NFL Third Jerseys

[The_Admiral]

No, they do it worst of all, because they're often the catalysts for ugly mismatched uniform sets. Remember the old Ottawa Senators? The current Thrashers? Third jerseys suck.

[Brave-Bird 08]

teams that can use alternate jerseys

falcons-black

bucs-black

[snip]

teams that need to trash alternates

Eagles! black is stupid.

Can you really have it both ways? I think not.

absolutely! black is a major part of the falcons color scheme. their colors are red and black.

the buccaneer ones look awesome

the eagles ones just look lame because their primary jersey is a dark green.

[rentz]

No, they do it worst of all, because they're often the catalysts for ugly mismatched uniform sets. Remember the old Ottawa Senators? The current Thrashers? Third jerseys suck.

Well, I was more referring to the actual concept of different third jerseys... certainly there are instances of flawed execution; however, I believe that simply making a black version of the red falcons jersey for example is not as effective from a design or marketing standpoint as creating something new.

This is of course in my opinion, and I can see why you would be apprehensive about the potential can of worms that could be released if teams went really crazy with third jersey design.

Also, regarding black alternates... I think the Falcons are one of the few teams that have a legit reason to sport them. The Eagles, Bucs, Jaguars, and Lions were just blindly following a trend of the time.

[The_Admiral]

No, they do it worst of all, because they're often the catalysts for ugly mismatched uniform sets. Remember the old Ottawa Senators? The current Thrashers? Third jerseys suck.

Well, I was more referring to the actual concept of different third jerseys... certainly there are instances of flawed execution; however, I believe that simply making a black version of the red falcons jersey for example is not as effective from a design or marketing standpoint as creating something new.

If you come up with an entirely new design for a team's uniform, it's either better than the existing uniform or it's worse. If it's better, what's the sense in keeping the old one around? If it's worse, why wear it in the first place? Either way, you're devoting gamedays to an inferior uniform. Look as good as you can as often as you can.

[The_Admiral]

That last sentence there sounds kind of like I should be on a fashion-based reality show.

[BBTV]

I like alts, but I don't agree with the notion that alts should be worn for the "big" or "special" games, because it implies that the other games aren't really important.

[BallWonk]

No, they do it worst of all, because they're often the catalysts for ugly mismatched uniform sets. Remember the old Ottawa Senators? The current Thrashers? Third jerseys suck.

Well, I was more referring to the actual concept of different third jerseys... certainly there are instances of flawed execution; however, I believe that simply making a black version of the red falcons jersey for example is not as effective from a design or marketing standpoint as creating something new.

This is of course in my opinion, and I can see why you would be apprehensive about the potential can of worms that could be released if teams went really crazy with third jersey design.

Also, regarding black alternates... I think the Falcons are one of the few teams that have a legit reason to sport them. The Eagles, Bucs, Jaguars, and Lions were just blindly following a trend of the time.

I agree completely -- including about the black.

As to the nature of alts, I hate alt jerseys in any sport that are just the team's regular jersey with a different fabric color. The alts I can live with are those that find a way to extend the team's identity in a new direction. For example, I ride the Nats pretty hard on their monstrously ugly freakshow of a uniform set. But the Nats basic home alt, the red jersey with white piping and a white curly W, is actually an excellent alt jersey. (At least until they put the numbers on, at which point it reverts to monstrously ugly freakshow.) It brings the team's dominant logo onto the jersey at home, which is a smart move, and it does so in a way that makes subtle reference to local uniform history, since the original Nationals/Senators franchise was characterized by a W on the chest. If the Nats had a decent number font that matched the rest of their identity, that would be an excellent alt.

Hockey does better than baseball in this regard, though the attempt does not always succeed, and so hockey also has more failures where a distinctive alt just kind of blows up the team's identity. But the run of the mill regular-jersey-with-different-color-fabric thing is just as likely to muddle a team's visual identity, so on the whole I think the approach is worth the risk.

However, I am not convinced that there's really any justification for third jerseys ever in football, unless a team wanted to go to a system of, say, alternating between two jerseys at home to feature both of two team colors. But since NFL rules prohibit anything interesting like that, I'll stick with my "no thirds ever" vote for the NFL. Until someone shows me evidence that Vince Lombardi or Bud Grant ever approved of alternate jerseys.

[cheo25]

Actually, I'd argue that when the fans do wear all the same color, it looks static. Color-outs usually end up looking like a bunch of empty seats, except for white-outs.

I couldn't agree with you more. I hate scheduled color-out days. The day I need someone to tell me what color to wear to a game is the day I need to be in the old folks' home. If I want to wear a team color, I'll wear one and I'll decide which one it is. If I don't want to wear a team color, that's my business, too.

In fact, when my teams have scheduled color-outs in the past, I purposely choose another color. If I went to Penn State game for a white-out, I'd purposely wear blue.

It's one thing to be cool on a spontaneous basis. It's awesome how almost all of Busch Stadium is always a sea of red. But scheduled color-outs are contrived and, therefore, lame.

[Mikeit]

I would prefer that before the NFL worries about 3rd jerseys. They designate the colored or white as a home uni, I understand the heat down south argument and frankly don't care,if it was really a problem no one would wear colored jerseys. Also the Cowboys in white is ok..thats tradition.

[Red Wolf]

I would prefer that before the NFL worries about 3rd jerseys. They designate the colored or white as a home uni, I understand the heat down south argument and frankly don't care,if it was really a problem no one would wear colored jerseys. Also the Cowboys in white is ok..thats tradition.

What annoys me most about that is when New Orleans and Houston wear white at home like the heat in their domes is so bad they can't wear dark uniforms.