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Major League Football - Reimagining the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger (San Francisco 49ers update - series complete)


BayBaseballFan

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On 7/3/2021 at 1:21 PM, neo_prankster said:

Have you thought about blue pants for the Bills' road uniform?

@neo_pranksterYou know, I hadn't really considered them. I think with blue pants the set would look pretty similar to what the Bills had in 1973 and I was just never a fan of that look. Contrary to how I've felt about some of the other recent designs in the series, I prefer seeing the Bills in a clear, white look, helmet to pants.

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Major League Football Officials - unified, yet distinct looks for officials

So this entry is a bit of a bonus as we've hit the halfway mark through all the Major League Football teams. It felt right to include the uniforms of the crew officiating the games. This probably doesn't make the most logical sense (like most of this series), but again borrowing from the model of Major League Baseball in this era, the officials for each league get distinctive uniforms. I couldn't resist including the AFL's red-orange referee's jersey. The template for each uniform is based off of the design used by officials in the first two Super Bowls, with the NFL version in the concept being an almost exact replication. There's something about the simplicity of it. The contrasting sleeves to present the official's number is straightforward and something modern jerseys have sort of replicated. I really like the contrasting caps with the white crown and black visor. Adopting the modern protocol of distinguishing the referee from other officials, all other positions wear a dark hat with white pinstripes. The AFL version is identical, just with the red-orange shade dominating. When it comes to the Super Bowl, my ideal would be to have a mish-mash of the different colored uniforms on the field at the same time, identical to the MLB. So is this a good idea or should it be black and white zebra stripes across the whole league?

 

Next up - we kick off the NFL South with a brand new look and identity for the Washington gridiron gang.

 

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References / Inspiration

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  • BayBaseballFan changed the title to Major League Football - Reimagining the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger (MLF Officials update)
13 minutes ago, BayBaseballFan said:

Major League Football Officials - unified, yet distinct looks for officials

So this entry is a bit of a bonus as we've hit the halfway mark through all the Major League Football teams. It felt right to include the uniforms of the crew officiating the games. This probably doesn't make the most logical sense (like most of this series), but again borrowing from the model of Major League Baseball in this era, the officials for each league get distinctive uniforms. I couldn't resist including the AFL's red-orange referee's jersey. The template for each uniform is based off of the design used by officials in the first two Super Bowls, with the NFL version in the concept being an almost exact replication. There's something about the simplicity of it. The contrasting sleeves to present the official's number is straightforward and something modern jerseys have sort of replicated. I really like the contrasting caps with the white crown and black visor. Adopting the modern protocol of distinguishing the referee from other officials, all other positions wear a dark hat with white pinstripes. The AFL version is identical, just with the red-orange shade dominating. When it comes to the Super Bowl, my ideal would be to have a mish-mash of the different colored uniforms on the field at the same time, identical to the MLB. So is this a good idea or should it be black and white zebra stripes across the whole league?

 

Next up - we kick off the NFL South with a brand new look and identity for the Washington gridiron gang.

 

YAmso3h.jpg

 

References / Inspiration

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For some reason, I see a certain charm to the AFL referees' uniforms.

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Washington Admirals - naval commands gets in on the Battle of the Beltway

We begin the second half of the Major League Football series with a brand new identity for the Washington squad. It could be argued that exchanging a racially insensitive moniker for a militaristic name is still problematic. But it seemed era appropriate and was sort of a loose play on the farcical Washington Generals' name.  The idea for the identity began with the interlocking WA monogram logo. The horizontal stripes and stars are meant to reference the District of Columbia's flag. On the jerseys, the gray hue and the drop shadow on the numbers is supposed to replicate numbers of naval ships. Other elements are inspired by painted lines on the decks of aircraft carriers, while the shape of the angle sleeve stripe is supposed to vaguely resemble chevrons. Overall, I'm really happy with how these turned out. It's the only team that was completely overhauled. There's definitely a heavy dose of influence from the Naval Academy's recent Navy-Army game uniforms with a dash of the AAF's San Diego Fleet. Let me know what you think!

 

Next up - the Tampa Bay Buccaneers return to their creamsicle origins.

 

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References / Inspiration

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  • BayBaseballFan changed the title to Major League Football - Reimagining the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger (Washington Admirals update)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers - creamsicle crew shines in Florida

The idea for these jerseys are pretty simple: bring back the Bucs signature "creamsicle" color scheme. It differentiates them from all the other teams in the league. The soft orange and white is just a great combo. So those are reinstated with contrasting sleeves. The striping in the socks and end of the sleeves is also adjusted minimally. The helmet logo ditches the winking swashbuckler in favor of a more simplified skull and crossbones on a football-shaped outline. A secondary logo featuring a flag waving fiercely off a palm tree is added. And I actually really like the font adopted for the wordmark. Long live the creamsicles!

 

Next up - the NFL version of the Baltimore Ravens feature a feathery motif.

 

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References / Inspiration

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  • BayBaseballFan changed the title to Major League Football - Reimagining the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger (Tampa Bay Buccaneers update)

I’m not a huge fan of the colored sleeves, it didn’t work for the Dolphins, Packers, Admirals, and I don’t think it works here either. I know you’re trying to not just reuse the same designs from real life, but sometimes you don’t need to fix something that isn’t broken. 

 

That said, I do like the more tropical feel of the team. I like the palm tree alternate logo as a predecessor of the modern sword logo. 

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@_DietDrPepper_That's fair feedback. I think I'm personally partial to jerseys with contrasting sleeves and shoulder loops/UCLA stripes. They'll be common throughout the series (if they weren't already). I'll definitely add the single-color jerseys though as variation to try out. I think the biggest thing I wanted to alter about the original '76 jerseys were those sort of awkwardly thick sleeve stripes. And thanks for the kind words on the palm tree alt logo.

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Baltimore Ravens - birds of a different feather

The Ravens' design for Major League Football is another fauxback set as the team obviously didn't adopt this identity until the moved from Cleveland until the mid 90's. The jerseys themselves are rather straightforward. The biggest change to the uniforms and pants is the elevation of gold as a primary color. A bit of a departure from the Raven's actual look, but it seemed era appropriate. The number font replicates the thinner Bears' style numerals. Two-tone shoulder loops complete the jerseys. But the focal point is the feather helmet decal. It's borrowed from the Washington franchise, but repurposed for a team that's actually bird centric. Stripped from the context of the Washington franchise's problematic name, the feather decal is one of my all-time favorite helmet elements. I tried a few different color combinations for the helmet, but the only thing that seemed to make sense was a purple and black feather.

 

Next up - another fauxback set for the Jacksonville Jaguars as they feature a controversial shoulder element.

 

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References / Inspiration

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  • BayBaseballFan changed the title to Major League Football - Reimagining the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger (Baltimore Ravens update)

Alright, so I took a stab at two different variations based on some suggestion.

 

@Bomba Tomba I'd argue the gold is different enough from the Steelers' yellow to differentiate it, but I get the concern. Maybe the purple jerseys will assist with that.

 

@LA Fakers+ LA SnippersYeah, I had originally gone with black as the primary jersey color to more align with actual ravens. But perhaps purple is a better base. I tried it with both the gold numbers and white numbers.

 

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