Interesting post from ProFootballTalk this morning regarding NFL apparel — apparently Nike is taking over production of NFL jerseys & apparel starting in April 2012.  As such, they reportedly have promised they “plan on changing the NFL jersey dramatically just like we’ve done with the college programs, using new thinking and the greatest technology available,” according to Nike Brand President Charlie Denson. “The NFL program hasn’t had the same type of advancement in recent years.”

This is an area that the NFL needs to make sure to police tightly, if you ask us — or risk some backlash from some of the longtime fans that they’ve built up years of support from.

In recent years, many NFL teams have started adding alternate jerseys (often throwback jerseys, many of which are better than the team’s actual jerseys in our view), largely with the goal of selling additional merchandise.  Which we get, and accept, much to our chagrin.

But the NFL limits the number of times that alternate jerseys can be worn in a season to two. They also have rules about players changing numbers too frequently (Chris Kluwe can’t go back to #5 until 2013, apparently), and about making alterations to their jerseys if they are popular enough to have replicas being sold, which limits the number of changes.  Which is good for fans that plunk down hard earned money on replica jerseys of their favorite players (or even more money on authentic jerseys).

The change from Reebok to Nike apparently has some players opining on changing their numbers — including, apparently, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.  Peterson ranked 15th in the NFL for 2010-2011 annual jersey sales, meaning there could be a lot of unhappy Viking fans walking around in #28 Peterson jerseys (not to mention at least one slightly disgruntled website owner who overpaid for an autographed Peterson #28 jersey in a charity auction a few years back).

The NFL doesn’t just need to think about encouraging players not to change their jersey numbers, though. More importantly, they need to make sure that Nike focuses on upgrading technology of the jerseys, without turning it into a circus act.  Nike’s recent college exploits — from the Pro Combat Series (despite not being Pro jerseys) to the Oregon “Stormtrooper” uniforms — they have a reputation of making some drastic changes, which may not go over well with some die-hard traditional fans.

Additionally, they have a reputation for making numerous different combinations of their uniforms, in order to sell more variations to lowly college kids.  According to Wikipedia, the Oregon Ducks have at least 512 different possible combinations for their uniform — and that was before the aforementioned Stormtrooper debut. That’s roughly one different combination of uniform for each game for 42 years, meaning if Chip Kelly turns out to be the next Joe Paterno, he would see only about 30-40 combinations more than once.  Even my lowly Minnesota Golden Gophers garnered nine variations (though they only plan to use eight of them. Whew!).

That makes it tougher for fans who want to wear what their team is wearing to do so. When you have to drop cash to buy two or three jerseys, and possibly add one more each year, that could get old.

In the end, we may be worried about nothing. If nothing else, the NFL has been true to their “No Fun League” reputation, especially when it relates to uniform violations (seriously, a website devoted to uniform violations? Why didn’t we think of that?), and it is generally a bunch of old men who presumably hate change.

Then again, Jerry Jones rarely seems to pass on opportunities to sell his soul for more cash …