Drip Drill: The Return of Mike Ryan Ruiz and Pulitzer Prize Winner Amin Elhassan

Summary

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Episode: Drip Drill – The Return of Mike Ryan Ruiz and Pulitzer Prize Winner Amin Elhassan

Date: May 8, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this spirited episode recorded from Miami’s Elser Hotel, Dave Damashek leads a blue-ribbon panel—featuring returning favorite Mike Ryan Ruiz and newly anointed Pulitzer Prize winner Amin Elhassan—on the ultimate quest: ranking the best current uniforms across North America’s four major professional sports. The conversation is equal parts in-depth geekery, nostalgia, aesthetics, and friendly roasting, drawing in the perspectives of the entire Le Batard crew and shining a spotlight on how uniforms encapsulate sports culture, team identity, and fan loyalty.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Uniform Obsession and Subjectivity (13:44)

• Damashek sets the tone by declaring uniform talk an essential division among sports fans: “There’s a cut point of about 50% of sports fans love uniforms and the other 50% don’t consider them at all. The latter group is a complete group of weirdos...” (14:06).
• The panel agrees to only judge current “standard sets” (i.e., home and away uniforms currently in use)—throwbacks or special alternates are out, unless a team has made a throwback its primary kit.

The Rules of Drip Drill (15:53)

• Participants clarify:
  • No throwbacks unless currently in rotation.
  • Whole “sets” (home + away) must be evaluated, not just a single jersey.
  • Legacy teams with little to no changes (e.g., Packers, Yankees) get extra credit for timelessness.
  • Teams that updated or improved to their "time capsule" looks (e.g., Buccaneers, Chargers) are discussed.

Notable Tensions and Humor on Subjectivity (23:36)

• The group constantly jabs each other for perceived homerism and rule-bending.
  • Notably, Gino Fuentes declares his love for the Steelers’ logo placement: “I like that they have one sided. One side.” (28:23).
  • Damashek on the unique Steelers’ helmet: “What a middle finger it is. We don’t care what your fancy TV desires. We’re sticking with the one-sided logo. It’s great.” (28:51).

Candidates for Top Uniforms—Panel Highlights

Amin Elhassan’s Early Picks:

• #10: New York Giants (21:37): “The blue is a clean look... I love the blue of the New York Giants. It’s a clean look...”
• #9: Dallas Mavericks (23:58): Praises the blue, silver, and black, especially recent iterations.
• Emphasizes full home/away evaluation.

Buddy Budowski’s Classic Leanings (25:25)

• Shouts out Chicago Cubs, “Pinstripes, C target logo... perfect baseball.” (25:27)
• Oakland Athletics for their “classic green and gold look ... with the white cleats”.

Gino Fuentes’ Distinctive Choices (27:33)

• Cincinnati Bengals: “It’s a distinctive helmet … that all white kit...pops off the screen.” (27:38)
• Steelers: For logo placement and tradition.
• Baltimore Ravens: “Especially when they’re wearing all black...” (29:16)

Mike Ryan Ruiz’s Best-NOW Philosophy (30:08, 33:21)

• Focuses on whether a franchise is “presently rocking their best look,” e.g.:
  • Tampa Bay Lightning: “Very clean, all blue … identified by their logo.”
  • LA Clippers: For their “strongest set they’ve had.”

Standout Quotes on Aesthetics and Legacy

• Damashek: “If you’ve made it for half a century in the same getup … you deserve extra credit.” (19:44)
• Mike Ryan: “They built their uniform and their logo around their superstar [for Milwaukee Bucks].” (43:17)

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Memorable Moments & Quotes (with Timestamps)

• On the psychology of uniforms:
  • “You don’t think about what your eyes are looking at for three and a half hours? … Of course you care about uniform.” – Dave Damashek (13:59)
• On franchise consistency:
  • “Most people would put Packers [top ten]. But you already said Oakland Athletics, so you’re kind of like clashing into the same deal here.” – Mike Fuentes (50:26)
• Rule-bending humor and meta-commentary:
  • “You broke Dave’s rules just to vomit out Ravens all black. That’s really what you did.” – Mike Fuentes (29:47)
  • “Besides, Sweden is better.” – Mike Ryan, responding to Amin’s troll pick of Team Canada as #1 uniform (55:07)
• Roasts and banter:
  • On the judge’s final say: “When the judge emerges from his chambers, the Cowboys will be mentioned and they will not be in the top 10. I can assure you that.” – Damashek (40:43)
  • “If I were a homer, [Steelers] would be number one. But I have them number three.” – Damashek (58:11)
  • “Team Canada? That’s the number one rule [breaker].” – Buddy Budowski reacting to Amin’s list (54:28)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro, rules, and panel structure: 02:18–16:59
• The nature of “timeless” uniforms: 19:44–20:47
• Start of individual lists & critiques: 21:00–41:00
• Mike Ryan’s Best-NOW uniform conviction: 30:08, 33:21, 43:17, 52:04
• Rapid fire finishing of lists: 49:47–56:10
• Damashek’s Final Judge’s List (the “correct” top 10): 56:30–59:19

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The Final “Definitive” Top 10 Uniforms (Per Dave Damashek)

1. Las Vegas/Oakland/LA Raiders (59:16)
2. Philadelphia Flyers
   • “The only reason they’re not number one—the orange isn’t as fluorescent as five years ago.” (58:39)
3. Pittsburgh Steelers (58:11)
4. Los Angeles Dodgers
   • Praised for their “red number,” “gorgeous in person.”
5. Los Angeles Chargers
   • “They’re presently wearing their best set.” (53:16)
6. San Francisco 49ers
   • “Best road uniform in the NFL.” (57:33)
7. Montreal Canadiens
   • “Unique look... red on the shoulders with the white and royal blue.”
8. New York Islanders
9. Boston Celtics
10. New York Yankees

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Honorable & Notorious Mentions

• Dallas Cowboys: Frequently debated; criticized for mismatched pants/helmet colors and “hustling home uniform.” (56:14)
• Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks, Buffalo Bills, LA Lakers: All appear in various personal lists.

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Serious & Hilarious Soundbites

• “What a middle finger it is... we’re sticking with the one-sided logo. It’s great.” – On Steelers’ helmet (28:51)
• “Comrade Damashek, doesn’t that sound perfect? … run some AI slav communist uniform on him.” – On the post–People’s Court banter (55:46)
• “If you name the team after me … I’ll come play for you Brooklyn Nets as long as we become the Brooklyn Giannis’s.” – Looking toward the future of branding (44:54)
• “Team Canada... that’s the coolest jersey set ever, ever, ever...” – Amin breaking the rules for his #1 (54:29)

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Episode Takeaways

• Uniform fandom is deeply personal and fiercely debated—informed by aesthetic taste, team success, nostalgia, and even acts of mild rebellion.
• Despite rigorous efforts, consensus is elusive—even the rules spark almost as much debate as the rankings.
• The best uniforms are those that achieve classic status—through enduring design, iconic colorways, and a certain intangible attitude.
• Much to the group’s amusement, Dave Damashek’s final judicial ruling crowns the Raiders, not his beloved Steelers, as the greatest uniform in American sports.

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For die-hard aesthetics nerds and casual sports fans alike, this episode is an all-out feast of uniform banter, sharp opinions, and signature Le Batard Show irreverence.

Transcript

[Dave Damashek]

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[Dave Damashek]

Hi hello my fellow football Americans. It's your old pal Dave Damaschek coming at you from the headquarters here in Miami, Florida. La. Looking forward to this episode. We're going to deep dive all the uniforms in North America, or at least those in the four major sports drip drill special. We're going to try to figure out what the top 10 uniforms are. We're going to do it with our partner in crime, anesthetics, Mike Ryan, and Pulitzer Prize winner Amin Elhassan. There isn't a moment to waste. Let's start the show. Yes. Hi and hello and welcome to Football America. My fellow football Americans, this is episode number 63, presented as ever by our pals over at DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours. And while we await those fellows jumping in here, the aforementioned ones, Amin and Mike. Mike and Amin. I see Mike Fuentes behind the glass. I see Gino Fuentes behind the glass. And behind them is Buddy Budowski. How is everybody?

[Amin Elhassan]

We're doing great, Dave. How you doing?

[Dave Damashek]

Excellent. I hope you.

[Gino Fuentes]

I don't know.

[Dave Damashek]

I hope you have your trait. Yeah, that was a little weird.

[Buddy Budowski]

Yeah, I think he was trying to save us all from the long pause. I'm exhausted. My fire alarm went off at three o' clock in the morning last night.

[Gino Fuentes]

And that you stayed up the whole time after that.

[Dave Damashek]

Isn't it weird when people put the microphone on? I don't know why. It's the same sort of thing. You see it all the time when people have a camera pointed at them. When you're at a sporting event and they're in the background, they. They act in a way that they otherwise would never behave. And that's what we just saw from Gino Fuentes. I don't know where that voice came from. He would never make those sounds were there not a microphone in front of him.

[Mike Fuentes]

Never heard that in my life.

[Gino Fuentes]

You know, I was waiting a beat and you didn't say a word. And I was waiting a beat and he didn't say a word. Oh, let me just get in here.

[Mike Fuentes]

It's always funny at sporting events when people get put on the big screen and they do like this number where, like, they're looking at themselves but they're waving, so they can't really see themselves waving in full because they have to look this way to see themselves at all. So you get this weird thing like this where nobody's really looking or not knowing what they're doing. It's always so awkward. I don't know, it feels weird. It.

[Mike Ryan]

Well, it is.

[Dave Damashek]

It's weird to look at and I hope it hasn't been too weird to look at. The Le Batard show this past week, hosted by Jonathan Zaslow, capable That's not a dig at his appearance, it's a dig at mine because I've been seated next to him. Been a great time as always. When I get down to Florida, thanks in part to the Fuentes boys and the good treatment everybody shows me down here. And I hope your sartorial eyes are trained and ready to go here. Real quick though, before we dig in. Gino Fuentes. It's episode number 63. What player or players in the NFL, nay in all of sports, wore that jersey? Number best?

[Gino Fuentes]

Well, as a Florida Panthers fan, I gotta say, Brad Marchand, he's the first one that pops.

[Dave Damashek]

He's a mercenary.

[Gino Fuentes]

Yeah.

[Dave Damashek]

But also bounds for the hall of Fame. That's our guy.

[Buddy Budowski]

He will go into the hall of Fame.

[Mike Ryan]

As a Panther, you dip into football.

[Gino Fuentes]

Gene Upshaw comes to mind. Mike Munchak. But we're still in the offensive line territory here. What do you got for me, Dave?

[Dave Damashek]

Dermonte Dawson, he's a Hall of Famer. What are you talking about? Leroy Selman. Oh, that's a good one, in fact, because he wore one of the most admired uniforms, the Creamsicle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And then they changed to pewter. And who's going to be talking about uniforms in just a minute? A Pulitzer Prize winner. Look how nice and tidy that is.

[Buddy Budowski]

Did we not mention Jeff Saturday? That was the first name that came to mind at 63.

[Amin Elhassan]

You're right.

[Dave Damashek]

Are you positive?

[Buddy Budowski]

100%. Peyton Manning, center Saturday, right now. Jeff Saturday, 63, Colts underrated uniform.

[Dave Damashek]

Hey, Dave. I agree.

[Mike Fuentes]

What's your perfect Sunday?

[Dave Damashek]

I don't know what that question's about. What's that supposed to. I didn't know what. I thought you were asking that sincerely. And I got a little creeped out there.

[Gino Fuentes]

Wait a minute. Awkward.

[Dave Damashek]

I'm trying to pace it up, friend. I want to get to our special guest here, but I can't help it. I'm also a diploma. Who A dork who has to mention this. 63. 63 is a pretty iconic number. 63 is the point total of Michael Jordan against Larry Bird and the Celtics. That was his real national breakout game. 63 is. Is Ernie Fats Holmes. Ernie Fats Holmes is a name that I bet you you guys don't know, but he is one of the four. When you hear Steel Curtain. Do you think that that applies to all the Steelers defense? It doesn't. It's just the front. Yeah, right. It's DWight White, it's LC Greenwood, it's mean Joe Green, and it's Fats Holmes. Those are the original four members of the Steel Curtain and Fats Holmes before they won Super Bowls. This is in 1973, I believe. Here's the. This may be the greatest. What if there would have been social media when this went on? What would our perception be of this person and how differently would society handle it? In 1973, he's a pro football player, Fats Holmes, and he has a psychotic episode driving on the highway. And he starts shooting at other cars while he's driving because he thinks they're following him. Now the cops are out, somebody shooting. Somebody's firing live rounds out on the highway. Let's go get him. Dispatch the helicopter. So Fats Holmes shoots at the helicopter and he hits one of the cops in the ankle. Ernie Holmes gets some treatment, goes on to win two more Super Bowls. And when you mention Fats Holmes around Pittsburgh, they say that Fat, he had the arrow shaved into his head. That guy, he was wild, huh? Imagine if it wouldn't happen nowadays. Imagine athletes, the personal conduct policy. But if you were shooting into the sky, what would happen? That like you would. It wouldn't be. They wouldn't break in on SportsCenter. They would break in like O.J. driving down the freeway, Right?

[Gino Fuentes]

Yeah.

[Dave Damashek]

Did you hear what? Well, there's an NFL football player taking shots at a helicopter right now also very impressive.

[Gino Fuentes]

He hit that. He hit the helicopter while moving in his car.

[Dave Damashek]

We're not advocating advocating for that.

[Gino Fuentes]

I'm not advocating.

[Dave Damashek]

I'm just saying it's not who we are on this show. Please, please, Gina. All right, listen, let's get to it now, shall we? Let's get to drip drill, let's rank the uniforms. Hi and hello, my fellow football Americans, your old pal Dave here talking about living over just surviving. I talk about it a great deal. But of course, when you have a kid or four, I think is what I'm up to now. Four kids, something like that, you start to live not so much for yourself, but for other people. You want to take care of the little ones in their future. The last thing you want to be worrying about is what's going to happen if you aren't still living or surviving. Would they be financially prepared with life insurance from Ethos, your family is going to be protected. Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy. 100% online. You can get a quote in seconds, apply in minutes and get same day coverage. And. And no medical exam. See, I would maybe fail that the speaking portion of the medical exam. Although I don't think they have a speaking portion of it. Although that might might be an area of concern. But either way, all you have to do is answer a few simple health questions and it's not going to cost you a fortune. You just need to take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through Ethos. Get your free [e-mail] FBA that's E T H O S.com FBA application times may vary, rates may vary. I may stumble through some of my language because as you can tell, I'm a goon. But hear my words. Ethos is the way to go for you and for your family's future. You know, people say there's no accounting for taste, but I have disproven that over and over again. Yes, it is your accountant for taste. The uniforms are the uniform. It with an important exercise, it's time to do a time capsule. Best uniforms in the four major sports in North America. It is a very special edition of Drip Drill. For Drip Drill, we're we're joined by my OG partner, the high li champion, the tatted up fellow. What do you call your hairdo, by the way?

[Mike Ryan]

A bad one.

[Dave Damashek]

Well, no, you got that Chandler Parsons thing that the Youngs are doing where they shave up all the forget sideburns. You're going way up past that. You're like a two inches up over the ear.

[Mike Ryan]

There was a GQ article that said the fade is dead.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay, this isn't a fade.

[Mike Ryan]

No, it's just, it just ends on the sides.

[Amin Elhassan]

Mattingly, I thought I told you about getting rid of those sideburns. That's exactly how Mattingly looked.

[Dave Damashek]

While we're on aesthetic matters, I have to say it again. I've said it before and I'm going to say it into this microphone right now. You have, you have lovely eyes.

[Mike Ryan]

Thank you.

[Dave Damashek]

Really lovely eyes. Do you get a lot of compliments? I do. In life. I do.

[Mike Ryan]

I do.

[Dave Damashek]

Your number one feature acting career.

[Mike Ryan]

I would, I would, I would guess it's a thing that I get complimented on. And also tall.

[Dave Damashek]

Tall. Yeah.

[Mike Ryan]

People say tall.

[Dave Damashek]

What's my best feature?

[Mike Ryan]

Your penis. It looks like Jack Nicholson.

[Amin Elhassan]

Oh, and the Shining.

[Dave Damashek]

That's frozen. Picking up where we left off on Thursday's episode of Dan LeBatard Show. We are coming at you from Miami, of course, and a gay time so far. There one more to go here. And we've been celebrating all week on the LeBatard Show. The other special guest for this special edition of Drip Drill, he's a Pulitzer prize Winner. Also a host of multiple podcasts. Here he is, everybody. It's Pablo. Wait, what?

[Amin Elhassan]

Sir, you besmirched me.

[Dave Damashek]

Oh, yeah. Pablo Torre finds out, as I should mention. Yes. Congratulations.

[Mike Ryan]

So how many Pulitzer winners are there adjacent to the PTFO universe? Like, how many people can claim, like, Ryan Cortez is now a Pulitzer winner?

[Amin Elhassan]

He is, Absolutely. Yes.

[Mike Ryan]

So how many people?

[Amin Elhassan]

I don't know how many people. Matt Sullivan. He's on that list. Me, David Sampson, Pablo Torre.

[Mike Ryan]

So I always used to think this was an exclusive club, and now I know.

[Buddy Budowski]

Like, Randy, Like Patrick Kim.

[Mike Ryan]

Ten of them.

[Amin Elhassan]

Chris, There's. There's a bunch of people. Hey, a lot of people worked to make this thing happen.

[Dave Damashek]

I'm happy for you that you got it. That's not what we're here to do. By the way, I would also like to promote that. I made an appearance on Mystery Crate this week, and among the important discussions we had there, we talked about what is the best movie or TV home. Mike Ryan, you didn't get to weigh in on that. It's another aesthetic.

[Mike Ryan]

I've been watching Full House lately, and while it's not the best, I do love the home, and I would probably pick that one because it's so quaint and it means a lot to me. And also, they just kept adding on. More people kept moving in, and they're like, all right, the attic. Oh, you need a radio studio. The basement.

[Dave Damashek]

I loved it. We also landed on. It took me a lot of thought to come around to this one. One of the worst ones ever is Luke Skywalker's Boywood home on Tatooine with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru that really come to mind.

[Amin Elhassan]

It's a family legacy home. Anakin grew up.

[Dave Damashek]

It's like an igloo, but for the desert.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, I'm okay with Star wars, but I'm not a super fan.

[Mike Fuentes]

They did have a lot of land out there because they had a moisture farm and you had a lot land out there. Nobody want to live there, of course.

[Mike Ryan]

Well, that's the point.

[Mike Fuentes]

Kind of like rural America, but, you know, it was a lot of land. And if there's a big real estate rush on Tatooine, they're primed to make

[Mike Ryan]

a nice penny more on a outworld kick recently.

[Mike Fuentes]

Oh, I love that.

[Amin Elhassan]

Not so far from Tashi power station, by the way.

[Dave Damashek]

Now, here's what I wanted to talk about. I have put together this blue ribbon panel, because this is the hash I would like for us to settle as of this moment. Which is to say, basically mid-2026. We will bury this down deep and we will pull it up at our leisure, as will all the listeners interested in uniform talk. As we've talked about before, I think there's a cut point of about 50% of sports fans love uniforms, and the other 50% don't consider them at all. The latter group is a complete group of weirdos, in my opinion. I don't know how you can stare at something for three and a half hours and be like, I don't know, I never thought about it. You don't think about what your eyes are looking at for three and a half hours. I think you're protesting too much. I think you're trying to guard against some insinuation that nobody would care about. Of course you care about uniform. Anyway, I think at the time of this recording, there are 123 sports franchises among the four major sports. I'm not including Major League Soccer, and I would like to see if we can put our heads together here and determine which are right now, the 10 best uniform sets in all of North American sports. And we went back and forth on this. Mike Ryan, let's pull the curtain back for this drip drill. You could do individual getups, but then that gets into, well, can I take the one like the Atlanta Hawks war, the Kelly Green, that Pete Maravich War in 1974? The answer is no. If they've left it in the rearview mirror, so will we, right?

[Mike Ryan]

Yes, I think that's a good rule. Throwbacks. Then we just get into boomer talk. Like, most of the time we do drip drill, we talk about how good the uniforms were before. So what I'm going to do with this is I'm going to offer up a couple of uniform sets that are contemporary that I believe represent the best look that the franchise has ever had. And you could take that for data and you can compare it to what I assume are, you know, the legacy brands, the classic uniforms, the New York Yankees of it all.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay, so, Amin, if you followed that, what we're going to do is let's look at the standard sets, as in home, in a way. Let's not get into throwback territory. I think we'll end up touching on some of that because, as a for instance, everybody under the sun, apparently, aside from Seahawks ownership, agrees that the Seahawks should be wearing the silver hats with the royal blue and the Kelly green and the silver pants. They choose to wear what they wear, and maybe they get dinged for that. We're not evaluating that throwback, what they wore in the super bowl and the road version of that.

[Amin Elhassan]

And we're also not evaluating the one off. So, for example, the Miami Heat have a very popular alternate jersey called the Vice jersey. They had it, they wore it this year, but it was not their main home or away jersey. So that jersey is disqualified. We're just talking about your standard down the middle. This is your home jersey, this is your road jersey as we understood it to be five years ago, before Nike decided to say F you to that hole.

[Dave Damashek]

That's right. And I also think that you can ding them though. You get the Miami Heat maybe deserved to be taken to task. If that uniform is better, then maybe they should be wearing that full time. On the other side of that coin though, you can't have a color scheme. You can't decide to tell the world, hey, this is our color scheme. And then like 10 years later be like, oh yeah, nevermind that. The worst example of that, the Arizona Diamondbacks, they go out and win a World Series this millennium, no less, in the purple and green striking, if nothing else. It's a, it's a turquoise. Okay, okay.

[Mike Ryan]

More in line with a desert color scheme that you see often.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay, that's a fair description. Either way, they win a World Series, they beat the Yankees in those uniforms and what do they do 10 years in, like, yeah, now we're black and red. No, you're not allowed to change, not allowed to do that.

[Amin Elhassan]

Well, there's a couple reasons why, right? The in universe reason is it is more representative of the entire state of Arizona. The red rocks of Sedona, which is very world famous. So that red, that particular shade of red, and they should have told the

[Dave Damashek]

people 10 years ago that don't do the purple shadows.

[Amin Elhassan]

Here's the other part. Right. So the team, when it was created, the guy who owned it was a man named Jerry Colangelo. Jerry Colangelo owned the Phoenix Suns. Prominent color is purple. So he wanted the symmetry between his two franchises to carry over purple and purple. That's why he spent a ton of money to win that World Series and then went massively into debt. And then they sold the team. And when the new people came in and said, well, we want to distance ourselves from the old owner, Jerry Colangelo, we're going to give it some different colors. And the other out of universe, really cynical way to look at this is market studies. There's just a lot of studies that say red is sells.

[Mike Ryan]

So the example that you cited right now, the Diamondbacks is why I think I kind of misunderstood the assignment, because I'm like, if I have a time capsule to represent the Arizona Diamondbacks, I'm putting their own one World Series look in there because, number one, it's their best look, and that's what they're most known for. So what I did was the sports teams, and it's hard to do that, are presently wearing their time capsule look. And I eliminated legacy teams like the. The packers and the Chiefs and the Cowboys that have basically only had one look their entire time because I assumed you guys would go ahead and do that. I think it's way more difficult to pick franchises that are presently rocking their best look because we're always so inclined to go with a throwback look.

[Amin Elhassan]

Such a slender pool of candidates. For Mike Ryan, he's eliminated. Not only has he eliminated all the things that are bad, just objectively, I don't like the way it looks. He's also eliminated all the good ones if they've been wearing it for a while, which sounds kind of a little draconian if you ask me.

[Dave Damashek]

Well, I think it will help surface uniforms we otherwise might not hit here one and two. Because, of course, I think you're to be commended if you've made it for half a century in the same getup like the Kansas City Chiefs. They deserve extra credit for not having to change that uniform at all or

[Mike Ryan]

bowing to societal pressures.

[Dave Damashek]

Yes. Yeah, I think there's. But then again, the other side of that is that it creates a sort of stuffiness about who you are. And, like, oh, the Yankees would never dare change. They're like, all right, get over yourselves a little bit.

[Mike Ryan]

The Yankees did change their away look recently.

[Dave Damashek]

How so?

[Mike Ryan]

It's a navy that New York is, like, now. Just more straight color. It used to have an outline. The Red Sox and the Yankees do little tweaks to their uniforms that most people don't seize on. But I'm a freak about uniforms.

[Dave Damashek]

I mean, why'd you just check your watch?

[Amin Elhassan]

Because I got an alert, and I was trying to figure out.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay. I was worried that we'd already lost your attention. Mike and I are real, real, real in the uniform.

[Amin Elhassan]

I'm in the uniforms, too.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay?

[Amin Elhassan]

And I'm ready to get into this list.

[Dave Damashek]

Let's get into it. No more flapping of the gums. Except that you now have to flap your gu us off. First up for consideration in the top 10, Amin El Hassan says, so I'm

[Amin Elhassan]

going from 10 to 1. Right. And none of these are exclusives. Right. It's not like if I take it, you can't take. It's not a draft.

[Dave Damashek]

How should we do this, Mike Fuentes? Do we just tick through each person's top 10?

[Mike Fuentes]

Do whatever you want. I don't care.

[Amin Elhassan]

Okay.

[Buddy Budowski]

Yeah.

[Mike Ryan]

And I'm going top five because I assume in your top tens, you're going with some classic looks that would, I mean, obviously be, by any measure, grape uniform.

[Dave Damashek]

So in a way, I'll be like the judge. Yeah, I will. I will take all the information from you guys and the fellows behind the glass, and then I will retreat back to my chamber.

[Mike Ryan]

You don't need three dudes saying yankees.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay, fair. Take it away.

[Amin Elhassan]

Number 10, the New York Football Giants. And here's why. Right?

[Dave Damashek]

Because you said yesterday to me when I brought this up to you, you're like, I'll be good for this because you're a homer. And you'll just say all Pittsburgh teams, and I'll be good and objective. And the first one you say is

[Mike Ryan]

New York, because I'm at number 10.

[Amin Elhassan]

Number 10. That's number 10 on my list. They barely eked in, by the way. I got some great ones on the Olis, but I decided to set those aside. But one of the things that really resonated with me, Mr. Dmeshek, is that you said, hey, it's gotta be the full set, meaning home and away. So if they have a great home jersey, but the away jersey, not so much. You almost have to average out their score. And so for me, I love the blue of the New York Giants. It's a clean look, the blue and white. It was the original look. And then they changed around Lawrence Taylor in those years, they had the red outline on the numbers. Then they went back to this original look. I think it's a great look. And then the white with the red, I'm not as big a fan of. And that's why it sagged it all the way down to 10.

[Mike Ryan]

For me, they've gone away from the gray pants, and I like the gray pants in the arsenal. I don't. I love their uniform right now, but is it their best uniform they've ever worn? That's where it gets docked for me.

[Amin Elhassan]

That's where you're.

[Mike Ryan]

That's where my time capsule is putting different. But go back to the gray. I like the gray.

[Amin Elhassan]

I like the gray.

[Mike Ryan]

And also, I have a bone to pick with the throwbacks. While everyone loves them and I love the back nameplate, the blue on the helmet doesn't match the Blue on the jersey. That's true.

[Dave Damashek]

I will say New Yorkers should get to decide with cast the deciding vote. But I think the lowercase NY is better than Giants. How say you, Amin?

[Amin Elhassan]

I am a fan of the. I mean I'm always gonna feel fond about those because those are the more recent Super Bowls came with the ny, whereas the Phil Sims, Lawrence Taylor Super Bowls they have the Giants all caps written on the side. I agree with you. The ny, that is the classic look because it goes with the classic look

[Mike Fuentes]

of the jersey kind of feel. It's one of the rare times two wins on the helmet and why and the Giants, they're both wins.

[Mike Ryan]

Good point.

[Amin Elhassan]

But they have to be congruent.

[Mike Ryan]

Great set and a good number 10. I mean.

[Amin Elhassan]

Yeah, thank you.

[Dave Damashek]

You know what I mean? Since Mike has five and you have 10 and then we want to hear from the fellows behind there. Why don't you go rattle off some more. Give us. Well, just give us number nine.

[Amin Elhassan]

Number nine. A team that I have no connections to at all. But I've always loved the look. I like the color scheme, the blue and the blue and the silver and the black. And I love the home jersey that. That white is so clean. It's the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA. I really like those Dallas Mavericks jerseys they've gotten.

[Dave Damashek]

They were lost for a long stretch. This is a good candidate for Mike Ryan's list of best edition of uniform that the franchise has ever worn. Because the ones that they wore, you

[Amin Elhassan]

know, the way back, Orlando Blackman, Derek

[Dave Damashek]

Harper, the Kelly greens were no good. And then the Dirk ones looked more like they should be playing tennis at a country club than playing NBA basketball.

[Mike Ryan]

Probably be their time capsule look though, as the Dirk 1, the 06 uniform,

[Amin Elhassan]

the current one, isn't that far off from it. It is just a lot sleeker, not a lot nicer looking. The one you talk about would be the time capsule because of what was achieved wearing that jersey. And that's why.

[Mike Ryan]

And it's probably like their most successful long run. Even though they made a final. And then they had fun with the alternates, the green alternate. Good choice again, for what it's worth,

[Dave Damashek]

I have tried my best to detach the deeds within those uniforms from just looking at them and liking them aesthetically, just visceral. That's a good looking getup. I don't care if they've ever won a single game in their sport before. All right, let's go behind the glass here real quick, buddy. You've done a lot of work in this field.

[Buddy Budowski]

Yeah. I'm big uniform.

[Dave Damashek]

Hammer through a few.

[Buddy Budowski]

I'm a classics guy. All right, I'll start with the Chicago Cubs home uniform. Pinstripes, C target logo with the Cubs inside. Blue hat, blue socks. It's a perfect baseball.

[Mike Ryan]

Would probably be in my top 10 if I were doing this conventionally.

[Dave Damashek]

Really? Yeah.

[Mike Ryan]

Of all the uniforms in the four major sports, I love the movie Rookie of the Year.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay.

[Buddy Budowski]

And definitely not going with a homer pick there. All right, next one I'll go. Atlanta Braves road uniform. My favorite gray.

[Amin Elhassan]

Hold on. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm stop you right there. Because the man told us you gotta take the whole thing.

[Dave Damashek]

Both.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amin Elhassan]

There ain't no picking and choosing.

[Mike Ryan]

How dare you take liberties with the rules.

[Buddy Budowski]

We all had different interpretations of the rules.

[Amin Elhassan]

Well, no, that was a pretty straightforward rule from the man himself.

[Mike Fuentes]

You know, these kids these days, they can do whatever they want. They can just come in, you know, they get put on the show two weeks later. I'm not gonna consider Dave's rules.

[Amin Elhassan]

I'll just do whatever the hell I want.

[Dave Damashek]

This is a modern classic, though. The Braves. And also a throwback to the Hammer and Hank Aaron days.

[Amin Elhassan]

Yes. Well, now let's continue. It's not throwback.

[Buddy Budowski]

No, because they were like the blue.

[Dave Damashek]

Like they went to the ice cream shop. Kind of get ups for the early part of Dale Mercy and all of that.

[Buddy Budowski]

All right, I'll go next with the Oakland, whatever you want to call them. Sacramento, Las Vegas. The Athletics classic green and gold look. Looks great on a. On a home uniform with the white cleats. Looks great on a road uniform as well. And then any of their. I know we're not talking about any of their other sets, but the green, the yellow, everything is just so good.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah, it's one of my all time favorite uniforms back before when you actually had to wear either white or black cleats with your uniform in baseball and not like all these like fuchsia colors.

[Dave Damashek]

The.

[Mike Ryan]

They really popped with the white cleats.

[Dave Damashek]

I think that they've done away with stirrups in Major league baseball entirely.

[Buddy Budowski]

And there's some guys out there that are still rocking them. Still rocking them.

[Dave Damashek]

That is the biggest. The single biggest loss in. Among the stirrup community is the Oakland Athletics not pulling the green stirrups over the golden socks. What a What, what, What a loss that is that.

[Mike Ryan]

What a.

[Dave Damashek]

What a shame. But I'm glad you shouted that one out. Gino Fuentes, how say you.

[Gino Fuentes]

You want my. My 10 and 9 is that we're asking for now?

[Dave Damashek]

Yeah, go ahead. Okay, 10.

[Gino Fuentes]

I like the Bengals.

[Dave Damashek]

They fix those up.

[Gino Fuentes]

It's a distinctive helmet and I know we're not talking about the alternates again, but that all white kit is. It's awesome. It's awesome to look at. It pops off the screen and my number nine, you're gonna like this. I actually do like the Steelers. The Steelers basic get ups. I like the circular logo, distinctive logo, black and yellow. Now when you get into their older shit, their special kits, I hate them.

[Dave Damashek]

If you want to be an asshole, there's. The Steelers are one of those uniforms that you really can't mount much of an argument.

[Gino Fuentes]

Again, these are 9 and 10 on the list.

[Dave Damashek]

Is it the best Pittsburgh uniform, all things considered.

[Mike Ryan]

I'm kind of like a Pirates guy.

[Dave Damashek]

Really?

[Mike Ryan]

I don't like the Pirates.

[Dave Damashek]

Can I say something?

[Amin Elhassan]

Hey, put your logo on the other side. That is not about this.

[Mike Ryan]

I like that they have their own thing.

[Gino Fuentes]

I like that they have one sided. One side.

[Amin Elhassan]

That's what makes it distinctive. But that's trying too hard. Like, you know what, we're gonna just gonna put it on one side.

[Mike Ryan]

What's the story behind that?

[Dave Damashek]

Don't you think Roon Arledge, because that's how the steel workers did it. And the. Don't you think that Roon Arledge or whoever. Monday Night Football in the early days of pro football on network tv, don't you think they went to the Steelers and like, hey, we need you to get on board Steelers here because like we like to do in promotions, we like one helmet here and the other helmet on that like. And so when you're one side the left side of your helmet, it's just gonna be a black hat and the Steelers like deal with it. I love it. What a middle finger. What a middle finger it is. We don't care what your fancy TV desires. We're sticking with the one sided logo. It's great.

[Gino Fuentes]

Gino, you want to keep going?

[Mike Ryan]

You want to go, oh, one more, one more for us.

[Amin Elhassan]

No, you gave us. Yeah, that was two right there.

[Gino Fuentes]

I gave you nine and ten. I'll give you eight just for the hell of it. I love black uniforms. I like like dark color schemes. I like the Ravens. The Ravens get ups especially when they're wearing all black from head to toe. Looks really nice.

[Dave Damashek]

I mean they, they updated them a little bit almost.

[Gino Fuentes]

And I just realized here I went three NFC north teams in a row.

[Amin Elhassan]

But also isn't, isn't The Ravens all black. That's an alternate, right? Isn't it purple?

[Dave Damashek]

No, they have new look that now has weird feathers around the neck. They're not an upgrade. They're fussy and we and strange.

[Gino Fuentes]

This is just a personal.

[Mike Ryan]

Listen, let's be cool guys.

[Mike Fuentes]

You broke Dave's rules just to vomit out Ravens all black. That's really what you did.

[Dave Damashek]

Oh, what a novel idea. Like every other team in every sport, we're Midnight Blackens. Or let's go icy.

[Mike Ryan]

Let's go all white. Let's take it easy. Maybe there's some people that like what they did.

[Gino Fuentes]

By the way, Amit is the only one to follow the rules here so far.

[Dave Damashek]

Take it away, Mike. Ryan, who you got next?

[Mike Ryan]

Well, so I'll just venture one. I think this is a time capsule look for this franchise. My number five is the Tampa Bay Lightning. And it just so happens they've done most of their winning in this set. But it's very clean, all blue. They don't even have Tampa Bay on their jersey. They're identified by their logo. I like their Olds too. But the home and away are very clean and that is their time capsule look. A team that is presently wearing their best look right now. Tampa Bay Lightning number five.

[Dave Damashek]

I mean, I don't know if you heard, but there's another team called the Toronto Maple Leafs. They just went up to Toronto, grabbed their uniforms and put a new logo on the list. The exact same uniform. You don't get any credit for mimicking someone.

[Mike Ryan]

They've been wearing that uniform forever.

[Dave Damashek]

It is it. They haven't been wearing it forever. And in fact they won that. Did they? Yeah, they won their first Stanley cup wearing the black and blue and white.

[Mike Ryan]

Interesting.

[Dave Damashek]

That's a better.

[Mike Ryan]

Well, you have. You want. Look, there's a million lists here.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay. All right.

[Amin Elhassan]

What about you?

[Dave Damashek]

I'll do. I decided to be a judge, Mr.

[Gino Fuentes]

Host.

[Dave Damashek]

I'm going to go back into my chambers and put all these thoughts together.

[Mike Ryan]

So far, my game though, like, would you agree at least the Tampa Bay Lightning are rocking. Presently their best look in franchise history.

[Dave Damashek]

No, I just told you I thought their best look was the black and the.

[Mike Ryan]

I thought you were talking about the Leafs.

[Mike Fuentes]

Nobody asked and I really don't care. But nobody picked the new Washington Commanders throwback inspired new unis.

[Dave Damashek]

What? I mean, we're in the middle of doing this or you act like. Why are you acting like a spurn that just child.

[Buddy Budowski]

No one mentioned it.

[Mike Fuentes]

Also, it was more like that's their best look.

[Amin Elhassan]

He's not playing the game. The game is their standard home and their standard road set together.

[Dave Damashek]

They now they brought them back. They basically brought back the Joe Gibbs era ones. Except it's a W. Distinguished gentleman on the side.

[Buddy Budowski]

I will say their past look that they just upgraded from would have been bottom, bottom, bottom on my list of uniforms.

[Dave Damashek]

Well, especially the one that did commanders across the top.

[Buddy Budowski]

Horrible. You're one dotted in the stripes. The Falcons as well. Huge upgrade this summer.

[Amin Elhassan]

Well, aren't we doing worst five times?

[Dave Damashek]

We'll get to that. But yes. The Browns dumped their old ones from five, 10 years ago. And that was such an embarrassment of 32 pro football teams on the planet Earth. You feel such low self esteem that you have to put the word Browns on your pants.

[Mike Ryan]

They won like four games in that uniform.

[Dave Damashek]

Brown, which team is the Browns? The one who's pantsing the team that

[Gino Fuentes]

wears orange over there.

[Dave Damashek]

That's right. The one in the orange hat. It's very confusing. Mike Ryan, your next one.

[Mike Ryan]

My number four team that is presently wearing their best look and this is really more like of a rhetorical trick that I'm doing because it's a Clippers and they've never really had like beautiful, beautiful uniforms. I like invoking like the, the nautical items that they have. I. They got away from the red uniform and I like the. The darker blue on the road. I think their home uniform right now is the strongest set they've had. Again, I'm comparing it to a team that hasn't had great mediocrity.

[Dave Damashek]

Basically.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah. And I think presently the Clippers are rocking their best look in franchise history. If I were to have a time capsule and put a look that would best describe these Clippers, it would be that one, buddy.

[Amin Elhassan]

I get it. It was affiliated with a very dark time in the franchise. But that Clipper script on a red jersey, that's your time capsule jersey right there.

[Dave Damashek]

When you see that, you just think

[Amin Elhassan]

of Loy Vought, Eric Piatowski, Piatkowski, the

[Dave Damashek]

Polish Rifleman to get in the wayback machine. In fact, they are the old Buffalo Braves. You ever see those old Buffalo Braves get up?

[Amin Elhassan]

We park our cars in the same garage.

[Dave Damashek]

All right, let's see. Take it away. What's next?

[Amin Elhassan]

All right, so I'm gonna. You want me 8 and 7 now?

[Dave Damashek]

I mean, that's how you said you're counting down and you finished it number nine. So of course, yes. Eight and then seven.

[Amin Elhassan]

I don't know. Eight, seven, six. Because you got this guy all the

[Gino Fuentes]

Way up the throat.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay, go eight, seven, six.

[Amin Elhassan]

If you want number eight. Again, a team I have no connection to.

[Dave Damashek]

Why don't you care about this, Mike? And then you don't care about it. Mike Fuentes. But then you chime in. Nobody said Washington, which is the one I wanted to say, and we're still doing it.

[Mike Fuentes]

Well, I only chimed in so it looks like I'm working, but because, you know, you mentioned in the beginning there's 50% of people who are really into it and 50 who aren't. Guess which side I'm on. All right, you figured it out. Go ahead.

[Amin Elhassan]

Number eight, the Baltimore Orioles. I love the orange and black. I love the road with the gray and the orange script with the black outline. I love the home white with the Orioles across the front. Little bird on a baseball bat. I like the hat. It's just. It's a nice, like, top to bottom look.

[Mike Ryan]

It's a great look. One of my favorite uniforms, the only issue I have is the hat.

[Amin Elhassan]

You don't like the hat?

[Mike Ryan]

It's like the Miami Dolphins thing.

[Mike Fuentes]

Three different hats.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah, it's a. It's hat inception on the bird. It's a. It's a hat of a bird wearing a hat.

[Dave Damashek]

And it's not the hat that's on the hat. It bothers you.

[Mike Ryan]

How'd you guys like the classic Big Bird? I love the Cal Ripken early 90s when they first moved into Camden Yards. And it was a simple oriole on there.

[Buddy Budowski]

That was beautiful.

[Dave Damashek]

We get Orioles and Blue Jays in my Los Angeles backyard. We were well on our way to.

[Mike Ryan]

I have them, too.

[Dave Damashek]

And I have Orioles.

[Mike Fuentes]

We got Cardinals down here.

[Amin Elhassan]

Wait a second, guys. Are you telling me that I parked my car in the backyard? Cause number seven is the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays. That's a cool looking jersey.

[Mike Ryan]

Yes.

[Amin Elhassan]

That blue. That light blue. The bird, the red hints. Just let it pop here, pop there.

[Mike Fuentes]

I like the font. That's like the two lines I was gonna say.

[Buddy Budowski]

They're numbers. Nobody else in any other sport has their number and text numerals.

[Amin Elhassan]

Cleanest font. The hat is very cool. Remember when everyone was wearing, like, the big thing was, like, you wear hats from, like, exotic hats. That Blue Jay hat did numbers. Toronto Blue Jays number.

[Dave Damashek]

Let me say. Let me say two things here. One, the single best color scheme again, removing myself from black and gold. And that is the single coolest thing for any sports town in anywhere on earth. All three teams wear black and gold. It's the coolest. And now I see Other people online saying our city should do that, too. No, I mean do it, but you're just copycatting the city of champions if you do it. But okay. And then other blind, you can choose any color scheme. Navy blue and light blue is where I would go. So we are parking our cars in the same garage. Give us one more Amin number six.

[Amin Elhassan]

So this one has been going for a while now, and it helps that the team has been wildly successful under this current incarnation of the jersey. It's the Golden State Warriors. You got that Bay Bridge on there letting you know it connects to two cities by the bay. We're not the San Francisco Warriors. We're not the Oakland Warriors. The Golden State Warriors. And then the number placement. Right. NBA teams seem tend to be very, very conservative with number, team name, and then number on the back and player name on the front. The warriors do a good job of like, hey, you know, we're gonna hide the number right here next to the bridge. I like that the logo is the majority of the front of their jersey. Blue is nice. White is nice. The gold accents is awesome. Golden State warriors number six.

[Dave Damashek]

This a good question to turn to you, Mike Ryan with, because they had some wacky uniforms in navy orange. Remember that guy? What was that guy?

[Mike Ryan]

He was an actual warrior when they

[Dave Damashek]

had the outer space. Yeah.

[Mike Ryan]

Future warrior with a lightning bolt piping,

[Dave Damashek]

like, for the time.

[Mike Ryan]

I think you can make a strong argument that this is their time capsule uniform.

[Amin Elhassan]

Absolutely.

[Mike Ryan]

It's hard to detach the success that they've had on it. And they've had uniforms that are a little close to it, which is why they didn't make my list. But they're definitely wearing the look that they're most known for.

[Amin Elhassan]

Yeah, like the. So before this was the Thunderbolt one, that one was wildly unliked in the local area. They didn't like it because the blue was too dark blue. The orange was too far from. They've always been a kind of royal blue and gold. Think about the Warriors. That Tim Hardaway, Latrell spiel, and those guys just said warriors on the front like that. And then going further back, there was a version that kind of looked like that with the bridge on it. That's where this one was inspired from. So this definitely would be the most memorable and the closest to the essence of the franchise. And it doesn't hurt that the greatest stretch of time they've had has been wearing these jerseys.

[Dave Damashek]

Well, what's funny, the irony of the ones you talk about, the royal blue warriors across the Front. The player I associate those uniforms with most is Chris Mullen. No, Chris Weber, as a matter of fact, because he wore that uniform for about four minutes before he got traded on.

[Amin Elhassan]

Before he demanded to get traded before.

[Dave Damashek]

On draft night. All right, I'm doing a terrible job of managing the clock.

[Mike Ryan]

I kind of. I kind of like how you're bouncing around, though.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay, Buddy Budowski, you're next.

[Buddy Budowski]

All right, I'm going to move these down three because we're doing it as a whole set. So I'm going to move these down a little bit from where I had them. I'm going to go with the Dallas Cowboys uniforms. So I really. I love the road Navy. Like, I can't get in. I think the road Navy is probably. That was going to be my number one unit.

[Dave Damashek]

They're the LA Express. Congratulations. You copycatted a USFL team America.

[Mike Fuentes]

It's not even the best navy kit in football.

[Amin Elhassan]

The road uniform in the division, the

[Mike Ryan]

road uniform actually makes sense as opposed to whatever they got going on with the home uniform. That makes zero sense.

[Buddy Budowski]

My problem, why I'm moving it down here is because the pants on the home uniform, like, as iconic as the shirt is, the pants don't make any sense about them.

[Dave Damashek]

This is a top 10.

[Buddy Budowski]

Cowboys are the Cowboys. What does that mean?

[Dave Damashek]

The Cowboys.

[Mike Ryan]

Cowboys have been the Cowboys and they've been the Cowboys wearing a hustling home uniform.

[Buddy Budowski]

Still love their uniforms.

[Dave Damashek]

You just said you don't like them and you said, but they're the Cowboys and I love their uniforms.

[Buddy Budowski]

I say I didn't like them. I just said wear that uniform like

[Mike Ryan]

80 of the time.

[Mike Fuentes]

Just trying to. That road fans trying to get them.

[Buddy Budowski]

What do I give a About the

[Mike Fuentes]

Cowboys trying to get the Twitter numbers

[Buddy Budowski]

off that road uniform? Love that.

[Dave Damashek]

So the uniform you see about maybe once or maybe twice in NFL season is worth it for you to put them in your top.

[Buddy Budowski]

That was my number one. When I thought we were doing individual uniforms. That was my number one. The Dallas Cowboys uniforms.

[Dave Damashek]

The hell's wrong with you? I don't know that we let him continue.

[Mike Fuentes]

You know what? You know what? That's not. It's not three words.

[Dave Damashek]

Not.

[Mike Ryan]

I have a good idea of how we're better on time.

[Dave Damashek]

I. I know how we can base it up. Gino, take it away.

[Gino Fuentes]

All right, this one's for limited judge.

[Dave Damashek]

I don't want to say too much, but when the judge emerges from. From his chambers, the Cowboys will be mentioned and they will not be in the top 10. I can assure you that.

[Gino Fuentes]

Okay, we're going. Number seven, Chicago Blackhawks. Is this. Is this one of the only franchises that has the actual Native American still on?

[Amin Elhassan]

Still on there?

[Mike Ryan]

You can go ahead and say the other one.

[Gino Fuentes]

I think it's. I think the color scheme is nice.

[Dave Damashek]

It's.

[Amin Elhassan]

It's bold.

[Gino Fuentes]

It's not messy. It's. I like it.

[Buddy Budowski]

Perfect hockey sweater. They're also on my list.

[Dave Damashek]

The problem is black and red is too much. All the marketing departments figured that out, and half the NHL teams now wear black.

[Gino Fuentes]

The accent of the green and the orange and the feathers on the top.

[Mike Fuentes]

That is true. The accent colors. Pop it off.

[Gino Fuentes]

All right. After that, we had number six, Golden State Warriors. I think that's our first overlap.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay. There you go.

[Gino Fuentes]

Yeah. For all the reasons Amin said. Great. Look. Number five, because it's clean. St. Louis Cardinals. I just. I like it. It's just. I like the car. I like the birds and the bat and the cursive lettering.

[Dave Damashek]

Kind of cool. When I mentioned Pittsburgh wears black and gold, there were two St. Louis Cardinals at one time for a stretch. When I was growing up, they shared the same stadium.

[Amin Elhassan]

Also in the same garage.

[Dave Damashek]

And also in the Forum, though in the Forum, they used to both wear the Lakers and the Kings wore purple and gold. So that it's not like.

[Amin Elhassan]

I don't remember the Kings wearing purple

[Buddy Budowski]

and gold Forum blue. For some reason that it's called form blue. I don't know why. That's clearly purple.

[Dave Damashek]

Yeah, good shouts there.

[Gino Fuentes]

I meant the St. Louis Cardinals baseball. Just in case. No one got that before.

[Dave Damashek]

No one thought you were talking about Neil Lomax and Roy Green era St. Louis Cardinals. O.J. anderson. Give us two more real quick.

[Gino Fuentes]

Gino, let's move up the list. I like the Kraken uniform.

[Mike Fuentes]

Oh, speaking of hockey, also, the Utah

[Amin Elhassan]

Mammoth just says Utah.

[Mike Fuentes]

No, but, no, now they have the Mammoth club.

[Buddy Budowski]

They have a mammoth head.

[Mike Fuentes]

Now it has. And it has that black, like powder blue and white. Very nice.

[Gino Fuentes]

Okay.

[Dave Damashek]

Stupid name for the team. Black and light blue is okay. Not great.

[Mike Ryan]

What do you think of the Kraken, though?

[Dave Damashek]

Oh, the crack. Cracking the crack. I love the crack. I like. I love the Kraken Navy. I don't love the white as much. The colors don't work as well together on the white.

[Mike Fuentes]

You know what I like on the Kraken inside the top of the S. The little red.

[Amin Elhassan]

Exactly.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah.

[Dave Damashek]

I like that.

[Gino Fuentes]

I like that.

[Mike Ryan]

Like, we park our cards in the same garage.

[Gino Fuentes]

Left the cards behind.

[Mike Ryan]

That was. Yeah, I'll go with my number three. And this one I'm proud of because I think this team, they've been wearing this set for a few years. I think it represents their best look, and they've had a lot of different looks. I'm going with the current Milwaukee Bucks uniform set.

[Amin Elhassan]

Really? You like the green with the stripes on the back?

[Mike Ryan]

I love it because they kind of built their uniform and their logo around their superstar. There's a lot of Greek influence within their uniform. I like that they go with cream. It taps into the region. I like the colored green that they settled on. And they've had a lot of different looks over the course of their history. But I think that you can say for a team that's had fun looks, they are presently wearing their best look. That is their time capsule. It doesn't hurt that they've had some success.

[Amin Elhassan]

A lot of people, when that jersey came out, felt it was a little too unimaginative. Right. It was just too very. They had this thing where the logo, new logo, says Milwaukee basketball Club on it. And it was. You're right. It's very soccer and a little like

[Mike Ryan]

M in the neck. Yeah, I kind of dig that.

[Amin Elhassan]

But that. You don't see that on the jersey, though.

[Mike Ryan]

You do on, like the. The piping on the side. I just kind of like those old blocky gre.

[Dave Damashek]

I think that's what I don't like.

[Mike Ryan]

Well, again, building around your superstar, giving them an identity. And the little tinge of blue, which is also, I guess, a tip of the hat to grease. I kind of like it. I think it's their best looking franchise history. Do you have a better Milwaukee Bucks look?

[Dave Damashek]

Yes. Sidney Boncrief, Bob Lanier era. They used to wear much like DePaul did in the early 80s. Yes, they were stripes, but they were horizontal stripes. If you can imagine Brick Stack, kind

[Mike Ryan]

of like the Astros.

[Amin Elhassan]

You know what's funny?

[Dave Damashek]

But what was weird was you hardly ever see this. It was two shades of green. Light green and dark green. Red mixed in.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah. Green spectrum.

[Dave Damashek]

It was really cool. Yeah.

[Amin Elhassan]

So the funny thing is, the current one, the one that you like, also has the horizontal stripes, but they're all the same color. They're all cream on the away jerseys and on the home jerseys are green.

[Dave Damashek]

So I look forward to this day, and it's going to happen in our lifetime, maybe in the next decade. A big name free agent is going to say, okay, I'll come sign with you. If you name the team after me. Yeah, I'll Come play for you, Brooklyn Nets. As long as we become the Brooklyn Giannis'.

[Mike Ryan]

They should have signed Buck Williams.

[Amin Elhassan]

There you go. I'll go here, I'll drop.

[Dave Damashek]

Is that your last two?

[Mike Ryan]

And then we got my number three. And then I have two more.

[Dave Damashek]

No, no, let him do number three.

[Amin Elhassan]

Hold on. But if I do three right here, then I'll be to my top two. And now we'll all be caught up together.

[Dave Damashek]

Smart.

[Mike Ryan]

That's why you have a Pulitzer.

[Amin Elhassan]

There you go. Number five. How could I get this far without naming the greatest uniform collection known to man? Yet it's number five. The New York Yankees. Come on. Those pinstripes, they strike fear in everybody that walk in. What brings them down to five, you might ask, is.

[Dave Damashek]

I'm not crazy about the road jersey.

[Buddy Budowski]

The old road was better with the. With the navy and the white stripe.

[Mike Ryan]

Now they're just blue.

[Amin Elhassan]

Now they're just blue.

[Dave Damashek]

I don't like it.

[Mike Ryan]

It looks too much like a pajama.

[Amin Elhassan]

Ye. Yeah, it takes away from the formality and again, the fear factor of the Yankees. Whenever Yankees. When you walked into the Yankee Stadium, you saw those pinstripes, that meant something. When you went on the road and you saw the New York with the white outline, that meant something. Now it's kind of like, who are these guys? Right. Number four.

[Dave Damashek]

I want to say I agree with that. And this is again hard to separate the Yankees or the Yankees. Just if you walked in and saw that one clean, I still think I would be like, oh, my God, what is that simple beauty. The pinstripes obviously make it something that isn't just simple and down the middle, but also the grays with New York is badass. I don't know that Kansas City would be as cool. But New York, that's all it is. Just a gray thing with navy. Like, we don't have time even to outline the Navy. We're here to kick your ass. New. Why? Because we're New York.

[Amin Elhassan]

So as I said, that brings it down, which ironically, two things. Number one, this is my lowest. My highest ranked New York team was the Yankees at five. No more New York teams in the top five, right? Also my second highest ranked MLB team because guess who's number four? The Atlanta Braves. That look, there's something special about when you button it up. And it looks perfect right there with the tomahawk and all that. That's a cool looking jersey. The home and the away, that average pumped them over the Yankees for me because I like their away jersey way more than I like the Yankees.

[Mike Ryan]

They look so cool in the 90s on the superstation. Rest in peace, Ted Turner. What? They did something to their uniform that I hated with the road set and they went all navy on the hat. I like the red accent on the bill.

[Amin Elhassan]

Yeah, yeah. I don't. I don't like that as much. But still, the jerseys carry the day for me.

[Dave Damashek]

People like to use the word timeless inappropriately. These, in fact, are timeless, or at least sprawl. They feel like they would fit any of the last hundred years.

[Amin Elhassan]

They don't look old. Right. Like, even the Yankees jersey that. I love the pinstripes. But there is a level because of the pinstripes. You're like just classy from another era. Right. Whereas the Braves jersey, it's like the design is like, that's a modern design.

[Mike Ryan]

Even though so much brand loyalty to it. I hope they never change from me too. I look at it and it reminds me of watching them on the superstation. And you have a brand affinity that I don't even have into my local baseball team.

[Dave Damashek]

But the logo looks very similar to the Alabama Crimson Tide, as I learned in a bar.

[Amin Elhassan]

Oh, yeah,

[Dave Damashek]

that. Okay, I'm getting very nervous now. We're running out of. We're running out of room here. And you're gonna miss some obvious ones.

[Amin Elhassan]

It's my new Mercer. You got a list? I got a list. Everyone's got a list.

[Dave Damashek]

Mine is the correct list.

[Amin Elhassan]

My number three. This program is called Football America. And I've only had one football team here, so I gotta put in another one. It's the Raiders. Black and silver, baby. And even though you know what's funny? As I was, because I've never had to really do the math in my head before, but I was thinking about the white ones, I'm like, that's a clean looking jersey too, man. That's a clean looking jersey. Raiders. It goes with everything. You can wear whatever you want. You put on a Raider jersey, it matches. And you know how this is how you know it's good success. What has that been for the Raiders? We haven't seen that in a million years. But despite being an abject failure at playing football, they looked amazing.

[Dave Damashek]

I don't think you should be allowed a satin finish unless you're Notre Dame football. You can wear the gold pants. They look good against the gold hat. And the Raiders, even the Cowboys shouldn't be allowed to wear that satin finish anymore. It would be doing them a favor to make the pants more true royal. I mean, powder blue. As we discussed. All right, buddy Badowski, quickly, fire through whatever you have left there so we can consider them all.

[Buddy Budowski]

We'll get to my top three. Okay, so the San Francisco 49ers.

[Dave Damashek]

Great, great call. Best road uniforms in the NFL.

[Buddy Budowski]

Perfect.

[Amin Elhassan]

Like the Stevie Owen betters.

[Dave Damashek]

Ooh.

[Buddy Budowski]

With the shadow.

[Amin Elhassan]

With the shadow numbers.

[Mike Ryan]

The 75th anniversary ones.

[Amin Elhassan]

Yeah.

[Dave Damashek]

That's terrible. That's a. That's.

[Buddy Budowski]

I mean, all of the. They've never had a bad look, in my opinion.

[Dave Damashek]

The San Francisco 49, the shadow ones were bad. The gold hats with the all whites made it look like they were wearing. Did we forget our white helmets? Just wear the good. Just wear the gold ones.

[Mike Ryan]

All right, what's two?

[Buddy Budowski]

Number two, I'm going to go with the Green Bay packers iconic classic. I'm a classics guy.

[Mike Ryan]

That's a consensus opinion. Most people would put that.

[Mike Fuentes]

But you already. You already said Oakland Athletics, so you're kind of like clashing into the same deal here.

[Buddy Budowski]

Yeah, I like green and gold.

[Dave Damashek]

It's very chic. It's very chic. You are responding to them being a relevant franchise for your whole life.

[Amin Elhassan]

That's your name.

[Dave Damashek]

It's fine. It's a fine uniform.

[Buddy Budowski]

I like that.

[Mike Fuentes]

Can I throw a soccer kid into the mix?

[Amin Elhassan]

No.

[Mike Ryan]

No, because you're part of the 50 that doesn't care. Right?

[Buddy Budowski]

Number one.

[Mike Ryan]

Damn right.

[Buddy Budowski]

I'm not the best logo in sports. I was going to go with the Blackhawks here, but I'm going to go into another hockey team. Original 6. The best logo in sports. The Detroit Red.

[Amin Elhassan]

Oh, my gosh.

[Buddy Budowski]

The flaming wheel.

[Amin Elhassan]

Get out of here.

[Mike Ryan]

It's a great logo.

[Dave Damashek]

The wheel is. The logo is. I love the uniforms, too. That's the number. But you're not talking logo, you're talking the whole uniform. Right? That's your red and white.

[Buddy Budowski]

And I mean, if we want to do their home uniforms for this year, that's that like hundredth year uniform that they wore this year was spectacular.

[Dave Damashek]

I agree with you. Gino, quickly, your top three.

[Gino Fuentes]

I'm gonna run through these real quick. Number three, Buffalo Bills. I love the helmet. I love the white look on top. Red, white and blue. And my last two are LA teams. Number two, the Lakers. Classic uniform. Clean. I love the color scheme. And my number one.

[Dave Damashek]

Not the current ones. The current purples are bad.

[Mike Ryan]

With the black, you can't get the gold right either. It looks like a canary yellow.

[Amin Elhassan]

Even the purple's wrong.

[Gino Fuentes]

Okay. And my number one, LA Chargers. There's like.

[Mike Fuentes]

I love the all Navy LA Chargers.

[Dave Damashek]

I was worried nobody was going to hit the target and that would be crazy.

[Amin Elhassan]

I'm willing to bet that at least

[Gino Fuentes]

half of us are going to have almost Chargers.

[Mike Fuentes]

Any combination of those works for the Chargers.

[Amin Elhassan]

I don't like the lightning bolt. I love the lightning. Like a cartoon.

[Mike Fuentes]

No, I think it's perfect. Like the way it curves over the helmet, I think.

[Dave Damashek]

Yeah, that's cool. All right, Mike Ryan, take it away.

[Mike Ryan]

All right, my number two again, the rules that I'm. I'm going with time capsule. I think what the Baltimore Ravens did with their uniform set, they had a wildly popular look. They had done a lot of winning in it and to make some tweaks to that uniform. When the news came out that they were changing their uniforms, I was like, this is terrible. And then they came out and I love the tweaks that they made. The piping, that tap into the state flag, which is so great. It's iconic look. I think that it was a great update. The outlines to the numbers, the finish on the helmets and the away jersey that taps into the feathers. I think it was a big swing. And the subtle changes to what was universally beloved as a look were great and credit to them because to change that uniform set took guts. And the chances that they took were also gutsy and I thought it paid off. So I'm going with the Baltimore Ravens. I think time capsule, that's my favorite look. The updates that they made. And number one, it's also the Chargers. They've had a lot of great uniforms and the present set taps into all their histories with the modern font and that bolt with the numbers. They're presently wearing their best set.

[Dave Damashek]

How could one man be so right and so wrong? In the span of 20 seconds, the Ravens look like the Navy that Mel Gibson finds in the bounty. He looks like he's wearing a puka shell. All the players are going to look like they're wearing pooka shell. I have different rules playing football.

[Mike Ryan]

I have different rules and I like that they took the chance and I think it's going to pay off.

[Amin Elhassan]

My top two, I know this is going to be wildly. Both of them are going to be wildly unpopular. But it's my list. Number two, I've established with the Blue Jays earlier. I like the light blue, dark blue kind of contrast. I also like the hints of gold from the Golden State Warriors. So you put it all together. Give me the Memphis Grizzlies. I think, you know, we talked about it earlier, you know, between shows and

[Mike Fuentes]

they were talking About?

[Amin Elhassan]

Oh, no, the Vancouver Grizzlies had a way better one. I was like, look, I like the bear holding the ball, but the jersey itself, Teal and black and red.

[Mike Fuentes]

Teal and red.

[Amin Elhassan]

Too much, too much. Light blue. Powder blue. Excuse me, navy blue. Gold accents that. Memphis Grizzlies both home and away set perfection. And number one, because everyone here broke a rule. I'm gonna break a rule. I'm going outside of professional sports.

[Dave Damashek]

What the hell are we doing? What are you doing?

[Buddy Budowski]

That's like the number one rule.

[Amin Elhassan]

Team Canada. Hockey jerseys from the Olympics. That's the coolest jersey set ever. Ever, ever, ever, ever.

[Mike Ryan]

No, there's plenty of national team inside.

[Amin Elhassan]

I wanted to be Canadian, but it's not a formation.

[Mike Fuentes]

Yeah, before I was rudely shut down, I was gonna team, but it was the four majors.

[Dave Damashek]

Yeah, I think this. I think this sucks. I mean, to come in here and attack us all like this. We just devoted for 30 minutes of our lives and this is what you do. You. You come in here with a figurative slap across all our faces like we're the three stooges. You lined us all up and went right down the line. Slapped us all across the punum.

[Mike Ryan]

Besides, Sweden is better.

[Dave Damashek]

I didn't.

[Buddy Budowski]

Their four nation set was better too.

[Gino Fuentes]

Also, I mean, why are you betraying the Brazils? Look, I mean, aren't you. You've been in a guy since I've known you.

[Dave Damashek]

All right, play the people's court music because Wapner's got to go back into his chambers.

[Mike Fuentes]

I don't have the four.

[Amin Elhassan]

I'll do it.

[Dave Damashek]

Okay.

[Mike Fuentes]

I can just play Communist Day if you want to hear that.

[Dave Damashek]

All right, here we go. All right, the judge is back.

[Mike Ryan]

Stalin era communist

[Amin Elhassan]

if you give him the uniform.

[Dave Damashek]

Yeah, if I were.

[Mike Ryan]

If I were to put a communist in a time cap, it might be Dave Dam.

[Dave Damashek]

What you're talking about is a winner, then David Stalin era.

[Amin Elhassan]

Mike, tell me, tell me. Comrade Damoshek. Doesn't sound perfect. Comrade Damagek.

[Mike Ryan]

You run some AI slob communist uniform on him, he looks the part, right?

[Mike Fuentes]

We have one, but it's loaded in the other rundown, so I can't pull it up that fast.

[Dave Damashek]

All right, here, very quickly, here's what I've considered all the information you've got. Let's pay it off here. I'm gonna save worst five for another date because I don't think we properly covered that. Here we go.

[Mike Ryan]

Ethan did in his the Vegas Golden Knights.

[Dave Damashek]

I mean, the Dallas Cow. Yeah. You understand their pants don't come close. Imagine the hat.

[Buddy Budowski]

I get it.

[Dave Damashek]

But even the blue on the. On the number doesn't match the star. Forget before you even get that the Silvers don't match each other.

[Mike Fuentes]

Time, Dave.

[Dave Damashek]

Time.

[Mike Fuentes]

Come on. Stay on track.

[Dave Damashek]

All right, here we go. At number 10, the New York Yankees. You know what? I'm not even going to explain myself. I'm. The uniforms are. I don't need to tell anybody. By New York Yankees number nine. This is objective. This is not based on their deeds. The best basketball uniform is the Boston Celtics at number eight.

[Buddy Budowski]

Gross.

[Amin Elhassan]

Yuck.

[Buddy Budowski]

Bad, bad kick in this office.

[Dave Damashek]

I hate this team. The New York Islanders at number seven, it's the Montreal Canadiens. And again, I am not reacting to their success. That red on the shoulders with the white and then the royal blue dance is sweet looking. And then the red that they wear, I. Well, now they wear them at home.

[Mike Ryan]

A unique look with the center piping going all the way around. It bothers me that the Panthers tried to replicate it and then when they get to the back, they're like, ah, forget it.

[Dave Damashek]

I couldn't go with the Leafs. I almost went with the Cleveland Browns here.

[Mike Ryan]

Great look.

[Dave Damashek]

Cleveland Browns have great uniforms.

[Buddy Budowski]

I agree.

[Mike Fuentes]

If you just change their name, it's like this all makes sense.

[Amin Elhassan]

It looks like shit.

[Mike Fuentes]

No, they wear orange, white with the orange helmets.

[Dave Damashek]

They wear orange and brown. They play in the Rust Belt. Now you wouldn't would be bad to wear that uniform if you were in Atlanta, but it makes all the sense in the world in Cleveland, Ohio. All right, Now, San Francisco 49ers, best road uniform in the NFL. At number five, the Los Angeles Chargers. At number four, the Los Angeles Dodgers. They wear that. That red number is everything about it beautiful. They're just gorgeous in person. You got to go see, they were my Olis at number three to prove I'm not a homer, it's the Pittsburgh Steelers. If I were a homer, they'd be number one. But I haven't been number three.

[Mike Ryan]

Well, that's because the other Pittsburgh teams round out the top three.

[Dave Damashek]

Right.

[Mike Fuentes]

So what also says often, he's lived in Los Angeles for 20 years. The other two slots, Los Angeles teams,

[Dave Damashek]

number two, it's the Pittsburgh. No, it is. Again, to prove I'm not a homer, the Philadelphia Flyers. And the only reason they're not number. The logo is great. The nameplate, it's so 1975 and at the same time timeless. Right?

[Mike Ryan]

Great uniform.

[Buddy Budowski]

Perfect. Yeah, great. Great call.

[Dave Damashek]

They'd be number one if they still had that more fluorescent orange that they were wearing five years ago. That. That duller orange sways me just enough to return the best uniform in all of sports to its rightful place at number 1 1. It's the Raiders. Vegas, Oakland, Los Angeles, or otherwise. The Raiders are where it's at. And that's even with their. Their mascot guy. He's a Raider. He's a pirate. But he's a. He's a pirate. He's gonna go out and rape and pillage, but before he does that, he's a gentleman. He gives himself a nice clean shave.

[Gino Fuentes]

So he's a classic pirate. Yeah, the pirate in black and white

[Mike Fuentes]

with a football helmet on.

[Dave Damashek]

Well, also, he has an eye patch, which makes him a classic, classic pirate. But look close. His good eye is closed. What the hell?

[Buddy Budowski]

What the hell?

[Dave Damashek]

In spite of that. In spite. You know what it is? Logos for me are sort of like lyrics. I care, but I care way more about the other elements of it, right? You know, like rock songs, like. But the lyrics are kind of lame. They're about Lord of the Rings, you know, that's what Robert Plant's singing about, right? And, like, I don't care. It's a great song. I care more about Jimmy Page.

[Mike Ryan]

You just discovered that the eyes closed.

[Amin Elhassan]

Is it possible he's squinting?

[Dave Damashek]

No, look at him.

[Amin Elhassan]

I'm looking at it. I'm like, maybe.

[Mike Fuentes]

Yeah, maybe he's looking into the sun. You don't know.

[Dave Damashek]

Something about Chris Cody's.

[Gino Fuentes]

Maybe he's sleeping.

[Dave Damashek]

Wife's sister, maybe.

[Amin Elhassan]

Hold on. Here's one. Maybe he's winking. Yeah, you can't afford to do that

[Dave Damashek]

if you only got one eye. Well, I think we've settled a lot of hash here. We're gonna wrap it up. Another successful, maybe our greatest drip drill yet. That's what many people are already saying. Thank you, Ryan. Enjoy the high lie this weekend. I'll look forward to kibitzing with you next on the Dan Lebatard Show. And Amin Elhassan, I look forward to talking with you on one of Lebatard universe shows.

[Amin Elhassan]

Thank you.

[Dave Damashek]

I was just about to say. And of course, at the headline, Pulitzer

[Amin Elhassan]

Prize winner, when you say my name, you include that part always.

[Dave Damashek]

There he goes, everybody. Pulitzer Prize winner Amin El Hassan and highlight champion, Mike Ryan.

[Mike Ryan]

Cyclone should have been on the list.

[Dave Damashek]

All right, there they go. And here we go, too. Man. I really. What do you remind me at the top of the show to promote the YouTube and the audio podcast? I'll do it now, but in the future, I should really do that near the top of the show. Audio Wherever you find your podcast, there's where you'll find Football America. And on YouTube, we are Football America with the exclamation point. We do put extra stuff up there throughout the week. It's not just once a week. So make sure you're checking in there, make sure you're subscribed, make sure you're spreading the good word. Every Tuesday, we put something fresh up there for you. Definitely be on the lookout for that and be on the lookout for us. Next Friday, we will be back in our usual spot. Until then, for the fellas, thanks so much. My fellow football Americans, it's been a thin slice of heaven. Dallas Cowboys.

[Amin Elhassan]

Sam.