College to Pro: Football 2012

[Discrim]

College to Pro guidelines:

-Dual concept centered around an individual player, his alma mater, and his current or any former NFL team

-Exceptions to the alma mater may include junior colleges and transfers

-The design used for the college team must be reasonably similar to one the NFL team has worn, and vice versa. The designs and emblems actually worn by the player in question are preferred, though I will make exceptions where I see fit.

-In cases where the player's college number is difficult to find or unknown, his pro number will be used.

For a while, I've been eyeing a point where I would expand the College to Pro concept beyond football. That time has not yet come, but then, there are a number of places I haven't really taken the idea yet in football. The draft starts tonight, so I'll have at least Luck and RG3 posted tomorrow. Granted, first rounders aren't where I haven't gone yet...but to tide you over until then, Discrim Athletic Works presents...

Of course, we begin with Archie

I floated the idea of gray Ole Miss helmets briefly, but wasn't feeling it. On the Saints' side, the helmet was always going to be black.

Next up, Peyton, Colts era

Yeh, usually I prefer sticking with styles the player in question actually wore himself. Thing is, you recolor a jersey that has nothing but plain block numbers, pair it with another team's helmet, you shed it of its interwoven mythology, and what is hallowed mesh around Rocky Top is merely a glorified Giants ripoff in Indy's colors. Thus I took the Charles Woodson exception and based the Colts jersey on those late 70s whites the Vols threw back to several years ago.

Third up, Eli

In case you hadn't noticed, the Giants and Ole Miss tend to look somewhat similar to each other. Typically, due to said resemblance, I gotta do a little maneuvering so at least one uniform doesn't look like a complete ripoff. This similarity bugged the hell outta me when I was doing Purdue/Saints, but this time, not so much. Granted, the Giants jersey was gonna look like a ripoff of somebody else no matter what I did here. And boom goes the dynamite.

Last one, Peyton, Broncos era

The idea of a Broncofield Vols uni presented a bit of a problem. Notably, how does one create something like that while keeping black the tertiary color it is? Then it came to me, a partially checkered swoosh. Were this a normal concept, I'd be able to restrict the whole thing to two jerseys and two pants, rather than likely needing three or four pants sets. As it is, I could've had orange jersey/white pants, all white or all orange without looking all that different from what you see. On the bottom, yeah, sometimes you have too much of a good thing. But not in this case.

[Discrim]

The draft starts in about 20 minutes or so, so as promised, I present...

With the first selection in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Indianapolis Colts select Andrew Luck, quarterback, Stanford

On top: heh, not like it was gonna look like anything else. Only real difference helmetwise is the lack of the outline on the S. On the bottom: I hang my head in shame. It was either the practice jersey route, like so, or something based on the Pro Combat set that would inevitably either look like a bruise or look like a Chinese 70s Cowboys ripoff. You wanna know what tends to annoy me when I do C2P sets, this tells the story.

With the second selection in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins select Robert Griffin III, quarterback, Baylor

On top,

[jakemon08]

these are pretty cool.

[Discrim]

Continuing a bit later than I'd meant to, here goes Trent Richardson

Bama: this one was slightly problematic, seeing as the Browns' jersey uses three colors and Bama only uses two, for the most part. I flirted with using silver as a tertiary color, but nixed that idea in favor of houndstooth.

Browns: Figured I may as well do a little historical borrowing to lessen the "practice jersey" look, thus the shadow circa 1946.

And my guy Michael Floyd

Irish: The white portions of the sleeves on the Cards template are supposed to resemble the Arizona flag. They do a rather poor job of that. On the upside, it wound up generic enough to not look entirely awkward as a Notre Dame uni. Still awkward in a "way too out there" way, but not as much as you'd think.

Cards: If I'd gone with the helmet switch route as usual, the cardinal head would've gone on the sleeves. As it was, years ago I'd worked on an updated version of the running cardinal the team had when they were still in St. Louis, and figured it was a good time to finally tweak it. So it's the sleeve logo here.

[bigmike]

Just wanted to say I love these concepts!

I really like how you incoperate things like houndstooth and checkerboard in a unique way. And that Notre Dame styled Cardinals logo looks great!

I've always been a fan of your concepts, would really like to see more!

[Discrim]

The running cardinal wasn't based on anything ND's ever used, my use of it boiled down to not wanting to repeat the cardinal head, and it seeming like a good time to bring it out of mothballs. I'd made the first version of the thing YEARS ago, older cardinal head and everything.

[Discrim]

The draftees are on the backburner for a minute...I give you an interlude...

Chargers

USC: this one actually needed a little effort...I was trying to work in a Trojan sword, which admittedly would've looked cooler. I'll probably redo it later. I figured one thing at least, none of these will resemble Arizona State.

Bolts: as I didn't have the horse logo on me when I was busy, I simply went with the normal helmet. Anyways, May as well see how yall like my fusion of the bolts with rather traditional striping.

Dolphins

USC: The striping on the Dolphins' uniforms uses three colors, not including white. USC wears two colors. A bit of a challenge, but nothing insurmountable. White numbers just wouldn't look right on the Trojans, so I left the numbers alone.

Fins: Aqua helmet: pretty good, actually. With orange pants? Uzumaki Naruto, I am not.

Patriots

USC: It just occurred to me that this bears a notable resemblance to their current uni. With piping.

Pats: When a number of your sporting tastes were partially shaped by 90s Arena football, you too will know that basic Northwestern striping can be customized well.

Chargers Powder Blue

USC: see mk 1

Bolts: because I know if I hadn't, somebody would've clamored for powder blue.

[Discrim]

bump of silence for the champions (sue me, I was playing NBA 2K11 earlier)

[GriffinM6]

That is amazing! I love the first one the best, but the Patriots look great in the USC look also.

[St Louis Cardinals]

cool. really like the powder blue. by the way, how do you change the subtitle on the topic?

[dsaline97]

cool. really like the powder blue. by the way, how do you change the subtitle on the topic?

Edit the first post and click use full editor. From there you should be able to change that.

[St Louis Cardinals]

thanks

[Discrim]

It's been a few months, and I felt it was time to rise from the ashes...C2P has returned, I bring you...

Starting with Joe Montana

Figured since he wore mismatched golds most of his career, I may as well keep the helmet and pants golds mismatched here as well...keeping the inconsistencies consistent, you could say. Unlike with Mike Floyd, I did go with the helmet switch for all four, meaning you have four completely blank NFL lids. Eh well, plenty of people love the Lions' 57 throwbacks. ND set: based on 80s Niners; SF set: based on late 70s Irish

Tim Brown

ND: well, the autumn wind is a raider; Raiders: based on 87 Irish...yeah, I'm taking a few liberties, but I like gold numbers. I figured the leprechaun made more sense to put on the shield than either the shamrock or the ND, while I considered taking a small liberty with the Raiders' helmet before deciding it was fine the way it was.

Rocket Ismail

At some point I'll be doing a CFL edition, but I'll be honest, I'd wanted to do this one as ND/Argos. I'll save that for the CFL edition though. Anyways, the Irish set is based on the Cowboys Doublestars, though with the small Woodson exception* of the current shamrock, which I feel doesn't get enough love in South Bend. The Cowboys set is based on the early 90s set, and like with the Montana set, keeps Dallas' infamously inconsistent silvers around.

Jerome Bettis

Last but not least, El Autobus. The opposite side of the ND helmet, while not shown, would be blank...just use your imagination there. Anyways, to those who ask me "Scrim...did you really have to sneak green in there?" Hell yeah, right. Steelers based on same early 90s jerseys Rocket's Cowboys is based on, ND based on current Steelers, complete with the helmet numbers.

*Charles Woodson exception: In the context of College to Pro, using a uniform design or emblem that was not around when the player in question either attended his college or played for his pro team. Named after the Packers CB/S/quasi-LB in whose C2P entry I based Michigan's design on a throwback that Green Bay had worn a few years before he joined them, and the Packers' design after the "bumblebee" uniform worn against Michigan State in the 2011 season, nearly 15 years since Woodson last wore a Michigan uniform; done for two reasons: I'd used Desmond Howard in the same group, and I had no desire to wait for Denard Robinson to either enter the 2012 draft, which he did not do, or graduate. Also, the throwback I'd initially wanted to use, the Packers' 1929 "Powerball" jersey, is too close in color to Michigan that it wouldn't look any different, save for lack of 1's.

[Gfonk04]

Discrim, as always I love your work. These concepts look awesome and I hope you keep it going!

Maybe you should branch out into baseball, or basketball, or hockey.

I like how you took the opportunity to mess with helmet logos this time around. I thought that was the one weakness of the early versions of this series, but your current efforts are great!

Love seeing work by the Discrimihater.

[Buster]

The Bettis Steelers jersey is identical to those jerseys they sell at Walmart.

Love the concept idea though.

Baylor looks AMAZING using the Redskins design.

The Raiders would look great wearing that Ismail uniform. I really like the Browns Trent Richardson version too.

[Discrim]

Bettis Walmart resemblance: yeah, those things are gonna happen. Sometimes you can't avoid it. And it's not completely identical to a Walmart jersey...there's gold cuffs and the numbers have gold trim

Helmet switching: As I'd said in one of the past threads, it's at my discretion...if, for instance, switching wouldn't be worth the effort or would seem too contrived, then it won't happen. Otherwise it will.

Branching out: Believe me, I've thought about it since after the Miami set. I think I will soon, even if that means I largely sacrifice the themes that I've tended to use in the series so far.

[Discrim]

Well, finally got around to branching out, if you aint seen already...and coincidentally, I'm finally gonna hit a bit of new ground in football. Every now and then, college football players will transfer to a different school. Sometimes, said player wants to be closer to home. Other times, he recognizes that the player ahead of him on the depth chart will be almost impossible to dislodge, or there might be an extreme regime change he can see his skills aren't suited for. Too often, the player in question did something idiotic enough to get the boot and now must find somebody desperate enough to put up with his antics. Every now and then, the player was the can't miss blue chipper who bombed horribly, got benched, and is trying for another chance somewhere where there's less pressure to be great. Those, and various other reasons, give us what I'll call Transfer Stars...have cleats, will travel.

Transfer Stars #1: Cam Newton...Florida & Panthers

I was originally gonna use the new Panthers wordmark for their helmet...problem was it doesn't make for a very interesting helmet logo. The panther face, however, did. Very much so. And the Pantherized Gators look somewhat less awkward than the Auburn version did IMO, but that's just me. Granted, it's not there anymore, but if yall remember Florida's A-ROSS patch, decided to create a similar looking Sam Mills "Keep Pounding" patch.

[Discrim]

Back to a more usual C2P...I give you Jay Cutler

Vandy: based on current Bears. Very much so. Not much more to say, so...

Bears: based on what Vandy was wearing in Cutler's senior year...heh, this is basically the type of concept I would NEVER have put out if not for College to Pro. Since I left the star off of Vandy's helmet, I put it on the Bears lid, using a six pointed version to tie into Chicago's flag. The rumored orange pants make an appearance here, though the regular pants would've done as well. And I'm aware I forgot the shoulder numbers.