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5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
'The Harbaugh way': Even practice jerseys are a source of pride
It was a summer day in June, but Daiyan Henley was dressed for a prime-time moment. Fitted with long socks, white pants and a sleeve on his elbow, the Chargers linebacker's practice jersey was complete with game-ready lightning bolts on each shoulder. Other team's practice jerseys are plain. They're looser. They're more breathable. 'But this is us,' Henley said, running his fingertips over his crisp blue jersey. 'This is clean.' 'This,' he added, 'is the Harbaugh way.' Entering his second season at the helm as training camp begins Thursday, Jim Harbaugh is firmly woven into the fabric of the Chargers organization. The coach responsible for the franchise's best single-season turnaround in 20 years was the mastermind behind the team's new practice jersey patches. Already outfitted with their elevated practice jerseys, players now wear their biggest accomplishments on their chest with patches that celebrate personal victories while pushing for collective success. The patches represent eight accomplishments: Playoff wins, Chargers records, NFL records, All-Pro seasons, seasons as a team captain, Walter Payton Man of the Year, the NFL's Ed Block Courage Award, and the block of granite award determined by the Chargers strength and conditioning staff. The only player who has at least one of each is Derwin James Jr. The four-time team captain's right chest is plastered with three playoff appearances, three Chargers records, three NFL records, two nominations for man of the year, four All-Pro honors and one each of the courage and block of granite awards. He wants to collect enough patches to reach down to his ribs. "At the end of the day, we're all professionals, this is a professional league, but [the patches] kind of keep us connected and get a little bragging rights in the locker room,' James said. 'Guys want to compete for their jersey to look like that too." At Michigan, Harbaugh used helmet stickers to symbolize each player's accomplishments. The jersey patches remind the coach of the stripes on a general's uniform. "Some day, they'll be able to put that jersey up in a frame, put it on a wall, say something really good about themselves,' Harbaugh said. 'It'll be what they accomplished as a pro football player." The patches are Harbaugh's latest culture-setting innovation. He outfitted the locker room with personalized locker name tags that list each player's hometown, college, high school and recruiting ranking to promote team bonding. The coach handed out metal lunch pails and blue-collar work shirts customized with embroidered name tags to symbolize the team's hard-working mentality. Hoodies celebrated major victories such as the team's thriller against the Cincinnati Bengals, a late-season Thursday night victory over the Denver Broncos and the playoff-clinching win over the New England Patriots. 'He wants it to be close-knit, in house,' Henley said. 'Everything is love and football and family, and that's how we go about our business. Now that we have another year under our belt, we've had bad games and good games and we've gone the distance and also didn't accomplish what we wanted to, all of that wrapped into one, is what's motivating us and pushing us forward.' Read more: Chargers' Najee Harris sustains 'superficial eye injury' in fireworks incident After going 11-6 in Harbaugh's first regular season, the Chargers won't be a sleeper playoff contender again. With momentum from a successful start to the Harbaugh era, the team hopes to make consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since 2009. 'We're far ahead of where we were last year, but there's still a lot of work to do,' quarterback Justin Herbert said during minicamp. 'I think guys have done a great job this offseason of showing up mentally prepared and being focused day in and day out.' Herbert's jersey patches require multiple rows of lightning bolt tally marks to display his numerous NFL and Chargers records. Yet the quarterback is missing a playoff win mark. Not only is he 0-2 in the postseason, both losses came in spectacular disasters. The Chargers blew a 27-point lead against Jacksonville in a 2022 wild-card game. He threw four interceptions against the Houston Texans last year. Despite Herbert's elite athleticism and arm talent, the 27-year-old will remain an afterthought in the quarterback hierarchy until he finds the playoff success that follows contemporaries Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson. The prize they're all chasing is worth much more than a new jersey patch. Etc. The Chargers placed five players on the physically unable to perform list before training camp: S Elijah Molden, WR Mike Williams, WR Jaylen Johnson, LB Del'Shawn Phillips and T Savion Washington. Molden, who signed a three-year extension in February, underwent offseason knee surgery and missed all of the offseason program. He said in April that he expected to be ready for training camp. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Chargers will be looking 🔥— or maybe like Minions — in 2025 alternate uniforms
The Chargers are going for the gold this season. Or are they going for the mustard bottle? Or the banana? Fans will be able to figure that out for themselves this fall when the team debuts its "Charger Power" uniforms, one of two alternate looks revealed by the team Tuesday that will be worn during the 2025 season. Advertisement The Chargers also announced that they now have the option to wear powder blue pants with their regular jerseys, which are powder blue at home and white on the road. The Charger Power look features yellowish gold jerseys with matching pants, to be worn with the regular white helmet. "If you're going to do gold, the way we did it with all gold, it looks amazing," Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. said in a team news release. "It's a great alternate!" When the Bolts don the uniforms Oct. 19 against the Indianapolis Colts at SoFi Stadium, it will be the first time Chargers players have worn gold jerseys in a game. Fans, however, have had the opportunity to wear them in the past. Advertisement Read more: Chargers' Najee Harris sustains 'superficial eye injury' in fireworks incident "Nike had previously done a retail version of the 2020 jerseys in gold," A.G. Spanos, the Chargers' president of business operations, said in a statement. "It sold quite well and had really good word of mouth. In fact, in my own household, it was my kids' favorite uniform. It definitely appeals to the younger demographic." The look has already garnered plenty of online reactions. One longtime fan, who appreciated the nod to the yellow "Charger Power" T-shirts worn by Bolts faithful in the late 1970s and early 1980s, wrote on X that the uniforms are "simply beautiful." Read more: Why Chargers are confident Justin Herbert will be able to 'attack down the field more' Advertisement Retired NFL offensive lineman and current Amazon football analyst Andrew Whitworth spoke from experience after wearing similarly colored alternative uniforms on occasion during his time with the Rams. "Been there done this," Whitworth wrote on X. "Had me out there looking like Big Bird!" The Minions, the cartoon characters from the "Despicable Me" film franchise, seemed to like the uniforms ... though perhaps not for how they'll look on an NFL field. "the new recruits look so cool," the fictional creatures wrote on X in response to a team post highlighting the Charger Power look. Advertisement Cam Jordan, a defensive end for the New Orleans Saints, had a more critical take, posting on X: "Gold!???? Nah that's ... French's! That is mustard yellow…" One X user compared the look to that of a popular novelty baseball team. "We look like damn Savannah Bananas," the fan wrote. "At least the Navy's are [fire emoji]." The latter part of that post referred to the team's second set of alternate duds: the Super Chargers uniforms. They feature navy blue jerseys, pants and helmets and are meant as a "modern throwback" to the San Diego Chargers' look from 1992 to 2006 — a span that included the organization's only Super Bowl appearance, following the 1994 season. "When you saw that jersey, more than likely you were in Qualcomm Stadium," retired running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who played for the Chargers from 2001 to 2009, said in the team's news release. "And, more than likely, if you were on the other team in that era you were leaving with a loss." Advertisement The Super Chargers uniforms will debut during the team's "Thursday Night Football" game against the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 23, the same night the Chargers will be inducting former safety Rodney Harrison into the team's Hall of Fame. The uniforms will be worn again Nov. 30 against the Las Vegas Raiders. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
