NFL Uniforms Interesting Facts

[Discrim]

On 11/6/2021 at 12:05 AM, rainmaker17 said:

Dallas won't retire numbers but 8, 12 and 22 are pretty much just that.  The 88 thing is weird to me.  It should be right beside the other iconic numbers in "retirement"but has taken on a life of its own.

Oddly enough, the only other North American pro team that I've seen treat a number in a similar way the Cowboys treat #88...is, of all teams, the Bucks, who have issued #34 to Terry Cummings, then Ray Allen, and then Giannis.  Granted, there were some scrubs in between all of them.

[slapshot]

Football is unique among the five major sports — certain numbers have to be worn by specific positions. In the other four sports, anyone can wear any number from 0 (or 00) to 99, although I've never seen anyone in the NHL with #0/00.

 

Numbers 50-79 are limited to offensive and defensive linemen. Especially on offense, the first thing the referee and umpire look for are 5 players on the offensive line (from tackle to tackle) wearing numbers in that range. It makes it easier to determine eligible pass receivers.

 

And since NFL teams have the largest rosters, retiring any of those numbers could be problematic if there weren't enough available numbers to fill required positions.

 

That's why NFL teams should stick with "Rings of Honor" or something similar. 

[TBGKon]

I believe the Buccaneers retire numbers for hall of famers only, which at the moment is Selmon 63, Sapp 99, Brooks 55, and Lynch 47.  At some point in the distant future, I could see them needing to use the numbers again but probably not.

[Echo]

21 hours ago, slapshot said:

In the other four sports, anyone can wear any number from 0 (or 00) to 99, although I've never seen anyone in the NHL with #0/00.

 

Martin Biron of the Buffalo Sabres was the last NHL player to wear # 00 in 1996.  The last player to wear # 0 was Neil Sheehy of the Hartford Whalers in 1988.  In 1996 the league banned anyone from wearing # 0 and # 00 because the numbers caused problems with their stat-tracking software..

 

[johnnysama]

^ They should reinstate those numbers, considering how (it's likely) the software has improved in the past quarter-century.

[Discrim]

Thought of something while I was playing Retro Bowl: the Falcons have something of a history of using a metallic color in one spot and then nowhere else, starting with their use of gold stripes on the helmets but nowhere else from 1966-69.  After sticking with strictly red and black for several years, in 1978 they introduced silver pants, as well as red jerseys with silver numbers and striping.  The white jerseys, meanwhile, had no silver above the waist.  They wore this style, tweaking a few things along the way, until 1989.  In 1990 they switched to black helmets and jerseys, but kept silver pants around, the style they would wear until 2002.  Finally, starting in 2003, the Falcons switched to uniforms that were now strictly black, red and white...except the tradition continued, as silver is used as the outer outline of the overhauled falcon logo...and nowhere else.

[johnnysama]

AFAIK, the Pittsburgh Steelers, from 1968-96, were the only NFL team to position its TV numbers between the shoulder and sleeve; sort of a compromise placing them between those two aforementioned points.

[chrispw12]

On 11/8/2021 at 8:23 PM, Discrim said:

Oddly enough, the only other North American pro team that I've seen treat a number in a similar way the Cowboys treat #88...is, of all teams, the Bucks, who have issued #34 to Terry Cummings, then Ray Allen, and then Giannis.  Granted, there were some scrubs in between all of them.

A few other NBA examples are the Sonics with 24 being given to Spencer Haywood, Dennis Johnson, Tom Chambers and the Knicks with Cazzie Russell before Patrick Ewing

[DCarp1231]

This might belong here…

 

Washington has a tendency to alternate the number 26 between Offense and Defense as each new player comes through

 

2001-03 Ifeanyi Ohalete (DB)

 

2004-10 Clinton Portis (RB)

 

2011-13 Josh Wilson (DB)

 

2014-17 Bashaud Breeland (DB)

 

2018-19 Adrian Peterson (RB)

 

2020-present Landon Collins (DB/LB)

 

 

[Cujo]

On 11/8/2021 at 7:23 PM, Discrim said:

Oddly enough, the only other North American pro team that I've seen treat a number in a similar way the Cowboys treat #88...is, of all teams, the Bucks, who have issued #34 to Terry Cummings, then Ray Allen, and then Giannis.  Granted, there were some scrubs in between all of them.

 

Denver Nuggets #15 getting passed around from one likely HOFer to another.

 

[oldschoolvikings]

In the early 70's, the Minnesota Vikings had two home jerseys... one with stripes and one without...

 

 

 

  

 

It seems to be a warm weather thing, as the stripeless one was worn early in the season, and again in Dallas in the championship.  My guess is that the stripes were applied on the traditional jersey in the same way it had been done in the previous decade, that being directly woven into the fabric, which made a heavier fabric more necessary.  The stripeless ones were most likely a newer, lighter man-made fabric and they hadn't yet worked out how to apply stripes to it. Just guessing... no one would've been talking about these things then.

 

I always loved the look of the plain purple jersey with no stripes... classic.

 

 

Apparently, the Dolphins had multiple jerseys  with and without stripes around that same time, too.

 

      

 

 

     

 

 

These are "interesting facts" to me, at least.

[Sec19Row53]

2 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

In the early 70's, the Minnesota Vikings had two home jerseys... one with stripes and one without...

 

 

 

  

 

It seems to be a warm weather thing, as the stripeless one was worn early in the season, and again in Dallas in the championship.  My guess is that the stripes were applied on the traditional jersey in the same way it had been done in the previous decade, that being directly woven into the fabric, which made a heavier fabric more necessary.  The stripeless ones were most likely a newer, lighter man-made fabric and they hadn't yet worked out how to apply stripes to it. Just guessing... no one would've been talking about these things then.

 

I always loved the look of the plain purple jersey with no stripes... classic.

 

 

Apparently, the Dolphins had multiple jerseys  with and without stripes around that same time, too.

 

      

 

 

     

 

 

These are "interesting facts" to me, at least.

The Dolphins had different helmet logos, too. I think you can see the Dolphin contained within the sun on Griese, but his out of the sun on Little.

 

The Bears also had different white jerseys in the same timeframe, IIRC. I agree with your suggestion that these were temperature driven

[Discrim]

3 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

The Dolphins had different helmet logos, too. I think you can see the Dolphin contained within the sun on Griese, but his out of the sun on Little.

 

The Bears also had different white jerseys in the same timeframe, IIRC. I agree with your suggestion that these were temperature driven

Yeah, that late 60s-early 70s timeframe seemed to be when teams were transitioning from the old durene to mesh, as a gander at the GUD shows...the Bears, in addition to the two different white jerseys, also had two navy jerseys, in similar fashion to the Vikes: the durene version had the stripes, the mesh version was stripeless.  Though they managed their rounded numbers on that but not the mesh whites for some reason.

[Chawls]

On 1/10/2022 at 8:58 AM, Chawls said:

The New England Patriots have had a losing season following each of their last FOUR major jersey changes. (1993, 1995, 2000, and 2020). Even more impressively, the losing season is the only one they’d have while wearing each jersey iteration. 

 

[Bomba Tomba]

On 6/30/2022 at 2:04 PM, Chawls said:

the losing season is the only one they’d have while wearing each jersey iteration. 

If only they can change jerseys every season 

[WSU151]

On 6/30/2022 at 2:04 AM, Chawls said:

The New England Patriots have had a losing season following each of their last FOUR major jersey changes. (1993, 1995, 2000, and 2020). Even more impressively, the losing season is the only one they’d have while wearing each jersey iteration. 

 

Would the 1994 jerseys (10-6) count in that? Different color numbers, different pants stripes. Jerseys were generally the same (blue with Elvis on the sleeves). 

[MJWalker45]

On 6/10/2022 at 10:37 AM, oldschoolvikings said:

In the early 70's, the Minnesota Vikings had two home jerseys... one with stripes and one without...

 

 

 

  

 

It seems to be a warm weather thing, as the stripeless one was worn early in the season, and again in Dallas in the championship.  My guess is that the stripes were applied on the traditional jersey in the same way it had been done in the previous decade, that being directly woven into the fabric, which made a heavier fabric more necessary.  The stripeless ones were most likely a newer, lighter man-made fabric and they hadn't yet worked out how to apply stripes to it. Just guessing... no one would've been talking about these things then.

 

I always loved the look of the plain purple jersey with no stripes... classic.

 

 

Apparently, the Dolphins had multiple jerseys  with and without stripes around that same time, too.

 

      

 

 

     

 

 

These are "interesting facts" to me, at least.

Ohio State did this with Rose Bowl jerseys as well in the 1960's and 70's.

(1969)

It wasn't consistent however, so I don't know why they didn't use their regular jerseys each time.

(1973)