Uniform on 11 – Just How Much More Uniform Could it Be? (Volume II)

Back again with another of Chris Diamond’s “Uniform on 11” Project.

Click here for the AFC & NFC East

For each Volume of this series I’ll be including Chris’ introduction so you don’t need to check prior posts.

Click on images to enlarge.

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Uniform on 11 – Just How Much More Uniform Could it Be? (Vol. 1)
by Chris Diamond

This site is Uni Watch and we are all UWers obsessed with sports uniforms. Currently the NFL’s uniform standards feel like they are in a fairly lamentable state with the “sock shit show” and untucked shirts for individual players and mono-mania, icy-whites, BFBS for teams (to name but the worst) ruining things for a lot of people. Often we hear “why can’t the NFL be stricter over uniform standards?”. I think people are mostly thinking about making existing uniforms more… well, uniform! But what if the NFL had a much stricter set of rules that it enforced on all teams? And here I don’t just mean enforcing uniform deportment, but mandating style in the same way that some soccer leagues enforce a common number and name font or rules on contrast between team uniform elements. Setting Uniform to 11!

Back in the 50s style was much more uniform between teams, with either plain jerseys or a few different stripe styles and college block numbers almost ubiquitous. So I came up with a “What If?” scenario based on a set of uniform rules being devised at that time and enforced ever since. What might that look like for the NFL teams now? These are the rules I have come up with for this project:

1. All jerseys, pants and socks must be the same for all players on a team (apart from number digits)
2. Teams must have a colour home and a white road jersey
3. Jersey and pants must be different colours
4. Pants and socks must be different colours
5. Helmet must have central stripe in 1-2-1 pattern
6. Helmet must have a team logo or wordmark on both sides
7. Face mask must be in team colours
8. Jersey sleeves must have stripes in Northwestern pattern in a single contrasting colour to the sleeve
9. Jersey stripes may be outlined in a different colour
10. Uniform must be unique within the league
11. Numbers must be college block, 10” front, 12” back and 4” TV numbers on shoulders
12. Number must be edged in contrasting colour unless team uniform is two colour only in which case edging can be the same colour
13. Pants must have side stripe in 1-2-1 pattern
14. Socks must have stripes in Northwestern pattern in a single contrasting colour to the sock
15. Sock stripes may be outlined in a different colour
16. Jerseys must be tucked into pants

I have created graphics for each team based on these rules using a simplified version of my usual template for the sake of clarity. For some teams I have done more than one version as the rules means the current colourway doesn’t work that well, or the team has several different looks I want to try. Before we crack on, some of you may remember that the WFL had a uniform ethos known as The Corporate Look that was along these lines. But the Birmingham Americans decided to get their uniforms made locally and messed the whole thing up, but still the idea was sound :)

So just how much uniformity is enough? Is this too much? I must admit it tickles my colours+sets OCD (in a good way) to see the NFL uniforms like this. Rather like the satisfaction you get from a good set of pool balls or the London Underground Map! But I can imagine it’s going to drive some UWers crazy, especially fans of teams with long-standing looks that this violates like the Cowboys or Bears.

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AFC North

Baltimore Ravens V1

This looks OK, but this shows for with any team with three colours plus white (purple, black and gold here) it can be tricky to fit to this template well.

Baltimore Ravens V2

I feel the Ravens look much better with a black jersey in this scheme and TBH any team called the Ravens probably should wear black, even if there are two other teams in the division in black too!

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Cincinnati Bengals

Clearly the Bengals striped helmet isn’t allowed so we need a logo. I went with the striped B as it looks more distinct at a distance than the Tiger head. The orange sleeves and black stripes at least give a tigery feel to the unis.

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Cleveland Browns

Under this scheme the Browns could have a logo, but I imagine it would be a simple wordmark (in the same way that Paul Brown’s Bengals used one). The uni has the feel of the 1984 re-design that only lasted one season.

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Pittsburgh Steelers V1

The Steelers already use a form of Northwestern stripes so this doesn’t feel too different although I am getting USFL ’83 Denver Gold vibes.

Pittsburgh Steelers V2

As the Steelers colours are just black and gold, they are entitled to just use those two in a uniform. These are very similar to the 1965 unis and I really like the road jersey sleeves.

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NFC North

Chicago Bears

These have the feel of Bears unis and I like the way the helmet stripe echoes the C logo. Under the rules there are no patches or perma-memorials so the GSH is gone.

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Detroit Lions V1

The Lions current unis are very close to this template already so don’t look that different apart from the excision of the LIONS wordmark and WCF perma-memorial.

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Detroit Lions V2

The Lions are currently doing a re-design and this could be something they might consider, based on their 1971-73 unis that use a darker shade of Honolulu blue.

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Green Bay Packers

Very similar to their current duds, these still feel like Packers unis to me.

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Minnesota Vikings

The Viking horns are a no-no so the obvious replacement is the Viking Head logo. Like the Eagles I think this could be a good alt-helmet for the real Vikings. I’ve discarded the black tertiary colour as it adds nothing using this template. The unis are reminiscent of their original 1961 set.

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Thanks, Chris! We’ll be back with additional divisional concepts soon.

Readers? What say you…