NFL Changes 2021

[Gothamite]

47 minutes ago, WSU151 said:

Is it though? That whole argument is essentially slippery-slope stuff that may or may not happen. 

 

The easy counter is "Ok you can have one alternate helmet and one throwback helmet. If you don't have a throwback jersey, then you're limited to one alternate helmet." 

 

We've seen in every league that just because teams wear throwbacks doesn't mean that every other team gets another alternate. . 

 

And the easy counter to that is the NFL's failure to enforce its own uniform rules on the field.  The only place they enforce rules is on the design board; once an element gets to the style guide all bets are off.

 

There is absolutely no reason to believe that the NFL would be able to hold the line once they allowed another uniform variant to be in play. 

[Gothamite]

9 minutes ago, dont care said:

But the slippery slope is exactly what we have gotten, the NFL keeps changing rules to increase profits and make teams happy. It use to be 1 alternate or one throwback uniform, you could only wear them 3 times during the season and couldn’t wear them after a certain week (I forget it’s been awhile) now each team can have an alt, throwback, and color rush uniform all at the same time, and wear each of them up to 4 times if they want. I’m surprised a team like the Jaguars hasn’t done this yet and literally not wear a single jersey more than 4 times in a year. The same thing will happen with helmets because we have seen it happen with jerseys.

 

Exactly.

 

The old one-helmet rule was about preserving the aesthetic integrity of the league.  But we've seen that the NFL doesn't really care about that any more.

 

The new one-helmet rule is about pretending that the NFL takes CTE seriously.  We know that they don't care much about that either, but they feel compelled to at least pretend.

 

If the new one-helmet rule is rescinded, the old one will be too.

[SFGiants58]

Color Rush would’ve been so much worse without the one-helmet rule.

[Sec19Row53]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:32 AM, MCM0313 said:

I know. But the Browns were a major power in the ‘50s and I’ve read that something about their look appealed to Lombardi - specifically the color balance. He decided the helmet should be the team’s secondary color because of them. And then he extended that idea to the pants. He had an opinion on what a winner should look like. 

I have never read that, or heard that, before this thread. I think Dave Maraniss would have addressed it in his book (When Pride Still Mattered) had it been a thing.

[Sec19Row53]

On 1/31/2021 at 12:47 AM, colortv said:

 

I would add:

 

Pittsburgh

LA Rams(Blue/Yellow)

Raiders

Browns/Bengals

Philadelphia

Washington

New Orleans

 

 

 

Isn't the fact that you had to id the Rams colors the antithesis of what this stated, that the colors were the teams' ID?

[Indigo]

On 1/31/2021 at 1:53 AM, debo0775 said:

Pittsburgh and LV is a miss on my part. I guess NO, too.

 

LAR - No. Recent color swap and similarity to Chargers over the past 2 decades.

Bengals - maybe.

Browns - nope. Their colors and name are in conflict. Casual fans wouldn’t ID them.

Philly - good point - take NYJ off of my list.

Washington - too similar to KC and AZ

 

The call out on the Browns - “casual fans wouldn’t ID them” - is the barometer I think. The helmet is definitive. The colors are not in the case of most (which is probably an argument for crappy color chimes, but that’s another argument...)

 

Your telling me a casual fan wouldn’t identify the Browns, who have one of the most iconic helmets in football, and literally wear their name as their primary color???

[BBTV]

Those socks look better and better every time they're posted.

[debo0775]

4 minutes ago, LA Fakers+ LA Snippers said:

A) Your telling me a casual fan wouldn’t identify the Browns, who have one of the most iconic helmets in football, and literally wear their name as their primary color???

Without seeing a helmet, I’d wager that <50% of fans would ID the Browns.

 

With a helmet? 90+%
 

Which is precisely the argument for one helmet.

[Indigo]

Fun fact: the Browns did not wear their brown jerseys in 2011(excluding preseason), going WAH all season

http://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=teams-season&team_id=CLE&year=2011

[MCM0313]

1 hour ago, LA Fakers+ LA Snippers said:

Fun fact: the Browns did not wear their brown jerseys in 2011(excluding preseason), going WAH all season

http://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=teams-season&team_id=CLE&year=2011

Same for 1993 Rams. 

[AgentColon2]

Sure glad the Rams didn’t wear Cleveland’s brown jersey. That would have looked silly.

[ManillaToad]

1 hour ago, LA Fakers+ LA Snippers said:

Fun fact: the Browns did not wear their brown jerseys in 2011(excluding preseason), going WAH all season

http://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=teams-season&team_id=CLE&year=2011

 

Watching a team wear white-on-white every week en route to finishing 4-12 sounds mind-numbingly boring

[DCarp1231]

7 hours ago, ManillaToad said:

 

Watching a team wear white-on-white every week en route to finishing 4-12 sounds mind-numbingly boring

Same with a certain Texas team doing it every year just to constantly hover around 8-8 

[Gothamite]

On 1/30/2021 at 11:32 AM, MCM0313 said:

I know. But the Browns were a major power in the ‘50s and I’ve read that something about their look appealed to Lombardi - specifically the color balance. He decided the helmet should be the team’s secondary color because of them. And then he extended that idea to the pants. He had an opinion on what a winner should look like. 

 

15 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

I have never read that, or heard that, before this thread. I think Dave Maraniss would have addressed it in his book (When Pride Still Mattered) had it been a thing.

Agreed.

 

Set aside the fact that Lombardi himself was color-blind and consequently notoriously disinterested in color schemes (he changed the shade of Washington’s jerseys because his chosen manufacturer didn’t have the right one).  But Lombardi didn’t introduce the gold helmet.  The Packers had been matching gold pants to gold helmets for a quarter-century before they hired Vince away from the Giants. 

[jws008]

2 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

Agreed.

 

Set aside the fact that Lombardi himself was color-blind and consequently notoriously disinterested in color schemes (he changed the shade of Washington’s jerseys because his chosen manufacturer didn’t have the right one).  But Lombardi didn’t introduce the gold helmet.  The Packers had been matching gold pants to gold helmets for a quarter-century before they hired Vince away from the Giants. 

Particularly in Lombardi's era, (late 1950s thru the early 1970s), I am sure that a lot of uniform color decisions came down to "this is what the manufacturer can provide". I also think that this is something that tends to be forgotten considering what can be done today. In fact, when a manufacturer has trouble producing a proper color (Hello, Eagles); it becomes a "failure" by that manufacturer.

[burgundy]

2 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

Agreed.

 

Set aside the fact that Lombardi himself was color-blind and consequently notoriously disinterested in color schemes (he changed the shade of Washington’s jerseys because his chosen manufacturer didn’t have the right one).  But Lombardi didn’t introduce the gold helmet.  The Packers had been matching gold pants to gold helmets for a quarter-century before they hired Vince away from the Giants. 

 

Although he did introduce the gold helmet to Washington, along with the Packers' uniform template. Unfortunately, he never saw the gold helmets take the field. Even though he was colorblind, he must have appreciated the balance of light/dark/light to some extent.

 

[Gothamite]

2 minutes ago, burgundy said:

Although he did introduce the gold helmet to Washington, along with the Packers' uniform template. Unfortunately, he never saw the gold helmets take the field. Even though he was colorblind, he must have appreciated the balance of light/dark/light to some extent.

 

I've never heard any assertions that was because Vince liked the hues or the combination thereof; rather, he wanted to emulate the Packers' uniform as part of changing Washington's club culture to emulate Green Bay's.  Look like winners, act like winners, play like winners.

 

 

 

[burgundy]

28 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

I've never heard any assertions that was because Vince liked the hues or the combination thereof; rather, he wanted to emulate the Packers' uniform as part of changing Washington's club culture to emulate Green Bay's.  Look like winners, act like winners, play like winners.

 

 

Well that would make more sense.

 

 

[Gothamite]

2 hours ago, jws008 said:

Particularly in Lombardi's era, (late 1950s thru the early 1970s), I am sure that a lot of uniform color decisions came down to "this is what the manufacturer can provide". I also think that this is something that tends to be forgotten considering what can be done today. In fact, when a manufacturer has trouble producing a proper color (Hello, Eagles); it becomes a "failure" by that manufacturer.

 

Absolutely.  

 

The Packers used to change number fonts every year or two, as they switched manufacturers.  Which means any time a uniform design lasted for more than a couple seasons, it was not at all uncommon to see two different number fonts on the field at the same time.  Check out those 4s:

 

 

And these 4s:

  

 

Boy, manufacturers really got creative with their 4s.

 

In the case of Lombardi and Washington, he accepted a much lighter version of the burgandy because it was the closest thing the manufacturer offered, and Lombardi wanted to support his brother's company.

[LogoFan]

While it remains to be revealed what we will see yet in 2021, this is my list of things I DON'T want to see:

• gradients
• piping
• gradients
• chrome
• gradients
• unitards
• gradients
• solid socks that match the pants, regardless of jersey
• gradients
• eyesore numbers like the current Falcons, Titans or digital Bucs
• gradients