When the Vikings wore their new throwback uniform for this year’s season opener back in September, lots of folks (including me) said, “Looks great! But too bad they’re only wearing the retro threads for one game.”
The Vikes apparently felt the same way, because they’ve now announced that they’ll wear the throwbacks again on Nov. 27 — a Monday-night game against the Bears.
As you can see in the photo above, this also means that the team’s enormous Bud Grant memorial patch will get a second on-field showcase. They’ve also been wearing the “Bud” memorial as a rear-helmet decal in their non-throwback games:
The Vikings are not the only NFL team this season to add a second throwback game after initially planning just one. Three weeks ago, the Seahawks announced that they too were putting an additional retro date on the schedule. Their second throwback game will be on Nov. 30 — just three days after the Vikings’ second throwback game.
Now we just need Tampa Bay to bring back Bucco Bruce for a second game.
I wish they’d take advantage of the repeal of the two-shell rule for this uniform.
Same. The suspicion is that they may have a white helmet ready to roll out for a “surprise” whiteout game next month.
Please, no.
Some teams should never wear white helmets. The Vikings are one of them.
And I’m so tired of this whiteout nonsense from the college game. That’s right UNC, you can kiss your shot at making the Top Five this weekend goodbye.
The list of teams that should never have white helmets is very long….(Vikings on that list)
A list of teams that SHOULD have a white helmet, at least as an alternate:
Saints, Lions, Jets….And while we’re at it, give the Dolphins a Turquoise helmet….
If they do, I hope they use an alternate helmet logo. Can’t imagine the horn in anything but white.
A whiteout …
In a 72-degree, controlled climate roof environment. :/
But, oh, if only the Vikes played their home games outdoors, in the elements, for games like that.
-C.
PS: Still marveling at Coach Grant in a golf shirt for the coin flip at that playoff game outdoors vs. Seattle a few years ago.
I know I’m in the minority, but I think I prefer aesthetics over accuracy.
If they adopted this as their full-time uni, I wouldn’t want the old helmet. But this is being worn as a throwback. It should be accurate.
Really, I’d prefer the Vikings adopt a helmet finish like the Giants’.
Yeah, the uniform looks better like this, but is accurate with the mismatched shades of purple. I am fine either way, especially because the mismatched helmet shades of the past from the Vikings, Rams, Giants, etc were only that way because they couldn’t produce the right color helmet to match the jersey. It wasn’t a conscious decision for the helmets to be darker than the rest of the uniforms.
This uniform is superior to their standard one and it’s not even close.
It’s almost like the throwbacks are better or something?
The Vikings, Lions, Jaguars and Browns are all Stage II victims of Nikefication. They all had perfectly fine basic uniforms. Nike turned their head with darts and slashes and nested numerals and bespoke fonts and truncated striping. And they were all universally panned as downgrades. What they currently wear is in some ways a small improvement from their worst look but still a far cry from good.
Stage I is when you’re stuck with the immediate effects of Nikefication. Looking at you, Seahawks, Falcons and Cardinals. The Cards had awful uniforms and made a change but the change did nothing to address the underlying horrors of what was done.
Stage II is a huge step toward redeemable. Browns eliminated wordmark-on-pant-leg and contrast-color stitching but the unnecessary bespoke font (check the “7”!) lingers. The Jags are too plan. The Lions eliminated BFBS but added GFGS and goofy numbers. The Vikings may be the only Stage II team that got worse with the first change after the change.
The Vikings had an absolutely horrible uni immediately before their current set.
Agreed! Those Vikings unis were so bad. I don’t think this current set is that bad, honestly. Would be kind of neat to see the purple jerseys paired with a set of yellow pants. I wish the Ravens would bring back the mustard pants for maybe one game a year. Or am I the only one that liked that look? LOL It’s not a look that would be good as a permanent move. But, one game a year kind of shakes things up.
The previous set was bad, for sure. This set isn’t any better – like the Jags, Lions and Cardinals. The current set’s nested numbers are forced and contrived, and the shoulder stripes are bizarre. Northwestern or UCLA stripes (they’ve done both in the past) would be better, and for God’s sake, block numbers are not a sin.
I thought the Ravens mustard pants were great. They absolutely should wear purple over mustard once a season.
The Lions’ change was a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, they dropped the Reebok-era BFBS trim and rounded bespoke numbers (which weren’t particularly good-looking, to me at least), but on the other hand, they added GFGS (complete with a full Rash uni), got an even worse bespoke font, and added unnecessary text to what’s left of their sleeve stripes (though the WCF permamemorial is more about the Ford family’s insistence on honoring an owner who was very unpopular with the fanbase than anything Nike-related).
Agreed with all of this. And not only are block numbers not a sin, but they have never, ever looked bad. Would it be better aesthetically if the entire league (except the Bears) wore block numbers? Actually, yes. There is no current team with a bespoke font that wouldn’t immediately be improved with varsity block.
I like the Chargers numbers.
Wonderful!
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Bears went white over white and also broke out the gray grills for this one?
Throw in the far superior original wishbone C and I’m in complete agreement with you.
I like the Vikings regular uniforms just fine, funky numbers and all. But these throwback uniforms are just so, so much better. Why settle for “just fine” when you have an all-time great uniform right there in your locker?
I prefer the darker shade of purple that the purple people eaters wore in the 1970s.
This is a nice throwback, the current set is not bad (I like the drakar sleeve stripe) but their best set ever was when Bud was their coach.
Be great if the Bears wore their while pants for this game for a true throwback game!
“white”