Notre Dame Twitter has been consumed by rumors of potential black jerseys for Notre Dame in Friday’s first-round College Football Playoff game. Notre Dame officially put those rumors to rest on Wednesday by releasing a video and images of the jerseys Notre Dame will wear when they host Indiana. The Irish will be wearing their traditional navy home jerseys with some minor additions for the playoffs.
The subtle changes include:
- As has become tradition in recent years, names will be on the back of the jersey in gold lettering.
- An official College Football Playoff patch on the players’ left shoulders.
- A new gold ND patch with 24 and 25 above the nameplate
- CFP logo decal on the back of the helmets
Notre Dame let the black jersey rumors run for a little while, and maybe even had a little fun with them, with Marcus Freeman coming to his media appearance today in a black Notre Dame hoodie. However, the idea of the Irish wearing black jerseys in the first-ever playoff game in Notre Dame Stadium never made any sense.
The rumors were a distraction for Notre Dame fans over who are anxious for Friday’s matchup with Indiana – at least for the last 48 hours or so. The longer they lingered, the longer it seemed like maybe there could be some fire behind the smoke. Freeman was asked about the jerseys at his media appearance today, and played coy.
”I let our captains decide what we wear. I am informed that we have new jerseys for the game. I was informed that weeks ago, if we made the playoffs that Under Armour was going to give us new jerseys. I haven’t seen them,” Freeman said of the jerseys on Thursday.
It just never made sense that Notre Dame would go out on such a crazy limb for a home playoff game, let alone the first one ever in the house that Rockne built. I could have maybe seen them wear the green jerseys they wore earlier this year against Louisville, but something as far out there as an all-black uniform concept? It wasn’t going to happen. Notre Dame wasn’t going to come out looking like Purdue or Wake Forest in their first-ever home playoff game.
In case anyone is wondering if these are for sale, I checked Fanatics, the ND Shop (which is also run by Fanatics), and Under Armour, and I don’t see them for sale anywhere just yet. If they ever will be is unclear.
Glad everyone is worried about the important stuff. You know who isn’t jerking around with uniforms?