USC and UCLA prove why home and away jerseys are a thing of the past

USC and UCLA haven’t been relevant, in terms of a national championship status, in years. I can’t even remember when, but mostly because my brain turned to muck long ago. They tell me that USC has a prime QB prospect in Caleb Williams, and yet every time he shows up in a big game he appears to do not much. I only know this because there’s a fair amount of people around here in Chicago who can’t wait for the Bears to draft him, when either A) his father rightly won’t let him come here or B) will just be another of the dozens on the tire fire of former Bears QBs who weren’t the answer as the team continues to be buried in the marsh.

Anyway, none of this is important right now. USC-UCLA still ends up being very enjoyable TV because neither one of them pulls out their “away” jerseys. Neither wear white. Their main colors don’t clash, so they just wear them. And it looks fantastic.

Look at how wonderfully the UCLA blue pops out amongst the Trojan red. Or how violently the USC colors would pop out of a sea of UCLA blue at the Rose Bowl. Honestly, this is probably the only reason anyone cares about this game.

The colors matter. Michigan and Ohio State might be college football’s biggest rivalry, and a huge part of that is how different their colors are. Scarlet and gray vs. maize and blue. There’s no reason that both of these teams couldn’t wear their home jerseys every year.

College football, the NFL, the NHL, should take cues from the NBA and do away with home and road jerseys. Wear your main look unless it clashes. More colors are better. No reason Chiefs-Raiders can’t be red and black. Eagles-Giants for the green and blue. It just looks better. And unlike hockey, football doesn’t have to worry about their equipment guys carrying around two sets of jerseys and equipment, because it’s only once a week.

This is the way forward. Always wear your colors.

The Vegas Grand Prix finally happened

Is an event a success when it ends in a class action lawsuit?

Formula 1 finally ran its Las Vegas Grand Prix after what seemed like weeks of build even though there wasn’t much on the line. The race itself can’t do much about a lack of drama, seeing as how Max Verstappen had wrapped up the championship weeks ago. It probably could have used something other than Verstappen crapping all over it on the eve of the race.

The race itself was good, but it couldn’t overcome the absolute mess that led to it. It started with the fact that very few wanted to pay the exorbitant prices to be there, and yet more tales of how residents were being boned and having their lives made harder just to install a race that’s not for them.

It was only compounded as it became clearer that no one in F1 had discovered that Vegas gets cold at night in November, because it’s in the desert. Which was tricky for drivers and teams to overcome to keep or get their tires warm, which affected grip.

But the lasting cock-up will be the lawsuit stemming from everyone who wanted to attend Thursday’s practice session, which ended after eight minutes when Carlos Sainz’s car was borked by a manhole cover that wasn’t properly fastened. This caused a multi-hour delay, and by the time that was over everyone had to clear out at just before 3AM because of security shift changeover.

Considering the prices everyone paid (or were supposed to pay before a lot of them got much cheaper tickets on the secondary market or just after they had to drop them), getting eight minutes of entertainment isn’t nearly enough. The race will iron out the kinks in the coming years, at least the ones that it can, but there are more than enough of them to iron out. Might want to start with the sport’s biggest star not acting as if the whole thing was a nuisance.