Sea Sickness

I haven't done one of these in a while, but the return of the bizarre and unusual jerseys can only mean one thing: grab your shades or barf bag. Today's piece is about the jersey that you see to your left. Now, before I get into the history of this mess, ask yourself this: would you want your team's future superstar wearing that while playing any sport?

The history of this rather unusual jersey dates back to 1996, or about the time that the NHL decided to break out the third jerseys for some teams. Tampa Bay was one of those teams, as they debuted what is dubbed "Sea Sickness." The name fits the jersey design perfectly, as the black and silver "rain drops" on a blue background, combined with what is supposed to be lightning bolts on the sleeves and bottom make this one of the most chaotic looks of all time. Throw in the silver shoulder colors to go with the primary blue and black, and the number designs, and it gets even worse. Not helping matters much would be the patches that the team would be putting to the right of the logo, the number 12 in a shamrock as a tribute to John Cullen as he was fighting cancer at the time being the first, and the all-star logo following. And did I mention that the Lightning were terrible during that time period?

In the early days of the third jersey in the NHL, there were some horrific designs. The Lightning "Sea Sickness" jersey is no exception; in fact, it is the poster child for what not to do when designing jerseys. Thankfully, it was killed off before 2000, and the current third jerseys the Lightning sport are much, much better...and less chaotic.