Keeping it funky on the field

By Fayaad Islam

Over the years human beings have found the field an ideal place to settle arguments. Battles have been fought on such terrain, and after the Greeks and the Romans came to the conclusions that watching and supporting others resolve their issue physically was highly entertaining, they carved benches from the mountain sides, and created buildings out of them, so that all may enjoy the awesomeness of competition. In such gruelling rivalry, women and men clad themselves in outfits designed to display their clan, their ability, and as well as exhibit colours and patterns that is sure to intimidate their opponents. The Samurai wore intricate facial masks and the Vikings horns to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. The famed gladiators wore brutally crafted armour to win the hearts of their violence loving spectators. The Knights Templar wore white tunics over gleaming steel armour to display their purity and strength. And thus the tradition passes on to our time, where we most often enough resolve our own issues in terms of sport competitions. Similarly enough modern day teams still wear the colour of their tribes designed both for pride and intimidation.

Well, however, somewhere down the road we probably got a bit lost with the whole idea of intimidating the opponents, at least in the conventional manner. Sports teams sometimes come up with the funkiest of uniforms perhaps only to dazzle their rivals in weird and sometimes horrendous amalgamation of colours and patterns. Such designs make it difficult for supporters to stay with their favourites, especially if they look like a bunch of pixies. Although some of the jerseys are presented because they are out of this world, and others just because they are plain awesome, all command the respect of their team and its fan base as sports we all know is not about the gear but the challenge itself.

The Kolkata Knight Riders probably holds top place for the craziest combination of colours in the cricket world. It has been found unhealthy to contemplate how one can put purple and gold together on a jersey, and top it off with a gold helmet and glittery gold pads. Apparently the purple signifies royalty, and the gold the armour of a knight. Unfortunately the designers missed out the fact that the bronze armour was replaced by steel in our region by about 1000 BC. Most suggest that they should have stuck with the black shirts.

The Barcelona 09-10 jersey is an object of bewilderment. They had the ultra bright neon green away colours in the previous season, and to continue the trend they created the new away jersey made of the colour… well, what is the colour? Some call it indigo, others orange, but for the most part, it's confusing. Besides, if you ask a regular football fan what they think about the jersey, you'll probably get “We're here for the game mate, not the gear.” Barcelona with their amazing skills manages to make a weird colour look like something grand.

The Palermo FC home jersey is in a colour that not all men can wear. Leave it to the Sicilians to come up with a pink jersey in an all men sport, and no one is brave enough to make fun of them in the Serie A. Not only can they pull it off being football players, but they are also a very competitive team and Sicilians to top it all. We all saw “The Godfather” to learn not to mess with them.

The United States 1994 jersey was not that big of a shock. We all know that the Americans love their Uncle Sam and it was only expected that they dress up as their idol in the 1994 World Cup. Besides, being crazy and funky is very much the American style.

Ending the funky jersey run cannot take place without nominating the most funkiest sport jersey of all time. Trust the French to come up with their unexplainable jersey for the Stade Francais Rugby Team. Wearing their very fairy like home kit, the men's team is regarded as one of the most successful teams in France, winning its large fan base, which includes your 8 year old sister and her friends. And they say rugby is a real man's game.

Sport jerseys sometimes look awkward to the normal eye, but for sport fans they represent something special. Whether they are pink, green, orange or have gold pants (Liverpool 09-10 Away), for the true supporter of today, they symbolize the cool and funky modern era. Besides who doesn't like gold pants?

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