Somehow the official announcement got past us, but I picked up on an article today regarding the effort to put the stripes back on the San Francisco 49ers new uniforms, and I have to say, it’s nice to see a team change their uniforms using their past as a guide, rather than using Nike and the Arena League as their inspriation.
I never understood why the 49ers added the drop shadow to the numbers on their uniforms in the first place–and apparently, by eliminating, the new uniforms are lighter now as well. Maybe the uniforms will help Mike Singletary get more out of his players?
Hopefully this will start a trend in the league, and we will see a return to classic uniforms for more teams, for more than just 1-2 “throwback” games a year. The Vikings, in particular, always look way sharper in their classic duds with stripes on the sleeves and grey facemasks.
We can only hope that the Titans, Bills, Seahawks and other teams that have fallen in love with pastel and monochrome arena league style uniforms will follow. Before they start putting ads on the uniforms.
With the Jets moving up in Saturday’s draft to take USC QB Mark Sanchez, the Jets will have to significantly commit financially to Sanchez for the 2009 season. One of my first thoughts after the move was, where does this leave Brett Favre?
Obviously Favre retired, so at the current time, it’s not a problem for the Jets. But what if Favre, conveniently after the Jets commit to Sanchez, decides to un-retire again? He would quickly find himself in a situation similar to last season with the Packers–owed a big chunk of money by a team that didn’t want him, forcing them to release him or cut him, or likely be over the salary cap.
While Favre currently maintains that he has no plans to return in 2010, the release means that he is free to sign with any team in the NFL, eliminating the clause the Packers included in last season’s trade that penalized the Jets if they turned around and traded him to the Vikings (where Favre reportedly wanted to go).
While Favre did file his retirement papers this time around, from what I’ve read, it is still just a matter of filing for reinstatement, if he were to change his mind again.
And with the Vikings seemingly set at nearly every spot EXCEPT quarterback, one has to wonder if coach Brad Childress might not call his old pal Favre, at least to see what his feelings really are as it related to his second retirement…
Just read on Twitter (and USA Today) that EA Sports has announced who will be on the cover of Madden 2010–and for those of you that believe in the ‘Madden Curse,’ making your fantasy cheat sheets should be an interesting challange this fall.
EA Sports Madden 2010 Cover
The game will feature Larry Fitzgerald–considered by many the top fantasy receiver in the game and a likely top 12 pick in almost any draft–on the cover.
Of course, that could change if the Cardinals move Anquan Boldin this weekend–or if you believe in that Madden Curse, which has struck Barry Sanders, Eddie George, Daunte Culpepper, Marshall Faulk, Michael Vick, Ray Lewis, Donovan McNabb, Shaun Alexander and Vince Young.
EA, in what might be seen as some as a move to try to counter the curse, will for the first time every feature two players on the cover, pairing Fitzgerald with one of his opponents from Super Bowl XLIII, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu.
So you might want to knock the Steelers defense down a few pegs on your draft board as well.
This isn’t really football specific–but last week, Sports Center introduced Blog Buzz, a feature where they show the top articles being discussed in the blogosphere. I had seen an article on it last week, but paid it little attention, until I saw the article above this morning.
The main reason that I didn’t pay much attention to it was because of the initial reaction to Blog Buzz in the blogosphere–which was not overly positive. Not surprisingly, the first time the segment ran, they featured two blog comments–one from a blog on the Sun Sentinel, a Miami based newspaper, and the other was from one of ESPN’s own bloggers. Not exactly the type of blog coverage that earns the respect of indpendent blogs.
In my reading this morning, it appears that ESPN heard the feedback, and is making changes based on it–at least according to this blog, which appears to be related to the ESPN bit somehow (although, I wonder why ESPN would be tied in with a non-branded blogspot site). Which might make it slightly worthwhile.
But my reason for bringing it up on ZoneBlitz? I just thought the name was funny–Blog Buzz. It’s a fairly logical name–but ESPN also managed to name their segment in a way that ties it together with a rather infamous sports blog moment:
In an effort to distance themselves from last year’s 0-16 campaign, the Detroit Lions today officially unveiled their new logo–which is, in fact, not that different from their previous logo.
The new logo, which had been leaked on the Internet weeks ago, still features the Honolulu Blue Lion introduce in 1970 pouncing on…something–but now features more details, including a mouth, eye and details around the mane.
While the logo isn’t as drastic a change as say, the 1997 Tampa Bay Buccaneers change (when they dumped the classic creamsicle orange & winking pirate for today’s pewter, red & black skull & crossbones combo), I actually kind of like the new logo–and specifically like that they didn’t make too drastic of a change.
I also appreciate that the team, which just added the black outline to the Lion in 2003, didn’t feel the need to follow the recent trend in the NFL by changing to jerseys featuring different colored side panels & Nike swooshes on the pants.
Some traditionalists will likely decry the move, and the change is unlikely to cause their fans to forget about last season’s record setting performance–but with less than a week until the Lions are officially on the clock for the #1 overall pick, Lions fans can at least take comfort in the fact that the Lions could have screwed this up a lot worse.
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RIP Steve McMichael
Robert ok see you then