The National Football League championship games yesterday generated two winners and two losers. In actuality, all four teams won. In turn, the NFL won. I'm not talking about the questionable reluctance of Jay Cutler to return to action after allegedly twisting his knee after verifiably having a sub-par first half. I'm not talking about the questionable eagerness of Ben Rothlisberger to allegedly manhandle every other co-ed he encounters at college bars or mountain resort towns. I'm talking about the uniforms. All four teams--Jets, Steelers, Packers, and Bears--were wearing their traditional colors and traditional designs. They don't need to radically change one or the other every other year to boost merchandise sales or look "cooler."
The Monsters of the Midway looked like the Monsters of the Midway. Dick Butkus, Mike Ditka, Mike Singletary, and Jim McMahon could have stepped out there and not felt out of place. The Pack was the Pack. Aaron Rogers looked like Bart Starr. Win or lose, the Packers never change their look. In the AFC championship, the Jets, still green and white, resembled the 1969 Miracle Jets of Joe Willie Namath, Don Maynard, and Matt Snell while the Steelers, still black and gold, resembled the 70's Steel Curtain brigade of Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, and Mean Joe Greene.
The NBA is the opposite of the NFL. There, change is good. Winning and losing franchises both experiment and reboot. It's understandable why perennial losers change their colors and logos, but to watch the Lakers play in white jerseys is curious, at best. That's not adding black to the color scheme in order to appeal to gangs and boost sales. It's white. Mindboggling.
Major League Baseball has its usual tweaks (add black, Cardinals?), but the Giants sure looked good in the World Series wearing their orange and black caps and trim. Not much has changed since Mel Ott, Willie Mays, and Juan Marichal. MLB loves tradition, we're told. So why did they allow that egomaniacal super-agent to change the colors and design of the Diamondbacks uniforms when he took control of the team? It's not like the Diamondbacks were a bad franchise. They had only been around about ten years, with one World Series championship behind them, when Mr. Superagent (who shall remain nameless here) bragged about resculpting the team in his image. Gone were the distinct pinstripes and purple trim. In was generic cream and red. The Diamondbacks haven't been winners since. The previous owner, Jerry Colangelo, was terrific for both the city of Phoenix and the team.
I wonder if the Oregon Ducks ridiculous grey and green outfits for the championship game were a bad luck charm for them. Just because they can afford change, and change frequently due to the Nike connection, doesn't mean they should. Penn State, USC, and Alabama do it right. They believe in tradition. So does the NFL. Winners all.
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