You Old Sew-and-Sew

This promotional photo of fearsome linebacker Ray Nitschke opens a small window into the NFL of the late 1960s:

Looks standard enough, but a closer look reveals the lengths to which the Packers used to go in order to keep a jersey on the field. Look at the repairs the team has made across his shoulders:

We've seen extreme examples of team repairs before, along the bottom of this 1949 Bill Kelley sideline jacket:


And across the chest and shoulders of this 1951 Jim Ringo jersey:


So there's nothing new in the team wielding needle and thread to get a few more games' life out of a uniform.

What's interesting to me is that the Packers used the battered and stitched-together jersey for a promotional photo. He looks oddly out of place against a studio backdrop; they might as well have depicted him splattered with mud.