Decades before football became Nikefied, with teams having nearly as many different uniforms as they have games, it was rare — and thus special — when a team showed up for a game with a different look. Notre Dame provided the epitome of that move, rarely dusting off green jerseys at the perfect moments.
It started on October 29, 1977. Facing No. 5 USC in South Bend, the Irish rolled a Trojan horse onto the field. And then roared out of the tunnel wearing green jerseys for the first time ever. Quarterback Joe Montana and company picked apart the Men of Troy, 49-19.
Now, most college teams wear something other than their base uniform so often that it’s never special. Still, Notre Dame will have a special outfit for the team’s Week 1 game against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field. It’ll be the first time Notre Dame ever has played there.
Via J.J. Post of ESPN, the uniform for the game pays homage to the Green Bay Packers. The shade of blue matches the 1920s Acme Packers, along with the stripes on the sleeves.
The video introducing the uniforms traces the connections between the Packers and the Irish. Curly Lambeau played for Knute Rockne. Paul Hornung starred for both Notre Dame and Green Bay.
“We are the outliers,” coach Marcus Freeman says in the video. “The small-town legends. The independent spirits who believe tradition isn’t something you just remember. It’s something you wear.”
The jersey also has eleven shamrocks on the collar, reflecting Notre Dame’s 11 consensus national championships: 1924, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988.
The Irish are currently stuck in the longest title drought. The last one came against West Virginia and Major Harris, 38 years ago. (That one still hurts for those of us who don’t need the Country Roads to take us home, because we’re already there.)
On September 6 — in one of only two college football games to be played on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend — the Irish will invade Wisconsin and make Green Bay their castle for a day, as they try to take out the team that otherwise calls Wisconsin home.
It’s not as if Notre Dame needs the extra boost they got from morphing into the Green Machine against USC. The Irish are 20.5-point favorites against the Badgers, and Notre Dame is among the short-list favorites to add a twelfth shamrock to that collar.
Packers Clips
The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy are in their first year together in Pittsburgh, but after 13 years together in Green Bay, they know each other as well as any quarterback and head coach in the NFL.
Rodgers says he knows exactly what he needs to do in the McCarthy system, and it’s all about him having his timing down with his teammates.
“It’s just the next generations of the West Coast offense,” Rodgers said, via TribLive.com. “It went kind of Bill Walsh to kind of what Mike was doing with Paul Hackett, and then it’s kind of grown from there. From a real fundamental level, it’s all about the quarterback’s timing.”
Rodgers said McCarthy has changed some of the terminology in his offense since the two were last together on the 2018 Packers, but the system is fundamentally the same.
“I spent 13 years in [McCarthy’s offense],” Rodgers said. “He’s changed some stuff when he was in Dallas. . . . It’s stuff that we used to run, but he’s just called it something different now.”
In three months, McCarthy will hope to see Rodgers running that offense the same way he did in Green Bay.
As Netflix expands its NFL footprint to include a full five toes of NFL games in 2026, it’s hoping to enhance its desire to “eventize” football with some normalcy.
Elle Duncan of Netflix tells the Sports Media Watch podcast that the studio show for the games will have the same people involved.
“We’re not doing an 18-game slate,” Duncan said, via Derek Futterman of Sports Media Watch. “We want every single one of our events to, yes, have a through-line and some consistency, and you’ll get that with the desk and the talent, but, ‘How are we making each one of those things feel special and different and honor where we’re doing it at?’”
Netflix will stream the Week 1 game from Australia between the 49ers and Rams, the Thanksgiving Eve game between the Packers and Rams in L.A., two Christmas games (Packers-Bears and Bills-Broncos), and a Saturday afternoon game to launch Week 18.
Officially, Netflix doesn’t aspire to have a full, season-long NFL broadcast package. However, with its current arrangement in place through 2029, Netflix could eventually decide to make a bid on one of the various weekly windows.
The Packers lost four consecutive games to close out the regular season. They then blew an 18-point halftime lead — and a 27-16 lead with 6 minutes left — to lose to the Bears 31-27.
The Packers are using the collapse(s) as motivation heading into 2026, receiver Christian Watson told NFL Media on Tuesday.
“It’s definitely fueling us, 100 percent,” Watson told Patrick Claybon and Judy Battista. “Obviously, we’d like to move on from those things, but it’s hard to move on from the reason behind losing those games.”
A few years ago, the Cowboys’ season motto after a similar collapse the previous season was “Finish.” That is the Packers’ mindset for 2026.
Clean it up and close it out.
“I think it really comes down to just not being able to finish in crucial moments, in crucial games, just not being able to finish,” Watson said. “That’s been a huge staple for us in terms of our mindset throughout this offseason of just consistently finishing. Finishing everything. Finishing every drill, every practice, every play.
“We’ve got to be able to build on that and carry that into this training camp and start the season that way so we can finish it that way. I think ‘finish’ is a big emphasis for us this year.”
The offseason programs around the league have largely wrapped up for 2026, with players and coaches around the league now experiencing some time off.
But training camps are just a few weeks away from opening.
The NFL announced the camp report dates for all 32 teams on Monday, with the first ones opening up in less than a month.
Below are the camp locations and report dates:
Arizona Cardinals: State Farm Stadium | Rookies: 7/22 | Veterans 7/22
Atlanta Falcons: Atlanta Falcons Training Facility | Rookies: 7/24 | Veterans: 7/28
Baltimore Ravens: Under Armour Performance Center | Rookies: 7/24 | Veterans: 7/28
Buffalo Bills: St. John Fisher University | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/28
Carolina Panthers: Bank of America Stadium | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/22
Chicago Bears: Halas Hall | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Cincinnati Bengals: Paycor Stadium | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Cleveland Browns: CrossCountry Mortgage Campus | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
Dallas Cowboys: Marriott Residence Inn Oxnard | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
Denver Broncos: Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit | Rookies: 7/22 | Veterans: 7/28
Detroit Lions: Meijer Performance Center | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Green Bay Packers: Lambeau Field | Rookies: 7/27 | Veterans: 7/28
Houston Texans: Houston Methodist Training Center | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/28
Indianapolis Colts: Grand Park | Rookies: 7/27 | Veterans: 7/28
Jacksonville Jaguars: Miller Electric Center | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Kansas City Chiefs: Missouri Western State University | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
Las Vegas Raiders: Intermountain Health Performance Center | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
Los Angeles Chargers: The Bolt | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
Los Angeles Rams: Loyola Marymount University | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/25
Miami Dolphins: Baptist Health Training Complex | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/28
Minnesota Vikings: TCO Performance Center | Rookies: 7/26 | Veterans: 7/28
New England Patriots: New Balance Athletics Center | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/24
New Orleans Saints: Ochsner Sports Performance Center | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
New York Giants: Quest Diagnostics Training Center/The Greenbrier | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
New York Jets: Athletic Health Jets Training Center | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Philadelphia Eagles: Jefferson Health Training Complex | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
Pittsburgh Steelers: Saint Vincent College | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
San Francisco 49ers: SAP Performance Facility | Rookies: 7/18 | Veterans: 7/25
Seattle Seahawks: Virginia Mason Athletic Center | Rookies: 7/17 | Veterans: 7/24
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: AdventHealth Training Center | Rookies: 7/27 | Veterans: 7/28
Tennessee Titans: Vanderbilt Health Football Center | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
Washington Commanders: Commanders Park | Rookies: 7/24 | Veterans: 7/28
The NFL has announced the full list of joint practices that will take place during training camps this summer.
The first set of them will take place on August 11 in four different locations. The Cowboys and Rams will practice in Los Angeles, the Colts will visit the Patriots, the Bucs will work out at the Jets’ facility and the Titans will go to Santa Clara to practice with the 49ers.
All in all, there will be 28 teams working in joint sessions in August. The Lions, Steelers, Chiefs and Broncos are the teams that will not hold joint practices.
The full list of joint practices is below with the host team listed second. If there are multiple practices scheduled, the date of the first practice is listed.
August 11 — Cowboys-Rams; Colts-Patriots; Buccaneers-Jets; Titans-49ers.
August 12 — Dolphins-Commanders.
August 13 — Jaguars-Saints.
August 18 — 49ers-Chargers; Raiders-Texans; Saints-Cowboys.
August 19 — Falcons-Colts; Ravens-Vikings; Panthers-Jaguars; Eagles-Patriots.
August 20 — Bills-Browns; Bears-Bengals; Saints-Rams; Giants-Dolphins.
August 21 — Seahawks-Titans.
August 25 — Buccaneers-Jaguars.
August 26 — Cardinals-Packers; Texans-Panthers; Commanders-Ravens.
August 27 — Bears-Titans.
Alex Freeman has become one of the breakout stars for the U.S. in the World Cup, with an assist in the first game against Paraguay and a goal against Australia.
His connection to former NFL standout receiver Antonio Freeman would have been more obvious, if Alex had been named “Antonio Jr.”
As explained by Rick Maese of the Washington Post, Antonio didn’t want to put extra pressure on his son.
The pressure has found Alex anyway, thanks to his achievements on the pitch. And he’s still only 21.
“It was kind of good to be able to make my own path, make my own future and kind of my own person,” Alex Freeman said.
Alex sees the positives in having a father who competed at the highest level of sport.
“I think, for me, it just shows how great the family tree is,” Alex Freeman said. “He can be great, but I can be great in my own way as well. And I think it just shows how amazing it is to have a dad who’s successful and that can mentor me to be able to be ready for moments like these.”
Friday’s moment came in the same city where Antonio caught a pair of touchdown passes in a 31-10 win over the Seahawks, during Green Bay’s championship season of 1996. (Here’s one of them.)
“Before it was, ‘Hey, it’s Antonio Freeman, congratulations on a great career,’” Antonio Freeman told Maese. “And now it’s, ‘Hey, congratulations to your son.’ So that’s a good transition. And it’s healthy, and man, I love it.”
Would it still be happening if Alex were Antonio Jr.? It’s irrelevant at this point, because Alex Freeman is doing a great job of making his own name one to remember.
“He did what?”
Alex Freeman, the 21-year-old son of former NFL receiver Antonio Freeman, has scored a goal in the first half of Friday’s match between the United States and Australia.
The goal initially was wiped out by an offside ruling. The decision was overturned on replay review.
Alex Freeman now has three goals in international play. He had an assist in last Friday’s 4-1 U.S. win over Paraguay. He plays professional for Villarel in La Liga.
Antonio Freeman spent nine seasons in the NFL, eight of them with the Packers. He was a member of the Super Bowl XXXI-winning team, and he provided one of the all-time great Monday night highlights with a bouncing-ball catch and run for a score in overtime against the Vikings during the 2000 season.
The Packers have announced dates for their 2026 training camp.
The team’s first practice will be held on July 29 and it will be open to the public. That will also be the case for practices on July 30 and 31 and the team will hold 10 more open sessions in August.
Those practices will be held on August 2-4, August 7, August 10-11, August 16, August 18, August 24, and August 26. The August 7 practice will be a family night practice at Lambeau Field.
Practice on August 26 will be a joint session with the Cardinals before the team’s third preseason game two nights later. The Packers will also be on the road to face the Steelers and Broncos during the preseason.
