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When the Cleveland Indians take the field against the Cincinnati Reds on Memorial Day, they will likely join the rest of Major League Baseball in wearing camouflage-trimmed uniforms. Update: the team has confirmed they will wear them.
Here are the hat and back of the jersey:
[Read more...]
Everyone likes numbers right? Every once in a while I like to see what story the numbers tell. Today I’m going to do a special ‘Fun with Numbers edition on the new Browns and their jersey numbers. Let’s have some fun-
You know that moment when a new player is introduced at a press conference and they hold up his new jersey? Unlike at the draft, when generally they all hold up a number 1 jersey, these are usually the number the player has selected to wear. Yesterday, the Browns confirmed uniform numbers for the 8 players signed thus far in free agency.
17- Jason Campbell. Campbell wore 17 with the Redskins, his first team in the league. In Oakland he wore number 8 and last season with the Bears he wore number 2. The number 17 is quite an interesting one in Browns history. Before Brian Sipe wore it in the mid 70′s and early 80′s, only one player had worn it in team history- Jerry Rhome in 1969. (1000 Woofnie points to you if you’ve ever heard of Jerry Rhome before.) From the beginning of the franchise until 1990, only those two players wore it. Since then, it has been worn by Todd Philcox, Chris Gardocki, Braylon Edwards and Jake Delhomme. (Worn in games. Not counting practice squad or training camp invites.)
Brian Sipe is the team’s career leader in passing yards by the way. He threw for 23,713 yards. That’s a mere 123 yards more than Otto Graham. Otto is still the leader in touchdown passes though, with 174. Todd Philcox has 7 TDs. Delhomme has 2. Just to give Campbell something to shoot for. Second place in touchdown passes for a Browns QB wearing number 17. [Read more...]
While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
Leading off, it’s Super Bowl Sunday, so let’s look at some fun, potentially unknown to you facts about the Super Bowl Halftime Show, “Of course you read this on Shutdown Corner yesterday, but Beyonce won’t get paid for performing. Nobody else has gotten paid by the NFL for performing at halftime either. The artists get expenses paid for and that’s it. It makes sense, because even the biggest artists in the world aren’t going to have an audience of more than 110 million people ever again. The exposure is priceless, as long as you don’t screw it up (hello, Black Eyed Peas!). And if Michael Jackson didn’t get paid for his halftime show, you’ve got no shot.” [Shutdown Corner]
For those who are player efficiency rating (PER) fans in NBA stats circles, here’s someone who isn’t a fan and uses computer science sort algorithm analogies to make his point (ahh, the undergraduate days for yours truly), “There is really no reason to use PER.** At least, not if the advancement of useful stats in basketball is your goal. The truth is that PER is still heavily used. ESPN has a vested interest in using it. Many analysts on the web use it, because candidly, it’s hard to get stats. It’s a lot of work to break apart metrics and understand how they work (something we’re trying to do a better job of with Wins Produced). The simple fact is when people bring up PER or use sentences like “I know +/- is noisy, but…” well all I can say is that it’s a wrong way to go.” [Wages of Wins Journal] [Read more...]
While the Cleveland Browns officially entered a new chapter of team history by unveiling the sale of the naming rights to Cleveland Browns Stadium to FirstEnergy, team owner Jimmy Haslam III stated that the team will also “look into” changes to the team’s uniform.
Due to the glacial pace of legalese-clad updates to anything in the NFL, the team has filed the requisite paperwork that could see minor updates to the otherwise hitorical uniform as early as the 2014 season. Browns fans who cling to history and nostalgia will be glad to know that the logo-free helmets will remain so as not altering he team’s headgear was one of the four stipulations agreed to upon the transfer of ownership from Randy Lerner to Haslam 1 .
While there may be some minor changes to the Browns’ uniforms, what will remain untouched are the current sidelines as cheerleaders will not be added to the fold. One of only a handful of teams to not have cheerleaders gracing the outskirts of the playing field, Haslam stated that they, while littering all of Dallas, “do not fit Cleveland.”
The impending changes to the team’s uniform and in-stadium accouterments has been an ongoing topic of discussion since Haslam took ownership of the team. Like every other Browns-based topic, the emotional reactions have been mixed.
[Related: Top Five Non-Essential Things Jimmy Haslam Should Do With the Browns]
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We’re number 1! The Cavs are still rebuilding, but apparently they got their uniforms right, at least if you believe Wesley Morris from Grantland. Specifically they like the mustard alternate ones.
If you’re playing basketball in Cleveland, you should be the happiest player in the NBA. You should. For a decade, it was maroon, maroon, maroon — and what happened? You got marooned. It’s been two years since you-know-who left. It’s time for a new you, and here it is: French’s mustard with Heinz script. It’s young, it’s exciting, and when I see it I immediately want to put the whole thing on my hot dog. It’s only an alternate uniform, it’s true. But it’s one that says things are looking up: We’ve still got Kyrie Irving, and we just know he’ll be thrilled to spend many nights for many years wearing this and not totally ripping our hearts out. Right, Kyrie?
OK, so they also had to throw in a “Decision” crack, but whatever. We’re #1!
[Related: WFNY Podcast – 2012-10-17 – Browns ownership reflecting on Indians ownership]
92.3 The Fan’s Daryl Ruiter has the report on the Browns’ uniform choice-
“The Browns will wear their brown jerseys for both preseason home games as well as the final 5 regular season home games this season.
The team will wear all white for the first 3 home games as well as all road games in which the home team elects to wear their dark jerseys.”
Last year of course, the team wore all white the entire season. With nothing exciting happening on the field, discussions digressed, and comparisons were made between the vanilla (and largely uneffective) offense, and the all-white vanilla uniforms.
Team president Mike Holmgren had mentioned the Brown uniforms would be back this year in interviews, but we were uncertain until now as to the degree.
[Related: Browns banking on Lauvao to help make Weeden and Richardson a success]
Paul Lucas of Uni-Watch is revealing his power ranking of all 122 NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL team uniforms. The first group was posted today, and it has the Cleveland Cavaliers at number 101-
“When LeBron James played in Cleveland, the Cavs had one of the best uniforms in the league. As soon as he left, they suddenly started dressing like the local semipro team that plays at the high school gym and uses the janitor’s closet as a locker room. Started playing like a semipro team, too. Coincidence?”
Well, yes actually. It was a coincidence, but those who read the site regularly won’t be surprised at all when I agree with Paul’s take. The Cavaliers had a great uniform design. A beautiful blend of color with a very unique font. It was certainly one of the best uniforms in all of sports, not just the NBA. Then they ditched it for the ketchup and mustard monsters they currently wear.
Of course, Dave Dameshek listed the Cavaliers 11th in a similar rating this past weekend. So there you go Cavalier fans.
New owner Jimmy Haslem spoke to the press today and seemed very genuine and honest about his family’s ownership of the Browns and his investment in the city of Cleveland. Haslem isn’t pretending that he is going to be a full-time resident of the city (they will be purchasing a home for the time they do spend in Cleveland) nor did he promise to look at moving some of his Pilot home operations away from Knoxville.
And when asked about the naming rights to the stadium and the colors and uniforms of the team, I believe he was honest as well.
He considers that part of the team marketing. And he is a business man. If you are reading between the lines, I’m pretty sure that means the winds of change will be blowing.
And I know that a good portion of the fan base would be outraged by such a move.
But I think it’s time to embrace change. [Read more...]
Browns LB Chris Gocong tweeted a picture of T.J. Ward in his new helmet today. The interesting part of the photo to uni-nerds like myself is that the facemask is white.
While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com
The piece on on Ali, but this was a great take on Jim Brown- “Jim Brown, I think, was like that for the late 1950s and early ’60s. Old football films of Jim Brown running do not jump off the screen the way they do for, say, Gale Sayers. You watch Gale Sayers highlights in 2012, and he feels just as amazing and surprising and alive as he did in 1966. He’s timeless that way. Not Jim Brown. I always thought on film he looks dated somehow, yellowed, like beauties from the Silent Film Era. It’s hard for film to capture Brown as he was in, say, 1958 or 1963 — the most astonishing football player ever. He was relentless, overpowering, overwhelming — he was bigger, faster, stronger and more determined than anyone else on the field. They knew he was going to get the ball. They always knew. And they could not stop him — 5.2 yards per carry for an entire career (nobody with 2,000 carries has averaged more than 5), 104.3 yards per game for an entire career (nobody else has averaged 100), led the league in rushing every year but one. But even these numbers, even the highlights that survive, none of them can explain Jim Brown. I grew up idolizing JIm Brown based only on the stories my father and his friends told me growing up in Cleveland, but in the end (they would tell me) I couldn’t really KNOW what he was really like.” [Posnanski/Joe Blogs] [Read more...]
Last week, the Indians announced some changes to the uniforms for this season. Jon brought you the initial news, and I’ve been waiting to hear a few more details before discussing it here. I don’t know if I’m the most opinionated one on the site about uniforms or not, but I certainly do pay attention and probably voice my opinion more than the rest of the guys.
The changes aren’t major, but could definitely be an upgrade. The most notable differences to the Home white and alternate jerseys are the removal of the trim along the collar and down the button panels. That piping has been part of the Indians’ white and blue tops in some form since the team switched to the new wordmark and uniforms in the ’90s. [Read more...]
I’ve been having an ongoing discussion with National Football Authority’s Daniel Wolf this season about Cleveland’s choice of uniforms. I am the self-proclaimed site Uni-Nerd. I wear the badge with pride actually. Whether discussing my favorite non-Cleveland uniforms, or reviewing the best jersey numbers in Cleveland sports or just giving my opinion on sports fashion here and there, I love to talk about the laundry.
So this year, the Browns decided that they will wear the all whites at home. They did this for two reasons, according to Wolf’s piece here-
“The team is honoring Paul Brown, and his team’s, by bringing back the white-on-white uniforms for all home games this season,” said Gulkis. Fans have seen the Browns wear their brown jerseys with white pants at home, in seasons past, but they are going with the old-school look this year.
“We listen to our fans and they wanted white-on-white at home,” said Gulkis.
Now, I’m all for honoring the past with uniforms- to an extent of course. I wonder sometimes if some fans even know that the team is not named after the color, nor the great running back, but a former coach Paul Brown. It is also interesting that the team honors him by removing as much brown from the uniforms as possible. [Read more...]
I make my opinions known on uniforms quite often on the site, and so I thought I’d take a moment and mention my favorite uniforms (non-Cleveland of course). It is hard nearly impossible to completely take emotion out of the equation when ranking uniforms, at least for myself. So even though teams like the Yankees may have the most classic look out there, there is just no way I’m putting them in my top three. Sorry New York. Can’t get past the gag reflex when looking at the NY.
So without further adieu, and with one more brief reminder that these are just my opinions on uniforms, I present my top three looks for the NFL, MLB and NBA. (Remember, Cleveland uniforms were ineligible.)
NFL
This one may have been the easiest to decide. There is much more room for creativity with a football uniform I think. More flexibility to mix and match team colors as well between the pants, jersey and helmet. [Read more...]
I am always surprised how much people love jersey and uniform talk. Well, I’ll keep the talk to a minimum. Here are Nike’s uniforms for Ohio State this year in their 2011 Pro Combat series.
In researching a piece for Still WFNY on the Cavaliers’ new mascot, I discovered that the company who made Sir CC was located in Indianapolis. I was immediately intrigued as to whether they would allow someone to come and see the mascot creation process. After a few emails I was set to visit Avant Garb, and as luck would have it, Sir CC would be in for some upgrades.
Avant Garb is the creation of Jennifer Smith, who has spent years in costume and theater design. She is an artist, and a self-proclaimed ‘free spirit’ who has spent time living all around the country, including long stops in New York City and Berkley. Though she wouldn’t call herself a ‘sports person,’ she does think that there are a lot of similarities between the sports world and the theater as “they are both very passionate about what they do.” [Read more...]
I’m a uniform guy. I can’t help it. I’ve been that way for as long as I’ve watched sports. I collected the gumball machine football helmets. I ate my ice cream out of those little plastic baseball helmets. I loved that we were allowed to wear our jerseys to school on game days. A lot of you know this. I’ve been vocal about uniforms here in the past.
That’s why I can’t hold it in any longer.
These Cavalier uniforms are absolutely hideous. Terrible. In fact, I think they may be the worst in the league.
The only other competition is with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Let’s go to the tale of the tape. [Read more...]
While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com
Testing out the Ewing Theory with this year’s Cavaliers: “So how will the team actually perform with this huge season on the horizon? Well, as I already mentioned, many experts in the national media have them picked to only win 20 or so games. Brian Windhorst recently added his two cents, claiming that he expects the Cavaliers as is to win between 38-42 games. The Numbers Don’t predictions ranged from 25-38 wins thanks to four different opinions and Smooth’s data analysis projects 35 wins based on WP (wins produced) with this current roster. Needless to say, as is usually the case, local fans and media are noticeably more optimistic than those outside of Cleveland regarding the Cavaliers’ upcoming challenges.” [Numbers Don't]
While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
The new kits get a thumbs up: “The differences are both subtle and dramatic — taking the deeper shade of burgundy for the new jersey, and removing all the side piping and the blue accents — going for a very simple and elegant two-color (burgundy and gold) jersey with five-collar stripes (gold-burgundy-gold-burgundy-gold on the roads, with the opposite sequence on the homes). The numbers on the roads are gold on a burgundy field and burgundy on a white field for the homes. That striping pattern is repeated on the road and home waist band and hems, respectively.
Like the Jazz, who unveiled Monday, this takes elements of their original jersey set and updates them. Very simple and subtle, and very effective.” [Uniwatch Blog]
Yesterday I was driving to Columbus trying to keep from thinking about the trade rumors swirling like snowflakes that surrounded my car (eat your heart out Bud Shaw), and I started to think about what items I might find as my wife drags me through the mall worth purchasing. Another Cavs sweatshirt perhaps? Maybe a discounted Tribe hat? My mind drifted (more snow references, man I’m on a roll) to thoughts of that fragile time in Cleveland sports history when we weren’t sure whether we would have another NFL team come to town, or if the league would award us an expansion team.
The popular sentiment was for the league to award us an expansion franchise and let us keep the name Browns plus the history and colors. Now, I was certainly for keeping the history, and even the name. I was kind of luke-warm on the colors to be honest with you. I would have preferred that the new team take on the colors of the Indians, and since that would make two teams with those colors, why not have the Cavs trade as well. I have to say, as much as I can’t stand Pittsburgh, you certainly know how to identify that city. All of it’s teams sport the black and yellow. It makes it easy for a fan doesn’t it?
Now, there is no way that Browns fans are going to give up their colors now. It just would be a foolish battle. Not worth fighting, and I know I’m probably in the minority anyways. So why not change the other two teams to match the Browns? What would that look like? Well, a little like this (big thanks to Denny for the picture work)- [Read more...]
Return man-turned-wide receiver Josh Cribbs was one half of a tandem that willed the Browns to victory yesterday at Arrowhead Stadium. Some may even say that his two kickoff returns for touchdowns were a superhuman effort, and they may in fact be right. But in a league that requires players to adhere to such strict dress codes, where would No. 16 hide his super powers?
Why in his socks-turned-arm warmers, thats where. [Read more...]
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