't care what you do, but right now it's a mess. On your helmet and pants its navy/white/orange/white/navy. On the white pants and jerseys it's navy/orange/navy. FIX IT!

Penn State Football

A logo might be cool, I don't really care. What I do care about is the all white pants. There's a single stripe on the helmet. There used to be (thanks WSU) and should be again a single stripe on the uniforms, PLEASE put a single navy stripe down your pants, too.

Indianapolis Colts

Shoulders: double stripe. Pants: double stripe. Helmet: single stripe--what??. Put 2 stripes on the helmet. In a few years nobody would flinch over it, even if it'd take some time at first. Also, pant that stupid grey facemask blue again.

Dallas Cowboys

You guys are a mess. Pick a deep navy. Pick a royal blue. Pick a single silver. Use those three colors in a consistent manner to create two consistent uniform options.

I've got tons more like that, those are just ones that come to mind. Ninety percent of them would not even be noticed by most. Pretty much all of them would be "gotten used to" within a few years. They'd all take uniforms that are really good and make them nearly flawless.

[WSU151]

Penn State Football

A logo might be cool, I don't really care. What I do care about is the all white pants. There's a single stripe on the helmet. There's a single stripe on the uniforms, PLEASE put a single navy stripe down your pants, too.

The jerseys have no stripes. Just numbers. The cuff and neck are now same color as the jerseys.

[STL FANATIC]

Penn State Football

A logo might be cool, I don't really care. What I do care about is the all white pants. There's a single stripe on the helmet. There's a single stripe on the uniforms, PLEASE put a single navy stripe down your pants, too.

The jerseys have no stripes. Just numbers. The cuff and neck are now same color as the jerseys.

True. I had forgotten about that. Those need to be brought back.

[tBBP]

All this tradition schmradition y'all yelling about and yet y'all done missed a blatantly obvious one up there in the northeast: the Boston Celtics.

*ducks for cover

[IceCap]

I like their St. Patty's Day alternates with the gold. I still prefer their regular green and whites, but if they had to change going with green, gold, and white wouldn't be a bad direction to go in.

[Braden]

Games have changed over the years, in football, sleeves have gotten shorter and jerseys get tighter by the year. Teams that once had a timeless look now can look silly, just by adapting the wrong way over the years.

The Steelers and the 49ers are examples of teams with classic designs that are ruined by their poor adaptation to the current jersey cut.

To this day teams are still trying to figure it out, look at the Bills for instance, and the sleeve stripes on their new digs.

[Dnice]

I kinda agree with the Notre Dame comment. It's ok for one team, but years ago,them, Army and Navy and maybe some others all had plain gold helmets.

[RedSox44]

All this tradition schmradition y'all yelling about and yet y'all done missed a blatantly obvious one up there in the northeast: the Boston Celtics.

*ducks for cover

What should be changed? The Celtics look is perfect, though their logo leaves a lot to be desired.

[andrewharrington]

Absolutely nothing is worse than the Steelers' one-sided helmet logo. It's not just ugly, it's dumb.

As for others, everyone seems to love the football uniforms of USC, but they annoy me because they have those modern-ish looking panels on the shoulders of their jerseys and then have racing stripes down the pants. Either do racing stripes or don't.

Well, those are actually throwbacks from head to toe. Not really modern at all. The Redskins used a shoulder insert like that on their feather-helmet uniform as well.

[BBTV]

Games have changed over the years, in football, sleeves have gotten shorter and jerseys get tighter by the year. Teams that once had a timeless look now can look silly, just by adapting the wrong way over the years.

The Steelers and the 49ers are examples of teams with classic designs that are ruined by their poor adaptation to the current jersey cut.

To this day teams are still trying to figure it out, look at the Bills for instance, and the sleeve stripes on their new digs.

The simple solution is to rotate the stripes 90 degrees and go vertical. It'll match the pants better, and you can stop them at the seam so that they don't interfere with the numbers (neck to shoulder seam is cleaner than what they do now IMO) or on templates with no seams, extend them the whole way and put an outline around the numbers.

[the_fan]

The Cubs cap logo is unbelieveably plain to me.

[winghaz]

I need to add this one -- gray facemasks. A team should change from gray facemasks if the only reason for it is tradition. If gray (or silver) is one of the team's colors, fine. Otherwise, no.

Which brings us to Notre Dame. The Irish have a no-logo helmet, but there is a reason, and a good reason. But using the gray facemask for the Golden Domers doesn't make sense.

[BigMac12]

I need to add this one -- gray facemasks. A team should change from gray facemasks if the only reason for it is tradition. If gray (or silver) is one of the team's colors, fine. Otherwise, no.

Which brings us to Notre Dame. The Irish have a no-logo helmet, but there is a reason, and a good reason. But using the gray facemask for the Golden Domers doesn't make sense.

They don't want to be confused with rival Navy.

[kevinmets]

Not a huge fan of pinstriped baseball uniforms. However, because the Yankees made them popular, they'll probably never go away.

The Yankees (and other teams) not having names on the back of jerseys. Like I'm supposed to know who #82 warming up in the Yankees' bullpen is. (I realize I'm probably in the minority on this.)

New York Yankees

Pick an NY and use it. Ridiculous to have two versions that are so similar but different. It'd be one thing if there was a bold version and a skinny version. That's not the case, these are different shapes. And while you're at it, get a decent road uniform. I don't care if you want to go plain, but use a new block font--one that isn't so janky in its widths.

Detroit Tigers

Pick a D and use it. Ridiculous to have two versions that are so similar but different. It'd be one thing if there was a bold version and a skinny version. That's not the case, these are different shapes.

The Cubs cap logo is unbelieveably plain to me.

Agreed on all three.

Other dumb traditions:

• Red Sox in primarily navy blue.
  
• Tigers with no orange on the home uniforms at all.
  
• Twins TC is cool by itself, I LOVE two-color interlocking letters. But since they're the "Minnesota Twins" and not the "Twin Cities Twins" it's not the best fit.
  
• Cardinals using navy blue at all.
  
• Chief Wahoo.
  
• Royals looking exactly like the Dodgers.
  
• Dodgers in red numbers (though anything else would look wrong).
  

[Discrim]

I don't exactly hate this one, but Air Force football wears uniforms adorned with lightning bolts despite being called the Falcons. If I knew why at some point, I've forgotten by now.

[See Red]

I don't exactly hate this one, but Air Force football wears uniforms adorned with lightning bolts despite being called the Falcons. If I knew why at some point, I've forgotten by now.

Thunderbolt's are used in the Air Force seal to portray striking power through the air.

[altosax29b]

I LOVE the Steelers look. It's unique, something that rarely happens in todays sports uni/logo world.

Except Iowa has the exact same uniforms.

[OnWis97]

The Yankees (and other teams) not having names on the back of jerseys. Like I'm supposed to know who #82 warming up in the Yankees' bullpen is. (I realize I'm probably in the minority on this.)

Actually quaint little semi-tradition I like is names on back on the road and no names at home. The Twins did it in my earlies memories (added names at home in about 1996 or so). The implication (I know it's not 100% true, but I like the idea) is that the home fans don't need it but the fans on the road do. I always liked that. I don't think anyone really does it anymore (I think the Dodgers may have done so recently).

[Gothamite]

The Yankees (and other teams) not having names on the back of jerseys. Like I'm supposed to know who #82 warming up in the Yankees' bullpen is. (I realize I'm probably in the minority on this.)

Actually quaint little semi-tradition I like is names on back on the road and no names at home. The Twins did it in my earlies memories (added names at home in about 1996 or so). The implication (I know it's not 100% true, but I like the idea) is that the home fans don't need it but the fans on the road do. I always liked that. I don't think anyone really does it anymore (I think the Dodgers may have done so recently).

No, the Dodgers went NNOB for both home and road for a couple seasons. I think the Red Sox are the only ones who put names on the roads but not the home jerseys.

Personally, I love it too.

[IceCap]

The Yankees (and other teams) not having names on the back of jerseys. Like I'm supposed to know who #82 warming up in the Yankees' bullpen is. (I realize I'm probably in the minority on this.)

Actually quaint little semi-tradition I like is names on back on the road and no names at home. The Twins did it in my earlies memories (added names at home in about 1996 or so). The implication (I know it's not 100% true, but I like the idea) is that the home fans don't need it but the fans on the road do. I always liked that. I don't think anyone really does it anymore (I think the Dodgers may have done so recently).

No, the Dodgers went NNOB for both home and road for a couple seasons. I think the Red Sox are the only ones who put names on the roads but not the home jerseys.

Personally, I love it too.

The Cubs experimented with it, even going so far as to produce two versions of their blue alternates, nameless ones for home games and named ones for road games. The problem was that they took the names off of the home jerseys without raising the numbers to compensate, so they just looked odd.