New Nike Uniform Template Revealed

Nike's PR Director just tweeted out photos of the new Pro Bowl uniforms:

Nike Vapor Untouchable Pro Bowl uniforms: 20.4 ounces, removed seams from the front (panels converge in back). pic.twitter.com/GKzyf4ZqGU

— Heidi Burgett (@heidiburgett) December 8, 2015

This is interesting because the template, known as "Vapor Untouchable 2", will be brought to the NFL next season. I'm sure Nike will spin some happy horseradish about them being "20.00025% lighter" or something.

One more reason to be glad that the Packers have insisted on retaining their traditional template rather than blindly accepting the marketing gimmick Nike hands them.

Hawaii Five-Oh, My Eyes.

For anyone who still cares, the Pro Bowl was held yesterday at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The teams were different this year; instead of AFC versus NFC, the players were tossed into one large pool and drafted, playground-style, to play on teams captained by (and named for) Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders. Those two teams, shed of the traditional AFC Red and NFC Blue color schemes, were outfitted in neon superhero costumes from Nike.

It didn't help that the Packers had but one lone representative, running back Eddie Lacy.

He was certainly deserving of the general honor, shame that it had to be wrapped up in this clown suit.

To be honest, I can't remember which neon color was assigned to which team. Team Rice won the "game", although I don't have any idea if that was Lacy's team or not.

New Pro Bowl Unifo... No, Still Don't Care.

The Pro Bowl is an increasingly bad joke, played by indifferent players trying more than anything else to get hurt. It is an exhibition game in a sport that needs to reduce the amount of time its players spend playing.

So naturally, the solution is new uniforms.

No more red and blue (no conferences any more, either): we're into much more marketable colors now.

The press release includes perhaps the stupidest statement written by a league PR flack in some time:

"Reflecting by the pace of the game, these concept uniforms are punctuated by accents of vibrant orange and volt."

Silly under the best of circumstances, the assertion borders on the farcical when applied to the overblown touch-football game that is the Pro Bowl.

2013 Pro Bowl Report

What the hell is going on out there? A spy in the huddle?

Not quite. Packers center Jeff Saturday, as everyone knows, spent his first thirteen seasons in Indianapolis before coming to Green Bay as a free agent at the beginning of this season. His time in a Packer uniform wasn't terribly productive—he was benched in December—but that didn't stop him from being the leading vote-getter of all offensive linemen in fan voting.

Saturday announced that he would retire after the Pro Bowl, so with the permission of Commissioner Roger Goodell he hopped the line to take one last snap from Peyton Manning (now representing the Broncos).

That's obviously the only time a Packer has played a down for the AFC.

On the sidelines, NFC coach Mike McCarthy and his counterparts eschewed the Hawai'ian shirts of recent years for more sedate conference colors.

And that's all the Packers-related news from what will hopefully be the last Pro Bowl ever played.

We could talk about other notable moments from the game, for example, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh wearing an old Lions logo on his jersey (it's only been four years since they introduced the new one, after all), but I'm having a very hard time working up that level of enthusiasm for this game. Out of all the All-Star Games, this is the one that seems the most pointless given the level of competition and the number of stars who find a reason to be elsewhere that day.

I'm far from the first person to say so, but it's time to find a new way to honor these players without making them go through the motions of half-heartedly playing a meaningless game; maybe another awards ceremony, this time in Hawaii?

2013 Pro Bowl Jersey Leak?

I have a pretty hard time caring about the Pro Bowl (which, based on the quality of play, really ought to be replaced by an awards banquet and a stack of free tickets to Hawaii), but at least the jerseys usually give us something to talk about.

Today, the Buccaneers' defensive tackle Gerald McCoy posted this photo of his Pro Bowl jersey:

That's shockingly old-school.

Looks an awful lot like the jerseys I remember from the 1970s and 1980s, such as this beauty from 1973:

Since 1993, the Pro Bowl has been where uniform manufacturers let their design teams run free:

Stuff that would never fly in the regular season is allowed to flourish in Hawaii.

And let's not forget this recent "winner":

This year, the Pro Bowl might be watchable. At least, the jerseys might be.

Not Quite Ruby Slippers, but...

A few days ago, wide receiver Donald Driver posted this on his Twitter account:

The cleats themselves appear very similar to those unveiled earlier in the year with a swoosh change from white to gold:

If the "custom made" part refers to design, it would seem to be Driver's number on the inside and his name on the back of the tongue.

"Quickie" refers to the title character (and authorial avatar) in his children's book "Quickie Makes the Team" and its two sequels.

Driver's teammate Greg Jennings wore these Nike cleats in the Pro Bowl earlier this year:

New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis (24), of the AFC, breaks up a pass intended for Green Bay Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings (85), of the NFC, during the second quarter of the NFL Pro Bowl football game, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

In previous years, teams had to choose either white cleats or black for the entire team, which could then be accented in team colors (the Packers switched from white to black to inaugurate the Aaron Rodgers era). I don't know where these new team-colored cleats fit in, if the entire team will be required to wear them or if they will supplement the team's base color. We'll know soon enough.

The Gloves are Off

Nike's first NFL product has been unveiled; "Vapor Jet" gloves. When a player crosses his hands just so, the pattern combines to form his team's logo. Very popular among players who like to mug for the cameras.

This concept isn't exactly new; Nike has produced these for their college programs for the last few years:

Today Nike posted photos to its Facebook page with a Packers version and one for each of the League's 32 teams under the heading "Pro Bowl 2012".

The meaningless Pro Bowl is one thing, but I don't think we should expect to see these in an actual game; they seem tailor-made for a 15-yard Unsportsmanlike Conduct flag. The NFL isn't too keen on the use of props in celebrations.

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UPDATED 1/30/2012:   Greg Jennings wore these gloves in the Pro Bowl, and made the first hand-shout in NFL game history, albeit the exhibition game.

Pro Bowl Uniform Number Mystery

Rick Pearson, a friend from the Uni Watch blog, sent me this photo of Paul Hornung wearing #35 in the Pro Bowl.

Here's one I simply can't explain. Might need help from other UWers. Paul Hornung wearing #35 in the Pro Bowl.

Can't even think of another player in the league at the time who wore #5 (y'know, someone who would have had seniority in the game). Weren't more than a handful of single digit guys at most.

Unless he was an injury-replacement for someone who wore #35. Rick Casares of the Bears, maybe? But I can't figure Hornung as late replacement. And even if he were, you'd think they'd have known who the kicker was gonna be. From the content of the cutline he wasn't there just as a kicker.

Wow. You've got me.

I have to admit that the Pro Bowl isn't my area of expertise. Although it must be fun for the players (at least the "spend a week in Hawaii" part), it isn't much fun for me to watch.

I do know that Hornung only played in two Pro Bowls, 1960 and 1961. Based on the caption, this photo was taken during the 1961 game. The Western Conference wore the same uniforms in both; blue helmets, white pants and jerseys with Northwestern sleeve stripes. Here's what the games looked like in color:

Looking at photos of the game, it appears that it was not uncommon for players to wear different numbers in the Pro Bowl. Here's Y.A. Tittle in the 1960 game:

Tittle was #14 for the Niners that season, and I'm not aware of him ever wearing #8.

So what do you guys know about this? When did it become standard practice for players to keep their numbers in the Pro Bowl?

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UPDATE 3/31: Reader Jeff Fedenko provides us the answer.

From an interview with Todd Hewitt, former equipment manager for the Los Angeles Rams, who worked the Pro Bowl games at the Los Angeles Coliseum:

After the (Pro Bowl) ended I set up a table just outside the locker room. Glen Davis, the former great running back from Army, would sit there with me and distribute game paychecks to each player but only after they had handed over their game issued jersey, pants and sock to me. Unlike today where the Pro Bowl players get to keep everything, we reused those uniforms year after year. In those days the jerseys did not have the player names on them so they were easy to reuse the following year.

Thanks, Jeff! Mystery solved.

Forrest Gregg's 1968 Pro Bowl helmet

As the NFL plays its Pro Bowl today, we look back at an earlier game convention that has fallen by the wayside.

Today, all players wear their individual team helmets with their conference uniforms. That wasn't always the case - before the early 1990s, players would wear dark helmets with white conference logos - blue for the NFC, red for the AFC. For a period before the NFL/AFL merger, Pro Bowlers from both teams wore gold helmets, with the NFL logo on each side and center stripes in the conference color (Western Conference teams such as the Packers wore blue and white stripes, while representatives of the Eastern Conference wore red and white stripes).

In those days, players brought their own helmets to the Pro Bowl which were then altered, such as this helmet worn by Forrest Gregg in the 1968 Pro Bowl game:

What's particularly interesting about this helmet is what it tells us about the Packers' iconic helmet logo. You can clearly see that it is comprised of two separate decals - the green ellipse and white "G" each stand out in relief under the gold spray paint (the team decals were removed entirely from the left side).

I don't know when the Packers moved to the single-layer decal they wear now, but it appears to have been after 1968.

UPDATE 02/17: Helmet Hut has a great article about this helmet on their website, including a color photo of Gregg in the 1968 Pro Bowl.

Getting Ugly, Chapter 2: Getting Uglier

Following up on the new prototype jerseys that the Packers have been testing in practice comes this article about the Pro Bowl jerseys:

Reebok tests "stretch mesh" jersey at NFL Pro Bowl
By JAYMES SONG

HONOLULU - National Football League players were outfitted on Sunday with Pro Bowl jerseys made from a new material Reebok is testing and believes can improve athletic performance.

The "stretch mesh" jerseys are nearly 20 percent lighter than the standard NFL jersey and aim to allow for more range of motion, better ventilation and temperature control.

If all goes well, a number of teams will use the material next season.

The jerseys are also supposed to provide better fit and comfort, but don't tell that to New York Jets defensive tackle Kris Jenkins.

The 6-foot-4, 349-pound Jenkins first put on his AFC jersey for photo day and practice Friday, and it appeared two XL sizes too small, looking more like a crop top.

"I've been holding my breath since the pictures," Jenkins said.

And this great video from NBC's coverage of the game:

Don't mince words, Kris. How do you really feel? This highlights one of the concerns I've had about the move to spandex unitards: for every cut wide receiver on the field for any given play, there are several linemen who won't be exactly flattered by the body-paint look.

I'm very wary about the new jerseys. Design-wise, I'm wary about everything that has anything to do with the Pro Bowl:

The worst thing about moving the Pro Bowl to the week before Super Bowl is that the game, and its uniforms, will be much harder to ignore. Which I guess is the point from the NFL's perspective but sure seems like a lose-lose to me.