Rutgers: The New Oregon

For the last couple of years, the University of Oregon has set the college football world on its ears with its different combinations of uniforms. You name the shade of green, the Ducks use it. This year Oklahoma State got into the act with a bunch of different uniforms. Now Rutgers seems to be getting into it. With the Army game on Saturday, Rutgers is set to wear their six different uniform in nine games. On Saturday, Scarlet Knights are set to introduce a white helmet with an American flag logo Rutgers logo on it

Here is the break down:

• North Carolina Central State: All red 
• Ohio: red jersey/white pants/red helmets
• Syracuse white jerseys/red pants/red helmets
• Pitt: All black 
• Navy: red jerseys/white pants/red helmets
• Louisville: white shirts/black pants/black helmets.
• West Virginia: all black
• USF: all red 
• Army: white helmets with an American flag "R"

So far the different uniform combinations have been fine, I just hope that the Nike and the school continue to tasteful when it comes to the uniform design.

Everyone Knows Your Gone

Since the end of the regular season one topic has continued to dominate discussion among Eagles fan, what does the future hold for former starting QB Kevin Kolb. At this point, the smart money is on the former University of Houston Cougar being traded at someone point during this crazy off season.

The idea of Kolb being is not a secret to anyone including the staff at Babies R Us. During one of my weekly trips to the baby superstore, I noticed a bunch of Kolb jerseys were sitting on a "By 1 get 1 free" rack at the store, a sure sign that his career with the Birds is over.

Once Babies R Us starts reducing your merchandise you know that your time in a city is almost over.

NFL Nike Pro Combat?

I know these photos were fake, but some of their creations are not the bad. One I'm not a fan of was the Eagles new jersey looking strangely like the Oregon Duck's creations.

Why it stinks to be a Bills Fan

The Buffalo Bills are win less and there appears to be no end in site for it but that is not the reason it stinks to be a Bills fan.
My brother, a life long Bills fan, was cleaning out his closet and found that most of players he has jerseys for are no long with the team. Its never good to when ever year you are getting rid of your best players and being win less shows that.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Professional Tailgating: The Chas Dodd Era?

So Tom Savage could not start for Rutgers and Chas Dodd took over and turned into an overnight sensation. Here are the sights from the game Friday night.

The band heads into the Stadium

 Chas Dodd warms up for his first career start

If its a "blackout" then why is Rutgers wearing all red uniforms

 Ten minutes before game started there a huge amount of empty seats, this is unacceptable

 Chas Dodd is so small you can not find him in this photo

The Storm Troopers are failing

Florida did it for the SEC Title Game, Miami did it for the Champs Sports Bowl, Arizona did it for the Holiday Bowl. What do this three teams have in common, during the before mentioned games the teams played in what is called the ""Storm Trooper Look'' and lost. Oregon started the trend a couple of years ago, when they came out against Washington and had white helmets, white jerseys, white pants and white shoes.
Sure the look was cool but now its getting out of control and bringing teams bad luck. Look at the results. Tempting the football gods is not good and for schools like Florida and Miami there is no reason to use this type of gimick and the results have shown that the football gods were not happy about their choice in uniforms.

Jersey Palooza

Fans take pride in their soccer jersey, no matter the game, fans will wear the jersey that shows support for their current club, that was no different during the Real Madrid and DC United game on Sunday. The OTWT Tailgating Crew did our best to create a running list of the some of the jerseys that we saw in the crowd.

Some of the jerseys that were spotted:

DC United
Real Madrid old and new
Dutch
Barca
Portugal
Liverpool
Various South American clubs
Brazil
Germany
Eric Cantona United Jersey
Manchester United
Arsenal
England
Argentina
Benfica
Croatia
Celtic
Roma
Aston Villa
Boca Juniors.
Porto
AC Milan
Juventus
France
Bayern Munich
USA National Team
River Plate
FC Dallas
Ajax
PSG
Everton
Sao Paulo
Lyon
I'm sure we missed some but this shows how much soccer teams support their teams.

Fashion Disaster

I know they are not as bad as Newcastle United yellow look, but Readings neon green road kit might rank right up there. The Royals unveiled them today when they played Chelski in a friendly. Neon green letter on a white shirt and neon green shorts, just screams classy.

The King is in the house

Getafe CF are hoping that the 2009-2010 season is a whopper of a season, ya I know its terrible joke. The Spanish club agreed to a sponsorship deal with Burger King, while that not mean anything the new kits include an interesting wrinkle.

If a players scores a goal and covers his face with the shirt, the King comes out (photo courtesy of Football Shirt Culture) It's an interesting and clever shirt.

United in White

So the big ears cup final is almost here and United will be wearing white the for final, a little surprised by this. Its a nice look and they will be wearing white shorts too. Photo is from manunited.com.

I never thought that I would see that

With the growth of the EPL, people in the United States are starting to care about soccer. But that does not explain what I saw at a restaurant in South Jersey a couple of days ago. The wife and I went to this place called Tailgaters, which had really good food, and there were two soccer jerseys hanging on the wall and not you typical Liverpool, Chelski, Arsenal, or United jerseys. On the wall was an Italian league team jersey and a Greece Super League team, yes a Green Super League Team.

Inter Milan, the Italian league team

Panathinaikos FC: the Greek Super League team

It was weird to see a soccer jersey on the walls but a Greek Super League team just blew my mind.

2008 -2009 in Jerseys: Manchester United

With Manchester United getting ready to report for preseason training in a couple of days, United have released their kits for the upcoming season. The home one will be a traditional red, which will number change. All of the jerseys will have the EPL winners patch on it.

The away one will be white with blue outlines (below).

United have also introduced a blue third shirt that will honor their win in the Champions League in 1968. Around the club badge it says, “May 29th 1968″ and “40th Anniversary” which commemorates the 1968 European cup win over Benfica.
Overall I think that both new jerseys are not that bad and better then some other premier league jerseys.

My Name is on Your Shirt

One of the biggest difference between American and European sports are teams put sponsors on the front of their jersey in order to raise money for their clubs. Over the last couple of years the amount of money that teams have been spending has grown out of control and so have the shirt deals.

According to a recently released report by European marking group: Sport+Markt, the numbers continue to grow. This year in the EPL teams are making $142.9 million in revenue from jersey sponsorships, while the next highest is Germany with $140 million.

The top six clubs in sponsorship deals are also no surprise:

1. Manchester United: AIG: $30.5 million
2. Bayern Munich: T-Home: $29.3 million
3. Real Madrid: Bwin: $21.9 million
4. Chelski: Samsung: $21.2 million
5. AC Milan: Bwin: $17.5 million
6. Schalke 04: Gazprom: $17.5 million

It makes you wonder why United States sports don't do this. How great would it be for the Mets to have a great big Citi Bank logo on the front of their jersey. Hey it might even allow them to afford a new starting pitcher.

The Scarlet Knights new fashion statement

Teams that win games usually have more choices in uniforms. Last weekend, Rutgers unleashed their new black pants against the 'Cuse. Maybe this is leading to an introduction of an all black uniform for a big game in the future. All black with the red helmets would be a super look for the knights.

Some people love the new pants, while for me it does not look like the State University of New Jersey and will take some time to get used to.

And you thought Nascar was bad

Every year Nascar cars have more and more ads on them, from sports drinks to motor oil. Soccer teams have a main sponsor on the front of their jerseys, but in Russia hockey they take putting sponsors on jerseys to another level. Some of them feature a main sponsors as well as other sponsors on the back or on the shoulders.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

2002 Dynamo Moscow: note the Samsung logo on the front and the company logos on the shoulders and sleeves
HK Riga 2000: This one is the best, company logos all over the place

Torpedo Yaroslavl: more and more company logos

Bad Fashion College Style

College football teams change their uniforms for a variety of reason, some to honor a past team, other do it raise money for a special case, and on Saturday new jerseys ran the spectrum.

Jake Locker and the rest of the Washington Huskies honored the number one ranked 1960 team by wearing retro jerseys and then taking USC to the limit.

LSU wore different jerseys and white helmets for their clash with Tulane. The jerseys will be sold to raise money for The Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.

And last but not least Minnesota, wow where do you start with them. The Gophers looked like mustard packets running around on the field.

The NFC East and bad fashion

The Eagles and the Redskins set NFL fashion back 50 years today. This year the Eagles and the Skins are both celebrating their 75 anniversaries and in doing so they wore throw back uniforms that made everyone shake their heads.

Where do you start with the Birds. These colors, yellow and sky blue, would not be chosen by a U-12 girls soccer team. The only thing that is at least cool about the uniform is the soccer style socks it features. I wondering if the University of Michigan will be changing their school colors anytime soon, cause if they can just borrow the Eagles helmets.

The only positive about the skins throw backs is that you actually know what team they are. They are a hit compared to the Eagles 1933 uniforms.