Blatant Overuse of Black Alternate Jerseys in Sports

OK folks, now that I've laid my true feelings on the line for everyone to read, I'm steering this blog back to what it was initially created for: ranting and raving. My gripe for thispost is on a topic that most normal folks wouldn't really want to delve into: Sports teams that use Black third (or alternate) jerseys even though a lot of these teams have no more than just a hint of black in their color scheme. Here are, in my honest opinion, some of the most blatant offenders (in no particular order): NFL: Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles; MLB: New York Mets, Kansas City Royals, Toronto Blue Jays. These teams have blatantly violated the spirit of the alternate jersey. In the NFL, the rules for a team wanting to use analternate jersey are simple: the colors used in the jersey have to be part of the team's existing color palette. Detroit revamped their home and away uniforms before the 2003 season. These revamped uniforms included black piping around the numerals and letters of the player's last name as well as two black stripes on each of the sleeves of the home and away jerseys, the LIONS name in black on the chest just above the numerals on the home and away jerseys, and a black-blue-black color pattern on the collar of the home jersey. This to me does not justify the use of black for an alternate jersey. There is clearly more of a silver presence in Detroit's overall uniform scheme (to include their pants), which leads me to believe that silver would have been the more logical choice for an alternate. Don't get me wrong, I like how the jersey looks, but I think someone was really reaching when the Lions petitioned the league to let them use the jersey. I also think that whoever chairs the uniform committee for the league pretty much dropped the proverbial ball on this one. (I'm pretty sure they have one, since they seem to have a committee for everything else under the sun). While I can understand that having a black alternate jersey has become a trend in sports, it doesn'tjustify the argument for having one. Just because someone does something, doesn't make it right.