Alan Greenwood

Every essay on Tom Brady’s new football journey, as he calls it, includes a fashion note.

“Get used to seeing Brady in a different uniform.”

Well, no kidding. Really? He won’t be able to quarterback the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a Flying Elvis on his helmet?

He won’t be doing his post-game press conferences wearing a ski cap featuring Pat Patriot?

And here we were, dwelling on something as silly as who will be quarterbacking this season, and beyond, resplendent in Patriots garb.

That Brady has chosen Tampa Bay to wrap up his career actually makes this a marginally compelling issue only because the Buccaneers have fairly awful uniforms.

The Bucs began their existence in those cartoonish creamsicle uniforms. For reasons unexplained, they hung on to those for years, despite the fact that nasueous football fans took at least a half before realizing there was nothing wrong with their television sets.

When the creamsicle uniforms were finally shelved in the 1990s, the Bucs began unveiling combinations of red, black and silver, sometimes with a dash of orange, often with a funky, futuristicfont for their names and numbers. The pirate logo took on a slightly more menacing persona, but has never looked like a

swashbuckler.

And this year, just in time for the TB Buc era, there will be yet another uniform update. Expect varying shades of red, more black and maybe a spec of orange.

Not that change really matters a whole lot. Through the course of a season NFL teams wear all sorts of “alternate” uniforms, inducing nostalgia for old fans with varied caps and jerseys to peddle at the souvenir shops.

Oh, how fun it would be to read Brady’s mind the first time he peeks at a mirror wearing one of those alternate creamsicle uniforms.

TIME TRAVEL: March 19, 1955 -“A 7-year-old Hollis youth recently was awarded a coveted gold pin for excellence in the Stowe Standard downhill race at Stowe, Vt.

“Bradford Sears Wild, son of Mr. and Mrs. Norman R. Wild of Hollis, raced the one-mile Standard trail on Mount Mansfield during the Stowe weekly events in the fast time of 1 minute, 56 seconds.

“Not to be outdone, his father, Norman Wild of Sanders Assoc. Inc., Nashua, covered the course in 1:20, or an average of approximately 50 miles per hour.”

Contact Alan Greenwood at 594-1248 or agreenwood@nashuatelegraph.com.

Newsletter