At the end of the day, all sports fans are rooting for laundry.
This fact is as true as when Jerry Seinfeld said it years ago. It’s all about the uniforms. They are your tribe’s colors. In fact, it’s a team’s very identity.
This is precisely why I am so pissed off right now at my tribe. The Washington Redskins have taken to wearing a "white on white" color scheme.
In short, it sucks.
First, a little history...
The glory years of Redskins football under Joe Gibbs 1.0 was a time in which the team played 95% of its games in a white shirt / red pants combination. In fact, it was a scheme Gibbs himself initiated for both home and road games.
Previous Redskins teams under coaches Jack Pardee and George Allen had used the red jersey / white pants combo. And under Gibbs 1.0, on rare occasions when playing on the road against a team that also wore white at home, the Redskins were forced to wear the old red-on-white.
We never seemed to play well in red-on-white. I don’t know the team’s actual record in that color scheme, but I’d bet a crisp stack of bills that it was somewhere south of .500.
I don’t care what anybody else says, but the red pants / white jersey combo is one of the cleanest and boldest NFL uniforms out there. Of course I am biased, but just seeing my Redskins run onto the field in those jerseys -- with the deep, rich red helmets bearing the classic Indian head logo -- there is a tranquility that overtakes me.
It is a peace that says: "No matter what happens today, at least my team looks fantastic!"
Well, so long to that.
Gibbs allowed the players to return to the white-on-white this preseason, and look what good it did. Clinton Portis, one of the guys who fought hardest for the color shakeup, got hurt making a tackle on an interception.
Super. Now, can we end this nonsense?
Under Marty, we went back to the red jerseys at home. But at least it was with the white pants. I didn’t like it, but it was much better than now. Steve Spurrier sprinkled in some white-on-white, and I hated it just as much.
But the Spurrier tenure was so riddled with bigger issues, I somehow gritted my teeth.
Now, it looks like the ‘Skins have the chamber loaded for a monster year, and they might just do it with a ridiculous mix-and-match color scheme that a few knuckleheads from "Da U" forced upon us Redskins faithful.
I told a friend, that if this white-on-white thing doesn’t end soon, I am going to have a harder and harder time rooting for the team of my boyhood and first sporting love.
He thought I was kidding.
I assured him I was not.
He the asked: "Okay, exaggerating?"
"No, not really."
Does this make me insane? Have I lost my mind? Am I simply making up something to be cranky about? I don’t think so, and here’s why.
There are a certain number of teams in the NFL whose uniforms are sacrosanct. And while these teams may, on occasion, wear a throwback or alternate, it’s only for a week. These teams don’t just start mixing and matching pants because a few guys on the team think they need a "good luck charm."
For anyone who thinks I’m over-reacting, imagine the Green Bay Packers, going to "green-on-green" at home. Or all-white on the road. How about the Cowboys ditching their trademark silver pants, for a white-on-white?
Hell, most Cowboy fans I know don’t even like the blue tops, which, like my ‘Skins’ red tops, they are rarely forced to wear.
The truth is, Cowboy or Packer Nation would be outraged at such a move, and rightly so. They know their franchises are not the Ravens, the Jaguars, or the Seahawks. A Browns fan recently told me that history, tradition, and simple elegance of their uniforms is why they haven’t updated much, if anything over the years.
I still love my Redskins. But it’s hard to love them looking like this. I think you feel me on this one.
This fact is as true as when Jerry Seinfeld said it years ago. It’s all about the uniforms. They are your tribe’s colors. In fact, it’s a team’s very identity.
This is precisely why I am so pissed off right now at my tribe. The Washington Redskins have taken to wearing a "white on white" color scheme.
In short, it sucks.
First, a little history...
The glory years of Redskins football under Joe Gibbs 1.0 was a time in which the team played 95% of its games in a white shirt / red pants combination. In fact, it was a scheme Gibbs himself initiated for both home and road games.
Previous Redskins teams under coaches Jack Pardee and George Allen had used the red jersey / white pants combo. And under Gibbs 1.0, on rare occasions when playing on the road against a team that also wore white at home, the Redskins were forced to wear the old red-on-white.
We never seemed to play well in red-on-white. I don’t know the team’s actual record in that color scheme, but I’d bet a crisp stack of bills that it was somewhere south of .500.
I don’t care what anybody else says, but the red pants / white jersey combo is one of the cleanest and boldest NFL uniforms out there. Of course I am biased, but just seeing my Redskins run onto the field in those jerseys -- with the deep, rich red helmets bearing the classic Indian head logo -- there is a tranquility that overtakes me.
It is a peace that says: "No matter what happens today, at least my team looks fantastic!"
Well, so long to that.
Gibbs allowed the players to return to the white-on-white this preseason, and look what good it did. Clinton Portis, one of the guys who fought hardest for the color shakeup, got hurt making a tackle on an interception.
Super. Now, can we end this nonsense?
Under Marty, we went back to the red jerseys at home. But at least it was with the white pants. I didn’t like it, but it was much better than now. Steve Spurrier sprinkled in some white-on-white, and I hated it just as much.
But the Spurrier tenure was so riddled with bigger issues, I somehow gritted my teeth.
Now, it looks like the ‘Skins have the chamber loaded for a monster year, and they might just do it with a ridiculous mix-and-match color scheme that a few knuckleheads from "Da U" forced upon us Redskins faithful.
I told a friend, that if this white-on-white thing doesn’t end soon, I am going to have a harder and harder time rooting for the team of my boyhood and first sporting love.
He thought I was kidding.
I assured him I was not.
He the asked: "Okay, exaggerating?"
"No, not really."
Does this make me insane? Have I lost my mind? Am I simply making up something to be cranky about? I don’t think so, and here’s why.
There are a certain number of teams in the NFL whose uniforms are sacrosanct. And while these teams may, on occasion, wear a throwback or alternate, it’s only for a week. These teams don’t just start mixing and matching pants because a few guys on the team think they need a "good luck charm."
For anyone who thinks I’m over-reacting, imagine the Green Bay Packers, going to "green-on-green" at home. Or all-white on the road. How about the Cowboys ditching their trademark silver pants, for a white-on-white?
Hell, most Cowboy fans I know don’t even like the blue tops, which, like my ‘Skins’ red tops, they are rarely forced to wear.
The truth is, Cowboy or Packer Nation would be outraged at such a move, and rightly so. They know their franchises are not the Ravens, the Jaguars, or the Seahawks. A Browns fan recently told me that history, tradition, and simple elegance of their uniforms is why they haven’t updated much, if anything over the years.
I still love my Redskins. But it’s hard to love them looking like this. I think you feel me on this one.
Steve is a native Washingtonian and has worked in sports talk radio for the last 11 years. He worked at WTEM in 1993 anchoring Team Tickers before he took a full time job with national radio network One-on-One Sports.
A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Steve has worked for WFNZ in Charlotte where his afternoon show was named "Best Radio Show." Steve continues to serve as a sports personality for WLZR in Milwaukee and does fill-in hosting for Fox Sports Radio.
