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FOR SALE: A 31/2-BY-41/2 INCH PIECE OF REAL ESTATE

By C-O-U-R-T-N-E-Y!

(I am back after a hiatus.  Deal with it.)

The New York Daily News is reporting that the New York Jets are going to be wearing a corporate patch on their practice jerseys this year.  This is news?  I suppose the media is reporting it because there is concern that the next step is corporate patches on uniforms.  Nothing like the threat of corporate interference to wrangle purists during the off-season. 

J-E-T-S, ATLANTIC HEALTH JETS!

I actually think there is a much larger risk of “it” (corporate sponsorships on uniforms) happening in leagues other than the NFL which, although not immune to the economic maelstrom plaguing our nation (you know, the one that is really starting to suck at this point), is not suffering nearly as badly as, say, the NBA (which already sucks at this point).  Even Major League Baseball (the purveyors of America’s pastime) seems more likely to fall prey to over-eager marketing execs peddling a “novel” idea—the let’s call the Pittsburgh Pirates the Pirates of the Caribbean for a day! idea—than the straight-lacers running the NFL.  The fact of the matter is that any league would have to think long and hard before allowing teams to slap logos on to their jerseys because once you do that you can’t undo that.

That said, it will happen someday.  Not today.  Not tomorrow.  But someday.  And once one league steps into the abyss, the rest will eventually follow.  Next thing you know the SeaWorld logo has replaced the Dolphin on the Miami Dolphins uniform and the Raiderettes have traded in their silver short-shorts for Depends undergarments (sorry, Al).  In the meantime, I think that the NFL was able to convince someone to pay to put a patch on a practice jersey is actually comforting.  Because anyone smart enough to convince someone to pay money to put a patch on a freaking practice t-shirt must be smart enough to realize that one thing you can’t mess with is the game day uniform.