The Lost History of the NFL: A Throwback Concept Series

[MDGP]

Today we reach the end of the second cycle, meaning there's just one matchup left for each team!

 

 

Bills: The Bills jersey takes inspiration from the original Buffalo Bills of the AAFC (technically they were the Bisons at the time, but switched to Bills the next season). They have nothing to do with the current day Buffalo Bills (think the Ottawa Senators) but that doesn't stop teams in other sports from honoring the history of earlier teams. This jersey is a near 1-to-1 creation of the original, featuring the same thin silver sleeve stripes, blue butt stripes on the pants, and blue horn on the helmet. However, the horn shape has been altered to more closely match the actual shape of buffalo (the animal) horns and the blue is lightened from a dark navy blue to the Bills' royal blue.

 

Patriots: Having grown up a Patriots fan, there was always one design element I absolutely loved on the team's 90s jersey, the red and blue double stripe on the pants. I would go as far to say that was the jersey element (either that or Ohio State's helmet stickers) that really got me interested in jersey design to begin with. Here I decided to combine what I'd consider the three eras into one jersey. The 90s double stripe is the overall focal point used on the sleeves, socks, and pants. The color scheme removes the silver from the 90s-current scheme but utilizes navy blue in place of the pre-2000s royal blue color. The numbers are red similar to the road jerseys on the team's various pre-2000 sets. Finally, I chose to return to a white helmet, harkening back to the team's all white looks worn for a majority of the red era.

 

 

Jets: The Jets design is a more simplified, traditional take on the Jet's previous contrail stripe idea. The green jersey features two white shoulder loops as a reference to these motion trails, while also taking inspiration from the team's original UCLA stripes and the extra shoulder loop of the Namath/2000s era jerseys. Overall, 1950s designs were extremely simple, so I paired the jersey with white pants with a single green stripe and plain green socks. The helmet combines the eagles and rams helmet designs with the Washington helmet spear introduced in the 1960s. Each side of the helmet depicts a stylized jet, similar to the Jets' 1980s/90s and now current logos. These jets meet in the front of the helmet similar to the Rams' design. In order to show the motion of the jets, the wraparound design returns, this time with a single white stripe connecting the jet wings.

 

Dolphins: Originally this design was going to be inspired by the Miami Seahawks, but that team wore extremely boring jerseys and were in general a complete failure, relocating to Baltimaore after just one season in the AAFC. Instead I decided to ask what it would look like if Miami wore their current colors during the 1940s. The jerseys are fairly simple, with two aqua stripes on the sleeves and aqua numbers on a white jersey, orange pants with a single aqua stripe, and aqua socks with two orange stripes. Ultimately if this jersey were green and yellow, nobody would've batted an eyelash at a team wearing this. The helmet on the other hand takes a bit of a swerve from the simple design. This helmet answers the question "What if the Dolphins' unused 1990s prototype helmet were designed in the 1940?" that nobody asked. The design featured a common horizontal split from the era, with aqua on the bottom and orange on top. The top however also features two aqua sections in the shape of dorsal fins in order to mimic a dolphin emerging from just below the surface of the water.

[tsizer]

Great series! I really like how you put different shapes and stripes behind the numbers. I've always thought that it was a cool and simple way to make jerseys different.

[Section30]

Love that helmet design for Miami!

[MDGP]

We're back for the final round of concepts with the NFC North!

 

 

Bears: Arguably the most famous alternate uniform in Bears history is the white 1936 jersey with the alternating shoulder stripes. However, that season they also wore an orange jersey in several games. These jerseys feature an orange jersey with three navy blue sleeve stripes and navy blue numbers outlined in white (similar to pretty much every bears alternate orange jersey). The helmet features the same three stripe look as the white jersey as well as the same navy blue pants and orange/navy striped socks. Four time NFL champion and hall of famer George Musso models this jersey.

 

Lions: The Lions have famously worn their plain blue and silver jerseys throughout the years, most notably on Thanksgiving day. More recently, the Lions have also had a penchant for wearing all silver jerseys. I decided to combine the two together by using their all silver jerseys from the 1944 season. Much like the other throwback, the design is extremely plain, the only real elements are the blue numbers and socks. College and Pro Football hall of famer Alex Wojciechowicz models this one.

 

 

Packers: The Green Bay Packers have one of the truly classic looks in NFL history. That history is however relatively new, especially compared to their counterparts of the same eras. The team didn't make green their full time primary color until the 1950s (They'd worn it off an on alongside navy blue). Even when they did make the switch, they apparently didn't know whether they wanted to be a green and yellow team or a green and gold team, so they just wore all three colors! Between 1951 and 1953, the Packers wore these jerseys, green shirts with yellow numbers and two yellow stripes on the sleeves. The socks match this design while the helmet and pants are both old gold with a single green stripe. Luckily it would only be 6 short years before the team found the look they'd settle on (with some alterations) for the rest of their existence. Anyway let's give a big round of applause to the luscious Bobby Dylan, the model for this jersey.

 

Vikings: I wanted to give the Vikings a classic jersey inspired by their 90s UCLA striped road jerseys. It was not uncommon during the 40s and 50s for a team to wear plain home jerseys and striped road jerseys, which itself was the principle followed by the Vikings during that time. Since I focused on purple the last time I wanted to focus on yellow this time. The jersey features purple-white-purple UCLA stripes on a white jersey. The numbers take inspiration from the 49ers throwback uniforms with a purple outline and drop shadow surrounding yellow numbers. The pants keep the same stripe pattern as the jersey, which appears as a purple double stripe due to the yellow pants. The helmet features the same design as the previous Vikings concept, but with the yellow and purple reversed. Finally, the socks are primarily purple with a yellow double stripe.

[MDGP]

 

Colts: The Colts sport the jerseys of the Baltimore Colts, but not the Baltimore Colts that became the Indianapolis Colts, the Baltimore Colts that existed before the Baltimore Colts joined the NFL. Basically, this is similar to what I did with the Buffalo Bills. The jersey is a very standard look of the 1940s and 50s, a green jersey with white numbers and northwestern stripes with matching socks. The helmet is silver with a single green stripe while the pants are plain silver. This jersey is modeled by our old friend Y.A. Tittle, who got his start in the AAFC before moving to the NFL with the Colts in their only NFL season in 1950.

 

Jaguars: The Jaguars feature a similar jersey design as the Colts, a white jersey with blue northwestern stripes, between those blue stripes are yellow stripes. This striping pattern is matched on the socks. The helmet maintains an old-school style front wing inspired by a jaguars ears flaring back. This was a look no longer used at the pro level, but as any college football fan knows, winged designs stuck around considerably longer (see, to this day) than in the NFL. The color scheme is inspired by Michigan and Delaware with yellow wings on a blue helmet. Finally, the jersey is paired with plain yellow pants.

 

 

Texans: Houston obviously had a team during the late 1960s, and in my original plans for this series, the Texans would have relocated from somewhere else. However, I decided to just pretend like the Texans had always existed as an early AFL expansion team. First, the jersey maintains the team's traditional navy blue and features red and white cuff stripes inspired by the flag of Texas, which is matched on the socks. The helmet features a white interlocking HT logo with a single red star between the vertical bars of the H. The T's horizontal bar is curved up and tapered to mimic the horns of a bull. You may note that this logo does not include a stroke while the jersey numbers have a red outline. This is directly influenced by the Chicago Bears, who had a plain white logo without an outline for years before finally changing their logo to their current orange C. Finally, the pants are with with a red-blue-red triple stripe similar to the pants design multiple teams in the era.

 

Titans: Congratulations, fans of Houston! The Oilers are back for the first time since 1996! Bad news, they're the away team and wearing the worst jerseys in franchise history. I don't care what anyone says, these jerseys suck. The shirt features a Steelers style stripe design on the sleeves that are primarily red with smaller light blue stripes and light blue numbers with a red outline. The helmet is silver with a royal blue logo and red-royal-red helmet stripe that doesn't match any of the rest of the jersey. The pants also are silver, but the pants stripe is red-light blue-red.

[Bomba Tomba]

That Houston Texans logo reminds me a bit of one of the early logos for Hybrid Theory

 

[MDGP]

 

Cowboys: The Dallas Cowboys are known for having two specific jersey eras, the original shoulder yoke with a star design, and the blue and silver jerseys they've worn (with some variations) since 1964. I wanted to create a hybridization of the two styles for this concept. The jersey is the classic home white with blue numbers and a blue shoulder yoke. No silver is found anywhere on the jersey, a staple of the cowboys' look. The helmet and pants flip the script removing all white, replaced with a silver base with blue double stripes. The helmet also features a simplified version of the logo, removing all outlines and just leaving the blue star. Finally, the socks are solid blue.

 

Commanders: Washington's a bit of a tough team to find concept for. They don't really have the same volatility of designs that other teams had in the era, mostly sticking to extremely simple designs with almost no ornamentation. The times they did have ornamentation, it was usually a native american head, which as I've noted multiple times, I'm not touching. This left me with 1 and a half real options for a concept that hadn't been worn in real life. I didn't want to go with another mashup so I went with the 1956 jerseys. While UCLA stripes and their single stripe variants were a staple on Washington's white jerseys, the maroon versions only featured such stripes during the 1955-56 seasons. Both jerseys featured gold-white-gold UCLA stripes, plain gold pants, and plain maroon socks. However, the 1955 jersey featured a maroon helmet while the 1956 jersey featured a plain gold helmet. Ultimately I picked 1956 simply because I liked the look slightly better. The jersey is modeled by Hall of Famer Dick Stanfel, a first team all pro in each of his three seasons with the team.

 

 

Eagles: I've previously noted that several of the concepts were inspired by the Eagles jersey above. Starting in 1941, this jersey was worn in some capacity for a decade, including during the famous Phil-Pitt Steagles season during World War 2. Interestingly enough, the jerseys were originally black, but the team quickly reverted back to its traditional jersey before the 1941 season ended. The shirt design features both a white shoulder yoke and a white side panel, along with white numbers. The helmet features a painted design, with green on the sides and silver on top, a sort of predecessor to the team's iconic wings. The pants are plain silver and the socks are green with a white double stripe that would become the base for the team's entire look. Hall of Fame halfback Steve Van Buren models this design.

 

Giants: The Giants also follow the theme of being the inspiration for another one of my concepts. This jersey was worn during only during the 1936 season and is a bit out of its era in both directions. The white jersey features a red shoulder yoke with blue side panels, collar, and numbers. The helmet is white with a pretty bizarre helmet design. The front features a red panel that looks more like a blob than anything that extends down around the bottom ridge of the helmet. The pants are red with white-blue-white butt stripes. Finally the socks mismatch everything with a blue-red-blue adidas style stripe. College and Pro Hall of Famer Mel Hein models this jersey.

[MDGP]

 

Broncos: Denver's original jerseys were famously brown and yellow, though the overall execution was generally underwhelming (if you ignore the ugly vertical striped socks). I personally think that the scheme is one of the best out there when done right, so I wanted to bring it back. This jersey is actually inspired by the team's original logo, a football player riding a bronco. The jersey is brown with yellow numbers and sleeve stripes. While the logo's pants feature off white chaps, I decided to give the team yellow pants with a brown stripe to match the helmet. Finally, the team's socks match the jersey with two yellow stripes on a brown background.

 

Raiders: At this point the Raiders might be most famous for their repeated relocations, being one of two teams to relocate three separate times and play in three separate cities: Oakland, LA, and Las Vegas. The team has also worn three different colors in their history: Black, Silver, and Yellow. I wanted to make a design that acknowledged this history of threes. The white jersey features an adidas style stripe on the sleeves with black on top, gold in the middle (replacing yellow to represent Vegas), and Silver on the bottom with solid black numbers. The pants are the traditional silver with a separated double stripe, black on the front and gold in the back. The socks also feature a double stripe, but with a black background and gold and silver stripes. Finally, the helmet is plain silver, matching popular early 50s helmet designs.

 

 

Chargers: The Chargers takes its cue from 1920s jerseys and takes on a blue and yellow Eagles' vibe. The jersey is light blue with a yellow shoulder yoke and yellow numbers. The helmet design features a traditional spoke leather design with two light blue and two yellow spokes that cross at the top of the helmet. The pants are white and feature blue-yellow-blue butt stripes, and the socks feature a series of alternating white, yellow, and blue stripes.

 

Chiefs: Kansas City is famous for its extremely traditional design, and I wanted to give them a design that would look extremely traditional during the 1930s. The jersey features a red-yellow-red adidas style stripe on a white jersey with red numbers with yellow outlines. The helmet is red with a yellow three stripe design inspired by the Bears' helmets of the same time period. The red socks match the helmet with yellow adidas style stripes. Finally, the team sports plain yellow pants, as many teams who wear white pants today were still wearing bright colored pants during that time period.

[Bomba Tomba]

I didn't know UPS had a football team /s

 

Seriously tho, that looks better than what actually got used

[MDGP]

 

Falcons: While my favorite Falcons jersey ever is the 2016-2021 fauxback, I've also always loved the Falcons' Black over Red over white look and wanted to create a design in that vein. Amazingly, I haven't used what I consider the quintessential NFL stripe design, the 5 alternating stripe look made famous by the browns and packers. I used that design here with three black stripes and two white stripes on the both the sleeves and the socks. The white pants feature a thin black-red-black triple stripe and the black helmet uses the same design which appears as a single red stripe that

 

Panthers: Ideally, had the Panthers existed since the 1960s, they'd have still been wearing their iconic UCLA stripes. That, however, felt like a bit of a cop out, so I went with a different design that I think looks distinctly like the Panthers. The sleeves and the socks utilize the rare multicolored triple stripe (a design that was ironically much more common in previous eras, something about the 60s I guess) with black thin stripes and a panthers blue thick stripe. I know it's pretty popular lately to hate the Panthers' silver pants and helmet, but I am still a proponent of the look, and it fits perfectly in a 1960s design.

 

 

Saints: The Bucs previously had a city inspired jersey, and this time around it's the Saints. Those from the area and vexillology nerds will identify this jersey immediately as inspired by the New Orleans flag. The jersey is primarily blue with gold numbers, representing the bottom blue stripe and gold fleur-de-lis respectively. The shoulder yokes and bottom half of the helmet are white and the half of the helmet is red, representing the top red stripe. Going with a 20s design also lets me highlight that time is a flat circle, as the 20s of any century appear to be the time of the monochrome jersey.

 

Bucs: For the Bucs I wanted to make the jersey a showcase of color. During the 1920s it was pretty rare for a team to wear two colors AND white. Generally if a team had white in their scheme it was a primary color and white (and then brown pants). Of course, I had to go with orange for this, and I went all out. The jersey is white with orange shoulder yokes, numbers, and socks. The helmet also takes on a half and half design with orange on the bottom and white on the top. However, the helmet also features a classic spoke design with orange spokes on the aforementioned white background. As far as I'm aware, nobody wore orange pants at the time. However, did you know that brown is not actually on the color spectrum, and is merely orange with less light reflecting off it? That along with the early use of other colored pants (red and blue both made appearances) at the time, I was more than happy to go with orange pants with a white butt stripe.

[MDGP]

Alright we're back with our 3rd to last set, the NFC North.

 

 

Ravens: If it wasn't already clear, I vastly prefer the Ravens in purple. However, I do like trying to figure out ways to incorporate black and purple together similar to its iridescent plumage. Here I tried to achieve this look by utilizing black sleeves on a purple jersey. However, things felt a bit too dark/somewhat lacking, an issue that appears regularly on jerseys with two dark colors. To fix this I also incorporated white Colts style shoulder stripes to create a design that evokes the Colts, the Namath/2000s Jets, and Southern Mississippi's 1970s jerseys. All in all, the elements combined wouldn't have been seen on an NFL field, but each were used separately. The socks also feature a striping variation based on the jersey, with two white stripes above a single black stripe on a purple base. The helmet takes obvious inspiration from the Philadelphia Eagles, with a simplified version of ravens wings in purple on a black helmet. These wings are purposely designed to blend, as I noted above. Finally, the pants keep things simple, purple double stripes on white pants.

 

Bengals: If you followed my College Hockey redesign series, you'll know that I mentioned in my Princeton concept that I'm a sucker for a specific style of design for tiger based teams. A similar design is used here (The Princeton design is actually based on this one even though it was posted first), with a black and orange alternating striped shoulder yoke on a white jersey with black numbers and a contrasting orange name on back. The helmet uses the traditional winged helmet look in Princeton's black and orange configuration. Meanwhile, the 40s really was the emergence of the white pants with a thin triple stripe. While it quickly gave way to the thick stripe of the modern day, I've always felt it was a classy design that I wouldn't mind seeing again. Here the Bengals sport a black-orange-black version of the thin stripe on white pants. Finally, the socks take a similar approach to the helmet, with three orange stripes on a black base.

 

 

Browns: Looking at this jersey, you might find it familiar, but can't put your finger on why. That's because I went the Oregon Ducks route and based this jersey directly on the team's classic Brownie the Elf logo. The jersey is orange with white numbers with a brown outline, mimicking his orange tunic and white belt buckle, while the sleeves are white with brown stripes, based on his striped undershirt. The pants are plain brown and plain orange respectively inspired by Brownie's plain brown pants and plain orange boots. And finally the helmet depicts brownie's pointed cap by incorporating a design based on teams like the Eagles of the 1930s. While those designs reached the back of the helmet, leaving the second color around the ears only, this design comes to a point at the back, leaving brownie's hair visible at the back as well as the sides.

 

Steelers: These days Pittsburgh is known for their uber-traditional jerseys, but it took them nearly 40s years to finally hit that sweet spot. And especially during the early days, they wore some pretty weird designs. This design is a fictional white version of the team's 1936 look. Originally I wanted to use their similar 1935 look, which featured a yellow jersey, but I felt that was too close to orange for comfort. Otherwise the Steelers only wore black during the era and having them wear black would violate the only rule I didn't choose to selectively ignore at some point during this thread. The rest of the jersey is historically accurate featuring black sleeves with yellow northwestern stripes, matching socks (to which they added an extra yellow stripe for some reason), and plain yellow pants. The helmet is the real star of the show, and is pretty bizarre even for the era. The yellow helmet not only features a black wing design, but also a black ear hole design. Other teams had worn one of those elements on their helmet, but never both. The Steelers seemed to get the memo pretty quickly and dropped the helmet within two years, going for a more traditional spoked design for a season before again changing to a plain yellow helmet.

 

As a little side note, I really was tempted to use the Eagles design above for this to commemorate the Phil-Pitt Steagles, but felt that would be a bit of a rip-off. Anyways, that leaves us with just two more divisions before this series concludes!

[MDGP]

Alright, today is our penultimate division.

 

 

Cardinals: The Cardinals' 1936 jersey was their final design before landing on their iconic plain red jersey with white helmet and pants look. It features a red jersey and socks with white northwestern stripes, silver pants with red butt stripes, and a red helmet with a faux leather white-spoke design. The jersey is modeled by one time all-pro Harry Field.

 

Rams: The Rams pay homage to their original home with these jerseys from their final seasons in Cleveland. The 1944-45 Cleveland Rams primarily wore blue jerseys, but it was the alternate yellow jersey the team wore during its first NFL Championship win. This jersey included blue shoulder yokes and extremely thick blue numbers, a yellow helmet with a yellow wing design, white pants with a thin yellow-blue-yellow triple stripe, and yellow socks with blue adidas style stripes. Five time All-Pro Riley Matheson models this jersey.

 

 

Seahawks: Seattle's 1980s look is iconic, and I've always liked the idea of giving them a sort of classic version of the look. Here, the double stripe makes its return without the hawk head. On the blue jersey and socks, the stripes are green and silver with a thin blue space between them. On the helmet, the blue and green stripe wraps around the entire helmet. The pants are the only element that does not feature the striping pattern, and are plain silver.

 

49ers: Despite being named after the 1849 gold rush, the San Francisco 49ers didn't actually settle on gold until 1964, the team having opted for silver in all but 3 seasons prior. Here, the Niners sport an early version of their final design prior to the gold switch. This is the late 1950s version that did not feature the team's oval SF logo. Here, the white jersey featured red Colts-style shoulder stripes and red numbers. The silver helmet features a red northwestern stripes, and the red socks feature white adidas style stripes. The pants are plain silver. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Leo Nomellini models this jersey as the final real player in this series.

[MDGP]

And so, this 12-year saga comes to a close. It may not have been my original idea, but 96 designs ended up being considerably more feasible than the upwards of 1000 designs it would've originally required. Thanks to everyone for the comments and the likes along the way.

 

And with that, we finish it off with the AFC East.

 

 

Bills: The Bills return to a more traditional look for this concept. The blue jersey features a white-red-white northwestern stripe with matching socks. The white helmet includes a feature inspired by the Bills current tapered helmet stripe with an historical twist. Prior to the existence of the Cowboys, the NFL moved to Dallas for the first time, relocating the New York Yanks (previously the New York Bulldogs, the Boston Yanks, and tracing its lineage through the Brooklyn Dodgers all the way back to the Dayton Triangles) to Dallas, becoming the Dallas Texans. It was an immediate failure. The team went 1-11, bankrupt, and folded. The assets were sold to Carroll Rosenbloom, creating the new Baltimore Colts. Why the long story? Well, that Dallas Texans team sported a helmet design not worn before or since. A sort of triple stripe with a thin stripe between two tapered stripes. I've incorporated that design here, with two tapered red stripes surrounding a thin blue stripe.

 

Jets: The Jets finally get a uniform that is actually historically accurate! Here, the Jets revert to their original Titans colors, blue and old gold. The design imagines an older version of the team's UCLA stripe design, with a gold-blue-gold pattern on the sleeves. Like many designs of the era, the helmet and pants sport the same colors, but different stripes. The helmet uses a single stripe, while the pants utilize a double stripe, similar to the Colts' striping patters. Finally, the navy blue socks contain a triple stripe matching the UCLA stripes. As an aside, I would love to see Navy wear something like this.

 

 

Patriots: The team that started it all also closes things out. The first alternate I did back in 2012 was a Patriots version of the Steelers throwbacks. And while I didn't go with that design again, I did bring back the most important element, the tricorn helmet wing. That design has been altered a bit over the years, taking cues from other members who improved on my original version. The navy blue jersey takes inspiration from the Bears 1936 jersey with multicolored shoulder stripes. Here however, the stripes do not alternate, and instead consist of 3 red stripes next to 3 white stripes. These are a reference to easily the most influential design element on me, the 90s Patriots pants stripe. I chose 6 stripes on each sleeve and sock to represent the Patriots 6 super bowls titles.

 

Dolphins: Prior to the Dolphins, Miami made its foray into professional sports for the first time in the form of the AAFC's Miami Seahawks. It did not go well, and the Seahawks folded after just one season. I wanted to honor Florida's first pro sports team with a design using their (and more famously the Miami Hurricanes') orange and green color scheme. This 1920s inspired design uses multiple chest stripes above and below the numbers, in alternating orange and green. The helmet design is the focal point of this look, with a 6 pointed winged helmet and a single stripe creating a palm tree inspired design. Finally, the pants and socks are brown and green respectively.

[jbird669]

On 5/22/2024 at 11:11 PM, Bomba Tomba said:

I didn't know UPS had a football team /s

 

Seriously tho, that looks better than what actually got used

As a Denver fan, I LOVE the new unis.

[Silver_Star]

On 5/19/2024 at 8:05 PM, Bomba Tomba said:

That Houston Texans logo reminds me a bit of one of the early logos for Hybrid Theory

 

 

Funny you said that about his Houston Texans logo since the Hybrid Theory looks like a kanji. Look at the large Asian communities in Houston for example.

[Bomba Tomba]

Would be a good tie in for sure, maybe for special events

 

All I know though is that the band is heavy on Japanese imagery because of Mike Shinoda