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2 + 2 + 2 = THE Jeff Zone

2+2+2 hed

By Phil Hecken, with “The Jeff” Provo

I don’t agree with a good number of Uni Watch readers, and that’s OK, because they don’t agree with me. One guy with whom it seems I’m perpetually at odds is The Jeff, but lately it seems we’ve been agreeing more often. So, when The Jeff mentioned his “vision” of NFL uniforms, I was both skeptical and intrigued. You see, his concept combines a bit of logic, a bit of old school mentality, a bit of Madden, and a whole lot of creativity.

I’ll let The Jeff explain more fully, but basically he pictures a universe in which alternate uniforms do not exist, where white jerseys are NOT a requirement, and where each team can wear more than one helmet. If you think about that, that’s actually a bit like the NFL was in the pre-TV days. Teams had “their” standard jersey, and a second jersey if he main one clashed with their opponents’. In a way, it’s like soccer — a team has a “look” and if that uniform is “too close” to the opposition, they simply wear a change kit.

There are a number of interesting ideas and concepts in The Jeff’s vision. I can’t say I agree with it 100%, and I don’t, but if you honestly think about what he is proposing — it’s really not as crazy as it first seems.

You’re traveling through another dimension — a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s a signpost up ahead. Your next stop: The Jeff Zone

~~~

2+2+2
By The Jeff

Before we get to the concepts, I’d like to take a quick moment to explain how/why I came up with the 2-2-2 idea.

A – I really don’t like white jerseys. I think that for most teams white is not really a team color. If your colors are blue & orange, you should wear blue or orange. There’s no reason that various lighter colors can’t be worn against darker colors. A team like the Raiders should never be forced to wear white, because silver is obviously light enough to work instead.

B – As a Madden player, I’ve always been a little annoyed that a team like the Titans has 9 different uniforms, while the Colts have 2. I think that every team should officially have the same number of possible combinations. They wouldn’t need to actually wear all of them of course, but the possibility should exist.

With that in mind, I decided on the idea of a league mandated 2 helmets, 2 jerseys, 2 pants, with the ability to mix-n-match uniforms, and an emphasis on eliminating white jerseys. Now I do realize that this is probably more combinations than anyone really needs – but I figure that the end result after 2-3 seasons of uni-chaos – is a situation similar to soccer where most teams will have a primary uniform for most of their games and an alternate or two for specific opponents or color schemes. I could easily see a season where the Chargers could wear powder blue for all 16 games.

So, I’ve created concepts for all 32 teams. I tried to incorporate the team’s history into most of these, but I had a few radical ideas as well. Please keep in mind that these are mostly meant to be mixed and not all of the “best” combinations have been depicted. Enjoy! (Or flame me… whichever you prefer I suppose)

# # #

AFC EAST

Patriots — A mix of their current uniform with their 1993 uniform, Flying Elvis on one helmet, Pat the Patriot on the other.

Bills — Tried to fix their unis while staying on the modern side, used the white helmet as a nod to the past.

Dolphins — Very close to what they wear now, I swapped the stripe colors to match the aqua or orange jerseys.

Jets — A mix of old and new. Lighter green, black trim, white or green helmets.

# # #

AFC NORTH

Steelers — They already use yellow practice jerseys and a yellow throwback helmet, so I don’t think this is too drastic.

Ravens — Purple to black gradient, because they have the one color scheme that I think works with a gradient. One helmet standard black, the other a black-to-purple paint scheme similar to what the Jaguars currently use. (I didn’t really attempt to draw that)

Browns — Someone had posted the idea of an off-white uniform and I liked it, so I mixed that with a bit from the early 80’s.

Bengals — A slightly different take on the tiger stripes, not too far off from what they already have. I kinda broke my own rules and didn’t include an alt helmet. I suppose either the BENGALS throwback or the color inverted prototype would work.

# # #

AFC SOUTH

Titans — A bit more emphasis on powder blue, though I did allow them to keep a white jersey option.

Colts — Just a color inversion of what they already have. I wouldn’t expect the blue helmet or pants to actually see the field.

Jaguars — This one’s a bit odd looking. I’ve always thought that they should have used much more gold than they did. I’m second-guessing myself now as I look at this again.

Texans — I added a red helmet and eliminated the white options.

# # #

AFC WEST

Raiders –Just another color inversion. Much like the Colts I wouldn’t expect to see the black helmet or pants very often.

Chiefs — Remember that feathered concept helmet? (See Paul’s great writeup here.) I tried to make their alternate based around that.

Chargers — Really nothing they haven’t worn before, navy or powder blue. Probably not very mixable though.

Broncos — I tried to combine the old with the new. It doesn’t mix. One helmet would have the D, the other the horse head.

# # #

NFC EAST

Cowboys — Made the colors and jersey style more consistent, and updated their white helmet & pants to work better with the mixed set.

Eagles — One a modern, bad-ass green & black — the other a retro inspired version. Also doesn’t mix.

Giants — I think I should have made it a little thicker, but the numbers have trim on them. NY and GIANTS on the two blue helmets.

Redskins — Basically I just added the modern striping pattern to the 1970 throwback.

# # #

NFC NORTH

Bears — Added the white helmet to better match the pants, other than that it’s really nothing that hasn’t been worn before.

Lions — A 1980/1998 inspired mix. I dropped all the black trim and gave them a color inverted helmet.

Packers — More yellow, more green, less white.

Vikings — I tried to mess with their modern uniforms a bit. One helmet with horns, the other with their Viking mascot logo.

# # #

NFC SOUTH

Falcons — Brought back the silver, simplified their current jerseys and used some throwback inspired pant & helmet striping. Red or black is all they need.

Buccaneers — Did a bit of modification to their throwbacks to allow for mixing with their regular uniforms. I’d also keep the skull/flag logo for both helmets.

Saints — Played with the stripes a bit. Not really sure why I used white numbers on the gold jerseys, actually. Feel free to substitute black in your mind.

Panthers — More blue, more black … really just trying to make them look less like the Raiders or Lions. Given what they currently wear, removing the white jersey and adding a blue or black helmet could also work.

# # #

NFC WEST

49ers — inspired a bit by their 1994 throwbacks, but I wouldn’t expect the white helmet to see much use.

Seahawks — I added silver as a nod to the past, but they could probably get away with using the neon green as their only jersey if they wanted to.

Rams — A slightly different take on their current uniforms, and a retro inspired alternate. This one also doesn’t mix.

Cardinals — A bit of a cleaned up version of their current uniforms. Despite making a mock up a red helmet last week, I decided the only difference for their helmets would be a red or white facemask.

# # #

Yes, I know. I need help.

~~~

Help? I’m not so sure that’s the word we’re all looking for.

Actually, while there are a number of colors and combinations with which I do not agree, I really do like the concept. The idea of an “interchangeable” helmet/jersey/pants is intriguing (although admittedly, there are some in the above set that wouldn’t work). And, as I’ve said before, I am not opposed to a “color vs color” game, but there are clearly some colors, especially if they had to be paired using either of your two jersey combinations, which would NOT work. Finally, while I understand your desire to eliminate a “white” jersey for many teams, white uniforms are not inherently bad. Even if white is “not” technically an official color, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be used.

Overall, though, I have to say I’m very impressed. Clearly this is not something that’s going to be happening any time soon (and really, likely never) in the NFL. It probably offers a solution to a non-existent problem — unless of course you don’t cling to the fundamentally archaic notion that one team MUST wear white. Personally, I think some color versus color games would work. And in the not too distant future, The Jeff and I will be exploring that possibility.

Anyway, what say you Uni Watchers? Is The Jeff in need of help or is he on to something? Or is the answer somewhere in between.

~~~~~~~~~~

cos

Classic…Old School

You guys will recall the “Design a Baseball Jersey” contest which was announced in July and which took up a week of August displaying all the amazing entries. And the resulting voting in which a single vote separated the winner and loser? Well, that contest was brought to us by Alain Nana-Sinkham of Classic Old School.

Alain had offered to create the winner’s jersey based off of his design. But he has truly gone above and beyond. You see, yesterday, I got the following E-mail from second place finisher Mike Hass:

Hi Phil,

Just wanted to let everyone at UniWatch know that Alain from Classic Old School was kind enough to create my jersey from the baseball contest in addition to Duncan’s (the actual winner), even though I lost by one vote. I have to say it turned out pretty damn sweet, and I wanted to share this with everyone. A big thanks to you Phil for putting on the contest, and especially to Alain for going out of his way (and pocketbook) to make this very generous gift. It’s much appreciated!

Mike Hass

Awesome, Alain (and congrats for almost winning, Mike). How did the jersey turn out?

See for yourself! That’s the front. Check out the view of the back and the SWEET barrel man patch on the sleeve. WOW!

I’ve never met Alain, but I have to say, this dude rocks! What a really magnanimous gesture. He didn’t even let me know he was going to be creating a jersey for Mike, so this was totally under the radar.

So let me pay it forward a little — if there was ever a reason to support one of Paul’s sponsors, you just got one. Please consider using Classic Old School for that perfect gift as the holidays approach. Everyone who has ever had any work performed has had nothing but great things to say, so I’m sure you’ll be 100% satisfied.

*Slight update: I did get an E-mail from Alain later yesterday. Alain said:

“I wanted to answer two questions you might get.

“1. We offered to make Mike’s jersey for free too since the vote was so close.

“2. We are redoing the winning Mariners jersey right now to make the
sleeves. Little more accurate to spec, which is why we have no pics
yet.”

Thanks Alain. That was an awesome thing to do (and a tremendous job as well).

~~~~~~~~~~

ducktracker

Trackin’ the Ducks

UW #1 Seahawks Fan Michael Princip has been tracking the Oregon Ducks and all of their 2,456 possible uniform combinations this season. He’ll be updating it after each game.

It was actually a nailbiter for the Ducks last night against Cal, but the Ducks won ugly, improving to 10-0 and keeping their #1 ranking. Here’s Mike:

I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy game for the Ducks, seeing that Cal has won three straight at home, and I was right. The Cal D was fast and furious fo sho, however, however, a field goal shy of a victory in the end. The Ducks wore their white tops. The Ducks wore their white tops and matte green pants. A very nice look I thought, of course I am a big fan of those white helmets, so I was quite nervous that they might not be able to pull this one off, because that would make three big road losses in the white lids, in two seasons, and would not bode too well for the team wearing them in future big games. Alas, the Ducks will sleep well tonight, and so will I in my white helmet.

Some minor updates this week with a couple of Oregon Duck helmets that have 65 years difference between them. First, a totally badass 2010 Riddell Speed helmet that I’m featuring over in the Oregon ‘carbon’ helmet site.

Not to be out done, a sweet vintage 1940s Wilson D265B leather hard cap that I’ve included over at the Ducks Uniform History Site.

Great stuff Mike.

Here is your 2010 Duck Tracker.

~~~~~~~~~~

uni tracking header 1

2010 Season Uni Tracking

Now that the 2010 Season has concluded it’s time for all of you who have tracked your team through the entire season to send me your final tweaks. When I have a few spare hours, I plan on compiling them and adding them to the Uni Watch Archives, to be a part of the permanent record.

So, if you’ve been doing your due diligence with your team, send me your end-of-season tracking reports, and I’ll post them as a “sub article” on the weekends. OK? OK! And I promise they’ll make it into the UW archives before the year is out. Please feel free to accompany your tracking with a write up, especially if your team had any interesting trends or patterns.

~~~

Today, we have Doug Keklak (everyone’s favorite Yinzer), who suffered through yet another Pirates season. But he’s a trooper, and he dutifully tracked the Pirates and all of their different uniform combinations. Here’s Douggie with the writeup:

Sorry this has taken me so long:

The Pirates finished the season 57-105. They were 31-24 in their home whites, 14-50 in their road grays, 5-4 in their Sunday home pins and 7-22 in the black alts (5-6 at home, 2-16 on the road). They lost in all five “special” unis they wore in ’10:

6/12 at Detroit in Crawfords throwbacks
6/26 at Oakland in ’79 throwbacks
7/10 at Milwaukee in “PIRATAS” jersey
8/12 at San Diego in ’79 throwbacks
8/21 home against Mets in Crawfords throwbacks

Also, they were 3-2 in games wearing the Stars and Stripes caps. They also wore the early 70s yellow cap one time, on 9/8, a 9-3 home loss to the Braves.

I’ve attached the file in case you want photos of it, etc.

April 5 – May 6May 7 – June 8June 9 – July 11July 12 – August 13August 14 – September 15September 16 – October 3.

Kek

Thanks Douggie. I think you’re the last of our uni trackers, but if there is anyone out there who I still haven’t heard from, please send in your reports. Thanks everyone!

~~~~~~~~~~

all sport uni tweaks

Uni Tweaks

Catching up with the tweaks, but they keep coming in (which is good), so lots to get to today. If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.

You guys have been pretty great keeping to the ~50 word limit per team tweak, and it’s greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Now, on to today’s tweaks:

~~~

Starting off the show is Matt Malinoski, with a new twist on the Bengals:

Phil,

I tweaked the Bengals’ uniforms because I think they need to be simplified; they’re way too busy. I used white numerals on the home jerseys and black on the road (similar to 1968-80), and tapered black stripes on the shoulders and the sides of the pants. I put three tiger stripes on the socks, the top and bottom stripes wrapping around the shins, and the middle stripe wrapping around the calf. I changed the facemask to gray, because I like gray facemasks, but it would work with the black facemask as well. TV numbers are on the sleeves, but they could be on the shoulders as well.

Thanks,

Matt Malinoski

~~~

Next up is Matt McCutchan with a new (old) look for the Fathers in 2011:

Hi Phil.

After spending some time in San Diego last week, I was struck by how badly the Padres need some classic styling and branding that the city can get behind. In my opinion, the Chargers have done this so well and I would love that for the Padres too. I spent some time looking through the best years of the Padres and have created the following.

A return to the original brown and gold, the jersey wordmark and two tone cap logo (now matching in brown and gold) from the late 90s, gold piping on the cap to serve as a nod to the throwback two tone caps, and off-white home unis with brown piping for classic styling and a nod to the sand uniforms in recent years. I think this could give the Padres a renewed, unique identity.

Thanks!
Matt

~~~

And closing down the show today is Terry Duroncelet, who has sent some of what you’re about to see in before, but I didn’t host them and through one of those computer glitches…they were lost. So, I’m hosting this batch now. Here’s Terry:

Hey, Phil. I recently refined my uni tweaks on both Facebook and Flickr, but I didn’t know that I would end up 404ing my old submissions on Uni Watch. Sorry =( So, I’m re-introducing my old tweaks (with some additional tweaks, of course) and some tweaks you may not have seen before. And I promise to get my tweaks right the first time from here on out, to make sure I don’t make the same mistake twice. All old tweaks will have one asterisk, tweaks that may have been seen before this submission will have two, and all fresh tweaks will have none.

Athletics*

Bengals*

Dodgers*

Saints**

Braves**

Rams**

Cowboys

Jets

Packers

49ers

Football Cardinals*

Colts*

Falcons*

Indians**

Redskins

Steelers*

White Sox*

Vikings

Lakers*

Nike’s U.S.A. Soccer Badge (minus the swoosh)

Chargers*

Thank you for your time, and again, sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks to all today’s tweakers. Back next weekend with more!

~~~~~~~~~~

vilk 5 & 1 b

5 & 1

And now, the part of the post you’ve all been waiting for: The 5 & 1. Quite a few good looking games yesterday, so Jim took extra long to get the list to me. I hope that means he chose wisely. Of course, with the mothervilker, wisely is in the eye of the beholder.

Lets see how Jim did:

~~~

5. Syracuse/Rutgers: Too bad last year’s shoulder stripes won’t go bowling with the Orange.

4. Clemson/Florida State: I’m sensing a pattern here…

3. Ole Miss/Tennessee: Don’t worry, this is the last matchup with an orange team.

2. Georgia/Auburn: SEC comes roaring back on the list this week.

1. Iowa State/Colorado: Black jerseys look great on cloudy days (good ones do, at least).

And my bad one: Maryland/Virginia: Wow, THREE pairs of pants I wouldn’t wear unless someone made me.

~~~

Yeah, um…did you forget Penn State was playing THE Ohio State University in the shoe? Cuz, that one was, um — gorgeous.

~~~~~~~~~~

That’s all folks. Bears and Steelers should be sporting the throwbacks today, so you got that going for you, which is nice. Have a fine Sunday everyone.

~~~

I’m surprised they didn’t say the combat uniforms would make the Crimson Tide players walk on water. — “concealed78”

 
  
 
Categories
NFL
Comments (117)

    Allow me to add a couple more little notes before you all attack me.

    The color on color route I went is only one way to take the 2-2-2 “rule”. I chose to keep the blue & orange and eliminate the white. One could easily chose to keep the blue & white and eliminate the orange. Ultimately I’d simply eliminate the “mandatory white” rule and let the teams decide.

    As for the mix-n-match combination part, the “rule” would allow for a maximum of 8 combos per team. That sounds like a lot – but keep in mind that the Titans, Texans and Seahawks already currently have 9 possible combos (and don’t actually wear all of them).

    Feel free to bring the pitchforks and torches now, I’ll be hiding in my cave.

    Loved almost all of the 2-2-2 concepts. The NFL should hire you immediately. While I do not like all of them I would not mind seeing any of the uniforms on the field on Sundays. Great job The Jeff.

    You should put athletic gold pants on the Chargers’ powder blues. It’s historically accurate and would eliminate another white element, plus yellow pants would be interchangeable with the navy jerseys better than white, too.

    I think I liked about 70% of those concepts. Well done. As a life long Browns fan I must say I would totally be on board with that set. Tradition is great. I love the Unis they wear now. But lets be honest, 1964 is a long time ago. I loved the orange pants of the late 70s and always wanted to see them return (which they did briefly a few years ago). I think color on color would be great. Good job The.

    -CraigD

    Your 2-2-2 concept is like the party I went to last night. Great fun for most of the night, and then unraveled at the end. The new Raiders combo is the highlight of the bunch, along with the Colts and Browns off-white concept. Unfortunatley things derailed when you got to the 9ers and Seahawks. Let’s just hope nobody remembers those 2 when they wake up.

    I love it too. can’t stand white jerseys everywhere. The white ones don’t feel like a teams jerseys, they are the ugly sibling. Would be nice if a team could wear their primary jersey most of the time and only have to bring out the alt/white every now and then.

    Yeah, it could have. There’s a few teams that I could have went a couple different ways on. The Vikings, Chiefs & Redskins could all use gold/yellow in place of white.

    Honestly, I could have eliminated every white jersey except for the Colts, Jets & Ravens if I really wanted to (Baltimore’s black & purple are too close to work as alts for each other… any color that doesn’t work against the dark purple probably work against black either… you need contrast for color vs color) – but it just felt right for a few teams to keep the white option.

    Nice work on the 2nd place finisher by Classic Old School, great gesture. Too bad it’s going to be outdated soon, Prince will be traded by the start of next year.

    The Jeff is not The Crazy. Great concepts. Interesting case of thinking outside the “old box”, while still applying some useful paramaters, a schematic, so to speak. Thanks for sharing.

    My biggest gripe is the lack of white on numerals. While color on color isn’t a big deal for me, legibility is.

    Yes, I believe uniform design should involve non-traditional ideas, and I liked the concepts by The Jeff. I think he must be a fan of the old WFL uniforms.Good ideas, especially, the Jaguars and Falcons, that Jacksonville uniform is a huge upgrade. Someone else once posted a gold Jags helmet with a striping pattern like a coat of a real jaguar.

    The Bills would be a team which should revert back to their heritage, and I would bring back the double star Dallas uniform from the 1990s. Didn’t have time to scan all the designs, but these are my early thoughts.

    Interesting concept, and lots of potential good looks. However there are a couple of practical aspects to look at:

    1) The only color clash that matters is jerseys. A team having different colored pants and helmets may add variety and fashion, but only the jersey color choice is predicated on what the other team is wearing. That said, your rule would have to also state that between the 2 jerseys a team adopts, they must be able to accommodate any jersey worn by any other team. For example, your mock up for the Eagles has problems if they play the Jets and New York insists on wearing their green jerseys.

    2) Leave the helmets alone – 1 is enough!!! Unlike baseball caps and hockey helmets, where different colors are used as fashion accessories, the NFL helmet is a major part of team identity and branding. Multiple colors, different stripes, alternate helmet logos will all dilute the brand image of the team.

    You’re probably right. I probably missed a few matchups where it doesn’t quite work – but things can always be tweaked. I’d like to think the home teams would be smart enough to not *try* for an unplayable matchup, but I guess you never know.

    For the Eagles/Jets, I think the Jets white helmet would probably make the green vs black playable, but if it isn’t, then the Eagles could be changed to be green or silver (or god forbid, white), rather than the black or green.

    As for helmets in general… we’ve already got the Cowboys, Steelers, Patriots, Bills and a few other teams using throwbacks with different colored helmets, so I don’t really think the branding would be hurt that much, if at all. It definitely works better for some teams than others, but I wanted to be consistent with the idea.

    Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something else to consider. Whenever I see red shirts and white pants playing against white shirts and red pants, I get confused. (Last week’s Patriots-Chargers game was an example of one team wearing the upside-down opponent’s uniform.)

    I’d say, add a rule to prevent that, then give Jeff a nice office in the NFL headquarters with “VP of Aesthetics” on the door.

    I have a hard time watching some games when it is white jesey/white pants/dark trim vs dark jersey/white pants/white trim. makes no sense.

    The gold helmet on the redskins just looks bad. Not a fan of the all-gold look on the saints either. I feel like matching pants and helmets with different jersey’s would look better.

    Hey Mike Princip:

    It looks like your Duck Tracker is missing three games (UCLA, USC and Washington).

    Mike Hass: no thanks to the guy who actually put the poll together? *sniff, sniff* No, I’m not crying. I’ve just got something in both of my eyes.

    Seriously, though, it looks fantastic. Good work. The mock-up really didn’t do it justice. And kudos to Alain for making it for you.

    I can’t wait to see the other winning design.

    Fixed, thanks.

    It was a very strange night last night, with the way the Ducks played, and me trying to get these updates out. Just look at how the “Trackin’ the Ducks” text wrote out. I believe that was simply a last minute edit by me, and well…..

    The Jeff is totally onto something. (Awesome work!) Although I didn’t like a lot of your combinations, I kept in mind your mix-and-match rule and could imagine some uniforms that were even better than what you depicted. Your Browns and Ravens sets were specially nice.

    A thought about white (and here’s where I may be a little crazy) — The way I see the Broncos, white is not only a team color, it’s their most important color. The Bronco, after all, is a white horse. Orange is their second most important, and the dark blue is sort of a neutral background color on which the white and orange are displayed. Thoughts?

    I’m really not a fan of the all-white with a dark helmet look… but that is a rather interesting justification for Denver to wear one.

    I suppose it’d be simple enough to swap the all-blue in my concept for an all-white with predominately orange striping and still fit within the rule.

    #1: Even if I might not agree with specific designs, I think “The Jeff” is onto something here.

    #2: How on earth can Oregon-Cal be left out of Jim Vilk’s 5 + 1? How often is there an Oregon game in which their opponents have the uglier uniforms?

    You know, from a distance, that Oregon/Cal game looked pretty good:
    link
    Up close, Cal is not a favorite, but I’ve seen worse. And at least the Ducks wore one school color.

    And James, you’re catching on…

    The colorized Rochester Americans pictures are now up on the link website. You can find them on my uniform history page. George, Michael and Ian are credited as well as Uniwatch. With all of your help the Amerks BC site continues to improve. Thanks again to everyone.

    Firstly the Mike Hass Brewers, despite its obvious good looks, was not one I was high on. That out of the way – WOW! it is a work of art. I am hanging my head in sorrow, only wishing I could pay Alain to do a few for me. Added to his elegant results, he’s apparently a nice guy too!

    As for The Jeff’s Herculean re-designs. More WOW! a lot to like.

    UniWatch – uniformly uniting us one by one.

    I congratulate The Jeff on his work and creativity and admire some of his concepts, a few of which are very, very strong.

    However, I LOVE white jerseys and the white-on-white look.

    Color vs. white is just easier on the eyes (my eyes, anyway) and I like the clear delineation of dark vs. white (home team vs. intruders) on the field. All that color buzzing around on 22 players would make my head hurt.

    Meanwhile…Mr. Malinoski cleaned up the Bengals quite well. Nice!

    Just noticed something: Jeff also made 2 sock alternatives for each team — so wouldn’t this be 2+2+2+2?

    (I’m picturing his Dolphins concept doing mix-n-match with aqua shirts and orange socks, and vice versa. It would work nicely with the Falcons, too.)

    Extending my lunacy —

    The Broncos concept only has one design for socks. What about some vertical stripes on the calves as an alt?

    Actually… I didn’t do that for every team. I guess I probably should have. The socks just kinda slipped my mind. I drew up whatever I thought looked right, but I guess I kinda pictured the socks as more of an extension of the pants rather than their own separate thing.

    Now I’ll have to go back and draw up alternate socks for the teams I didn’t give any to. Maybe.

    THE Jeff’s alts

    Outstanding: Jets, Redskins (the spear logo would complete the look), Lions, Saints, Panthers, Rams, Cards.

    Improvement over current look: Boston, Bills, Bengals, Titans, Texans, Lions, Vikings, Falcons.

    Meh: AFC West, Steelers, Ravens, Browns, Colts, Jackwagons, Pack, Seahawks.

    WTF: Cowboys (need to keep the sleeves from current white jerseys and no white helmet), Giants, Eagles (keep the kelly green, not the current midnight teal), Bears (white helmet? really?), Niners, Dolphins (white really defined them in the 70s and the drop shadow is disgusting), Bucs.

    The Jeff.

    I loved almost all of the 2+2+2 submissions. Nike should take note of the concept. Its a great one.

    Except.

    If you or anyone else did what you were proposing to the Green Bay and Browns uniforms, I am pretty sure you would have Browns and Packers fans at your or whoever’s house threatening to burn it down.

    But like I said great ideas and concepts.

    Aside from the white helmet, the Browns concept doesn’t really break from tradition. All he did was change the white uniforms to off white. These are all mix-n-match uniforms, so I think if it were implemented you just wouldn’t see the orange pants very often or the white helmet ever.

    I always thought the socks with the brown base under the stripes looked best, too.

    This morning I noticed the background to Chelsea’s PL patch is gold, as opposed to white. It’s a nice, subtle way to celebrate winning the league last year.

    link

    This may also be the first positive thing I have ever said about Chelsea.

    I hear ya. I’d love to see this on a high school team’s uniform. I friggin’ hate it when I see high school’s rippin’ NFL team logos/colors verbatim. So, this would be perfect, in my opinion for a high school possibly.

    “Yeah, um…did you forget Penn State was playing THE Ohio State University in the shoe? Cuz, that one was, um – gorgeous.”

    Didn’t forget…that was #6. And yes, even if PSU would have won it would have been #6.

    Lots of good contrasting teams yesterday, plus that’s another one of those matchups that depends on the location. I like this look better than yesterday’s:
    link

    There probably won’t be a lot of press coverage outside of the MTS Centre about this, but last night’s game against the Rochester Americans saw link in the same vein as the octopus in Detroit and rat in Florida.

    The Manitoba Moose won the game 6-2, so I’m not sure what the purpose of tossing that item onto the ice was.

    bears in throwbacks vs vikes in purple pants, which, with purple socks, look like purple leotards…

    The more I see them, the more I continue to not like the Bears throwbacks.

    From a distance, the Vikings look better.

    Would love to see it but I am getting the Bills-Lions “game”. The Lions helmets look darker than normal today. Must be the lighting.

    Where the hell is Ricko when you need him?

    Do they look as good as the modern unis? No, but these are pitch-perfect throwbacks (although the gray facemasks are questionable considering that facemasks didn’t exist in the early 40s). What’s too orange about them? That’s the way they looked.

    Coincidentally, I’m listening to Chris Harris being interviewed on the radio and he says they should stick with the throwbacks since they’re 2-0 wearing them.

    By saying the Bears throwbacks are too orange, I just mean that I prefer the Bears current uniforms.

    Sorry, “The Jeff”, but preferring the Vikings’ uniforms over the Bears’ is further evidence of your insanity.

    Oh come on now, I did say “from a distance”. Up close we know the Vikings are a mess, but from across the room on a small TV, the purple pants are better than the orange numbers and blank helmet. Aren’t they?

    it’s a very “orange-red” to begin with…

    lovin the orange numbers and “sleeve” stripes — didn’t think there was enough actual real estate to put stripes on there, but they manage somehow; gray facemask and blank helmet are also beautiful

    that being said…it’s not really a great uniform; one of those examples where what they wear today is better than the “47” throwback…nice to see, but glad they wear now what they do

    the vikings on the other hand…big tv, small tv, across the room…wherever you are…

    look awful — about the only thing they have going for them is that the purple pants match up a little better with the white jersey because of the idiotic side panel/pant stripe design…ugh

    purple pants, if tastefully done (is that an oxymoron?)…might work with the vikes…but this uni is such a mess nothing can save it

    Agree with all of that….

    When you mentioned the bears ‘sleeve’ stripes though, the first thing that came to mind was the 49ers unis. Would LOVE if their stripes looked like this..

    Also, with the Jets-Browns… I’m a Jets fan, but I love what both teams do with their visor tabs.. the NY for the jets and the elf mascot for the browns

    I think they fit better than the usual because they aren’t trying to wedge the TV numbers in on top of them.

    My view with the Bears is that they need to either drop the TV numbers or put them up on top of the shoulders.

    great point…

    im not even 100% certain, but does the NFL mandate tv numbers? if so, any teams who have a sleeve stripe or logo really should consider moving them to the shoulder;

    of course, having to compete with extremely limited space with the vector is another problem

    not that i want to see the reebok logo moved to the front of the jersey, or to the back (like the nhl), but when it causes your logo to be moved in order to fit the makers mark, something needs to be done

    I dont have a problem with the Jets keeping their numbers on their sleeves… they’ve been relatively immune to the mystery of the disappearing sleeves that the rest of football is suffering from

    If the league mandates TV numbers, then obviously there’s a link.

    But if that’s the case, why insist on the NOB?

    And if were up to me, I’d go the hockey route and move the maker’s mark to the back.

    “but they could probably get away with using the neon green as their only jersey if they wanted to.”

    YES! That right there gives your concept validity, The Jeff. Great stuff.

    Offhand, I’d give four “I’d wear that”s to 8 and a half of your designs: The Seahawks (that’s the half), Rams, Falcons, Giants, Lions, Packers, Jaguars, Texans and Steelers.

    A number of others I’d still wear, but those really stood out for me. The only one I’d really say to leave alone is the Chiefs. If they go red/red/white at home and red/white/red on the road, they’re perfect.

    While I’m not a BIG fan of all-whites, some teams look really good in it, like the Colts and Dolphins. I’d let them keep their classic looks. Can’t believe I’m saying this, since I like orange, but I could see the Browns going back to their original all-whites…maybe mix that with the Sipe-era orange/brown/orange unis.

    Hmm, what a coincidence – I didn’t know this was today’s feature when I did the 5&1, and this week I didn’t include any all-white unis.

    It seems like an easy choice, the CBS game is in a dome and the Fox game is outside at Soldier Field. But it seems the two teams playing in Chicago couldn’t agree on what decade it is, as the Bears are playing dressed for 1950 and the Vikings are from the future. However, the Bengals display this disparity on one uniform, which is kind of amazing.

    Great tweaks by everyone today, with my favorite one being Terry Duroncelet’s Athletics.
    link
    Thanks to you and the two Matts!

    Good ideas, but for the Bengals I would like to see a white-tiger away uni. Just take out all of the orange and you have it.

    As a Giants fan, I’m thrilled the Jeff didn’t get rid of grey pants. I’m equally glad he did abandon the idea of red helmets. As it is, I probably like the current white jerseys better than his proposed red one, but I’d accept his in a pinch.

    haha ughhh horrible…

    what’s wrong with the makers mark on the breast? or does Nikeâ„¢ own that design haha

    Has the NFL announced what is going to happen with the “captain patch” now that it’s been 4 years?

    James (or any other Bears fan),
    I have a question after seeing this photo (bought last week’s SI simply because this was a 2-page spread in there):
    link

    Why did they mark the 5-yard line at Wrigley Field, but not the 15, 25, etc.? Or the goal line, for that matter? I think that’s the only old stadium I’ve seen where they did that.

    It’s not too late to sneak in a 5 for next week’s Northwestern game, you know…
    link

    Good question. I’m really not the one to ask, though. The last time the Bears played at Wrigley, I was exactly one week old.

    Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the goal line is pretty obvious, considering that there was a goalpost on it? (But still, why bother marking the 5?)

    On sort-of-related note…

    Denver Broncos, oh how you vex me. You have the fan-fucking-tastic blue and orange diamonds in the endzones, yet you insist on wearing those incongruous “modern” unis. But, today at least, the jerseys are the color God intended.

    Those endzones would have looked so much better in Soldier field today.

    Eli Manning isnt wearing a stretchy jersey again today but doesnt have the red triangle at the base of the collar

    Gene! Good to see you…thought you were over at St. Johns now…

    Anyway, here’s the link for the golds…not too shabby.

    link

    Watching the Giants-Cowboys game. Anybody notice Anthony Spencer’s (#93) sleeve on the Cowboys? He only has one stripe. Another disaster stemming from shortening sleeves.

    And as a bonus, Eli Manning does not have the little red triangle but does have the loose sleeves.

    Bears look great today. I’d absolutely want that look full-time, albeit withthe C on the helmets.

    PS back to somewhat limited activity here for next week-ten days. Remember when best Buy had to replace the motherboard on my HP in early October? They didn’t solder it down correctly, resulting in a loose VGA connection (which I had to diagnose for them) which resulted in wavy lines across the screen. So BACK to Best Buy, and no PC..AGAIN.

    I cannot endorse buying a computer from those guys. That is all.

    They look nice, but full-time? No.

    But I do think that it would look kinda cool if they kept these as permanent alts — especially if they can put solid-orange Cs on the helmets (with blue facemasks).

    I’ve been begging for this to happen for years. Seriously, nobody has black-and-white TV’s anymore, so white jerseys are no longer necessary. PLEASE bring back the color-on-color games. That Chiefs-Cowboys game last year may have been the best looking uni-game in my 180 games at Arrowhead.

    In other news: I have to say, as an Iowa State fan, I love that we’re continuously making the top 5 every week. I was praying those shoulder stripes would come back for years, and I’m glad someone else appreciates it as much as I do.

    Why the hate for white jerseys? I like that teams have both dark and white uniforms. Color on color would be bad for all sports – and would drive me back to listening to games on the radio if it became a regular occurrence.

    I just don’t like them. Like I said in the article, I don’t think white is actually a “team color” in most cases. It’s a league required “neutral” color. It wasn’t required when the game started, it became necessary for the black & white TV era, and it shouldn’t be required now.

    On here especially, we all seem to dislike BFBS – black for black sake – teams whose colors are “orange and white” wearing a black jersey. I feel that a team whose colors are “black & silver” shouldn’t wear white either. It’s basically the same thing, to me.

    And yes, I know that the “official” listed colors for every team include white – but those listings include every single color the team has in use, even if it’s only the outline on a patch. The Steelers may “officially” have black, gold, white, red, blue, yellow and gray listed, but the fan perception is “black & gold” – and that’s the color scheme that matters.

    “Color on color would be bad for all sports.”

    not all color-on-color is bad…in fact, some is beautiful

    forced color on color would be bad, and two teams with very STRONG colors would NOT matchup well, no matter how different the colors

    for example — this is AWFUL; however, within reason, i definitely think some color vs color could work in the NFL

    soon…THE jeff and i will be examining some possibilities

    Using that Miami/Buffalo pic to prove your point is basically just a straw man argument. It’s not simply because that’s a blue vs. red game that it’s hard on the eyes. Give one (or preferably both) of those teams white pants and that matchup improves immeasurably.

    As Trevor pointed out to lead off this comment thread, that Cowboys vs. Chiefs as Texans game last year looked great and that was a game that featured two very STRONG colors.

    it wasn’t JUST the monochrome vs monochrome

    the boys vs. chiefs featured the boys wearing blue, yes, but with a huge white yoke and white helmet

    and i certainly wouldn’t want to see a matchup like that every week

    that being said, i still don’t think a solid dark blue vs a solid red would work…at least not very often

    i’ll also say this, which doesn’t really have anything to do with color vs. color, but does have to do with contrasting pants — teams that both wear same color dark pants can ruin a matchup as well

    on another note, (and dammit, i kind of screwed up the numbers) — i think something like this could be awesome

    That would be awesome.

    And it would work because there’s contrast. Color vs. color games, even red vs. blue, would work IF there’s enough contrast. For example, Nebraska link and Kentucky link wouldn’t confuse even the colorblind, would they?

    Since I used Nebraska vs Kentucky as my first example, I was going for the Niners on the left vs. the Rams on the left.

    Kyle Orton lost his NFL shield that was supposed to be on his collar today. I’m looking for a picture now.

    Since people were talking about Canadians wearing poppies for Remembrance Day:
    Today the CFL playoffs featured helmet stickers with a fall-colored maple leaf surrounded by two poppies:
    link
    If you can’t make it out, it’s the one above the Canadian flag:
    link

    The same thing was painted at each 15-yard line.

    Oh yeah, The, I forgot to mention this: on your Steelers black jersey, you kept the white numbers. Was that intentional?

    I actually like the yellow numbers on the throwbacks.
    link
    Man, that would look so much nicer if the Pats played along.

    We’ll always need a set of white jerseys because many people (players and fans) suffer from various degrees of colorblindness.

    Some folks can’t see color at all, but more common is for certain colors to be indistinguishable…about 6% of the male population cannot tell the difference between red and green, for example.

    I appreciate the time and effort Jeff went to in designing all those uniforms. Some of them look really good. But I gotta say, I LOVE white jerseys in football. In fact, I prefer more teams white jerseys than I do their color variety. White jerseys just have such a clean, classic look. Especially teams like the Giants, Packers, Bears, 49ers, Raiders, Dolphins (before the advent of the black drop shadow which I hate), Steelers, and Browns. Love those!

    Ugh…that Browns concept would cause the designer to have to go into witness protection. Plus, the football “B” logo is used only for Browns female clothing. I don’t think the hardcore Browns fan would want a woman’s logo on their jersey chest. I liked that vast majority of the other concepts though.

    Eliminating white just for its own sake? I don’t get it. Obviously a matter of taste, but to me almost every new jersey looks significantly worse than the ones you’d be replacing them with. I don’t know where you’re coming from with teams being “forced” to wear white jerseys — not the case. They just realize how bad some of the alternatives look, ie. those new yellow-shirt packer jerseys you came up with.

    Sorry, noble effort but imho the results are almost universally hideous.

    This is my first comment but I feel like I should have been making loads of comments now because I always like your stuff. Maybe comments are for more hit and miss blogs than your own. When you maintain a consistent level of high quality output I reckon people are less inclined to comment because they have come to expect it from you. Just a theory.

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