Friday, September 07, 2007

Did You "C" That?

Watching the Colts/Saints game last night, I noticed that Peyton Manning had a "C" with four stars on his uniform (yes, it's apparently Fashion Week here at Uniwatch, Jr. The Rink).

"That's sweet," I thought to myself, "the team must be honoring some recently-deceased high-ranking general whose surname began with the third letter of the alphabet." But Manning was the only Colt wearing the patch. Hmm.

Then I saw a similar patch on Saints quarterback Drew Brees. No.


Yes.

On the heels of their shameless rip-off of a popular NHL television ad, the NFL has decided to put a "C" on team captains' uniforms. But wait, there's less! Not only are the uniform "C's," uh, uniform (i.e. no team-to-team customization beyond colors), but the white stars will actually be changed to gold stars for each year the player has been captain (if the NHL did this, Joe Sakic would have 18 gold stars).

So while the NFL is busy handing out gold stars to quarterbacks like fourth grade teachers to perfect spellers, rest assured that the NHL must be doing something right.

7 comments:

Abhinav said...

Lame.

Unknown said...

Well, the Boston Red Sox (Varitek) also did this, and I know a few basketball teams past and present also had captain's Cs.

Let's face it, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Anonymous said...

Stars on the QB's chest, and green stickers on their hats. It'll be a nip and tuck battle all season to see who will get to clap the erasers.

JP said...

At first I thought that said "It'll be a nip and tuck battle all season to see who will get the clap" and I was going to offer up Brian Urlacher.

Anonymous said...

What a ripoff, I was pretty pissed when I saw it, too. But yeah, guess it is a form of flattery. At least the NHL one isn't lame like the NFL one is.

Anonymous said...

>At first I thought that said "It'll be a nip and tuck battle all season to see who will get the clap" and I was going to offer up Brian Urlacher.

Is that true?! That son-of-a-bitch!

The Peerless said...

That might be the lamest stunt I've seen in the NFL. Captains in the NFL have essentially two jobs -- call the toss (and that's for the visiting captain), and pick which goal to defend (the captain whose team loses the toss). The rest is mostly ceremonial.

In baseball, the captain is entirely ceremonial. Not all clubs have them, and even those that do, have them intermittently (the Yankees, who are thought to have started the practice with Hal Chase almost a century ago, went 35 years between Lou Gehrig and Thurman Munson).

In hockey, a captain is provided roles and responsibilities in the rules. It is a position that actually does something. It isn't just a letter sewn on a jersey.

I'd sooner the NFL just did like the NCAA and put stickers on players' helmets for big plays.