The Nets have changed their road uniforms for the upcoming season to just say "Nets" instead of "New Jersey", which means thousands of NBA fans in other cities will be watching a visiting team and have no idea where they came from. This prompted Senate Minority Whip Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove) to look around at the big NY signs on Giants and Jets paraphernalia and say, "Heyyyy, wait a second...."

"New Jersey's professional sports teams, the Nets, Jets and Giants, have no problem feeding at the taxpayer funded trough, yet seem to forget who their benefactors are when they order the teams' uniforms," O'Toole said. "The taxpayers of this state have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into infrastructure upgrades in the Meadowlands where all the teams play their home games. Is it too much to ask that professional sports teams that benefit from the support of the New Jersey taxpayer recognize the state on their uniforms?

No, I suppose it isn't, sir. Of course, one could also make the argument that pro sports teams don't deserve taxpayer-funded anything because they are filthy rich corporations that don't need government largesse to stay in business. Instead, you would rather insist that the Nets continue to embarrass your entire state by admitting that they belong to you.

At least the Devils don't hate you! (Yet.)

O'Toole slams Nets for dropping 'NJ' from uniforms, suggests withholding state subsidies for teams that don't show Jersey pride [Politicker NJ, via Hugging Harold Reynolds]

If you like the complete organizational implosion of professional sports teams, you will love your 2009 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Nothing says "comeback year" like bringing back the uniforms you banned more than a dozen years ago because they represented 20 years of uninterrupted, embarrassing failure (and also because they were breathtakingly ugly)!

Ok, let's get to the gay jokes.

"People thought we were trying to lock our history away in a closet,'' said Bucs co-chairman Ed Glazer.

This year, Bucs history comes out of the closet! On November 8, at least. The rest of the year they will remain ashamed of their history. (But not too ashamed to sell "Florida Orange" throwback unis, obviously.)

It's in honor of our troops. But it looks like it should be in honor of our nation's hunters. Their hats should be bright orange.

These, friends, are the future of college basketball uniforms, and that future is: SPANDEX! OK, not quite Spandex, but there's certainly a skin-tight vibe going on for the four teams who will supposedly try out the new duds during their conference championships this week: Ohio State, Syracuse, Florida and Arizona. They say the shirts are "10 inches tighter," and boy, are we happy they didn't have these things when Robert Traylor was playing.

By the way, someone's gonna trip on those shorts.

Fashion Forwards [Style.com]