If you can’t see the slideshow, click here
Whatever else you can say about football, you have to love that the game goes on no matter what the weather (well, tornados and serious lightning notwithstanding). We all got a vivid reminder about that yesterday, as Old Man Winter set up shop in several NFL stadiums, setting the stage for some extremely entertaining action. Seriously, did you see some of those highlights? Even with all the snow-blowers, the snow on the field in Philly looked like it was a good four inches deep! With the Super Bowl slated for its first-ever cold-weather outdoor site, I think I speak for everyone here when I say all I want for Christmas is very snowy weather here in NYC on Feb. 2.
One uni-related note regarding all this: I find it pretty amazing that so many players choose to go bare-armed in the snow. Like, isn’t this the type of weather they invented water-repellant base layers for?
If you want to see more, the NFL has set up its own snow-centric slideshow here. And here’s a nice public service: Reader Andrew McKillop has compiled a database of every snow game in NFL history. Good stuff!
In non-meteorological developments from around the league yesterday:
• In the Niners/Seahawks game, Seattle cornerback Jeremy Lane’s sleeve swoosh was facing the wrong way.
• In that same game, Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch wore teammate Derrick Coleman’s helmet.
• And one more from that game: 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh was wearing cleats!
• Always love seeing a player use a sock as an arm sleeve. That’s Sean Smith of the Chiefs.
• For the first time this season, the Dolphins wore their aqua pants and blue-topped socks, and boy did the socks look weird. (As you may recall, we first discussed the socks about seven months ago.)
• The Cardinals once again went full bloodclot — and once again won! I read somewhere that they have a ridiculously good record when wearing solid-red, but now I can’t find the source. Little help..?
• The Jets wore mono-green.
• The Browns wore their brown pants, which is fine by me as long as they wear the striped socks (although I hate it when players modify their socks to position the stripes down by their ankles, as Josh Gordon did in that photo).
• The Saints wore their black unitards.
• Classy moves in New England and Green Bay (and maybe other stadiums as well..?), where the pregame activities included a moment of silence for Nelson Mandela.
As for Saturday’s college action, Phil and his contributors had good coverage in yesterday’s entry, and I have only one thing to add to that: Ohio State’s loss to Michigan State appeared to cause OSU special teams coordinator Kerry Coombs’s swoosh to go limp.
(My thanks to all contributors, including Rob Ingersol, Ramon Meza, Jeff Moulden, Chris Perrenot, Sean Robbins, Derek Woodley, and of course Phil.)
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Culinary Corner: One of our annual holiday season traditions here at Uni Watch is the publication of my recipe for homemade Irish cream. In other words, homemade Bailey’s. In other words, melted ice cream that gets you drunk. It’s super-easy to make, it’ll make you the hero of whatever party you bring it to or serve it at, and lots of you have told me how much you like it. Here’s how to do it:
Start with some decent Irish whiskey — Bushmills, Jameson, Tullamore Dew, something like that (but not super-high-end stuff, because the nuances will be lost in this preparation). Pour a pint of the whiskey into a large-ish container and then add a can of sweetened condensed milk; a pint of heavy whipping cream; a tablespoon of chocolate syrup; a teaspoon of vanilla extract; a teaspoon of instant espresso dissolved in two tablespoons of hot water; and a quarter-teaspoon of almond extract.
Mix well (if the container has a tight lid, you can just shake vigorously), refrigerate, serve over ice, and get ready to become the most popular person in the room. No need to thank me afterward, but you’ll want to do so anyway — trust me.
Whatever the expiration date is on the heavy cream, that’s how long your Irish cream will last. But you and your friends will finish it way before then — you’ll see. I suggest that you reserve some of it and pour it on your cereal at some point during the holiday season, a little preparation that I like to call “Top o’ the Mornin’.”
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Ho-ho-ho: With Christmas fast approaching, here are a few thoughts:
• If you’re thinking of getting a Uni Watch membership card for that special someone (or for yourself) and want it to arrive by Dec. 25, I suggest that you order it now. I’m not setting a hard deadline yet, but creating the membership cards takes time and effort, so please don’t wait till the last minute.
• Want to order a membership card for someone but don’t know what design to get for the lucky recipient? Easy: Order up a Membership Gift Voucher, which your giftee can redeem for the design of his or her choice.
• If you think a certain set of theoretical T-shirt designs might hypothetically find a good home under your tree or in someone’s stocking, let’s discuss.
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Blazers contest — last call: Today’s the last day to submit entries for my Trail Blazers redesign contest on ESPN. Now or never, people!
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’Skins Watch: School officials in Houston are considering a new policy that would ban team names based on ethnic, racial, or cultural stereotypes, which would affect at least four Houston high schools with Native American-based team names (from Cort McMurray). … The move toward that potential new policy in Houston was prompted in part by a recent request from Houston-area State Senator Rodney Ellis to have the Lamar High School Redskins change their name. Senator Ellis, incidentally, is black, thereby proving yet again that only white people care about this issue. … Yep, no question about it, Native American sports imagery brings out the best in everyone. Too bad they didn’t have enough space to work in a Trail of Tears reference (thanks, Phil). … The Orsikany Central High School Redskins in upstate New York are the latest front in the controversy over Native American team names (from Jude Seymour).
Baseball News: Robinson Cano was named after Jackie Robinson and has worn No. 24 — an inverted version of Jackie’s 42 — since 2007. But that presents a problem now that he’s signed with the Mariners, because 24 was Junior Griffey’s number (from Andrew Cosentino). … Mets fans, check out this nice shot of Shea Stadium getting ready to host its first game in 1964 (you da man, Phil).
NFL News: Good spot by Jeff Moulden, who was watching some 1988 Browns footage and noticed some inconsistent typography between the TV numbers and the chest numbers. … Mmmm, love this shot of old NFL helmets (from Willard Kovacs). … What would you give to have NFL players stop giving the first down signal in the middle of a drive? I’ll start the bidding at my left nut.
College Football News: Really interesting story about how three dozen Arizona State players have been participating in a new concussion study. Recommended reading (thanks, Phil). … Minnesota will wear white helmets in the Texas Bowl. “Now if only they could pay for the marching band to get new uniforms,” says Thomas Hack. “We’ve had ours for more than a decade and have to sew them back together as they keep falling apart on us.”
Hockey News: Former Buffalo Bills RB Thurman Thomas attended Saturday night’s Sabres/Canadiens game in Montreal and was given a Habs jersey with his old Bills uni number. And what was he wearing underneath? A Sabres hoodie. Insert joke about Thomas losing his hockey helmet here (from Mike Engle). … The Kings wore throwbacks on Saturday night (thanks, Phil).
Soccer News: Saturday’s MLS Cup match between Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City wasn’t just color vs. color — both teams had one contrast-colored sleeve. “It’s really not my favorite MLS jersey trend,” says Laurence Holland. “It looked like the championship was being contested by two teams of figure skaters.” … Premier League teams saluted Nelson Mandela over the weekend with a minute of appause and, in some cases, black armbands. The minute of applause is interesting — is that what they do in Europe, instead of a moment of silence? (From Yusuke Toyoda.) … Also from Yusuke: “On Friday, the usually dominant Barcelona recorded only its first win in six tries while wearing the yellow and red ‘Senyera’ unis.”
College Hoops News: I caught a glimpse of the Xavier/Bowling Green game in a bar on Saturday and noticed that Xavier’s uni numbers and NOBs are positioned ridiculously high on the back of the jersey. What’s that about? Is that an Xavier tradition or something? … In that same game, I saw a Bowling Green player wearing a fairly large wad of gauze on his right temple — must have sustained a pretty nasty cut. Couldn’t find a photo, alas. … Nebraska and Creighton were both wearing new alternate unis when they played each other last night — BFBS for Nebraska and GFGS for Creighton. … Two odd things about Temple’s new alts: First, those wings on the shorts are maybe just a tad too big (duh). More befuddlingly, as Patrick Reynell points out, gold isn’t one of Temple’s school colors so what’s with the gold trim and gold shoes? Smells like an Under Armour stunt.
Grab Bag: Back in May I did an entry on the old college tradition of making freshmen wear beanies. I didn’t know that my own college — SUNY-Binghmton, which had previously been known as Harpur College — once had a beanie protocol of its own, but I learned about it in the latest issue of our alumni magazine. … David Firestone was at the mall and saw a shirt with every Superman logo ever used. … Also from David: Interesting piece on how toys are marketed to boys vs. girls by their color schemes.
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If you can’t see the slideshow, click here
What Paul did last night yesterday afternoon: The very wonderful City Reliquary — the small Brooklyn museum that I’ve been involved with in varying capacities over the past decade — has a new exhibit about the history of donuts in New York City (several items from which are shown above). Yesterday they convened the inaugural meeting of the Donut Dunkers Club — a throwback to the old National Dunking Association, which once claimed five million members.
This seemed like an event not to be missed, snowy football games or no snowy football games, so off I went. Brief presentations were made, donuts and coffee were provided, and then we proceeded to dunk, adhering to the old NDA rules. At the conclusion of official business, we were all issued official membership cards. Huzzah!
The person behind all this is the lovely Julie Thomson, who curated the exhibit. (Here’s a closer look at the pendant and pin she was wearing in that last photo.) If you want to see more of her obsessive donut pursuits, check out her blog and Twitter feed.
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