Wearing alternate unis for The Game is lame
Editor: The rarified air in which coach Urban Meyer dwells must have dimwitted, idiotic fools lurking in dark places. Tell us it’s all a sick joke. Those uniforms speak of anything but Ohio State football tradition.
The bout between the Scarlet and Gray and the Maize and Blue has been called the greatest rivalry in all of sports.
Sending the Buckeyes to Ann Arbor looking like a nondescript confused group of would-be fashion plates relays a message to all: Fashion rules over tradition. The Wolverines won’t recognize their opponent. Is this a football team I see before me?
Whaddya bleed, coach? Black & white? Jan Taylor, Columbus Jan: I’m not sure how much say Meyer has in deciding what the Buckeyes wear, though I’m guessing his opinion would hold sway if he stomped his foot about it. But that might mean a reduced revenue stream, and who wants that?
Ray: Thanks to Rob Oller for his (Thursday) commentary “Alternate unis have no place in The Game.”
Are we scarlet and gray, or not? I tire of seeing alternate Buckeye uniforms that are black with a hint of red, or all white with a hint of whatever, and also seeing coaches with black or white shirts.
I’m not sure why school colors are negotiated away in the apparel contract deals. Certainly, the cash would still flow while adhering to true school colors, and I bet the contractor’s creative staff could actually work with the true school colors if there has to be one alternate uniform a year, but absolutely not for The Game.
Phil Petrosky, Columbus Phil: Speaking only for myself, I enjoy the alternates that employ a throwback look to previous OSU threads — the 1954 and ’61 uniforms, in particular. I can’t say the same about the unis that recall dreadful NHL All-Star sweaters.
Ray: Uniforms don’t win or lose games. But when our team is on the road, we ought to show our colors, just like our fans do.
Tinker all they want with uniforms in our own stadium but when we are away, it should be all business, not a style show. Our players deserve more than that.
Daniel D. Connor, Columbus
Daniel: The flip side of that is, if players really do like them — as has been suggested — then maybe they play better if they feel they look better. And that may help in a road environment.
Editor: The Dispatch reported attendance of the Ohio State-Texas Southern men’s basketball game as 9,984, and listed an even larger attendance for the Northeastern game.
We attended the Texas Southern game, and looking over the house, if there were 6,000 in attendance, that was a lot.
I would kindly request The Dispatch either have a method to verify the attendance, or explicitly state where the number came from. Perhaps someone from The Dispatch might look around in the Schott and estimate the house and compare it to the official number and call out Ohio State for what appears to be embellishment?
If you print it, it is yours in terms of credibility and owning it, in my mind. And those attendance numbers are well, incredible.
Howard J. Mellon, Columbus Howard: The numbers come from the university, of course, and we typically (but perhaps not always) report such figures with a suspicious eye. If ever you read “an announced crowd of …” that’s code for “we don’t trust this.”
Editor: I cannot thank you enough for all of Michael Arace’s columns in support of the #SavetheCrew effort. As a season-ticket holder from day 1 (yes, I am an outlier from the millennial target market), I have loved each column more than the last.
As a whole, I am so appreciative of the support and attention he is bringing to saving the Crew and exposing the unethical dealings of the owner and MLS. (Tuesday’s) column was Massive, and I hope it lights a fire in every boardroom and council chambers in the Columbus area. Keep up the awesome work! Jeff McCullough, via email Jeff: I couldn’t agree more, especially with the notion that each new column builds on the previous one. The better news is that Arace is a bulldog not interested in letting go of a bone.