Which Came First, The Team Or The Uniform?

OMG! OMG! The Oregon Ducks showed off their new uniforms!

Actually, excuse me. According to the mainstream media, they “unveiled” new uniforms.

These uniforms are top of the line. They’re the most technologically advanced uniforms ever created. Rumor has it their helmets are going to be an offspring of the new, shiny, winged version debuted at the Rose Bowl.

Can you believe it?

No, really, can you believe it?

Can you believe this was Oregon’s big sports news this week? Can you believe this has registered on mainstream websites? Can you believe Twitter feeds are blowing up with links to coverage of the newly unveiled uniforms?

After so many years of rolling out new duds every single week, when does it stop becoming news that the Ducks have new uniforms? It’s kind of like the Beavers tossing out pictures of the same uniforms they wore last year along with the headline, “Hey, we’re doing this again.”

Listen, I get it, the University of Oregon is innovative. The unis are flashy. It’s well known these uniforms aren’t meant to impress you or me – they’re meant to attract impressionable 16- and 17-year-olds who just so happen to be really good at football and are trying to decide where they want to keep playing football.

Winning and facilities go a long way in recruiting. But LSU wins. LSU has nice facilities. So does Oklahoma, USC, Alabama, Wisconsin. Now that Willie Lyles is out of the picture, the only big time edge the Ducks have – other than life in the bike lane of Eugene – is Nike uniforms.

And it works.

By all means, the Ducks should keep throwing out as many new combinations of uniforms as Nike is willing to hand over. That’s going to help them keep winning, which will lead to newer and nicer facilities and more money from donors.

But sooner or later, people – read: the media – need to stop treating it like such an earth-shattering occurrence.

Wait ’til Saturday. See what they’re wearing. Then cheer for the team.

Instead, we’re stuck seeing articles on Bleacher Report, the Register Guard and who knows where else about what this year’s uniforms look like. The uniforms serve their purpose. They bring in the recruits. They get the Ducks into the limelight.

Let’s just hope the focus eventually shifts back to why those uniforms matter: The product put on the field.