OaktownBear;842718682 said:
I didn't miss the point. You did. If there is no tradition tied to the uniform, there is nothing wrong with the players having input. And it isn't like the coaches let them design a uniform. They have 4 jerseys and 3 pants that the athletic department had designed. The most the players got to pick is which combination to wear. If you have a problem with their being white pants, that is on the athletic department. The players didn't decide that there would be white pants. The school did. The players just decided to wear them.
What is the tradition that you think is being violated?
On the block numbers, I would assume Cal has used a form of block for far longer than 35 years. That is because most numbers are some form of block, not because there was a conscious style choice. That is like saying sleeves are a tradition. And while they have had block lettering, it hasn't been the same style. For instance, some years it has been outlined in white. Some years it hasn't. Some years the block has had straight square corners. Some years it has had angled corners. It is not a tradition like Penn State. Besides, the players had nothing to do with it. Sandy wanted our own font and had one designed (a silly waste of money especially when it is barely recognizable as different from a block)
Here are my points.
I believe there is tradition in uniforms. Until Tedford, our uniforms were blue tops, gold pants at home and white tops and gold pants on the road. Yes, there have been changes in uniforms prior to Tedford, Mike White had us in light blue with gold helmets and blue pants on the road. When JoeK became coach we returned to traditional blue tops, gold pants and white tops and gold away. In the Gilberston years, it was blue pants on the road. When Holmoe was coach, we went back to traditional uniforms.
I am not aware that in any of this period, except for Tedford, were players given any input into what uniform to wear. And in all of this time, the numbers were blocked. Take a look at the Raiders, Green Bay, Niners, Indianapolis, they all have blocked numbers on their uniforms; Stanford has blocked numbers. Teams that don't have blocked numbers are UCLA, Washington, WSU and in the pros Seattle, the Rams, Chicago. Apparently, Sandy doesn't know the difference between blocked and unblocked numbers and neither does the athletic department.
I don't know what the motivation was to alter our uniforms except to follow the crowd. I do know that Tedford on his own changed our uniforms because I talked to him about it. It would never happen at USC (they believe in tradition) and the other schools I mentioned.
As I said earlier, tradition is something I value. CAL football uniforms should be blue tops, gold pants at home and white tops and gold pants on the road. The numbers should be blocked. If Tedford had removed the stripe from the helmet and removed all the stripes from the pants, we would have had a great looking uniform. We did have blocked numbers on those uniforms.
