NFL 2023 Changes

[Germanshepherd]

On 11/22/2023 at 6:35 AM, Discrim said:

Honestly, I think I'd like to see the Saints roll out a gold road jersey instead of white.  Much like I think the Seahawks should've kept the gray jerseys and dumped their whites.

Agreed but I think they should Georgia Tech it and wear a gold home jersey

[ruttep]

I think every team in every sport should have a white home/road jersey (depending on the sport). Too many teams turn white jerseys into an absolute joke by forcing the  look, but a grey or gold jersey should NEVER be the primary road look in football. Grey jerseys just looked washed out and that gold jersey looked way too gimmicky.

[DCarp1231]

The Seahawks are probably the only team in the league who can pull off a grey away uniform right now

[Silver_Star]

On 11/22/2023 at 10:57 AM, simtek34 said:

Trust me, when they wear Purple Socks, I LOVE the White-on-White look. The White Socks/Leggings just ruin the look.

And TBH, if they HAD to make a Whiteout game a new tradition, it would be the perfect excuse for a White Throwback to be added into the rotation to go along with the Purple Throwback. Also, it would be a great reason to kill off their Color Rush.

 

 

I miss the 1969-1995 road whites. I do like the 1996-2005 ones, but man, the 1969-1995 ones are the BEST!

[BBTV]

In the rain, the Eagle jerseys looked pretty darned close the ones they were trying to emulate.  But their helmets looked like a sick seafoam green, or sage green, or some other type of green.

 

[ruttep]

4 hours ago, BBTV said:

In the rain, the Eagle jerseys looked pretty darned close the ones they were trying to emulate.  But their helmets looked like a sick seafoam green, or sage green, or some other type of green.

 

 

 

A simple fix would've made this one an all-timer.

[AgentColon2]

That helmet was an eyesore.

[BadSeed84]

6 hours ago, AgentColon2 said:

That helmet was an eyesore.

They need to darken it a bit next season, looks much better (and they did match in the 90s)

[CaliforniaGlowin]

Helmet is a little lighter but it's not that far off to me. The silver pants are great with it.

[GFB]

It's hard for me to get upset that the jersey fabric got darker because the game was played in the middle of a monsoon, as the jersey was perfectly matched to the helmet in the previous game:

 

 

If the goal of a pure throwback, it is probably a bit too light... but to be honest, I don't have a great handle on what that Eagles shade truly was in that era due to how the Kelly Green seemed to shift depending upon the lighting/film:

 

 

...it does feel a bit like Schrodinger's color, where no one will ever be truly happy with it as everyone's memory of it is a little different. 

[BBTV]

I have an authentic from 1991 (back when "proline" and authentics were just becoming a thing... and you couldn't get them with player names.

 

It's noticeably darker than the current ones.  The fabric is obviously completely different - so I can't say that the dye is a different color or not - but they don't look the same.  

 

The rained-on jersey looked closer to the original.  Regardless, the helmet matches neither the dry nor rained version.  They need to go back to the paint factory with that one.

[GFB]

3 hours ago, BBTV said:

I have an authentic from 1991 (back when "proline" and authentics were just becoming a thing... and you couldn't get them with player names.

 

It's noticeably darker than the current ones.  The fabric is obviously completely different - so I can't say that the dye is a different color or not - but they don't look the same.  

 

The rained-on jersey looked closer to the original.  Regardless, the helmet matches neither the dry nor rained version.  They need to go back to the paint factory with that one.

 

Sure, if viewed through the lens of throwback accuracy only,  I'll agree that they're too light.

 

But the Eagles did not use a unique shade of green during this era and there's no difference between the stock greens used by other teams (like the Jets) over that period... So that jersey you had from 1991 is probably no different than the same color the Jets or Michigan State were using then as well.

 

I'm using these studio shots of items at auction as a comparison point because the lighting is actually somewhat consistent:

 

 

 

 Stock green is just stock green for that period of time; just like there was no royal blue option. There was the "eggshell" blue that the Broncos and Ole Miss used,  or the navy helmets that the Rams and Giants used... but no true "royal" blue until 2000ish.

 

So if a pure refabrication of the original uniform is the lens, then you're right, it's off.... But the other way you could look at it is that if the Eagles had the customization options offered to them in 1983 as they do in 2023, I think there's a fair chance that helmets/jerseys look exactly like this current version 

[Ark]

The pants were definitely more silvery/shiny back then than now.

 

But who really cares, it still looked great.

[BBTV]

2 hours ago, GFB said:

 

Sure, if viewed through the lens of throwback accuracy only,  I'll agree that they're too light.

 

But the Eagles did not use a unique shade of green during this era and there's no difference between the stock greens used by other teams (like the Jets) over that period... So that jersey you had from 1991 is probably no different than the same color the Jets or Michigan State were using then as well.

 

I'm using these studio shots of items at auction as a comparison point because the lighting is actually somewhat consistent:

 

 

 

 Stock green is just stock green for that period of time; just like there was no royal blue option. There was the "eggshell" blue that the Broncos and Ole Miss used,  or the navy helmets that the Rams and Giants used... but no true "royal" blue until 2000ish.

 

So if a pure refabrication of the original uniform is the lens, then you're right, it's off.... But the other way you could look at it is that if the Eagles had the customization options offered to them in 1983 as they do in 2023, I think there's a fair chance that helmets/jerseys look exactly like this current version 

I’m going to disagree that the color was exactly the same as other stock greens, because each vendor was allowed to make retail jerseys for teams that they didn’t have the license for, and side-by-side, a Wilson Eagles jersey looked noticeably brighter than a Russel one, which was different than a Champion (which the jets wore). 
 

Not doubting what the specs say, but I’ve seen them side by side and they were clearly different. 

[Lights Out]

15 hours ago, GFB said:

There was the "eggshell" blue that the Broncos and Ole Miss used,  or the navy helmets that the Rams and Giants used... but no true "royal" blue until 2000ish.

 

Kansas, Duke, and San Jose State all had actual royal blue helmets by the '90s. When some of the worst college football programs in America were getting it right in an era before big-money apparel deals, the only explanation for NFL franchises not being able to do it is that they didn't care enough about how they looked.

[GFB]

1 hour ago, Lights Out said:

 

Kansas, Duke, and San Jose State all had actual royal blue helmets by the '90s. When some of the worst college football programs in America were getting it right in an era before big-money apparel deals, the only explanation for NFL franchises not being able to do it is that they didn't care enough about how they looked.

 

You'd see royal blue helmets in the 60s & 70s too when everything was still being handpainted by each team... it's the industrialization of the late-70s through mid-90s that I'm referring to. Those schools you mentioned started hand-painting their helmets again in the 90s (if you look at the finish and how they scuffed) because they only had to worry about 80-100 helmets per season vs. national supply chains and quick turnarounds like an NFL franchise would have to.

 

Kansas early 80s (lighten everything to match the eggshell blue):

 

Kansas late-80s (that didn't work, let's do what the Giants-do):

 

Kansas in the early 90s (fine, we'll do it ourselves)

 

Kansas in 1997 (finally)

 

....I don't believe it's a coincidence that within 24-36 months after that, the Giants switched over to that almost identical finish. 

 

 

15 hours ago, BBTV said:

I’m going to disagree that the color was exactly the same as other stock greens, because each vendor was allowed to make retail jerseys for teams that they didn’t have the license for, and side-by-side, a Wilson Eagles jersey looked noticeably brighter than a Russel one, which was different than a Champion (which the jets wore). 
 

Not doubting what the specs say, but I’ve seen them side by side and they were clearly different. 

 

There are probably some slight differences between the textile colors between suppliers with different factories and all that... my point in all of this – to bring it full circle – is that I believe each supplier's intention was to match the stock green helmet option as closely as they could manage, not to tailor the shade of green to the specs that the team wanted... but again, total conjecture on my part that simply makes the most logical sense to me.

[jc...]

Anyone have a list of the helmet shell molded colors? Or when teams went to full on painting them? 

[BBTV]

20 hours ago, GFB said:

intention was to match the stock green helmet option as closely as they could manage,

 

Honestly - I don't know if they cared much.  While the Eagles helmet may have been painted to spec (I think it was different from the JJets green, but I've never seen them side by side, so it may have been a stock green from whoever painted them), I think each jersey manufacturer just used whatever kelly-ish green they had laying around, with the Russel shade being the "official" one simply because that's what they wore on field.  Had they had a deal with Wilson, the "official" one would have been brighter (Wilson mesh had a slight "sheen" to it, which side by side, was very noticeable."

 

Basically, I'm not even sure if the original uniforms that they were trying to emulate, matched the official color specs - or that they even cared, and only really enforced the color specs for graphics and print.  They changed those uniforms and colors in '96, right around the time when the retail market was starting to explode, more color-reproduction methods were in use, and when teams were having legit branding firms come up with full "systems", rather than Bill the Assistant Equipment Manager drawing a logo on a cocktail napkin and taking it down to the local sporting goods distributer and saying "put this on a green jersey with block numbers - thanks!"

 

So it's possible that the throwbacks are truer to the intent of the originals, even if they appear visually different.

 

I kinda forget what I'm talking about anymore

 

[MCM0313]

4 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

Honestly - I don't know if they cared much.  While the Eagles helmet may have been painted to spec (I think it was different from the JJets green, but I've never seen them side by side, so it may have been a stock green from whoever painted them), I think each jersey manufacturer just used whatever kelly-ish green they had laying around, with the Russel shade being the "official" one simply because that's what they wore on field.  Had they had a deal with Wilson, the "official" one would have been brighter (Wilson mesh had a slight "sheen" to it, which side by side, was very noticeable."

 

Basically, I'm not even sure if the original uniforms that they were trying to emulate, matched the official color specs - or that they even cared, and only really enforced the color specs for graphics and print.  They changed those uniforms and colors in '96, right around the time when the retail market was starting to explode, more color-reproduction methods were in use, and when teams were having legit branding firms come up with full "systems", rather than Bill the Assistant Equipment Manager drawing a logo on a cocktail napkin and taking it down to the local sporting goods distributer and saying "put this on a green jersey with block numbers - thanks!"

 

So it's possible that the throwbacks are truer to the intent of the originals, even if they appear visually different.

 

I kinda forget what I'm talking about anymore

 

I believe, per @TruColor and his amazing website, that the Eagles, Jets, and Seahawks all used the same shade of green prior to their respective rebrandings. As in, like, the PMS shade in their media guides would have been the same. So any difference in helmet color would be due to a different manufacturer (but didn’t Riddell supply the whole league then?) or a helmet that had to be, for whatever reason, painted (or re-painted) in-house. 
 

By the time the 1990s rolled around, I want to say they would all have been wearing PMS 349? At least 340-something. But with different jersey manufacturers, and different material for stripes (screen printing?) than for base jersey/base pants, they wouldn’t necessarily have looked the same in all applications. And, certainly, each manufacturer may have had its own approximation of kelly green, and if the team didn’t like it, their only choice was to switch manufacturers, which I’m guessing could be costly and time-consuming. 

[Lights Out]

On 11/28/2023 at 12:10 PM, GFB said:

Those schools you mentioned started hand-painting their helmets again in the 90s (if you look at the finish and how they scuffed) because they only had to worry about 80-100 helmets per season vs. national supply chains and quick turnarounds like an NFL franchise would have to.

 

I'm pretty sure the Bengals hand-painted their helmet stripes until recently, so there was already precedent for NFL teams doing the same.