The Pittsburgh Steelers will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their first championship, a 16-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX, with a patch on the right chest of their jerseys for one game this season. A rarity in the NFL, as only the Jets have worn a patch in honor of a Super Bowl victory and the Dolphins as tribute to the only undefeated team in NFL history, the patch will be worn in the Steelers' matchup with the Saints on November 30th.
Throughout 2014, we'll celebrate the 40th Anniversary of our team’s 1st championship. READ: http://t.co/bHYXNxQ2nW pic.twitter.com/diG4HN2y2x
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) June 9, 2014
The Steel City will be happy to know that their beloved hockey team will once again sport "real gold", although only in the form of an alternate sweater. According to Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Penguins will maintain their current "Vegas gold" home and away jerseys, but will wear the alternate, which will resemble uniforms worn during the peak of Mario Lemieux's career, for select games next season.
As part of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), EA Sports released the official gameplay trailer of both Madden 15 and NHL 15, and in the latter, EA shows footage of a fight between the Dallas Stars and the Chicago Blackhawks. Upon closer inspection, the trailer may have leaked a change in the Stars' away sweater, coming in the form of a black outline around the numbers. While no announcement of a tweak to the uniform has been made by the club and is therefore easy to dismiss, it should be noted that the NHL 14 trailer leaked the Nashville Predators adding a yellow stripe to their pants.
This is, by far, the best part of the NHL 15 trailer. Garbutt beating up on a Blackhawk. pic.twitter.com/4Z0OKBLSwL
— DefendingBigD (@DefendingBigD) June 9, 2014
Additionally, EA Sports released the first screenshots of Madden 15 on Monday afternoon. Among those, Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, and Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, who will grace the cover of the game.
Prior to the 2013 season, the West Virginia football team introduced a new set of uniforms featuring a pickaxe numerical font, and in addition, Nike added black sleeves and side panels to the Mountaineers' home look. With this, it seemed to be only a matter of time before the team unveiled a black alternate jersey. SB Nation's West Virginia blog, Smoking Musket, brought to our attention that the team received all-black chinstraps on Friday afternoon, and while it's easy to speculate at that point, former West Virginia running back and current assistant director of football operations, Quincy Wilson, added fuel to the fire when he posted a mockup of all-black uniforms to Instagram on Monday afternoon.
The uniforms for the Big 33 Classic, otherwise known as the "Super Bowl of High School Football" were unveiled in advance of the June 14th kickoff. After dropping long-time opponent Ohio, who owned a 13-12 series lead, Pennsylvania now faces off against Maryland in the all-star game that features the 33 best players from each state.
As I pointed out yesterday, only a few teams remain in pursuit of a College World Series berth, and with that comes the national spotlight. The Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns decided to wear camouflage in the deciding game of their Super Regional matchup with Ole Miss, where they fell to the Rebels, 10-4.
ULL Ragin' Cajuns wearing digital camo unis. Please don't. pic.twitter.com/pfDctxDmTH
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) June 10, 2014
One team also fell under the radar on Sunday afternoon, as the College of Charleston wore uniforms that displayed "The College" across the chest. The Cougars dropped both games of the Lubbock Super Regional to Texas Tech.
Although not uniform news, I'm saddened to hear that Frito-Lay is ending one of the longest sponsorship deals in college football, relinquishing its role as title sponsor of the Fiesta Bowl. The announcement brings a close to the 18-year relationship between the company and the bowl game, coinciding with the end of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and the beginning of the new College Football Playoff. ESPN, who owns the right to negotiate deals with sponsors, will wait for the highest bid before renaming the game, but I'll always long to hear "this is for all the Tostitos...".
Once again, make sure to follow @SBNUniforms on Twitter for all of the latest uniform and logo news and rumors. If we've missed anything or if you have a uniform or logo tip, we'd be much obliged if you sent an email to uniformnation@landgrantholyland.com.