Bathysphere

*cough cough* colts wore an alternate jersey *cough* But yeah there are plenty of documented instances of teams foregoing the alts they have in their closet for a season or two. I believe there’s still some fan support for bone still existing while it currently isn’t popular in the building, and they still got some bone jerseys to sell so they’re getting it out of the way early against the two worst looking teams on their schedule. Best way to get it done if they gotta, imo.

This. People complain about the white stripe on an off white uniform, but I do think the white and yellow stripe against the off white ends up creating an interesting glow effect in the sun. Again, it’s weird for an NFL uniform to do that, but it kinda works in ideal conditions. The sun also makes bone look a lot more like a sandy color than a dull dirty dish rag. I loved that matchup posted above against the Eagles. Of course, it shouldn’t be obscured that I vastly prefer white over yellow as their main road look and would only want to see this uniform as a clash against other yellow-pantsed teams. Nope. Id burn the Rams blue pants remorselessly. The gradient stripe is just awful, plus royal blue I think is one of the worst colors for leotard looks, which they insist on when it comes to blue pants. As long as the Rams have utilized blue pants they just have not been able to be trusted with them. And with the bone jersey specifically, I find that the bone effect that works (subjectively speaking) with the “standard” version as a gestalt falls apart when you change parts around. Contrary to bone-bone-blue, I can’t look at this without thinking “why is the jersey not white?” It just isn’t purposeful outside of its “intended” usage.

I agree, for some reason. It works very differently from how an NFL uniform is supposed to and they probably shouldn’t have attempted it in the first place, but something about the colors here works for me. Any other presentation of the bone jersey that isnt with both bone pants and blue socks is utter garbage.

I always prefer when teams who have bad uniforms in their arsenal wear them against other bad looking teams, in like an ugliness quarantine game. Increases the chances they wear their good uniforms against other good looking teams so we actually get to see good matchups that weren’t attainable against the ugly teams anyways.

The Panthers had to have deluded themselves into thinking it counts. In the 2018 and ‘19 preseasons, the Jaguars wore the teal alt jerseys for both of their home games and still managed to wear them three times in the regular season.

Goddamn it I had my legal pad out and everything lol

Oh, you’ve awakened something in me. Especially given most of these are gonna be the Jags. Hold on a sec… EDIT: do we count the Jags gradient helmet as black helmet or a gold helmet? or is gradient a separate beast entirely?

(I still think they should just trash the nemos, wear only the black stripes variant and call it a day)

So let me get this straight: the Panthers are allowed to wear their regular home jersey with their new alt helmet, but the Bengals have to dig up an antiquated jersey which is mainly informed by the uniform they just ditched just so they can rock the white Tiger look they clearly designed their current away jersey for? I mean props to them for trying their best to explain the leagues cryptic rules through a children’s storybook narrative, but Im struggling to add up the reasoning. Here’s my best shot: They can only wear the helmet on top of an alternate jersey or a color rush uniform. The Bengals designated their normal road jersey with white pants and socks as their “color rush” uniform when they debuted a year ago, but you can only designate a new “color rush” every two years (per the video, I think??), so they can’t make changes to it, i.e. pairing it with a different helmet. The Panthers are allowed to piece together a new “color rush” with their black helmets and uniforms because they last designated a “color rush” in 2015. However, since the Bengals didn’t introduce a second alt with the update, they can say that their last set’s second alt is technically still in their second alt slot, so they can pull it up at any time. I imagine it’s just to bridge the gap until they can actually designate it with the current whites. But, does that mean they’ll get to do it next year, because they won’t technically designate the white helmet with the old jersey as “color rush” but as an alt that happens to be all white? Or does the clock reset and they have to wait until 2024 to wear the white helmet and road jersey together? Meaning that they drudged up an old jersey that they’re stuck with for two more years just so they didn’t have to wait till 2023 to get their white tiger clicks in? Could they have avoided this if they foresaw this designation debacle a year ago and played their cards accordingly? Man I don’t know. Color rush is such a perplexing niche of the ruleset. Home, away, and alternate/throwback jerseys will always make sense in terms of guidelines because they are discreetly defined by the historical precedents of how football uniforms are worn. But color rush is such a nebulous concept, just a uniform where both all the colors are the same AND the team decided to call it “color rush.” There are plenty of uniforms worn that are all one color, but they aren’t “color rush” until the team calls it that. And once they do, they’re suddenly subject to special “color rush” rules? Even though “color rush” literally refers to a primetime uniform campaign from five years ago that failed epically because they couldn’t forge enough contrast so every game had an all white uniform and a lot of the uniforms were barely or never used? How is this garbage codified BY NAME in the NFL’s official ruleset?? Arghhhhh I :censored:ing hate color rush.

Lol, I hate the helmet to high heavens, but this gripe is just funny to me. Should their home jersey have orange with white outlines numbers to match the orange with white outlines logo and orange with white outlines stripes?

Hey, uhh, I know that one “leaker” was out of his mind, but what happened to that press release about upcoming mini helmets for retail that got like all of these right? (at least if memory serves correctly. I need to see it again.)

Its still in the rules, if not an already identified loophole. When they wear the white socks with the white jerseys and pants, it becomes the "color rush" uniform, which is fair game. Hold up.

…did I miss the Bengals giving a single indication that they actually want to throwback to the script helmets? They didnt win a single playoff game in the 13 years that they wore it, finally winning one the very year that they switched to the stripes (made it to the Super Bowl, just like when they finally switched away from their previous mess last year). And the uniform itself is literally just a boring Browns knockoff. There can’t be any actual hype or nostalgia surrounding that helmet or uniform.

My parsing of the rules goes that *jerseys* have to stay for five years. Each team has four slots for jerseys (home, road, and two alts, whether they be classic, alternate, or color rush) so when they introduce a new jersey, it has to be in at least one of your slots for a combine five years before you can introduce a new one on a two year turnaround time (or shorter if there’s a new owner). You can change which slots the jerseys are in at any point within those five years with a one year turnaround, and you dont have to wear them, but you still have to wait at least five years after its introduced to trash a jersey in order to release a new one (as long as you give the league a two-year advance on your plans).

Very interesting use of the new helmet rule, that I’ll say,

Does it come with a “Buzz City” city edition alt?

Exactly. I explained both why I hate the rule AND why I hate the design. And before I even need to get into the nitty-gritty with the color composition and proportions and consistency and on, I can just say that teams who forsake their normal helmet in favor of playing FCS dress up don’t look like themselves anymore. Which I think looks bad as a nonstarter.

The fact that there’s support for this decision and design at all on this website of all places makes it feel like the acclaim is over the top. Im already gonna hate every alternate helmet that comes down the line before I even see it just from the implication for the direction of the league’s aesthetics alone. And they still did even worse than I could’ve imagined. The fact that the helmet is black with only blue details when the blue parts on every other black piece are accented with silver makes it look disjointed and so so soo amateur. Exactly like something a college or high school team would pull. And matte helmets SUCK. Across the board. Period. At every level, no matter what’s going on below the chin. Man, I’m tired.

If there’s any team that should really be trying to project as a professional outfit rather than mugging for social media engagement by dressing up like a 2-bit college team trying desperately to attract recruits, it’s all 32 of them.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a troll double down this hard in the face of being found demonstrably guilty before the court of armchair experts on the subject matter. Cropping a concept from the first page of google to pretend like you have a “leak” after everything else you’ve announced has been proven wrong with evidence is so hilariously down bad that its literally just a last ditch roll for engagement at this point.

Bichromal logo one foot away from the full color logo? Man this is only going to get worse and worse.

Ah alright. Sheesh, it’s real frustrating when a teams brand can get so loose and messy that you couldnt even say with authority what they would wear in the super bowl if they happened to make it. (almost like they know they never will and just dont care)

Genuinely curious as to what the Jags slick looks like and if it provides any insight to the madness which guides their uni selections. Would they even have a primary listed?

The fact that they had this out there all along then just released it as an actual uniform is going to make the “speculation via bread crumbs” game here absolutely insufferable.

Do the Texans even want to be the Oilers? I think they like being the Texans. Tennessee owns the brand. They own the history. They keep luv ya blue on their uniforms as a tribute and a staked claim. Sure, they’ve diminished the usage over the years and the Titans brand has sucked since it’s inception and I would much prefer if they had just remained the Tennessee Oilers. But, it’s there, and it’s theirs, and they would be damned if they gave half of their own franchise’s history to their own division rivals as a nicety because they didnt get the brand right the first time (questionable). Houston will never throwback to the Warren Moon era the same way that Baltimore will never throwback to the Johnny Unitas era. Doesn’t make a difference that the Colts still wear those uniforms and the Titans don’t. Everyone agrees that the Ravens-Browns agreement is silly and it will never happen again in this league. That’s why the argument gets shot down.