Sunday, June 12, 2011

Lacking a Coherent Narrative

I want to have an actual, fully formed opinion on the "Under the Lights" "Legacy" jersey. But it's just not happening. Moreover, I think I am upsetting people in that I am wavering so much on it. So I am basically going to lay out pros and cons here and see if anything comes of it.

Pro: It could be worse.

Con: It is wholly unnecessary.

Pro: It is a likely significant revenue stream for the Michigan athletic department. You can't keep counting on people to keep buying different numbers of the same classic Michigan jersey.

Con: It's whoring out Michigan "tradition" for the sake of the adidas marketing machine.

Pro: The throwback helmets are a nice touch.

Con: You could have done the throwback helmets without the jersey, which would have been more true to the era anyway.

Pro: It's just one game.

Con: Unless the jerseys sell like crazy, in which case it becomes another jersey next year, and so on and so forth. I wonder if in 2012, it will be a retro Schembechler era white jersey for the game at Notre Dame or the game against Alabama.

Pro: Wait, that would be cool.

Con: Yeah, that's the problem. You let your guard down on one thing, and the next thing you know, maize jerseys.

Pro: They're auctioning off the jerseys after the game.

Con: Which is a nice way to keep the pressure off from the 'these jerseys suck' crowd.

Pro: Looked good on Denard.

Con: Anything looks good on Denard.

So yes, I'm sorry, I have no real sense of how I feel about this. I don't hate them, but I don't like what they represent, but more importantly, I don't like what they can represent in a forward looking narrative. So for now, I'll continue to be confused as we wait for September.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Michigan’s ‘Retro’ Jersey Look: They’re Not “Throwback”, Denard’s Still Working for Free, and David “Branding” Fails to Lead. Wake Up Michigan. See my posting at my blog, Brewonsouthu.wordpress.com.

Bill Wilson, brewonsouthu@yahoo.com