Sticker update!: When I recently announced that StickerYou had created a little Uni Watch shop on their website, several of you got in touch to say, “Stickers are great - but what I really want are magnets.” The result is a new ESPN follow-up column, which I think you’ll find very interesting. So I went back and did a bunch of additional reporting (including an interview with former Vikings coach Bud Grant, who’s now 90 years old), in an attempt to sort which stories were accurate and which ones weren’t. Several Vikings fans responded to that piece with counter-narratives - stories that contradicted the one I reported. Vikings follow-up: Remember my recent ESPN piece about how cartoonist Karl Hubenthal designed the Vikings’ uniforms, and how he used purple and gold because those were the colors of GM Bert Rose’s alma mater, the University of Washington? What advertiser would want that competing with his ad? Either way, I’ve heard exactly zero credible chatter about the NFL moving toward jersey ads, so let’s skip the conspiracy theories and stick to reality. I suppose that could be true, but a logical counter-argument is that this actually works against the possibility of jersey ads because it creates a visual distraction on some of the league’s most high-visibility players.
Nfl man of the year winners Patch#
One final thought: I saw a few conspiracy theorists on Twitter last night claiming that this patch is designed to get people accustomed to the sight of extra patches and thereby soften us up for the inevitable move toward jersey ads. But the whole enterprise feels a bit tone-deaf and overdone. Just to be clear, I don’t blame the players - I’m sure it wasn’t their idea. It’s one thing to be recognized for one night at an awards ceremony it’s another to trumpet your do-gooder status on the chest of your jersey every week for years on end.
The whole point of philanthropy, volunteerism, and other do-gooder enterprises is that you do them out of sincerity and commitment, not to bring attention to yourself. A helmet decal would be the better way to go.Īlso, having a player wear an honorific patch for the balance of his career seems like a bit much, especially for this type of award. Manning, for example, already wears a captaincy patch and the Joan Tisch memorial patch (plus the NFL patch and the “ny” chest mark), which means the Payton patch will just add more needless clutter. Payton appears to have been a great guy, and it’s nice to see the NFL recognizing something other than the military and cancer, but the feeling here is that a patch is too much. It was named after Payton following his death in 1999, but the trophy has remained the same. Back then, the honor was simply called the Man of the Year Award. The trophy model was a journeyman NFL tackle named Steve Wright. The patch is based on the Payton trophy (shown at right click to enlarge), which was originally created back in 1969 (NYT link), six years before Payton’s first NFL season. If you’re thinking that the patch doesn’t look much like Payton, you’re right. This year’s winner will be announced on Feb. In addition, this year’s 32 Payton Award nominees - one from each team - will wear a helmet decal for the rest of this season and postseason. Here’s a close-up of the patch, followed by a glimpse at how it will look on Fitzgerald’s and Davis’s jerseys (click to enlarge): Other active players who’ll be wearing the patch, beginning this weekend, are Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, Cowboys tight end Jason Witten, Giants quarterback Eli Manning, and Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis.
The first such player to do so was Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who wore the patch for last night’s game against the Falcons (see above). And the league also announced two new uni-related protocols pertaining to the award.įor starters, all active players who’ve won the Payton award will now wear a jersey patch for the rest of their careers. The NFL yesterday announced this year’s 32 nominees for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, an annual award recognizing philanthropy and community impact.