NFL Weekly Uniform Notes

[Delux247]

The Raiders, from the waist up, are pure sexy.

And they just got jobbed on that incomplete call. Possession of the ball, both feet down, ground caused the ball to slip out of his hands, incomplete? Bunk.

What years were those Raiders throwbacks from? I liked everything better than what they have now: numbers, logo, etc.

[BlueSky]

BlueSky, both the Patriots' and Bills' helmets are impregnated white shells instaed of painted. That is why they have an off white look to them. If you take a close look at some game photos, you will see the rivets for the jawpads are silver. This is only the case when a shell hasn't been painted.

Thanks, didn't know that.

[STL FANATIC]

Gotta disagree with the just make it look good crowd.

Striping consistency is everything. There's a whole number of ways you can keep stripes consistent, but they're needs to be a reason for the madness.

You can go the Florida Gators way and ALWAYS have the same colors in the same order and just let the background decide how they appear for instance

You can always go in sets of three stripes and replace colors in specified ways depending on the background.

You can vary thickness to a certain allowable point. Sometimes you can repeat a pattern more than once on one element but just once on another (this is where the Bears stripes come into play--the socks and jerseys--the homes anyways--repeat a three stripe pattern three times).

Or there's other ways to make things work too. But consistency is absolutely crucial. It's the difference between good and perfect in many a case.

[tBBP]

Or...you can skip all that and go with piping. And contrasting-colored side panels.

And solid dark pants with same-colored socks. Because, as well all know, that's AMERICAN FOOTBALL UNIFORMS OF 2009...AND !TSZ thA BESTIZZ KEWLIZZ LOOK EVARRR!!!11

(And that'll be the one and only time I ever make a post like that.)

[infrared41]

Gotta disagree with the just make it look good crowd.

Striping consistency is everything. There's a whole number of ways you can keep stripes consistent, but they're needs to be a reason for the madness.

You can go the Florida Gators way and ALWAYS have the same colors in the same order and just let the background decide how they appear for instance

You can always go in sets of three stripes and replace colors in specified ways depending on the background.

You can vary thickness to a certain allowable point. Sometimes you can repeat a pattern more than once on one element but just once on another (this is where the Bears stripes come into play--the socks and jerseys--the homes anyways--repeat a three stripe pattern three times).

Or there's other ways to make things work too. But consistency is absolutely crucial. It's the difference between good and perfect in many a case.

Fair enough. So I have two questions. 1.) Based on what? 2.) Why? If you can come up with empirical evidence or data to support your hypothesis then we have something. Otherwise, yours is just another subjective opinion.

[infrared41]

Also wrong. Other than possibly the Dolphins, white-and-white looks good on no one:

The Jets and Colts beg to differ...

And...

The Browns, Panthers and Seahawks.

And The Bears

[Bmac]

I really like the Pats in red. I wish they would use a red alternte jersey.

Sure, it needs some tweaking here and there, but I love it!

[darkhaha]

I completely disagree with the idea that the Bears should go white/orange/white on the navy pants. I think it tends to look goofy with white is the outside color on your standard tri-stripe pants (and helmets). It beings to work when the middle stripe becomes thicker and the outter ones thinner (almost piping).

Agreed to a point. What's with all these steadfast uniform 'rules' that people have. That's crazy talk, and it makes for boring-a$$, cookie-cutter uniforms. Matching all the stripes on a uniform isn't the be all end all of a perfect uniform. In fact, I'd argue that it's the easy way out in most cases.

The pattern on the Bears' jersey and socks is read (presumably) as three positive stripes (the figure), with white negative space between and around them (the ground). Those blue pants that the Bears have, that pattern is (presumably) also read as three positive stripes (the figure) with the only negative space being the blue ground outside the stripes. These stripes are also very thick while the jersey stripes are relatively thin. The two are thus read and interpreted by the brain as independent patterns and are wholly different from each other. For that reason, I don't think changing the order to white orange white would make these two patterns appear any more unified because they aren't comparable, that is, they have few common visual properties, like scale, rhythm, figure/ground relationship, etc. They are there to complement the sleeve and sock striping, not to match it.

Not sure if my preferences qualify as "steadfast uniform 'rules'", but in general (but not always) I prefer white-color-white striping when the background color (in this case, the pants) is darker than the color of the middle stripe... I think having the colored stripes on the outside of the pattern and next to the dark background tends to make the design look a bit muddy, and from a distance you often lose the delineation between the stripes.

Conversely, though, I prefer a color-white-color striping pattern when the background color is lighter than the middle stripe (e.g., pants and helmets for Packers, Cowboys, Saints, 49ers, old Lions, etc. ).

I DON'T think the helmet and/or pants stripes necessarily have to match the sleeve/sock stripes to have a pleasing design; I totally agree with the above statement that they can complement the sleeve/sock stripes without matching them. On the other hand, I think that the University of Florida, for example, improved their design when they made the stripes consistent. I also think that a by-product of switching the Bears navy pants striping to white-orange-white is that they WOULD more closely match the sleeve and sock striping. Your brain, Mr. Harrington, may perceive them as entirely independent patterns, but my brain prefers the consistency....

[Old School Fool]

Falcons in throwbacks on Sunday.

[Buster]

I really like the Pats in red. I wish they would use a red alternte jersey.

Sure, it needs some tweaking here and there, but I love it!

My high school team, the New Oxford Colonials (Pennsylvania) had uniforms just like the 80s Pats except that had stripes on the sleeves instead of shoulders and they had blue facemasks instead of red or white.

In 1998, the year after I graduated, they changed to this look:

Starting in 2007, they changed to:

So they'd look great in a red jersey with the new helmet.

[leopard88]

Also wrong. Other than possibly the Dolphins, white-and-white looks good on no one:

The Jets and Colts beg to differ...

And...

The Browns, Panthers and Seahawks.

And The Bears

And the Ravens . . . but I already mentioned that.

[Saintsfan]

Also wrong. Other than possibly the Dolphins, white-and-white looks good on no one:

The Jets and Colts beg to differ...

And...

The Browns, Panthers and Seahawks.

And The Bears

And the Ravens . . . but I already mentioned that.

So so far we have 1/4 of the NFL team looking good in white on white.

And have we got the Vikings on the list?

[BBTV]

I don't hate white on white, but of all the teams mentioned, IMO only the Colts and Jets look better w/on/w than w/on/c.

The Ravens would look better with some kind of stripe on their pants, but otherwise I like it. The Vikings look far superior in w/on/purple.

[Cujo]

Also wrong. Other than possibly the Dolphins, white-and-white looks good on no one:

The Jets and Colts beg to differ...

And...

The Browns, Panthers and Seahawks.

And The Bears

And the Ravens . . . but I already mentioned that.

So so far we have 1/4 of the NFL team looking good in white on white.

And have we got the Vikings on the list?

But unlike the Jets and Colts, the Vikings' unis are a disaster.

And do the Vikes wear their purple road pants anymore? 'Cause they should.

[Blue Falcon]

And do the Vikes wear their purple road pants anymore? 'Cause they should.

Nope, they wore them twice in 2006 with the white jerseys, and once in 2007 with the purple jerseys for the Barney The Dinosaur look.

Not sure why a team would invest so much time and effort in re-designing their uniforms...and then not wear one of the combinations at all, sorta like the Seahawks.

[BBTV]

And do the Vikes wear their purple road pants anymore? 'Cause they should.

Nope, they wore them twice in 2006 with the white jerseys, and once in 2007 with the purple jerseys for the Barney The Dinosaur look.

Not sure why a team would invest so much time and effort in re-designing their uniforms...and then not wear one of the combinations at all, sorta like the Seahawks.

Except that in the Vikings case, their entire set was specifically designed to be worn a certain way - hence the white gaps in the bottom of the purple side panel on the white jersey, and the white part on the top of the stripe on the purple pants. They were actually designed so that they can't wear white on white - at least not without violating the integrity of the design.

[DGivens87]

BlueSky, both the Patriots' and Bills' helmets are impregnated white shells instaed of painted. That is why they have an off white look to them. If you take a close look at some game photos, you will see the rivets for the jawpads are silver. This is only the case when a shell hasn't been painted.

What does that mean? Do they cover the existing Flying Elvis helmets with a white Pat Patriot shell?

[OldRamsFan]

I had NFL Fever 2002 for Xbox back in the day, and the Rams uniforms featured some interesting pants.

white ones with the home jersey, blue ones with the away, but the stripes were some really cool half way, sleeker triangular stripes, kind of like a shortened version of Carolinas

it actually looked really good! i wish i could find a pic of that, but again... 2002?

Her's a photo of what I believe is the only game the Rams ever wore those pants. The blue pants were never worn, I believe.

[logoman]

What does that mean? Do they cover the existing Flying Elvis helmets with a white Pat Patriot shell?

They use different helmets for the throwback uniforms. Most helmets start their life as a molded plastic color. For instance, the Patriots regular helmets are molded grey plastic with the outside painted metallic silver. The ones they are using for the throwback unis are just molded white plastic. The Dolphins, for example, have impregnated white helmets that are painted with metallic pearl white paint.

[Cujo]

I had NFL Fever 2002 for Xbox back in the day, and the Rams uniforms featured some interesting pants.

white ones with the home jersey, blue ones with the away, but the stripes were some really cool half way, sleeker triangular stripes, kind of like a shortened version of Carolinas

it actually looked really good! i wish i could find a pic of that, but again... 2002?

Her's a photo of what I believe is the only game the Rams ever wore those pants. The blue pants were never worn, I believe.

Oh my. I've never heard or seen of these pants before. These look much better than any other ones (navy, gold, white, stripes, plain, etc.) the Rams have had since their makeover in 2000. I wish the Rams had kept their gold sidepanels, since without them, these pants are now totally obsolete.