Nike has a new line of jerseys that are made of 100% recycled materials. The Swoosh says that the new kits are each made from seven recycled water bottles. Science! Hey, they look pretty good too.
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We saw some surprising things on Sunday in the Broncos and Patriots matchup. The Broncos busted out insanely ugly (but somehow, I liked them) brown and yellow jerseys. Kyle Orton threw his first interception of the season. It came on a hail mary at the end of the first half. He was also gloveless for the first time this season. Oh yeah, the Broncos won to go 5-0 and send the Patriots to 3-2.
Hilariously, Patriots cornerback Leigh Bodden said, “They kept running the same plays, and our offense is similar to it.” That’s right — the Patriots got beat at their own game with Kyle Orton doing the bulk of the damage. Kyle Orton finished 35 for 48 with 330 yards and two touchdowns. The Broncos did all of the scoring in the second half to send the game to overtime tied at 17-17. The Boston Herald said Tom Brady’s second half was the #1 problem of the game:
While Tom Brady [stats] finished 19-of-33 for 215 yards and two touchdowns, he was only 5-of-14 for 63 yards after halftime and wasn’t able to generate a scoring drive. Brady misfired a pass to a wide-open Wes Welker with about four minutes left that probably would have gone for a long touchdown.
Other than that, Eddie Royal had his first good game of the season with 10 receptions. Jerod Mayo returned with limited reps for the Patriots and caused Knowshon Moreno to fumble on his first play in the game. Moreno had a fairly good game as a feature back gaining over 4 yards per carry. And Jabar Gaffney made the statement of the day by twisting his socks so the stripes created a brown and gold candy cane spiral (below). Can the NFL fine him for not wearing the stripes in their intended vertical pattern?
While the NFL pretends to be a silent observer, they’re wildly cheering the returns of Brett Favre and Michael Vick. I assume that the two returning stars have increased television ratings. Similarly, both men have had their jerseys crack the top 5 in sales. The numbers were compiled based on sales from April 1 to August 28th. In that span, Favre is ranked #1 and Vick is ranked #4. Don’t forget that both men signed in MID-AUGUST. Unfortunately, Ron Mexico did not make the list. Below is the top 20 jerseys from Darren Rovell:
1. Favre
2. Cutler
3. Polamalu
4. Vick
5. Roethlisberger
6. Tony Romo
7. Sanchez
8. Tom Brady
9. Adrian Peterson
10. Eli Manning
11. Terrell Owens
12. Peyton Manning
13. Ward
14. LaDainian Tomlinson
15. Jason Witten
16. Larry Fitzgerald
17. Joe Flacco
18. Matt Ryan
19. Aaron Rodgers
20. Crabtree
So it turns out that businesses don’t really care about Michael Vick’s trouble with the law. Dick’s Sporting Goods isn’t stocking Vick jerseys — but that’s not because of the whole dogfighting thing. Instead, Dick’s chief marketing officer Jeff Hennion said that the sporting goods chain was waiting to gauge demand for Vick jerseys. Mitchell Modell echoed Hennion’s sentiments by saying, “as long as the customers are coming in, we’ll sell it.” Outrage? Not so much.
Via Philly.com:
Tags: dick's sporting goods, football, jeff hennion, jerseys, michael vick, mitchell modell, modell's sporting goods, NFL, philadelphia eaglesThere is no Vick at Dick’s.
A spokesman for Dick’s Sporting Goods said today the chain will not stock Michael Vick’s Eagles jersey until they “evaluate the reaction of Eagles fans.”
Meanwhile, the NFLShop, the league’s merchandizing arm, is offering several styles of Vick’s gridiron apparel – including a customizable jersey for dogs.
Vick, the former star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, was released from a federal prison in May after serving 18 months on a dog-fighting conviction. His signing with the Eagles last week has polarized the team’s fans and triggered a storm of debate across the country.
“Right now we don’t know how much of a demand there is for [the jersey],” Dick’s chief marketing officer, Jeff Hennion, said in a prepared statement. “If there is a demand for it, we’ll sell it.”
Mitchell Modell, owner and CEO of Modell’s Sporting Goods, said he initially had reservations about selling Vick jerseys. But it didn’t take long to see there was “pretty high demand” for No. 7’s replica sports apparel – especially at his Philadelphia-area stores.
“We weren’t planning on selling it until the customers started coming into the stores demanding it,” Modell said. “As long as the customers are coming in, we’ll sell it. We’re in the business to serve our customers.”
