Larry Brown Sports

The Jacksonville Jaguars released all new uniforms for the 2013 season on Wednesday. Naturally, there was plenty of mixed reaction to the new threads. People are afraid of change, so criticism is always a given when a team releases a new look. Having said that, I personally think the new helmets look awesome.

As one Reddit user pointed out, they look even better in the sun. For the most part, it has been college football teams that roll out sick new helmets like these on a year-to-year basis. If the Jags’ new helmets are a glimpse into the future of NFL uniforms, I think we’re heading in the right direction.

The University of Connecticut has been working to overhaul the branding of its athletic uniforms and logos, which started with a new logo of a husky unveiled last week. Slowly but surely, the rest of the pieces are coming together.

On Thursday, UConn football beat writer John Silver posted a bunch of pictures of the school’s new uniforms. As you can see from the photo above, there aren’t many drastic changes. However, the football helmets have people buzzing.

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Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Carl Crawford put his own personal spin on Jackie Robinson Day during a game against the San Diego Padres on Monday. As you can see from the photo above, he wore mismatched Jackie Robinson commemorative cleats.

Crawford wanted to show off both the blue and white Jordan PEs that he, Jimmy Rollins and CC Sabathia received with the No. 42 on the back to acknowledge the 66th anniversary of Robinson breaking down baseball’s color barrier. After seeing that Rollins had changed cleats before one of his at-bats on Monday, Crawford decided he would have a little fun with his new kicks. This did not please Major League Baseball.

According to ESPNLosAngeles.com, Crawford’s agent received a call from the league office telling him not to wear either the blue or the white special edition Nike Jordan PEs in a game again.

“I was like, ‘OK, he had a little fun with it, so let me have fun with it,’” Crawford explained. “The league doesn’t want us to have any fun, I guess.”

That’s exactly right. The league doesn’t want players to have any fun with their uniforms, just as the NFL didn’t want Lance Briggs paying tribute with this patriotic gear or Earl Bennett rocking his lucky orange cleats. Like it or not, that’s the way it goes in the world of professional sports. Crawford probably knew there was a risk going in and just didn’t care.

Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens will be wearing custom cleats when they take on the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday. As you can see from the photo above, some players will be wearing flashy-looking gold cleats. Others will be wearing ones that are mostly purple.

Lewis, of course, will be wearing more than just fancy colors. Near the toe of his footwear is a screen print that reads “Psalms 91,” which is a bible reference that Lewis called attention to with his undershirt after the Ravens first-round playoff win over the Indianapolis Colts.

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The Adirondack Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, may have lost to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in a shootout on Monday night, but they closed out 2012 in style. The Phantoms decided to go tuxedo jersey for their New Year’s Eve game. We didn’t even know going tuxedo jersey was a thing, but they went there.

I have to say, I’m surprised Bridgeport didn’t just shake their opponents’ hands and call it a night once the Phantoms took the ice rocking these bad boys. When the team you’re playing is wearing tuxedo jerseys you know you’re getting out-classed — no matter what the final score says.

In a sports world where we see hideous uniforms like this, tuxedo jerseys are a breath of fresh air.

H/T The Big Lead
Photos via @PhantomsHockey

When teams unveil new uniforms specifically for their bowl games, the results are usually hit or miss. We’ll file these Virginia Tech helmets under “miss.” If the Hokies were attempting to make their helmets as dull and boring as possible, they certainly accomplished that.

We’re not asking for someone to outdo these amazing Boise State helmets from earlier in the year, because that’s probably never going to happen. However, Virginia Tech could have put forth a little more effort than this. As Ty Duffy of The Big Lead pointed out, tickets for the Russell Athletic Bowl are selling for as low as $5 on StubHub. Perhaps the VT athletic department wanted to excitement over the helmets to match that of the actual game.

H/T VT Equipment Room

The new helmet movement in college football continued on Saturday with four schools showing off new ones. Above are Boise State’s black helmets that were easily the slickest we saw. The Broncos wore them on Saturday for their 32-7 win over UNLV.

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