Dallas Cowboys blue jerseys at home?

[BlueSky]

Well, I just don't like white jerseys at home. It looks totally wrong unless a team traditionally uses that.

Here's some context using the early Saints in the late 1960's as an example. They wore white at home so the fans could see the visitors in their team color uniforms. The heat in New Orleans might also have been a consideration but not the primary one. Also, the Saints' helmets (and some other teams' helmets too if you go back and look) had huge logos on them.

The reason for both is that most games were not shown on TV. There was no ESPN or any other source of video highlights except the local sportscast and maybe a weekly show like This Week in Pro Football. "Graphics" decisions (not sure if that word was in use then) were largely driven by how something would look from the stands, not on TV, so at the time it made perfect sense.

Here's are a couple of helmet logos that were noticeably larger back in the day:

As compared to:

and

For the same reason, Minnesota in 1964 or so decided to wear white at home for one game so the fans could see the Vikes' road unis. Sadly, no one notified the visitors (Detroit if memory serves) so they also turned up in white. Both teams wore white for most of the first half since it took that long for the Vikings' personnel to retrieve the purple jerseys. The Vikings then changed to the purple jerseys - right there on the sideline! And...since they wore the purple pants on the road back then...after changing jerseys they were in purple monochromes, which looked as hideous as it sounds. The coach was so grossed out by it that the purple road pants were abandoned after that season.

[hawk36]

I love seeing the Cowboys in blue. The only guaranteed time for it is when they play the skins in D.C.

In terms of the topic of Dallas' blues, I still think they got it right the FIRST time they redesigned them:

Agreed. To me, these were the best Cowboys uniforms of all time, bar none.

[josh1068]

I think it's really boring that the Boys always wear the whites at home. They should only be allowed to do it twice or 3 times a season like other teams' alts. Also, they forced the Bills to wear blue in SB XXVII. It's the reason we lost!! We also could have locked up XXVIII by forcing them to wear the blues!

True story: I actually spoke to the Bills equipment manager the day after they won the AFC championship in January '94. I suggested that they make Dallas wear blue for three reasons: 1) The Cowboys don't like it. 2) The Bills lost to the Cowboys the year before wearing blue...maybe changing to white would bring the Bills luck. 3) The closest the Bills ever came to winning the big one was Super Bowl 25, when they wore white. The equipment manager thought I was crazy...the Bills were the home team in XXVIII, they always wore blue at home, and that was the end of that. Talk about having no imagination!

[Perfect Zero]

I think it's really boring that the Boys always wear the whites at home. They should only be allowed to do it twice or 3 times a season like other teams' alts.

Well geez that might work if white was their alt.

[VandyDelphia Mike]

It seemed those teams who believed in the "blue jersey" curse the most were the Cowboys' division rivals. I think the Cardinals, Redskins, and Giants were the teams who forced the Cowboys to wear blues on the road the most.

Let's not forget the Eagles - they wore white against the Cowboys on two occasions last season. At least they're still division foes of the Cowboys, which is more than can be said for the Cardinals ...

[Blue Falcon]

yeah the past couple years Gibbs has also ditched burgandy pants and gone with an all white set. something about the Redskins won 6 or 7 straight in those unis to make the playoffs the year before last, so theyre considered "lucky" didnt do them a whole lot of good last year.

That was a player-initiated decision, driven by Clinton Portis, who doesn't like the socks that go with the burgundy pants...

Another reason why a team shouldn't let a player whose sanity is in question dictate what the team should wear on the field. If that's what Portis spends his time thinking about, then his head is not in the right place. Maybe that's why the Skins went 5-11 last year...

[Blue Falcon]

I think it's really boring that the Boys always wear the whites at home. They should only be allowed to do it twice or 3 times a season like other teams' alts. Also, they forced the Bills to wear blue in SB XXVII. It's the reason we lost!! We also could have locked up XXVIII by forcing them to wear the blues!

True story: I actually spoke to the Bills equipment manager the day after they won the AFC championship in January '94. I suggested that they make Dallas wear blue for three reasons: 1) The Cowboys don't like it. 2) The Bills lost to the Cowboys the year before wearing blue...maybe changing to white would bring the Bills luck. 3) The closest the Bills ever came to winning the big one was Super Bowl 25, when they wore white. The equipment manager thought I was crazy...the Bills were the home team in XXVIII, they always wore blue at home, and that was the end of that. Talk about having no imagination!

You should have mentioned to him that the Bills DID wear white at home at times during the early 80s...in fact, in the 1984 season the Bills were 0-11 going into week 12. The Cowboys came into Buffalo, and the Bills wore their white jerseys with blue pants at home, forcing the Cryboys to wear their blue jerseys.

Greg Bell scored on an 80-yard TD on the first play of the game, and the Bills went on to win 14-3, keeping the Cowboys out of the playoffs that year.

[smith03]

Well, I just don't like white jerseys at home. It looks totally wrong unless a team traditionally uses that.

Here's some context using the early Saints in the late 1960's as an example. They wore white at home so the fans could see the visitors in their team color uniforms. The heat in New Orleans might also have been a consideration but not the primary one. Also, the Saints' helmets (and some other teams' helmets too if you go back and look) had huge logos on them.

The reason for both is that most games were not shown on TV. There was no ESPN or any other source of video highlights except the local sportscast and maybe a weekly show like This Week in Pro Football. "Graphics" decisions (not sure if that word was in use then) were largely driven by how something would look from the stands, not on TV, so at the time it made perfect sense.

Here's are a couple of helmet logos that were noticeably larger back in the day:

As compared to:

and

For the same reason, Minnesota in 1964 or so decided to wear white at home for one game so the fans could see the Vikes' road unis. Sadly, no one notified the visitors (Detroit if memory serves) so they also turned up in white. Both teams wore white for most of the first half since it took that long for the Vikings' personnel to retrieve the purple jerseys. The Vikings then changed to the purple jerseys - right there on the sideline! And...since they wore the purple pants on the road back then...after changing jerseys they were in purple monochromes, which looked as hideous as it sounds. The coach was so grossed out by it that the purple road pants were abandoned after that season.

The Vikings wore white jersey for most of their home games in 1964. A few other teams did that season as well.

[TPE]

The Cowboys haven't always had bad luck in blue. This past Thanksgiving, Romo threw 5 TDs wearing the 1960s blue throwback (awesome jersey, I have one). The blue jerseys are still popular sellers though. While white jerseys are kind of boring, I'd buy a white Cowboy jersey before I bought a blue one (outside of my throwback).

[Blue Falcon]

The Vikings wore white jersey for most of their home games in 1964. A few other teams did that season as well.

I think a lot of teams did that year. As far as I know, the NFL required teams to wear dark jerseys at home from 1957-63, and then in 1964 they started allowing teams to change. I know for a fact that the Steelers wore white at home a lot during that time, and obviously so did the Cowboys, Rams, Browns, Cardinals, etc.

To my knowledge, the only teams to never wear white at home are the Raiders and Seahawks.

[raz]

In terms of the topic of Dallas' blues, I still think they got it right the FIRST time they redesigned them:

Actually, that was the SECOND time they redesigned them that year. In the preseason, the numbers were different:

(actually go here http://www.cowboycards.com/players%5CDPear...82DPearson.jpg )

They were redesigned again after people complained that the numbers were too hard to read.

[vicfurth]

I don't think the blue-ness or white-ness of the jerseys factors as much as people think. For example, IIRC the Cowboys wore blue twice during their Super Bowl run in 1993. They won both games (Eagles and Cardinals). In fact, Emmitt Smith rushed for over 200 yards that game.

The blue jersey curse, in my experience, has been more obvious when the team sucked. Dallas has lost just as much in their whites.

[Old School Fool]

You can't blame the blue jerseys for them losing to the Eagles first time around, blame Drew Bledsoe.

[DrBear]

Oh come on, you can tell the home team by many things, including positions on the scoreboard, or if you have real trouble with that, you can see what logo is on midfield.

Not in Pittsburgh...or maybe Miami next year.

[slats7]

1981:

1982:

[josh1068]

1981:

1982:

The Cowboys redesigned their blue unis for the 1981 season. The originals had silver numbers outlined in white. The names on the back were the same. They wore these twice, at Washington on Opening Day September 6 (a win) and then at St. Louis October 4 (a loss.) Sometime afterwards, they made the change to silver numbers outlined in blue and white, with solid white names. They wore these at Baltimore (a win) on December 6 and in the season finale at the Giants on December 19 (an overtime loss.)

[M59]

1981:

1982:

The Cowboys redesigned their blue unis for the 1981 season. The originals had silver numbers outlined in white. The names on the back were the same. They wore these twice, at Washington on Opening Day September 6 (a win) and then at St. Louis October 4 (a loss.) Sometime afterwards, they made the change to silver numbers outlined in blue and white, with solid white names. They wore these at Baltimore (a win) on December 6 and in the season finale at the Giants on December 19 (an overtime loss.)

That second jersey is the best they've ever had. Shame it's gone...