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Each goes by the name Mr. Irrelevant, but no two are alike.

So when Irrelevant Week is held annually in Newport Beach, Calif., to honor the last player taken in the NFL draft, many of the activities are tailored to fit the guest of honor.

While all participate in the Arrival Party and Lowsman Banquet -- where each receives the opposite-of-the-Heisman Lowsman Trophy (depicting a player in mid-fumble) -- players can decide what else they want to do.

One asked to go clubbing in Los Angeles with Paris Hilton. Another chose to spend time with his family and sleep extra hours in his soft hotel bed. Others, who’d never been to California, wanted to go Jet Skiing or sailing, play golf on a course overlooking the Pacific or meet their sports heroes.

In 2008, David Vobora, a linebacker from Idaho chosen by the Rams, wanted to see the Playboy Mansion and meet the women from “The Girls Next Door” reality TV series. After an evening that included dinner with Hugh Hefner, hanging with “The Girls,” getting a tour of the mansion and sharing Hef’s movie night, Vobora told one reporter it was “a slice of heaven.”

And that’s pretty much been the goal of Irrelevant Week since it began in 1976: to treat the last as if he were first.

Each April, when Mr. Irrelevant is drafted in New York, Irrelevant Week CEO Melanie Salata Fitch is right there to get his requests for Irrelevant Week (usually is held in June).

“I say, ‘Hey, congratulations’ and 'What do you like?' and 'What do you eat?' and 'What have you always dreamed about?' and I start designing events,” she says.

After 37 Irrelevant Weeks, she’s confident the players have had a great time. How could they not? Her mission is to treat each “like a king.”

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The Vikings look like the Vikings again -- mostly -- and the Dolphins don't look quite as much like the Dolphins as they used to.

That's the takeaway from Thursday's two NFL uniform unveilings. The Minnesota and Miami uniforms both had been leaked earlier this week, but now we have a much better look at the teams' new uni sets.

Let's start with the Vikings (all images courtesy of Nike).



Almost any change would have been an improvement here, given the awful uniforms the team had been saddled with in recent seasons. For the most part, the Vikings are going back to a no-nonsense NFL look but with a few odd details, as follows:

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Al Madrigal has paid his dues. He's waited a long time for this.

Sure, his career is going exceptionally well. He's been designated the Latino correspondent for "The Daily Show," doing several thought-provoking reports.

And on Friday night, his (very funny) Comedy Central stand-up special, "Why Is The Rabbit Crying?," will debut at 11 p.m. ET. It's the first full-length special on the network for Madrigal.

But what's really important to Madrigal is that the San Francisco 49ers are back among the NFL's elite. A season-ticket holder despite living in Los Angeles, Madrigal is part of a family of lifelong Niners fans.

Playbook spoke with Madrigal about the Bay Area's run of sports success, Brian Wilson's shtick and Vernon Davis selling smoothies.

The 49ers made it to the Super Bowl, the Giants won the World Series and the Warriors made the playoffs for the first time since 2007. Do you think the rest of the country is getting sick of the Bay Area right about now?

I don't care. We had so many bad years Right when [49ers coach Steve] Mariucci got fired, in 2003, and you go through Dennis Erickson and all those coaching changes -- Mike Nolan, then Singletary. It was brutal. J.T. O'Sullivan was our quarterback at one point. Let's all remember that. And tell them to shut up. There was a long list of Niner QBs before Alex Smith.

So do you think the Colin Kaepernick era is the solution?

Kaepernick is incredible to watch, to run like that and not to get hit either. He's so smart. RG III is going to have to learn to run out of bounds like Kaepernick.

How bitter are you still about the Super Bowl?

We gave them that game and there were so many opportunities, we deserved to lose. It's really tough to go back and watch. But I rewatched and, yeah, it's hard. I love [Jim] Harbaugh so much and [general manager] Trent Baalke, the guys that are making all the calls. It's the same thing with Bill Walsh. ... In Baalke We Trust. It's just going to make these guys more hungry this season.

But now that you're so close, are you concerned about the obvious distractions caused by Vernon Davis opening two Jamba Juices?

What's up with that? An art gallery, some Jamba Juices and quite the scarf collection. I'm more concerned about Aldon Smith hanging out with a tough crowd in San Jose, where people are getting stabbed at his parties. You don't want anybody to be distracted. But Jamba Juices are better than a lot of other things we've seen in the news. So I guess I'll take smoothies over gang friends any day.

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In four years at Oklahoma, quarterback Landry Jones threw for 16,646 yards and 123 touchdowns while leading Oklahoma to four winning seasons and three bowl victories. The native of Artesia, N.M., surprised many when he decided to return to OU for his senior season, a move that likely led to a drop in his draft stock. Heading into Thursday's NFL draft, Jones is ranked by some analysts among the top five QBs in the 2013 class, and he has been projected to go anywhere from late in the second round to the fifth round.

What is one thing you always have with you?

My wedding ring.

What was the last thing you Googled?

The "Batman" trilogy.

What is the most embarrassing music you have to admit you listen to?

I occasionally listen to some Cyndi Lauper. I like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” And Backstreet Boys, too.

What is the best advice you ever received?

“Don’t eat yellow slow.” I was told that when I was a little kid.

What is the biggest key to your success?

My work ethic. I got that from my dad.

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We were expecting one new NFL unveiling on Tuesday. But it turns out that we got three.

A Jacksonville TV station that was taking photos of the new Jaguars uniforms at Nike headquarters in advance of Tuesday's Jags unveiling inadvertently posted a photo that also showed the new Dolphins and Vikings uniforms, plus another shot with a closer look at the new Dolphins design. Both of those teams had been set to unveil their new uniforms on Thursday evening.

Judging by these photos, the Vikings are going back to basics and the Dolphins are making fairly small adjustments (aside from their new logo, which was already confirmed last month), although additional details may become apparent at the Minnesota and Miami unveilings.

The Jaguars have just unveiled their new uniforms (additional photos here and here). It usually takes a while before we can fully assess a new uni set, but here are some instant reactions, using Uni Watch's standard "Is it good or is it stupid?" rating scale:

The new logo: This was originally unveiled in February, but this is the first time we've seen it as part of the uniform. My initial response two months ago was that it was an upgrade, and I still think that today. Good.

The helmet: Woof! Nike and the Jags are trying to sell the notion that the helmet's two-tone effect -- black in the front, gold in the back -- is "innovative," but it's really just a failed gimmick. Also: During the unveiling, Nike executive Todd Van Horne repeatedly mentioned the theme of how a jaguar "hunts from the shadows" (you know, all predatory and such), but the helmet shows the Jags logo hunting from daylight and moving into the shadows. If they had reversed the color alignment -- gold in the front, black in the back -- at least it would make sense. But it would still be ugly. Stupid.

The black home jersey: The gold collar trim and the teal sleeves provide some welcome relief from all that black. The tone-on-tone panels around the shoulder area are unnecessary, and the chest patch (positioned over the heart, as a tribute to Jacksonville's military culture) makes things feel a bit cluttered, but this is still an upgrade over the previous look. Good enough.

The white road jersey: The black/gold trim on the uni numbers looks really, really good. Wish the sleeves and collar trim were teal instead of black, though. Good enough.

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America’s pastime, the NBA playoffs and the NHL’s playoff push are all nice, but they don’t compare to a real sport that is about to happen: the NFL draft.

Hundreds of players are draft prospects, but every year there are really only 10 players who are available for teams to take in the first round.

Here are those 10 players.

The Project

He has almost no football experience. Maybe he’s from another country, maybe he picked up the sport late. But he’s only been on a football field somewhere between the past 24 hours and the past five years. What he lacks in polish or knowing which direction to run or what a football is, he more than makes up for in raw athletic ability.

Why you draft The Project: What potential! Surely some practice time with your team’s crack squad of coaches -- men who are known for their great patience! -- will teach this young man the intricacies of football and in no time he will be an unstoppable force unlike any that has ever been seen before in the NFL!

Why you don’t draft The Project: There are many football players with raw athletic ability. It’s one of the major requirements for the job. Maybe picking someone who is athletic and already knows how to put on a football helmet is the way to go. By the time The Project becomes a football expert five years from now, his athleticism will be on the decline and your project will be finding a new job.

---

The Baggage Guy

He’s a top-level prospect who could immediately step in and help any team. On the downside, he has a few felonies on his record and smokes weed between plays.

Why you draft The Baggage Guy: See that first sentence? About how he’s a top-level prospect who could immediately step in and help any team? Anything that comes after that sentence is irrelevant. This is a professional football team. The goal is to win the Super Bowl, not pile up NFL Man of the Year awards. Plus, with all the money on the line, there’s a 50-50 chance he cuts back on the felonies from here on out.

Why you don’t draft The Baggage Guy: You have plenty of Baggage Guys already. Or, you will, as soon as they get out of prison next year.

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Each year, during the first round of the NFL draft, Roger Goodell welcomes every player in attendance with a bear hug, slaps on the back and a personal message delivered lips-to-ear from close range.

It's the one day the league's commissioner becomes the Sensitive Male (at least in public), so a simple handshake or half bro-hug won't do. This is a full-frontal hugfest, the type of display impossible to imagine from Bud Selig, David Stern, Gary Bettman or Goodell’s predecessor, Paul Tagliabue.

Yet for Goodell, who became commissioner in 2006, his annual hugathon has been semi-embraced, so to speak, as part of his persona. He might be the hard-line commish when it comes to suspensions and fines, but when this year's draft begins at 8 p.m. ET April 25 at Radio City Music Hall, he'll be Mr. Softy.

But it wasn't always this way.

•  •  •
The origin: When Goodell began presiding over the draft in 2007, No. 1 overall pick JaMarcus Russell got a handshake and a quick, one-armed, lean-in grab. Same with No. 2 choice Calvin Johnson.

Through the drafts of 2008 and ’09, Goodell went with the flow, offering hugs and half-hugs to some, handshakes to others. No. 1 overall pick Matthew Stafford of the Lions in 2009 got just a handshake and a pat on the shoulder.

In 2010, however, Goodell got his hug on. After Sam Bradford went No. 1 (back pat, slight hug) and Ndamukong Suh No. 2 (handshake, arm pat), the Buccaneers selected Gerald McCoy from Oklahoma.

As McCoy strolled across the stage toward Goodell, the commissioner extended his hand for a shake. But the grinning, 6-foot-4, 300-pound McCoy spread his arms wide, ignoring the hand, and enveloped Goodell in a hug that lasted six seconds.

It was a moment of joy for McCoy, and he had to show it.

“The day before, Mr. Goodell, we were sitting in his office and nobody was talking,” McCoy said of a visit with the commissioner by soon-to-be-drafted players. “We were just sitting there in silence. I’m like, ‘Well this ain’t me, so I’m going to speak up.’ So I started to talk about random stuff and I asked him if we’d get in trouble or fined if we do something crazy on stage or whatever, and he was like, ‘Obviously man, you get this one time, it’s your one day you need to show emotion and show your feelings and show how excited you are. I wouldn’t mind that at all.’

“I was like, ‘Aiight,’ just because I didn’t know what I was going to do. But once I got out there, you know, it was just my reaction. I knew the Bucs had picked me, let me play for them, but Mr. Goodell just called my name, so I guess he got to feel all the love,” he adds, laughing.

“I was just overwhelmed with emotion and it all came out in that big hug. That hug was like a thank you for allowing me to be in the league, everything. It all came out. He just happened to be the one to receive it.”

But McCoy had opened the hug gates. Trent Williams, picked by Washington at No. 4, got an enthusiastic embrace from Goodell, and the hugs kept coming through the first round -- and beyond into 2011 and 2012.

Though Goodell declined through a spokesman to talk about his draft-day hugs for this story, he told Sports Business Daily last year that McCoy was the spark.

“It’s funny. I meet with all the draft-eligible players the day before,” he said. “They always ask, What’s that moment like? These kids have been dreaming about this and working toward this. This is their moment. They’ve finally made it into the NFL.

“There was no surprise for Andrew [Luck]. He knew the Colts were taking him. But when he walked out on the stage, it was that moment of achievement and triumph. For me to be part of that is a cool thing.

“But these guys, they wrap you up. The first guy that did it to me was Gerald McCoy a few years ago. He hit me so hard I thought I was going off the stage.”

McCoy remembers.

“When I was hugging him, he said, like, ‘You’re crushing me right now’ and he kind of gasped for air like I was squeezing the life out of him, which I was,” says McCoy. “I was just excited.”

McCoy claims credit for being a trailblazer.

“Yeah, I take pride in it, as far as draft-day trends,” he says. “Why not?”

•  •  •
The players’ view: When South Carolina linebacker Melvin Ingram was taken by the Chargers with the 18th selection in the 2012 draft, he added a flourish to Hug Day.

Wearing a pinstripe suit and a Chargers cap, Ingram approached Goodell with a smile and a question: “You ready?”

The two then went through an elaborate handshake that was followed by a long, rocking embrace.

Ingram says he worked out the routine with Goodell before the draft.

“He was all, ‘If anybody wants to do anything,’ to let him know and all that, so I was like, ‘I want to do a handshake,’ and we did it,” says Ingram. “It really didn’t take that long. I just showed him the handshake, we practiced a couple of times, but he messed it up when we practiced. But when we did it on draft day, he did it perfect.”

So far, Ingram is the only player to up the ante on the hug with a shake, but it wasn’t the only memorable interaction with Goodell from the 2012 draft.

The photo of Goodell nose-to-nose in an embrace with 6-foot-3, 350-pound Chiefs nose tackle Dontari Poe won the Awkward Award, and Buffalo Bills draftee Stephon Gilmore had a cheek-to-cheek scene. Then there was Goodell’s nearly eight-second embrace with 6-foot-4, 298-pound defensive tackle Fletcher Cox of the Eagles.

“Cox engulfed Goodell like a Kodiak bear devouring a tasty salmon,” wrote Mike Tanier of The New York Times, who added that Goodell “rarely projects an air of cuddliness, but when it came time to introduce first-round picks, he brought the bromance to Radio City Music Hall.”

As he waited backstage for his name to be called, Gilmore wasn’t sure what to expect.

“I knew he was going to shake my hand, but I didn’t know he was going to actually hug me that long,” he says. “It was just a great moment. Growing up, from a little kid and seeing it on TV and actually going through the situation.”

So what does Goodell say when he’s in man-hug mode?

Gilmore: “He said that I’d love Buffalo and there’s great people there, great fans and hopefully we get it turned around, and good luck with my career.”

Ingram: “He just said congratulations and good luck and if you ever need anything to let him know.”

Is the commissioner strong?

Gilmore: “Oh, naah (laughing). He’s not very strong.”

McCoy: “He had a pretty good hug himself. I’m a big guy, so of course he didn’t faze me none.”

Ingram: “Yes sir.”

And how about his aftershave? Do they remember what the most powerful man in American sports smells like?

Gilmore: “I don’t know (laughing). I didn’t hug him that hard. I don’t really know what he smells like.”

McCoy: “I don’t remember none of that, man (laughing).”

Ingram: “No, no sir.”

When Gilmore thinks back on it, the moments on stage are a bit of a blur.

“There’s so much going on in your head at the moment and you can be emotional one moment and happy and it’s a lot of things,” he said. “It’s a great experience, but it’s also overwhelming.”

Since that draft day in 2010, McCoy and Goodell have met many times -- at the Super Bowl, the rookie symposium, in the offseason and even during the lockout -- and the greetings have been the same.

“It’s an unwritten rule that we don’t shake hands,” he says. “All we do is give each other hugs. It’s like a tradition now.”

•  •  •
The body language: Patti Wood is a body language expert. She has done extensive research on greeting behavior and says she’s fascinated by hugging, which is a big part of her latest book, “SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma.”

Wood has seen the video of Goodell’s draft-day hugs and says one thing is apparent: He’s enjoying himself.

“I really studied his smile at the end of the hugs, to look specifically at how relaxed his mouth is," she says. "He is. It’s sincere. It’s real and he’s enjoying it.”

What else does she see?

“He tries -- he’s not super-tall compared to the players -- he tries to get that right arm on top, around the neck of the player. And that does a couple of things. It shows his power over them. ... It also allows him to kind of control the hug and bring them in closer, so if they had any desire to kind of [reduce] the space in between the two of them, he’s saying, ‘No, this is going to be a real hug, real close, and I’m in control.’

“The other thing I think is really significant is he has a ritual of doing a double pat at the end of the hug, almost a signal that says, ‘OK, I’m done now.'"

“The rocking is a comforting cue,” she says of some of the hugs. “That to me does a couple of things. ... It comforts, but it also makes the hug OK to linger in, because now you’re saying, ‘I’m the parent and you’re the child.’”

Wood adds that Goodell’s willingness for physical closeness with the players is “what’s cool to me” because front-to-front hugging makes people feel vulnerable, yet she says both Goodell and the players indicate through the hugs that they trust one another.

•  •  •
The old friend: Jim Roberson was a teammate of Roger Goodell’s at Bronxville High in New York.

Goodell was a team captain in football, basketball and baseball at Bronxville and was selected the school’s athlete of the year in 1977, the same year Roberson transferred in and was his teammate.

When he sees Goodell hugging athletes on draft day, he sees the Goodell he knew back then, not the corporate NFL czar.

“He’s good people, man,” says Roberson, who has coached football and now lives in Great Britain. “So the hugging bit, I think, you know, he was always a bit of a practical joker, you see, so to me the hugging bit is the real opportunity he gets to maybe let a little bit of that out in the job because maybe he doesn’t get a chance to do too much of that.”

Roberson, who said he was the first African-American athlete at Bronxville, says he remembers Goodell as friendly and always smiling.

Though he doesn’t remember Goodell as a hugger -- “we’d be emotional, man, but we were in high school and I don’t know how much hugging we did” -- it seems in character with the guy he played with and worked with for two summers.

“What you see on draft day, I think that’s like him, man,” he says. “I think maybe that’s his couple of days to appreciate the fact that these guys are going to get an opportunity to do something fantastic with their lives. They’re going to make some money. For him to show some appreciation, and the fact he’s the commissioner of the league and they’re coming into it, he wants to welcome you.”

Roger Goodell: Commissioner, hugger ... and prankster?

“Dude left me up a ladder one time,” says Roberson, laughing. “He’s quite a practical joker. Painted my shoes blue. ... Cool people, man. But I’m his friend.”

So too are all the first-round draftees in attendance each April who get the Goodell Squeeze.

The NFL schedule is out.

If you’ve been waiting to get your Miami Dolphins tickets, act now before they’re all snatched up.

While you deal with being on hold due to heavy call volume, take a look at some of the highlights of the 2013 slate.

The Super Bowl champion Ravens open on the road

The season kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 5 with the Ravens visiting the Broncos. (Attention, Broncos defensive backs! Try not to stand flat-footed as deep passes sail over your head!) It is customary for defending Super Bowl champions to open at home, but due to a scheduling conflict with an Orioles home game that same day, the Ravens were pushed to the road. It was not the doing or the preference of the NFL.

Will the Ravens ignore those facts and view their Week 1 scheduling as a massive sign of disrespect by the NFL league office, all other NFL teams, Major League Baseball, the United States of America, the world and all neighboring galaxies? Most definitely. Ray Lewis may be gone, but the Ravens are still the Ravens.

The Carolina Panthers have the toughest schedule

Or: They have a 1-in-32 chance of having the toughest schedule. Their 2013 opponents had a .543 winning percentage in 2012, which theoretically gives Carolina the toughest schedule. But every team still has draft picks to make. Every team will still sign players or cut players. Every team will have players suffer injuries. Teams’ 2012 regular-season records mean absolutely nothing in 2013. Ask the Falcons and Broncos. They can confirm this.

The Denver Broncos have the easiest schedule

Again: theoretically. Denver’s 2013 opponents had a combined 2012 record of 110-146 for a .570 losing percentage. Interestingly, the Chargers have the second-easiest schedule, the Raiders have the fourth-easiest and the Chiefs have the fifth-easiest. Ooh! I think I’ve cracked the case! Getting to play six games against AFC West teams = cake schedule.

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If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That was the approach most Uni Watch readers took regarding the Minnesota Vikings' helmet when they sat down to give the team a new look. And who can blame them? Although the real Vikings (the Scandinavian warriors, not the football team) didn't wear horned helmets, the horns have nonetheless become iconic, and the Vikes' helmet design (the football team's, not the Scandinavian warriors') is one of the best in the NFL. Why mess with that?

But there's plenty of room to experiment with the rest of the team's visual program, and Uni Watch readers came up with several intriguing concepts. Here are the most interesting ones (for all of these, you can click on the image to see a larger version):

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The Arizona Cardinals have Carson Palmer now and all 31 other NFL teams should be jealous.

That’s a (slight) paraphrase of what Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians had to say when introducing Palmer this week: “I think our quarterback room is as strong as any in the National Football League.”

That’s what he said. About a team that employs Carson Palmer, Drew Stanton, Ryan Lindley and Brian Hoyer to throw footballs in a professional football environment.

Now it’s easy to laugh and get all snarky like the big jerk who wrote the preceding sentence. But Arians’ positivity is refreshing. All NFL teams with seemingly horrid quarterback situations have great quarterback rooms when their depth chart is looked at through Arians-colored glasses.

Let’s put on those (stylish!) glasses, shall we, and have a look.

Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills’ quarterback room is as strong as any in the National Football League. Really. Kevin Kolb is a big star. Don’t believe it? Watch “Silver Linings Playbook.” The Oscar-nominated film features Robert DeNiro, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper … and has a major supporting character who wears a Kevin Kolb jersey. They don’t put your jersey in a big Hollywood movie if you’re some scrub. No, you have to be a star. That’s a fact. So Kevin Kolb is a star. A superstar.

Then there is Tarvaris Jackson. He is so good he’s been wanted by three different teams -- the Vikings, Seahawks and Bills -- in the past three seasons alone. You don’t get more desired than that. The Bills’ quarterback room is strong.

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Remember, the Vikings are planning to unveil new uniforms on April 25, but we're planning to beat them to the punch by having Uni Watch readers redesign the Vikings. Here are the rules for this design contest:

The rules are as follows:

• Your entry must include a new primary logo, a new dark-jersey uniform and a new white-jersey uniform. (If you like, you can also include secondary logos and one alternate uniform, but those aren't required.)

• Your designs can be created in any digital or analog medium (Illustrator, Photoshop, crayon, whatever) and can be submitted in any standard digital format (JPG, PDF, tiff, etc.).

• Please include your name and email address somewhere on the image, like this. Also, your image file names should include your full name (example: Paul Lukas.jpg). If you're submitting multiple files, please either number them (Paul Lukas1.jpg, Paul Lukas2.jpg, etc.) or use some other designation (Paul Lukas-home.jpg, Paul Lukas-road.jpg, etc.).

• For obvious reasons, Uni Watch's longstanding prohibition on purple will be suspended for the Vikings contest. However, entrants are not required to dress the Vikings in purple, and designs that propose a new color scheme for the team are welcome.

• Email your entry here. If you have more than one concept, feel free to enter as many times as you like.

• Deadline: Thursday, April 11, 7 p.m. ET.

The winning entries will be showcased in a Uni Watch column that will run prior to the team's unveiling. Get crackin'!

The Vikings have just announced that they'll unveil a new uniform set on April 25. So let's beat them to the punch -- just as we've done with the Dolphins, Browns and plenty of other teams, let's redesign the Vikes!

The rules are as follows:

• Your entry must include a new primary logo, a new dark-jersey uniform and a new white-jersey uniform. (If you like, you can also include secondary logos and one alternate uniform, but those aren't required.)

• Your designs can be created in any digital or analog medium (Illustrator, Photoshop, crayon, whatever) and can be submitted in any standard digital format (JPG, PDF, tiff, etc.).

• Please include your name and email address somewhere on the image, like this. Also, your image file names should include your full name (example: Paul Lukas.jpg). If you're submitting multiple files, please either number them (Paul Lukas1.jpg, Paul Lukas2.jpg, etc.) or use some other designation (Paul Lukas-home.jpg, Paul Lukas-road.jpg, etc.).

• For obvious reasons, Uni Watch's longstanding prohibition on purple will be suspended for the Vikings contest. However, entrants are not required to dress the Vikings in purple, and designs that propose a new color scheme for the team are welcome.

• Email your entry here. If you have more than one concept, feel free to enter as many times as you like.

• Deadline: Thursday, April 11, 7 p.m. ET.

The winning entries will be showcased in a Uni Watch column that will run prior to the team's unveiling. Get crackin'!

After seeing the Los Angeles Lakers’ winning streak come to an end at 33 games in 1972, forward Jim McMillian said NBA fans had seen something special.

“We just finished a streak that I don’t believe any other team is going to break,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

Now more than 40 years later, McMillian’s prediction looks solid after the Miami Heat’s bid to catch the Lakers was stopped by Chicago on Wednesday night after 27 straight wins.

Many more seemingly unbreakable streaks also remain on the books. In honor of those 1971-72 Lakers, Playbook offers the best and most unbreakable streaks in sports, ranked from No. 33 to No. 1:

33 -- Basketball: Harlem Globetrotters, 2,495 straight wins over Washington Generals
Though the Generals were built to lose -- which they did flawlessly to the ’Trotters from 1962 to 1971 -- they took a 100-99 victory over Harlem while playing as the New Jersey Reds, finally ruining the script. Generals owner Red Klotz said the win “felt like killing Santa Claus.”

32 -- College football: Mount Union (Ohio), 55 consecutive victories
The most dominant program in NCAA Div. III history, Mount Union has 11 national championships and this record winning streak from 2000-2003. The Purple Raiders also won 54 straight from 1996-99.

31 -- College squash: Trinity (Conn.) College men, 252 consecutive wins
The longest winning streak in varsity collegiate sports stretched from 1998-2012, when it was finally snapped by Yale. The run included 13 national championships.

30 -- College soccer: North Carolina women, 103 consecutive wins
Not only did the Tar Heels put this streak together from 1986-1990, but after a loss to Connecticut on Sept. 22, 1990, North Carolina then won 101 straight games -- that's an astounding 204 wins in 205 games.

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The new Miami Dolphins logo that was leaked in a photo last week appears to be the real deal -- and there's additional uni-related Dolphins news that had been kept under wraps until now.

For starters, the new Dolphins logo shown in last week's widely circulated photo leak actually showed up on NFL.com, but has since changed. Take a look at the Dolphins entry in the left margin of this "Predict the Draft Pick" page: that's the new logo!

In addition, several media outlets are now confirming, via their own confidential sources, that last week's photo leak is legitimate. One of those outlets is the Miami Herald, which provided a new tidbit of information today: The Dolphins' facemasks are changing from aqua to white. Can't say I'm in love with this move. A white mask on a white helmet shell is going to look, well, extremely white. The aqua provided a nice touch of contrast.

One other bit of NFL uni news from yesterday: The Giants are adding a set of white alternate pants. No visuals yet, but look for something to be unveiled in time for next month's NFL draft.