Ads on jerseys are an absolute disgrace, and as if we didn’t have to suffer from seeing an obnoxiously big blue Highmark logo on the team’s home jerseys, the Penguins unveiled that First National Bank is now going to have an advertising patch on the team’s away jersey.

The Highmark and FNB ad patches actually have a lot in common, sadly. They’re both criminally large. They both completely clash with the Penguins’ color scheme. And they’re both just plain ugly.

Hockey jerseys are a sacred item; they shouldn’t be marred by managerial greed as owners across the National Hockey League try to squeeze as much money out of ruining jerseys as possible.

I think a lot of us knew that once the NHL started allowing ads on helmets, that it wasn’t going to stop there. From there, it’s grown from just home jerseys, to now on any jersey, full-time.

It’s a disgrace. It ruins the jerseys.

And the worst part is that it’s simply not necessary anymore. I understood it during Covid. I didn’t agree with it (because I knew once they started, they wouldn’t stop), but I understood it. The league and the owners were losing a ton of money and needed to recoup some cash from somewhere.

But now? There’s no sensible argument for teams still desperately needing said cash. And that statement is particularly true for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are now majority-owned by the expansively wealthy Fenway Sports Group.

Just for reference, Fenway was valued at $9.81 BILLION dollars last year by Forbes, making them the third richest sports empire in the world.

Certainly FSG doesn’t need FNB’s money to slap a bank logo on the Penguins’ jersey, but here we are.

Jersey ads are a disgrace no matter the sport, the team, or the company, but once again, there is a particular problem with how the Penguins go about it.

Several teams, while still committing the sin of putting a corporate ad on their nipple, have at lest found creative ways to limit the impact the ad has on the jersey itself. In particular, several teams have partnered with companies that have a similar color scheme as the team’s, meaning that the ad blends in with the jersey, rather than standing out.

Of course, if you’re an advertiser, that’s not what you want, and that has to be a sticking point in discussions, but still, a lot of teams around the NHL handle the advertising patches better than the Penguins.

Pittsburgh’s home team sponsor, Highmark, has two big blue logos right on the jersey, making nearly anyone do a double take, as the Pens haven’t used any kind of blue in years.

And now, not only do we get blue for the away jerseys, we also get red. In fact, we get to wear a poor man’s New England Patriots logo on the away jerseys, something that should be considered a felony in Allegheny County.

That, plus the green MSA logo on the helmets, combines to create a color scheme that looks like something a five year old would pick.

You are entitled to your belief that the jersey ads are no big deal, and that I’m way over-exaggerating, and maybe you are right. But just remember, the it started with a helmet ad. A harmless PPG logo on the side of the helmet. Now they’ve crept onto the jersey itself, and I fear they won’t stop at one.

(Featured photo a screenshot from the Penguins’ official Twitter account)