Broncos Planning to Switch to Orange Jerseys Full Time

[CubsFanBudMan]

I bristle at the plan to wear blue once or twice anyway. If you're going to reaffirm the orange at home, you have to fully commit. Are you an orange team again or aren't you?

That's just saying the current blues will be relegated to alternates. Nothing to question commitment about.

I know what they're saying, and I'm saying that if you're going to rebrand yourself--which this would be--you need to make a clean break. Otherwise, there's still a sense of ambiguity as to whether the Broncos have gone back to orange or if they're just wearing orange sometimes and blue sometimes. They'd be, in a sense, wearing 1997-2011 throwbacks, and you can't throw back to last year. One of the things I hate most about third jerseys is how one inevitably creeps into regular rotation and shunts the other one back, and your identity becomes a mishmash. The NHL, as with every ill in professional sports, is the worst offender. Even after a leaguewide redesign, there's still a host of mismatched teams.

Do the Falcons have this problem?

I'd say yes, because I just now thought of them as a black jersey team. I don't see them enough -- especially as the NFC's No. 1 seed -- to realize that the red has replaced the black. Or maybe I'm just not paying attention. But I tend to agree that in an 8-game scenario, a simple switch of the same primary and alt doesn't do a whole lot to "rebrand." Especially if the white jersey is ever thrown in the mix at home.

[eethy]

I wouldn't call this a rebrand.

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[The_Admiral]

The Titans are another team meandering around in Identity Soup. That's not a good thing.

[Sport]

I bristle at the plan to wear blue once or twice anyway. If you're going to reaffirm the orange at home, you have to fully commit. Are you an orange team again or aren't you?

That's just saying the current blues will be relegated to alternates. Nothing to question commitment about.

I know what they're saying, and I'm saying that if you're going to rebrand yourself--which this would be--you need to make a clean break. Otherwise, there's still a sense of ambiguity as to whether the Broncos have gone back to orange or if they're just wearing orange sometimes and blue sometimes. They'd be, in a sense, wearing 1997-2011 throwbacks, and you can't throw back to last year. One of the things I hate most about third jerseys is how one inevitably creeps into regular rotation and shunts the other one back, and your identity becomes a mishmash. The NHL, as with every ill in professional sports, is the worst offender. Even after a leaguewide redesign, there's still a host of mismatched teams.

Do the Falcons have this problem?

I'd say yes, because I just now thought of them as a black jersey team. I don't see them enough -- especially as the NFC's No. 1 seed -- to realize that the red has replaced the black. Or maybe I'm just not paying attention. But I tend to agree that in an 8-game scenario, a simple switch of the same primary and alt doesn't do a whole lot to "rebrand." Especially if the white jersey is ever thrown in the mix at home.

I agree with you guys. Third jerseys muddle and dilute identities, especially in a league where you only get to wear your colored jerseys 8 or 9 times a season.

It's been a problem in the NHL for awhile now. Remember how Pittsburgh dropped their Diagonally lettered black jerseys and began exclusively wearing these?

That's probably the first example of a third jersey coming in and replacing a jersey that was designed to match the other jersey.

Other examples include: Ottawa replaces black jersey with goofy chest-swooshed red jersey. Anaheim with their black alt replaces purple in the 06 playoffs. Atlanta drops navy in favor of light blue. Florida switches to navy blue full time. Minnesota drops green and wears red. Flyers stop wearing orange, only wear black. Washington drops blue jerseys, goes to black capitol building full time.

There's probably others, but that's off the top of my head and with the exception of Florida and Philadelphia, every one of the jerseys that the team switched to failed to match the already existing white jersey in design. The problem with that is that you lose brand identity when your home look and road looks are so much different from one another. You might as well be two different teams.

I agree that if the Broncos really want to commit to being an orange team then they need to stop wearing the blue jersey. I understand why they're holding onto it (to have 3 jerseys to sell), but I don't like it.

[tBBP]

Not that my opinion adds one iota to the purpose of this thread--nor is it even remotely germane to it--but those RoboDuck jerseys were and still are my absolute favorite NHL 3rd jerseys, and that look is one of my favorite pro-sports looks, of all time.

[oldschoolvikings]

I wouldn't call this a rebrand.

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Neither would I. I'd call it a bad decision.

[Brave-Bird 08]

yeah. the Falcons switch still hasnt settled in with me yet. their 2003 black on white uniform was great, and if they were wearing it people would think they had one of the better modern uniforms in sports.

when you have to have two pairs of white pants to make your uniforms work, you've got an issue

[IceCap]

yeah. the Falcons switch still hasnt settled in with me yet. their 2003 black on white uniform was great, and if they were wearing it people would think they had one of the better modern uniforms in sports.

Nah, the pants and jersey striping would still bug me.

when you have to have two pairs of white pants to make your uniforms work, you've got an issue

Agreed.

[Drakonius26]

yeah. the Falcons switch still hasnt settled in with me yet. their 2003 black on white uniform was great, and if they were wearing it people would think they had one of the better modern uniforms in sports.

when you have to have two pairs of white pants to make your uniforms work, you've got an issue

I agree completely with you. I still don't understand why they went to the red jerseys, and still trotted out a black helmet with their uniforms as it simply doesn't work with their current identity. Falcon fans that I knew raved about the red jerseys, but not once could I get an actual explanation on why they actually liked them. Their 1980 and 1998 sets are still the best they've ever worn of their red and black identities.

[oldschoolvikings]

yeah. the Falcons switch still hasnt settled in with me yet. their 2003 black on white uniform was great, and if they were wearing it people would think they had one of the better modern uniforms in sports.

when you have to have two pairs of white pants to make your uniforms work, you've got an issue

I agree completely with you. I still don't understand why they went to the red jerseys, and still trotted out a black helmet with their uniforms as it simply doesn't work with their current identity. Falcon fans that I knew raved about the red jerseys, but not once could I get an actual explanation on why they actually liked them. Their 1980 and 1998 sets are still the best they've ever worn of their red and black identities.

I dunno... that black jersey just looked dull to me. The red jersey with black helmet puts them in the lower half of NFL uniforms IMO, but the black/black/white original was an easy bottom 5 look.

However, their current throwback has quickly become my favorite NFL look.

[Drakonius26]

yeah. the Falcons switch still hasnt settled in with me yet. their 2003 black on white uniform was great, and if they were wearing it people would think they had one of the better modern uniforms in sports.

when you have to have two pairs of white pants to make your uniforms work, you've got an issue

I agree completely with you. I still don't understand why they went to the red jerseys, and still trotted out a black helmet with their uniforms as it simply doesn't work with their current identity. Falcon fans that I knew raved about the red jerseys, but not once could I get an actual explanation on why they actually liked them. Their 1980 and 1998 sets are still the best they've ever worn of their red and black identities.

I dunno... that black jersey just looked dull to me. The red jersey with black helmet puts them in the lower half of NFL uniforms IMO, but the black/black/white original was an easy bottom 5 look.

However, their current throwback has quickly become my favorite NFL look.

I know. They're low on my list as well, but I'd prefer the black jersey to the red jersey with their current look if I had to go with it. Otherwise, I'd prefer their 1980 or 1998 uniform set all things considered.

[TheOldRoman]

The Titans are another team meandering around in Identity Soup. That's not a good thing.

I agree, and this is aside from the fact that they took what was close to being a modern classic (IMO) and screwed it up. Doing monochrome light blue, light blue over navy, and other pant-mixing shenanigans doesn't help their identity. Teams should pick one pair of pants to be paired with any given jersey and run with it. I hope this is something the NFL cracks down on, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Buster]

it's about flipping time

This.

[elsephen]

Can't believe so many people are for this.

1. Orange and Royal blue look tacky together. Complete 80s look. (since people are wanting the return of royal)

2. Orange is... orange. It's ok for a season or 2, but then it just looks nasty. See: Buccaneers, Tennessee Vols, and anyone but the Bengals (thanks to black)

This is going to look arena'ish.

[ARTnSocal]

I wouldn't call this a rebrand.

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Wow, I didn't realise just how bad their current uniform set is until you paired these images side by side!

Tennessee should've just left 'em alone, their originals after the 'TITANS' name and uniform change were fine, there was no need to mess with them.

The newer shade of blue on their current jerseys is horrid. Only shade of blue that could possibly be worse is that silhouette blue on the old Denver Broncos helmet.

I'm not big on alternate uniforms as I am with throwbacks.

As far as the Atlanta Falcons go, I really like their '66 retros... I hope they keep 'em as their alternate.

[TruColor]

I wouldn't call this a rebrand.

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The newer shade of blue on their current jerseys is horrid. Only shade of blue that could possibly be worse is that silhouette blue on the old Denver Broncos helmet.

Any difference in color between these two pics is due to lighting, photographic reproduction, etc.

The "Titans Blue" is the same as it's been since the mid-'70s (as the Oilers).

[WSU151]

Can't believe so many people are for this.

1. Orange and Royal blue look tacky together. Complete 80s look. (since people are wanting the return of royal)

2. Orange is... orange. It's ok for a season or 2, but then it just looks nasty. See: Buccaneers, Tennessee Vols, and anyone but the Bengals (thanks to black)

This is going to look arena'ish.

Completely disagree with everything you just said.

[TalktoChuck]

Can't believe so many people are for this.

1. Orange and Royal blue look tacky together. Complete 80s look. (since people are wanting the return of royal)

2. Orange is... orange. It's ok for a season or 2, but then it just looks nasty. See: Buccaneers, Tennessee Vols, and anyone but the Bengals (thanks to black)

This is going to look arena'ish.

Completely disagree with everything you just said.

They aren't going back to royal blue, they are keeping the dark navy blue.

[RETROJR79]

I would love to see the Broncos go back to Orange but I also want to see the Ravens make their black jersey and the Chargers powder blue their primary.

[Milo Meningocele]

I would love to see the Broncos go back to Orange but I also want to see the Ravens make their black jersey and the Chargers powder blue their primary.

Two primaries, including one stolen from another team?! Not bloody likely.