Nike and the NFL in 2012

The regular season ends tomorrow with a full slate of NFL games. There are still playoff spots and seeding to be decided, but for a lot of NFL fans, that means that the season is done. Focus now turns to draft boards, free agency and trades to see which players will be lining up in their uniforms in 2012.

The only issue with this is that the uniforms will not be the same. After Super Bowl XLVI Reebok’s contract to be the official apparel supplier comes to the end after nearly a decade. The reigns will be taken over by the biggest player in the game, Nike. They have already expressed there intent on their YouTube channel 

Other than new sideline hats and a new range of hoodies for Bill Belichick to cut the sleeves off of, what will this mean for the sporting public?

If the rumour mill is to believed, these are the new jerseys,

and they are certainly striking. These images have been floating around on the web for over a year, and were allegedly leaked by Nike to get a feel for what the public thought of them, as a result, they have probably changed considerably, and in some cases let’s hope they have.

Either way, there is a good chance that you’re going to get some cheap 2011 jerseys on your NFL shop of choice, and that you’re going to have fork out top dollar for a sparkling new Nike jersey, hoodie, t-shirt, baseball cap or whatever you wear to represent your allegiances.

Make no mistake, 2012 is the year of Nike in the NFL, let’s just hope that, as their recent twitter campaign advocates, they can #MakeItCount.