I understand that uniforms are not untouchable (like everything else) in today’s sporting landscape. Soccer jerseys have long been adorned with ads that are double the size of the team crest. NFL practice jerseys have housed ads near the shoulder pads for nearly the last decade. CFL jerseys have shoulder patch ads as well. The NBA has recently put small ads on its All-Star jerseys. Despite the current landscape, hockey sweaters are still considered sacred by many, including me.
For hope, we can look to the NBA and the CFL. Adidas has outfitted the NBA since Reebok initially signed a uniform deal with the NBA in 2001 (Adidas, which owns Reebok, signed an 11-year extension to that deal in 2006.). While the signature Adidas three stripes are on NBA practice and warmup apparel, those stripes never appeared on NBA game uniforms. Adidas took over the CFL uniform contract prior to the 2016 season and the three stripes were nowhere to be found on those game uniforms either. The CFL redesign was actually quite classy and well-done. So while the World Cup of Hockey jerseys all had the stripes, there is some hope out there.
One of the first announcements that leaked out regarding the NHL and Adidas is that for the 2017-2018 season there will be no third jerseys. All teams will have only a home and away uniform set until Adidas is ready to do a full rollout (and perhaps redesign) for the following season. Rumors have followed regarding teams and uniform decisions. The Edmonton Oilers are already rumored to be ditching their home blues next season and will wear their orange alternates as their home jerseys next season. The Minnesota Wild seem to be leaning towards their green jerseys as opposed to their red ones for their home jerseys next season.
This brings me to “Jersey’s Team.”
Earlier in the week, several tweets broke the news that Adidas and the Devils have agreed on a “significant jersey redesign” for next season. Naturally, many Devils fans (myself included) reacted in outrage. Uniform redesigns and logo reinventions are par for the course these days and sometimes they do work out quite well. But there are times in which change is just not necessary…This is one of those times.
The Devils have had just two uniform sets in 35 years of existence, switching from red, green, and white to red, black, and white after the 1991-1992 season (the franchise’s 10th Anniversary season in Jersey). Despite the color scheme and striping change, the logo remained unchanged except for making the outline and circle black as opposed to green. The Devils’ set has been one of the more widely-appreciated looks in the league. They have never donned a third jersey, only bringing out the red and green throwbacks once a year. The Devils also refused to wear the stylized chrome logo in their Stadium Series game back in 2014, a decision that was applauded by many around the league. When you think about teams that have simple, consistent uniform sets, you think about teams like Alabama, Penn State, USC, the Yankees, the Canadiens, and the Red Wings. Certainly not bad company to be around.
When the words “significant redesign” came up surrounding the Devils’ Adidas uniforms, the best word to describe my feelings would be “mortified.” The absolute last thing I want to see is some ridiculous devil-looking character wielding a pitchfork. The Devils are the only professional sports team with “New Jersey” in its name. The Devils logo is iconic and represents our state and one of its most popular legends. I do not want to see the logo messed with under any circumstances! I’m hopeful that this redesign encompasses only minor tweaks like piping and striping. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some type of shoulder patch/secondary logo that could later be part of a third jersey design.
Since the departure of long-time general manager Lou Lamoriello and the change in ownership, the changes have been coming fast and furious in Newark. Some of these changes have been welcome such as the players being allowed to interact on social media, far more giveaways/ticket holder opportunities, and uniform numbers outside the 1-35 range (including #13 for the first time in franchise history). While accessibility to players and a modernized uniform numbering system was welcome, there was still something endearing about being somewhat on the outside of the rest of the league on certain matters. We took a strange sense of pride in being the outsider of the league, rarely on TV, always rocking the same uniform, ushering in the “Dead Puck Era,” and making a huge roster splash about once a decade (Stevens, Gilmour, Mogilny, Kovalchuk). Naturally, winning three Stanley Cups and making five trips to the Final makes this all easier to accept and enjoy.
But with just one playoff appearance in the last six seasons, change was inevitable. The roster turnover has been practically nonstop since Ray Shero took over as general manager. That’s not really a complaint, just a fact. It’s been encouraging to see the prospects actually get a shot at playing at the NHL level and to see that competition at both the NHL and AHL level is important. It’s been even more refreshing to see that the Devils are actually drafting and developing better as well as making trades and signings to beef up the AHL affiliate down in Albany. Instead of seeing Mike Sislo, Tim Sestito, Joe Whitney, and others shuttling between Albany and Jersey, the Devils are bringing in players like Pavel Zacha, Blake Coleman, Miles Wood, Steven Santini, Michael McLeod, Blake Speers, and Nathan Bastian – legitimate prospects. For the last five or six seasons of Lou’s tenure, it always seemed that there just weren’t enough reinforcements in Albany to give the big club any type of jolt. Lamoriello still deserves some credit here, as he was responsible for acquiring some of those names – most notably Santini. And Lou was the GM who pulled off the Cory Schneider trade, allowing us a true successor to Martin Brodeur.
The reality is that we will all be forever indebted to Lou for turning the Devils into a legitimate organization that won three Stanley Cups and took four trips to the Final in a 9-year span. It was clear by the end of his tenure, though, that the cupboard was bare and a wholesale change in philosophy needed to be made. It’s been nice to see acquisitions such as Kyle Palmieri and Taylor Hall. Although, we miss Adam Larsson on the blue line a lot more than many outside of Jersey thought the club would. As players such as Palmieri, Hall, Adam Henrique, and Damon Severson continue to establish themselves in the red and black, reinforcements like Zacha, Speers, Santini, and Wood will arrive and try to prove themselves as NHL-caliber players.
It’s funny that a simple tweet about a uniform redesign brings up this groundswell of feelings. When your favorite team hasn’t seen the postseason since the 2011-2012 season after only missing the playoffs once in the twenty seasons before that, you find yourself reflecting often – trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it while smiling about all the fond memories of past successes. And a lack of winning will breed either change or insanity depending on the organizational hierarchy. This is just the way it goes in the world of sports.
But it’s important to remember that not every single thing has to change. The Devils can be a beacon of NHL success once more, but they can still do it with a traditional, iconic logo that truly represents “Jersey’s Team.”
Hurry-Up Offense
1. Congrats to Clemson and head coach Dabo Swinney on winning the national championship, defeating dynastic defending champion Alabama, 35-31, in the CFP National Championship Game. The rematch definitely lived up to the hype and then some as Clemson hung tough and turned Jalen Hurts’s fourth quarter TD run from defining moment into rallying cry. Quarterback Deshaun Watson engineered the game-winning drive with 2:01 left on the clock, throwing the winning score to former walk-on Hunter Renfrow with just one second remaining on the clock.
Some notable numbers from the game, courtesy of ESPN:
-Watson in two playoff games versus Alabama: 941 yards and 8 touchdowns
-The ACC this year: 9-3 in bowl games, 10-4 vs. the SEC, 6-2 vs. the Big Ten-
Dabo Swinney: back-to-back 14-win seasons, two postseason wins over Oklahoma, two postseason wins over Ohio State, a postseason win over Alabama, a postseason win over LSU, 89-28 overall record
2. The Chargers are officially headed to Los Angeles. Franchise relocation has long been synonymous with sport, but this is the first time I can truly recall both players and ownership genuinely being unhappy about the move. All reports indicate that the Spanos family felt there was no choice and that leaving San Diego for Los Angeles was a last resort. The city chose not build a new stadium and you can’t blame them for that. It’s just a shame to see nearly 60 years of history go down the drain as the team leaves and rumors of a rebrand persist. Maybe playing their home games in the cozy StubHub Center for the next two seasons will generate some good will for the Chargers. Of course, winning is the universal elixir.
Highlighting the lack of enthusiasm around the move was All-Pro quarterback Philip Rivers, the face of the franchise and long a proponent of remaining in San Diego. He had this to say to San Diego radio station KSLD-AM:
“I’m a little bit numb about it all. It hasn’t really settled in. I want it to be clear that my love for San Diego, the time here, the memories we had, the games, the practices, everything about it is special and awesome. But at the same time, I have to get excited, fired up about going up to a new arena and representing our team and organization and going and trying to win as many games as we can win. And be the same guy I’ve always been. That’s the only way I know.”
3. Just before the New Year, the Ottawa Senators continued their 25th Anniversary celebration by raising long-time captain Daniel Alfredsson’s #11 to the rafters. “Alfie” and his #11 become the first number retired by the Sens since their return to the NHL in 1992 (The original Senators relocated in 1934.). “Alfie” is the franchise’s all-time leader in goals, assists, and points and has long been my favorite non-Devils hockey player. I had the privilege of being at Game 4 of the 2013 Eastern Conference Semifinals, which turned out to be Alfredsson’s last home game as a Senator as he bolted for Detroit the following season. It was incredible, the amount of love and respect the Ottawa fans had for him. Every period when the clock read “11:11,” fans would chant “Alfie” in unison and better yet, he would acknowledge them. I recall Alfredsson speaking on the video tribute at Martin Brodeur’s jersey retirement last year. When he came up on the jumbotron, I turned to my friend next to me at “The Rock” and said “Alfie’s next and I want to be there.” Unfortunately, the timing didn’t really work out, but I watched on TV and will be sure to take another trip up to Ottawa to see his number hanging in the rafters. Congrats, Alfie. Very happy to see that both you and the Senators have made amends after a not-so-glorious exit.
4. I could fill a whole other post with all my thoughts on the college and NFL coaching carousels, but a quick note. This year’s hiring and firing cycle seems to be running a bit late. At the NFL level, the San Francisco 49ers are still without a head coach and both the Denver Broncos and now-Los Angeles Chargers have just made their hires (and they are quality hires, by the way, in Vance Joseph and Anthony Lynn). At the college level, both UConn and Cal fired their head coaches over a month after the season ended and Minnesota canned its head coach after a 9-win season. As sports continue to become more and more of a business, I strongly suspect that the coaching carousel will continue to spin in strange ways.
5. Random wrestling thought: In January 2002, Triple H came back from a devastating torn quadriceps muscle on the January 7, 2002, edition of RAW. The crowd at Madison Square Garden (and yours truly, watching at home) popped as Trips annihilated Kurt Angle and announced that he would be entering the upcoming Royal Rumble match. Just a warm memory as WrestleMania season is upon us.
Until next time.
-Meech
