Tampa Bay Times Sports editorial: Save us from the Buccaneers’ hideous uniforms

[Gothamite]

20 hours ago, Bucfan56 said:

If the pewter dies, so does my fandom. The original colors SUCKED, and NOBODY liked them until they were long gone. If you say otherwise you’re either misremembering or straight up lying.

 

And if the current team lose enough games, then the new colors will SUCK and NOBODY will like them.  Losing has a way of doing that to even a good uniform.

 

Not to mention that casual homophobia isn’t quite so acceptable as it was back in 1996. 

 

Teams have to separate temporary feelings with lasting effect. Strange as it may seem today, there actually was a time when Brewers fans got tired of their royal and athletic gold and embraced a navy, green and gold set with new logos.  There was a time when the Yankees had a decade straight of losing records, and nearly changed their road uniforms out of desperation.  In both cases, it wasn’t actually about the uniforms, and both teams realized that. 

[MJWalker45]

26 minutes ago, mjd77 said:

I think orange/pewter with red accents could be a good combo.  I don't know if Nike can lighten the shade of pewter, but it is now too dark

 

8 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

Not all fabrics lend themselves to metallic colors. 

 

The old uniforms could do it because the fibers were bright and shiny, but these new matte fabrics really can’t.   You might as well ask the Gap for a metallic silver polo shirt. 

 

Wouldn't the easiest solution be to have them make the previous material again? Is there an issue with whom has intellectual property rights over the previous pant colors?

[Gothamite]

1 minute ago, MJWalker45 said:

Wouldn't the easiest solution be to have them make the previous material again? Is there an issue with whom has intellectual property rights over the previous pant colors?

 

The colors aren’t proprietary, but the materials are. 

 

How will manufacturers be able to convince teams, schools and leagues to use their products if they can’t point to the latest whatever in fabric technologies?

[mjd77]

 

Thinking about this old Vols orange/gunsmoke set makes me feel like orange/pewter could actually work as a combo...not necessarily like the above set, but just that those colors could work together.

[MJWalker45]

1 minute ago, mjd77 said:

 

Thinking about this old Vols orange/gunsmoke set makes me feel like orange/pewter could actually work as a combo...not necessarily like the above set, but just that those colors could work together.

If Tampa went with jerseys similar to what San Antonio rolled out for AAF, minus the side stripes and a number font closer to this and away from the digital font they could work very well. 

[Carolingian Steamroller]

These were genuine modern classics. 

 

[WSU151]

1 hour ago, mjd77 said:

 

Thinking about this old Vols orange/gunsmoke set makes me feel like orange/pewter could actually work as a combo...not necessarily like the above set, but just that those colors could work together.

 

Would the logo still be primarily red?

[Mitch B]

1 hour ago, Gothamite said:

 

Not all fabrics lend themselves to metallic colors. 

 

The old uniforms could do it because the fibers were bright and shiny, but these new matte fabrics really can’t.   You might as well ask the Gap for a metallic silver polo shirt. 

 

Could metallic pewter accents be added to the current fabrics?  If so, I’d go this route and get rid of the flat “pewter” elements all together.  I’d rather have a limited amount of real pewter to match the helmets than the current faux pewter elements they use.  

 

They need to go back to a more traditional uniform design as well.  This was one of the single worst downgrades in NFL uniform history.  The new helmet logo is the only redeeming feature of this set.  

 

[CS85]

Start with this:

 

 

Be inspired by these:

 

 

 

 

Make something that doesn't look like this:

 

 

and....go

[1991]

1 hour ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

These were genuine modern classics. 

 

Miss those uniforms.

[hawk36]

22 hours ago, squamfan said:

This was one of my favorite looks in the NFL. Colors seemed very much what my impression of Florida was. But, as always, I'd defer to locals as to what colors they feel better represent their city/region.

[FiddySicks]

3 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

And if the current team lose enough games, then the new colors will SUCK and NOBODY will like them.  Losing has a way of doing that to even a good uniform.

 

Not to mention that casual homophobia isn’t quite so acceptable as it was back in 1996. 

 

Teams have to separate temporary feelings with lasting effect. Strange as it may seem today, there actually was a time when Brewers fans got tired of their royal and athletic gold and embraced a navy, green and gold set with new logos.  There was a time when the Yankees had a decade straight of losing records, and nearly changed their road uniforms out of desperation.  In both cases, it wasn’t actually about the uniforms, and both teams realized that. 

 

Yeah except for that whole part where they won their only Super Bowl in the current colors (minus some minor adjustments, of course). Fans tend to cling onto moments like that for dear life. 

[DeFrank]

The Bucs right now are basically who John Mulaney says he is at :44 seconds

 

 

[Gothamite]

56 minutes ago, Bucfan56 said:

Yeah except for that whole part where they won they’re only Super Bowl in the current colors (minus some minor adjustments, of course). Fans tend to cling onto moments like that for dear life. 

 

And the Brewers won a pennant in their royal blue.   And the Minnesota Twins won two World Series in pinstripes with the “M” cap.  Hell, just down the road from Tampa, the Marlins have overhauled their logos and color scheme twice since winning their two titles, and the Dolphins have changed their look since notching an undefeated season.

 

Just because they won a championship doesn’t mean the fans will never accept a new uniform, new logos, or new colors.  If fans in Tampa Bay have been fine with scrapping the Super Bowl-era uniforms, and overhauling the Super Bowl-era logos, then they’ll eventually be fine with changing the Super Bowl-era colors too.  The Buccaneers have shown that nothing from that set was particularly sacred. 

[infrared41]

23 hours ago, Bucfan56 said:

The original colors SUCKED, and NOBODY liked them until they were long gone. If you say otherwise you’re either misremembering or straight up lying.

 

I liked the original colors and uniforms - at the time the team was actually wearing them. I didn't suddenly think "hey, now that he's gone, I kinda liked Bucco Bruce" after the first uniform change. So am I misremembering or am I straight up lying? 

[FiddySicks]

You’re just a weirdo

[IceCap]

I was only vaguely aware of the Bucs until their uni change in 1997(?). 

 

The first crimson and pewter set- the one they won a Super Bowl in- was fantastic. “Modern classic” gets thrown around far too much these days, but it was an apt descriptor for those unis. 

 

That said? I kind of like the Bucco Bruce look. The pirate? He’s got a dashing Errol Flynn look to him. There are always multiple ways to represent one idea, and while the skull/flag works? I think a dashing “golden age of piracy literature” look works too, and has a bit of whimsey lacking in pro sports today. 

 

So really? Either old look works for me. Just for the love of G-d, get them out of their current abominations.  

[FiddySicks]

Ok, I’ll give that look this much at least. It was always overly goofy, but they changed the primary shade of orange sometime in the 80s and it went from being bright, flashy, and ridiculous looking to just ridiculous looking. 

 

I dont even necessarily hate that look, either, even. I think it’s cool as a throwback, ON OCCASION. But I have such a visceral reaction to the idea of them bringing it back for two reasons. 

 

1) This team is trash and run by a bunch of incompetent boobs. The last thing I want is for them to come completely full circle and end up being a carbon copy of the disaster they were in the Bucco Bruce era. 

 

2) You just HAVE TO know that if they try to bring that look back, they’re going to completely it up with some stupid “modern” element that’ll ruin it. 

 

 

 

The change to pewter and the and the flag logo was meant to be a complete and total separation from that era because it had such a nasty stench to it. That’s evident by how insanely bad some of the era mashup concepts are. I’ve NEVER seen a single one that doesn’t look like complete and total ass. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not (parts of me think it was, parts of me think that may not even be possible), but it damn sure worked. 

[monkeypower]

21 minutes ago, Ice_Cap said:

That said? I kind of like the Bucco Bruce look. The pirate? He’s got a dashing Errol Flynn look to him. There are always multiple ways to represent one idea, and while the skull/flag works? I think a dashing “golden age of piracy literature” look works too, and has a bit of whimsey lacking in pro sports today. 

 

I think that's a good point and was something that was sort of brought up in the Jets thread. Not every logo needs to be the most attacking and aggressive version of whatever the team name is, there is definitely room for a more whimsical look with certain teams in pro sports.

[IceCap]

24 minutes ago, Bucfan56 said:

The change to pewter and the and the flag logo was meant to be a complete and total separation from that era because it had such a nasty stench to it. That’s evident by how insanely bad some of the era mashup concepts are. I’ve NEVER seen a single one that doesn’t look like complete and total ass. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not (parts of me think it was, parts of me think that may not even be possible), but it damn sure worked. 

Agreed. A “mashup” would be awful. Pewter and orange do not go together, regardless of how hard some people try to force the issue. 

 

That’s why the Bucs’ 1997-2014 look worked so well. Pewter was kept to the helmets and pants. Its limited use kept it stronger. 

 

Now? You have brown flat pewter everywhere and it looks awful.