Biggest Downgrades in History

[oldschoolvikings 18,568]

7 hours ago, brycew8 said:

 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

This one gets a double credit as one of the worst downgrades.  Not only was it bad in its own right, but it started a trend of terrible design, one whose ill effects are still very much with us.  So this is a uniform disaster of historic magnitude.

 

 

That's a pretty good point.  It was just an average downgrade for the Broncos, but it caused a snowball of downgrades at all levels of football.

 

In that same vein, I'd nominate this;

 

 

To this;

 

Not just a bad uniform change, but the first time a team wore monochrome as a full-time, primary uniform combination.  The Seahawks' bad decision legitimized the one color uniform, not just for high schools, arena teams, and second rate colleges, but as something even an NFL team could lower themselves to.

[LakeShow24 163]

On 4/6/2018 at 12:22 AM, Tigers6884 said:

The one year disaster that was the 1927 Detroit Tigers uniforms.

 

 

I would like to see the Tigers bring this back. That tiger design looks good for the modern era.

[BBTV 21,017]

6 hours ago, LakeShow24 said:

I would like to see the Tigers bring this back. That tiger design looks good for the modern era.

 

Jesus there’s not enough dislike buttons for me to possibly click for this post. I’d break the site with the number of downvotes. 

[Lights Out 4,986]

From this...

 

 

 

 

...to this:

 

 

 

[Morgan33 4,129]

22 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Yeah that's a popular opinion.  One I don't share, mostly because my roomate had one of these and I loved it, especially the numbering.  One of the few jerseys like this that I really liked.

That's a brave one, I'll give you that .  The main issue for me is the amount of red and yellow being delegated to a tertiary colour.  I thought the white did a much better job of balancing the colours.  I certainly admire the creativity though, and the shoulder patch.

[MCM0313 2,820]

22 hours ago, brycew8 said:

 

 

 

 

I can't believe I'm saying this, because I loved the Orange Crush uniforms and still miss them to this day, but...that was more of a lateral move than a true downgrade. The new look wasn't as aesthetically pleasing to my eyes or many others, but it looked sharp and modern. It still works well enough today too. 

 

Now, as for the redesigns it has inspired, yes, a lot of them are awful at worst and totally unnecessary at best.

[DG_ThenNowForever 16,776]

On 4/3/2018 at 6:15 AM, CS85 said:

 

 

I really liked those Vick-era Falcons unis for the first few months they were around, but they aged so goddamn terribly.  The Falcons look was infinitely more superb when they were minimalistic.

 

 

That is a thing of beauty. 

 

They didn't wear their black pants much, but I always thought this was among the best looks in the NFL at the time:

[mafiaman 1,900]

On 4/5/2018 at 10:56 PM, Bomba Tomba said:

The Bills played hockey?

That was from the World Junior Tournament in Buffalo a few months ago...just an awful uniform.

[BroncoBuff 169]

 

 

The new Browns uniforms are the most ill-conceived uniform upgrade I've ever seen. So horrifying that whenever they pop up on the TV, I scream out loud - like Belushi when Blutto pops up on the slide show screen.

 

With 'Cleveland' and 'Browns' plastered on their pants and jersey - I'm guessing they finally developed an inferiority complex due to their logo-less helmets, and wildly overreacted. 

 

With their staph infection, forced hiatus, winless seasons, fruitless drafts and now these things ... they should really fire everybody in the building and start from scratch.

 

(Yes, I colored in the orange pants above, I loved that look.)

[The Old Gym 45]

Allow me to take you on a journey from unquestionable perfection to timeless classic to utter unequivocal garbage....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tigers6884 494]

32 minutes ago, The Old Gym said:

Allow me to take you on a journey from unquestionable perfection to timeless classic to utter unequivocal garbage....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The AFC South 211]

to

to

 

[mafiaman 1,900]

8 hours ago, The Old Gym said:

...utter unequivocal garbage....

The original "Trust the Process."  What a colossal bust.  And those uniforms were so appropriate for that era.

[BBTV 21,017]

2 hours ago, mafiaman said:

The original "Trust the Process."  What a colossal bust.  And those uniforms were so appropriate for that era.

 

Shawn Bradley and "The Process" should not be mentioned in the same sentence.  I vividly remember the whole Bradley era, including the pre-draft talk.  Sure, it failed, but the entire franchise was run by incompetent people back then so of course it failed.  "The Process", was a very detailed long-term plan that was executed to perfection.  The Shawn Bradley era was just idiots trying to win but being to stupid to even break even.

 

Anyway...

 

They upgraded a little after that (though I don't get the hard-on everyone has for the Stackhouse-era set)...

... then went to the original black-gold set (which sucked for lots of reasons)

... then to the true Iverson-era black-white set (which on its own was a good look, in my unpopular opinion)

--- then to the polar opposite plain-ass RWB boring A F set

--- to perfection

--- to even perfecter perfection

[WSU151 10,121]

 

to 

 

 

to 

 

 

The sleeveless jerseys in-between were fine, but the new (and now relegated to secondary) pirate logo sucks compared to the late 80s/90s logo.  The script Pittsburgh was a great away script. Current jerseys should at least bring back the black/gold/black sleeve striping/placketing.

[BBTV 21,017]

I also like the Pittsburgh script.  Here's a suggestion:

 

Drop the P jersey, and either

• move the PITTSBURGH to the black jersey and put the old script on the gray, or
• put the script on the black jersey and keep PITTSBURGH as-is on the gray.

[The Old Gym 45]

7 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Shawn Bradley and "The Process" should not be mentioned in the same sentence.  I vividly remember the whole Bradley era, including the pre-draft talk.  Sure, it failed, but the entire franchise was run by incompetent people back then so of course it failed.  "The Process", was a very detailed long-term plan that was executed to perfection.  The Shawn Bradley era was just idiots trying to win but being to stupid to even break even.

 

Anyway...

 

They upgraded a little after that (though I don't get the hard-on everyone has for the Stackhouse-era set)...

... then went to the original black-gold set (which sucked for lots of reasons)

... then to the true Iverson-era black-white set (which on its own was a good look, in my unpopular opinion)

--- then to the polar opposite plain-ass RWB boring A F set

--- to perfection

--- to even perfecter perfection

 

 

Yeah that had no resemblance to a “process” at all. It was a complete cluster :censored:. 

 

To be perfectly honest, it began on June 18, 1986 when they traded Moses and the #1 pick on the same day.  

 

Outside of one ligthining in a bottle season that single day :censored:ed a franchise for 30+ years. 

[LogoFan 375]

On 4/7/2018 at 12:18 PM, MCM0313 said:

I can't believe I'm saying this, because I loved the Orange Crush uniforms and still miss them to this day, but...that was more of a lateral move than a true downgrade. The new look wasn't as aesthetically pleasing to my eyes or many others, but it looked sharp and modern. It still works well enough today too. 

 

Now, as for the redesigns it has inspired, yes, a lot of them are awful at worst and totally unnecessary at best.

 

I hate the Broncos but I loved their new look.  It was flashy and bold but they should have kept the jerseys orange.  It was a sharp look ahead of its time that should not have been copied but was.  Over, and over, and over, and over.  UGH.

 

To me, the Browns can't be topped as far as NFL downgrades go, although the post-Kelly Bills unis came really close.  Fortunately, they finally fixed them.

[the admiral 29,133]

The jerseys should have stayed orange and the blue should have been lighter (if not the same light royal, somewhere between that and the midnight blue they have) but the rest of the uniform was an upgrade whose time had come. Love the letters and numbers on those, still not sure how I feel about the horse head.

[Brave-Bird 08 1,741]

There is nothing about the design of the 1997 Broncos uniforms that is bad. The side panels worked, and the white in the helmet logo really balanced everything out. It's one of the most balanced, top-to-bottom uniforms. Unique number font that isn't a chore to read. 

 

It was an instantly fresh, but well designed and not overdesigned modern uniform and it's not their fault it became the template for every college football team between then and the mid 2000s. 

 

I know this board loves boring classic striped uniforms, but I think the Broncos uniform is a modern classic.