Clemson Football: Thankful for the Paw

One of the few good things about a weekend without Clemson football is more time to check out other games and other teams.

As I did so this past Thursday through Saturday I began to realize how thankful I am for the white tiger paw that sits on the Clemson helmets. For every game.

Look, I’m old.  I could fit right in on one of those Progressive Insurance commercials about turning into your dad.  As a matter of fact, I’ve done turned.

So that’s probably got a fair amount to do with what I’m about to say.

As I flipped through the channels and games, I recognized about half the teams by sight, without looking to the chyron to tell me who was playing and what color their jerseys were.

Sometimes there’s reasons for the helmets to be different as there was for Utah on Thursday night.

Sometimes there’s no reason, or at least no obvious reason, other than the kids like it.

There’s different uniforms every week and the social media drama of this creation by Nike or this one by Under Armour and there’s fatigues and throwbacks and throw-ups (also known as the Maryland helmets). I kid.  Kind of.

There was a time when Clemson fans used to get all atwitter (before actual Twitter) about what uniform the Tigers were going to wear that week, but Dabo put a stop to all that nonsense.

Now we know.  Not that it makes a difference either way.

Clemson football helmets are recognizable around the world, with or without sound

I’m actually not against occasional change for a special occasion, whatever that may be, but much like anything else in America, one thing leads to another and occasional turns into every Saturday and tends to become more and more absurd.  That’s how we roll.

For me, there’s beauty in routine.

I don’t pretend to keep up with the latest trends or “what the kids are saying” on social media or know what interests recruits, though I find it hard to believe anyone likes Oregon’s unis. (I kid again).

What I do know is that when any football fan, Clemson fan or not, turns on their TV and sees the orange helmet with the white paw on it they know it’s Clemson.

Isn’t that what branding is all about?