There is one specific part of the Olympics that always gets me: the proud parents in the stands.If Im really making a confession, what really gets me is the quadrennial tradition of schmaltzy TV ads about the parents of the Olympic athletes.Sign me up for tug-at-the-heartstrings visuals of all of the classics: Early morning wake-ups! Lugging gym bags! Unconditional support!And then, the payoff image: Athlete looks lovingly at parent, whose zero-sum investment of time and energy, space and support was so critical to the dream coming true. The parent beams. Watching the scene from the couch, we project (and, yes, maybe wipe a tear).You, like me, probably arent going to be that parent. But you did manage to get your kid to soccer games on time every Saturday morning for umpteen seasons, which aint nothin.I reserve a deep, abiding respect for the select few who ascend, with Olympian effort, to be that parent.I cannot calculate the hours -- let alone the effort, let alone the opportunity cost, let alone the self-discipline to stand aside and let the kid put in the work, let alone the anxiety -- that goes along with parenting a would-be Olympic athlete.I also cannot calculate the pride they must feel that their child has -- at least in one huge, universally recognized way -- completed an effort to reach their human potential.Let me put it this way: Yesterday morning, I dropped my 7-year-old off at ninja camp. Lets be real: Its gymnastics camp. It was my first time seeing him there. Before I walk out of the gym to get in the car, he sprints over to a runway of a mat and does this:My first reaction: Wait, what is he doing?My next reaction: Hes going to hurt himself!My final reaction: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!There are plenty of moments in your life as a parent when your kid does something delightful and unexpected, and then there are those rare times when your kid does something you didnt realize they had the ability to do, but they pull off a front flip. Literally or metaphorically, it doesnt happen a ton and when it does, its staggering.OK: Thats my kid doing a flip in a random local gym. Relatively neat, given the known limitations of his dads athletic genes but extremely modest in the Simone Biles-Katie Ledecky-Allyson Felix Grand Scheme of Things. But having that acute, emotional reaction gave me a smidgen of a sense of what it might be like for the parent of an actual Olympian.Then layer in the baggage of the Olympic parent. I drove my kid 15 minutes to day camp and he proudly grinned at me after he did his trick, and Im bursting. Now project the accumulated sensation of investing hours (every day) over a decade (or two) and traveling (hundreds of thousands of miles) and weekends (all of them) and waiting (so much waiting) and nerves (GAH!).Then their kid smiles at them on the walk to the block or to the mat or to the track in Rio or London or Beijing or Athens or Sydney or Atlanta. Or their kid spots them immediately after finishing the race -- win or lose, medalist or mere Olympian. Theyre not actors playing athletes and parents in a TV ad -- the real deal. And those family members have won in a way few of us mortal parents can ever really know.And that parent has earned (and deserves) every bit of the unique intensity of that Olympic moment.Dan Shanoff writes about parenting for espnW. You can connect with him on Twitter or Instagram at @danshanoff. Yeezy Boost 350 For Sale Cheap . 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Howard Ganz, an MLB lawyer, said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos that Rodriguezs claims do not come "remotely close" to what is needed to overturn an arbitration decision in federal court. Were now in the second week of the second season of the NFLs Thursday-night Color Rush program, which features teams wearing solid-colored uniforms. The program has been promoted as an innovative approach to NFL uniform design, but heres the thing: NFL teams were wearing solid-colored unis long before the NFL and Nike dreamed up Color Rush -- in some cases more than 80 years before.Charting the NFLs early uniform history is tricky, because color photographs are rare and uniform fabrics often reacted differently to color dyes, so jerseys and pants often didnt match even if they were supposed to match. But according to the Gridiron Uniform Database, the definitive guide to pro football uniform history, one of the first NFL teams to wear a mono-colored uniform was the 1933 Cincinnati Reds, an early franchise that only lasted one and a half seasons before being suspended for failure to pay league dues.Since then, a surprising number of NFL teams have gone mono-colored at least once. Some, like the Reds, are now-forgotten teams from the leagues early ragtag era. But others are franchises that are still with us today. Heres a selective timeline of some key dates in solid-colored-uniform history. It doesnt show every single mono-colored uni in NFL history, but it gives a good sense of how the phenomenon has evolved over the years:1935: The Brooklyn Dodgers (yes, that was the name of an NFL franchise from 1930 through 1943) and Green Bay Packers (yes, those same Green Bay Packers) wear solid-green uniforms. The Dodgers wear them again the following year, while the Packers mono-green look turns out to be a one-season thing -- for now.1940-42: The Steelers include solid-yellow uniforms as part of their wardrobe for three seasons.1946: The Boston Yanks -- another short-lived team, with a now-unthinkable name -- wear solid-yellow uniforms for one season.1950: With new Packers coach Gene Ronzani declaring, We are the Green Bay Packers, the team dons solid-green uniforms for the first time since 1935. The greens are worn for one season, then retired, then revived in 1953, and then mothballed yet again. (Meanwhile, the Browns, who have been folded into the NFL after playing for four seasons in the rival All-America Football Conference, wear something no NFL team has previously tried: a solid-white uniform.) 1964: Due to a miscommunication prior to a 1964 Lions-Vikings game, both teams take the field wearing white jerseys, which creates problems. So the Vikings, who are the home team, send an employee to fetch the teams purple jerseys. The game is brieflly stopped while the players change jerseys on the sidelines, creating the NFLs first solid-purple uniform.dddddddddddd1965-1996: The mono-colored look, which was always on the fringes of NFL popularity, falls out of favor completely, as the league settles into the protocol of wearing non-matching jerseys and pants (the occasional solid-white uniform notwithstanding).1997: After an absence of more than three decades, mono-colored uniforms return to the NFL, as the Broncos wear mono-blue twice during the preseason and then the Eagles go with solid green for a regular-season game against the 49ers. The Earth wobbles slightly on its axis, then recovers and continues spinning.2001: After three seasons with no solid-colored uniforms, another crack in the dam appears, as the Saints wear mono-black for two games, becoming the first team in the Super Bowl era to wear a monochromatic uniform more than once in the same season. It is a hint of things to come.2002: The floodgates open, as nine teams wear solid-colored uniforms. Some, like the Seahawks and Bills, adopt the mono-color style as their primary look; others, like the Bears and Dolphins, just dabble with it as a onetime experiment. Collectively, though, the message is clear: The solid-colored NFL uniform has arrived.In the 13 seasons since then, an additional 13 NFL teams have dipped their toes in the solid-colored pool for the first time. So by the time the Color Rush program debuted last fall, mono-colored uniforms werent exactly a new concept. By Uni Watchs count, 26 of the 32 NFL teams had already gone mono at least once by that time, and 24 had done so in the Super Bowl era. When viewed in that context, the Color Rush program isnt really so innovative -- its just the latest spin on an established trend.(Special thanks to Phil Hecken, Chance Michaels, and the Gridiron Uniform Database for their research assistance.)Would you like to nominate a uniform or uni element to be showcased in a future Friday Flashback installment? Send your suggestions here.Paul Lukas, a lifelong fan of the color green, wouldnt mind seeing the Packers live up to their city name again. If you like how it turned out, youll probably like his Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so youll always know when a new column has been posted or just ask him a question? Contact him here. ' ' '