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NFL face mask: gray vs color


Reyes47

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I don’t think of the masks as “equipment”, mainly because the helmets are also official logos, so color is intentionally thought out and cannot (except in recent seasons) be changed in a whim. They’re not afterthoughts. 
 

when I was in HS, our helmets were royal with royal masks. Many of the seniors and good players bought our own masks from the local sporting goods store, so we could have “cool” designs, like the Deion one, or (in my case) the lineman style with the “hook” on the top (mid 90s). 
 

anyway, our “custom” ones were off-the-shelf gray, and in hindsight, we looked stupid because there was no other gray, and most of the team had blue. But we looked at it as just “equipment” - and we were wrong. 
 

 

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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Grey facemasks will never look good on any team that doesn't have grey/silver in their color scheme. 

 

The excuse that it's a "neutral" color doesn't really make sense. Facemasks in a color that isn't used anywhere else in the team's branding are the opposite of neutral - they stick out like a sore thumb. Functionally, the Niners' grey facemasks are no different than if they decided to have purple or green or blue facemasks instead.

 

The argument that they're "just equipment" also doesn't make sense. Every part of the uniform can be written off as "just equipment." There's no logical reason why facemasks should be exempt from the standards that the rest of the uniform is held to. People would raise an eyebrow at the Bills if they randomly started wearing grey pants without having that color in their color scheme. Their grey facemasks are no different.

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As I mentioned in the thread "uniform rules you would add or enforce", I say that all facemasks should be grey.  The facemask should be considered standard gear, not part of the uniform. If no team had ever broken the practice of grey facemasks, then we wouldn't even notice that bit of equipment when evaluating team uniforms.

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I love this discussion... every time it reappears. It's a classic!  And it allows me to repost (3rd time?  4th?) my personal "rules" for when its acceptable for a football team to wear a gray facemask;

 

 

1. Using a gray mask on the helmet is acceptable when the team has gray or silver as one of their main colors. 

 

2. Using a gray mask on the helmet is acceptable when the team is recreating a uniform from the past which used a gray mask.

 

3. Using a gray mask on the helmet is acceptable when the team is attempting to create a new look that is more classic, "hard-nosed" or basic/tougher.

 

 4. Using a gray mask on the helmet is acceptable when the team plays football.

 

 

Other than that, forget it.

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59 minutes ago, Lights Out said:

The excuse that it's a "neutral" color doesn't really make sense. Facemasks in a color that isn't used anywhere else in the team's branding are the opposite of neutral - they stick out like a sore thumb. Functionally, the Niners' grey facemasks are no different than if they decided to have purple or green or blue facemasks instead.

 

I don't believe in the "it's neutral" argument, when there's no need for neutrality.  They're "traditional", which is why IMO they can work when used in completely traditional uniforms.  My problem with the 49ers using them is that they kept their 'modern' logo with the silly black oval, but then reverted to the traditional facemask.  If they were bent on going backwards, why not go all the way?

 

11 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

As I mentioned in the thread "uniform rules you would add or enforce", I say that all facemasks should be grey.  The facemask should be considered standard gear, not part of the uniform. If no team had ever broken the practice of grey facemasks, then we wouldn't even notice that bit of equipment when evaluating team uniforms.

 

The "if no team had" argument isn't valid, because you could apply it to literally everything that you want to argue about.  "If no team had" painted their helmets, we wouldn't be talking about this. If no team had strayed from brown-leather, we wouldn't be talking about this.  If no goalie had switched from the 'Cooper cage', we wouldn't be talking about this.  

 

The helmet is a logo.  It's one of (and for much of history, the primary) the most identifying marks of a team.  Why on earth would anyone want to mandate that a part of a team's official logo be a color that may or may not work with their brand?

 

If you want to argue that gloves are equipment, then fine.  Wristbands?  Sure.  I think those should be color-regulated as well, but don't feel too strongly there.

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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6 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

I don’t think of the masks as “equipment”, mainly because the helmets are also official logos, so color is intentionally thought out and cannot (except in recent seasons) be changed in a whim. They’re not afterthoughts. 

 

5 hours ago, Lights Out said:

Grey facemasks will never look good on any team that doesn't have grey/silver in their color scheme. 

 

The excuse that it's a "neutral" color doesn't really make sense. Facemasks in a color that isn't used anywhere else in the team's branding are the opposite of neutral - they stick out like a sore thumb.

Ultimately you're both...sort of?...right in so far as these rules we're all making up are just that- made up rules to justify our own positions. Why do I like grey facemasks? I just think they look cool. Grey compliments pretty much any colour scheme and I think that, paired with its association with old fashioned football, makes it a handsome option for any team. It's just preference at the end of the day.

 

To Lights Out's argument that a facemaks needs to match the colour scheme, allow me to offer these counterexamples.

The Chicago Blackhawks and Arizona Cardinals. The Blackhawks and Cardinals both feature logos that are prominently featured on their teams' uniforms that include colours not found anywhere else on the uniform. The Blachawks use a shade of skin tone, athletic gold, green, blue, and orange on a logo for a team that's otherwise red, white, and black. The Cardinals aren't as noticeable, only using athletic gold in the logo compared to the rest of the team's red, white, and black, but it's still there. And make no mistake. These extra colours truly aren't seen anywhere else in team branding. Both teams are, for all intents and purposes, red, white, and black teams.

 

So if a red, white, and black team can use skin tone, gold, green, blue and orange in their primary logo that's at the front and centre of marketing and merchandise than I see no reason why the red, white, and gold San Francisco 49ers can't use a grey facemask.

 

That's why I said you were "sort of?" right. In so much as my own justifications for advocating for grey facemasks (neutral colour, equipment not uniform) are subjective judgments meant to justify my own subjective preferences.

My point here, by using the Blackhawksd and Cardinals as counter-examples to anti-grey facemask arguments, is to show that the rules or justifications against using grey facemasks are just as subjective, meant to try and prop up preferences that are themselves subjective.

 

And there's nothing wrong with any of that, but maybe we as a community can finally just come to an understanding where we say "I like grey facemaks because I like them" or "I dislike grey facemaks because I dislike them" and leave it that that. Anything beyond that is just propping up subjective "rules" or proclamations on how things "should" be that are, otherwise, full of exceptions.

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8 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

I love this discussion... every time it reappears. It's a classic!  And it allows me to repost (3rd time?  4th?) my personal "rules" for when its acceptable for a football team to wear a gray facemask;

 

 

1. Using a gray mask on the helmet is acceptable when the team has gray or silver as one of their main colors. 

 

2. Using a gray mask on the helmet is acceptable when the team is recreating a uniform from the past which used a gray mask.

 

3. Using a gray mask on the helmet is acceptable when the team is attempting to create a new look that is more classic, "hard-nosed" or basic/tougher.

 

 4. Using a gray mask on the helmet is acceptable when the team plays football.

 

 

Other than that, forget it.

so the jags with their modern looking helmet and logo can have gray face masks?

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23 hours ago, Echo said:

 

The Bills wore blue facemasks in the late 70's and early 80's.  I though they looked better than the current gray masks or the white they wore today.

 

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They need to use blue masks with their current helmets, IMO.


And yes, that's Darryl Talley in his rookie season, the only one he played for when the Bills had white helmets; they switched to red the next year in 1984.

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2 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

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yeah these are all clear downgrades. it completely throws off the color scheme of the helmets. The jets are the worst offender. not to mention gray is an ugly color. Sorry but i don’t see how this is an upgrade. Color looks so much better and fits the rhyme for better. Gray just breaks everything up and sucks the color out of the helmets themselves 

Why is breaking the color rhyme is fine? 

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50 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

In fact, grey fades into the background, and lets the team colours on the helmet take over.

imo it doesn’t. It sticks out like a sore thumb. If you want it to fade use white or black or even clear

If the NFL originally used white face masks would you be saying the same thing for gray?

The problem with gray is that gray is not a common color. If you want it to ‘fade’ into the background use the same color as the helmet

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3 hours ago, Reyes47 said:

yeah these are all clear downgrades. it completely throws off the color scheme of the helmets. The jets are the worst offender. not to mention gray is an ugly color. Sorry but i don’t see how this is an upgrade. Color looks so much better and fits the rhyme for better. Gray just breaks everything up and sucks the color out of the helmets themselves 

Why is breaking the color rhyme is fine? 

What's a color rhyme?

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7 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

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4 hours ago, Reyes47 said:

yeah these are all clear downgrades. it completely throws off the color scheme of the helmets. 

 

To each their own, I guess.

 

IMO the Bears, Browns, Eagles, Jets, Chiefs, Steelers, Rams, Seahawks, Vikings, Redskins, and Falcons all look great, and none of them really look bad. Also, I'd much rather see a team using the unobtrusive gray then a color from their scheme that throws off the color balance. The Patriots red and Washington's yellow stand out (in a bad way) much more than a quiet neutral gray would.

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8 minutes ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 

 

To each their own, I guess.

 

IMO the Bears, Browns, Eagles, Jets, Chiefs, Steelers, Rams, Seahawks, Vikings, Redskins, and Falcons all look great, and none of them really look bad. Also, I'd much rather see a team using the unobtrusive gray then a color from their scheme that throws off the color balance. The Patriots red and Washington's yellow stand out (in a bad way) much more than a quiet neutral gray would.

The patriots and redskins face masks keep the color balance. Gray ruins it and is obtrusive. All of what you said looks worse than the colored face mask. Gray isn’t part of the redskins color scheme yellow is why include ugly gray? The yellow face mask matches the stripe gray throws it off

 

If colored face masks were always the norm would you be advocating for gray face masks? Is there a team you think looks better without a gray face mask? What about college? Should Oregon use a gray face mask?

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