04/19/24
February 07, 2021
SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
The Buccaneers have conjured the advisable but unexpected: even though they are designated as the home team and are playing in their home stadium, they have decided to wear their white road jerseys with pewter pants for today's game.
Not sure who the principals behind the decision are, but here are some clues:
1) Brady's Pats realized that they did better in the Super Bowl when they wore their white unis. They didn't always lose in blue and didn't always win in white, but their two losses in blue to the Giants made white the clear preference.
2) Peyton Manning took note of this, especially after his Broncos wore their home unis and got clobbered by the Seahawks in SB XLVIII. The next time the Broncos got to the Super Bowl, they took stock of how Denver's orange jerseys were historically associated with title game beatdowns, elected to wear their white uniforms, and beat the Panthers.
3) In 2005-06, the Steelers entered the playoffs as a wild card team and played all their games in their road white jerseys. When they got to the Super Bowl, they were the designated home team, but Coach Cowher wanted to maintain the hard working overachieving vibe that got them to the title game. So they chose to wear their road whites once again, and won the game. Bruce Arians was a member of that coaching staff.
Regardless of their uniform choice, the Bucs still get to dress in their usual home team locker room in their own stadium. That could prove to be a worthwhile advantage. It's the kind of detail that Belichick would value tremendously.
posted by beaverboard at 02:12 PM on February 07, 2021
Former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks passes away at 67