Maryland Uniforms Feature The Star-Spangled Banner on Helmets

Over the years, Maryland and Under Armour have produced some, let’s put it mildly, interesting football uniform designs. The two parties renewed their partnership with a 10-year contract on Tuesday, revealing their latest creation for Saturday’s game vs. West Virginia. The Terps are going super-patriotic with jerseys and helmets that include Francis Scott Key’s lyrics to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,” which later became the American “National Anthem.”

This isn’t the first time a college team has wrapped itself up red, white and blue, nor will it be the last.

Maryland says it’s wearing the uniforms to honor the 200th anniversary of the battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor during the War of 1812. The game vs. the Mountaineers is exactly 200 years to the day of the battle on Sept. 13, 1814. The star on the side of the helmets is in the design of Fort McHenry.

College football teams designing crazy, eye-catching uniforms to help attract recruits isn’t going away. If Notre Dame isn’t immune to the trend, you know it’s here to stay. At the very least Maryland’s latest alternate uniforms have a legitimate purpose behind it and aren’t doing it just to, you know, join the trend or blind you with chrome accessories. Learning a little bit about American history — even if it’s simply the name Fort McHenry — during a football game isn’t such a bad thing, is it?(*)

Of course, most of the Founding Fathers wore Oregon-branded neon Nike compression shorts under their knickers around Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, so this is nothing new.

(*) Given how cynical many Internet readers are, I’ll answer my own rhetorical question with a yes to save the trouble.

[Photo via Maryland Athletics]