As you may recall, last month there were lots of rumors about the design of the Broncos’ new uniforms, which are slated to be unveiled in late April. The rumors were mostly based on two sources: a Twitter thread by a massage therapist named Mario Vetanze, and a series of message board posts by a pseudonymous person who goes by Brady2024. The information they posted about Denver’s new uniforms overlapped considerably, but not entirely.
I quickly interviewed Vetanze (a fairly obvious move that all the Broncos blogs and beat writers were apparently too lazy to do themselves), who struck me as a credible source. I also registered for the message board where Brady2024 had posted and let it be known that I was interested in talking with him. He did briefly get in touch with me, but he didn’t follow up and and nothing came of it.
Over the weekend, however, Brady2024 called me (I had given him my phone number) and said he was ready to talk as long as I kept his identity and his sources’ identities private. He gave me enough information about himself for me to confirm that he is who he claims to be. Although he does not work for the Broncos, he demonstrated to my satisfaction that he does indeed have access to certain people in the Broncos’ organization. In short, I view him as a credible source, which is why I’m writing this post.
Before I get to my interview with Brady2024, let’s review what he posted on that Broncos message board last month. He began with this, on Jan. 4:
For those who care about these things, the Broncos are getting new uniforms this year that will be unveiled around draft time. Whether you love them or hate them, the parentheses stripes are gone. Here’s what I know.
The colors are not changing — we remain orange, white, and navy. There is a new color being introduced but it is used sparingly as a trim element. It’s a light grayish blue, it makes things look frozen. A big theme of these new uniforms is mountain peaks and ice.
The Broncos will be moving to white helmets permanently. The helmet logo remains the horse head but it has a shiny finish to stand out from the white shell. The helmet stripe is a classic tri-stripe of navy-orange-navy. The facemask will be interchangeable based on uniform combos.
There are three new tops and one throwback. The new tops are orange, navy, and white. All tops have white shoulders. On the orange top there are blue mountains with the white acting as a snow cap, and have white numbers with topography lines of the Rocky Mountains on the inside of them. The navy uniforms are just navy and white with very little orange. The white uniforms are white and orange with very little navy and the only new top that doesn’t have blue mountains on the sleeve but instead has white ones with the new color marking their outline.
The throwbacks are of the ’80s variety with the classic “D” and the off-blue helmets to match.
The Broncos have three pants options with the white, navy, and orange tops, and they are white, navy, and orange. They feature no stripes but have “5280” stacked down the leg in the same color as the pants, so it’s subtle.
Just wanted to pass that along for the people who care about such things.
Two days later, in that same discussion forum thread, Brady2024 said:
Royal blue was on the table [as the primary helmet color] and tested very poorly. People saw it as too collegiate, evoking Florida or Boise State, and a fair amount even saying it looked too much like the Giants.
Two days after that, he said: “Someone reached out to me and made a pretty close mock-up. It’s not 1:1, but it gives you an idea.” He then linked to this concept image:
With all of that in mind, here’s a transcript of the conversation I had with Brady2024 on Sunday, edited for length and clarity:
Uni Watch: Have you personally seen these new uniform designs, or have they only been described to you?
Brady2024: I have seen the white jersey.
UW: Does that mean you’ve seen a photo, or you’ve seen a digital mock-up, or you’ve actually been in the same room with the physical uniform?
Brady2024: I held it in my hands.
UW: For the other ones, have you seen visuals, or they’ve just been described to you?
Brady2024: The white one is the only one I’ve seen physically. I saw a photograph of the throwback on somebody’s phone.
UW: So for the orange and navy jerseys, you haven’t actually seen anything on those. Is that accurate?
Brady2024: Correct.
UW: Have they been described to you?
Brady2024: Yes. They’re just like the white ones. I was told that they were inspired by the uniforms they wore when they had the bucking bronco with the star eyes on the helmet. So it’s gonna be, like, orange jersey with white shoulders —
UW: When you say when you say “shoulders,” do you mean the sleeves? Or what’s left of the sleeves, with modern football jerseys?
Brady2024: Yeah.
UW: You said you saw a photo of the throwback on someone’s phone. Do you currently have that photo yourself?
Brady2024: No.
UW: Whose phone was it?
Brady2024: [Redacted.]
UW: And for the descriptions that were given to you for the other jerseys, who gave you those descriptions?
Brady2024: [Redacted.]
UW: Do the jerseys have a big wordmark on the chest?
Brady2024: It’s not big. It almost looks like a font from Sharper Image. It’s a very small “Denver,” right underneath the NFL shield.
UW: Would you describe the number font as more of a classic font or more of a contemporary font?
Brady2024: It’s not really either of those. I’d say it’s angular. Like, it’s not curvy like the current one.
UW: You mentioned in your message board post that there’s a new team color, which you described as grey-ish blue. Can you explain how that fits into the overall design?
Brady2024: On the white jersey, there’s topographical elements. And they’re done in this very, very light blue. It’s almost like you can’t see it, like a very subtle accent.
UW: What do you mean when you say “topographical elements”?
Brady2024: If you’ve ever looked at an elevation map —
UW: Oh, you mean where there’s those wavy lines that indicate a certain elevation?
Brady2024: Yes.
UW: And you’re saying that those lines are included on the jersey, presumably to indicate a sense of mountains and altitude and all that? And that these lines are executed in this grey-ish blue?
Brady2024: Yes. They want this to represent Denver if somebody’s wearing it in person and you can see those details. But on the TV test and stuff like that, it just looks like classic, timeless uniforms.
UW: So from a distance, these topographical details don’t show up?
Brady2024: Right.
UW: Regarding the pants, you mentioned in your message board post that they have “5280,” which of course is the mile-high elevation, “stacked down the leg in the same color as the pants, so it’s subtle.” Can you explain what you mean by that? Like, if the numbers are in the same color as the pants, then how are they discernible at all?
Brady2024: Again, it’s another one of those things where, like, unless the camera has a close-up of it, you’re not really going to see it. So for all intents and purposes, they just have plain pants.
UW: And you say “plain” because there’s no striping on the pants, right?
Brady2024: Correct.
UW: Turning again to your message board post, you said that the white helmet would have classic center striping that goes navy/orange/navy. How does that compare with the striping on the alternate white helmet that was used this past season?
Brady2024: It’s basically the same. And then the helmet logo is the [current] bronco head, but with an outline so it stands out more on the helmet.
UW: You also mentioned — again in your initial message board post — that the helmet logo has a shiny finish.
Brady2024: It’s kind of like what the Cardinals just did.
UW: Sort of metallic sheen to the helmet logo?
Brady2024: Yeah. And that’s on the stripes as well.
UW: Again, quoting you from the message board, you said the facemasks will be interchangeable based on uniform combos. Are you saying there will be three facemask colors — orange, navy and white?
Brady2024: And the ice blue.
UW: So four different facemask colors?
Brady2024: Yeah. They really want a lot of combinations.
UW: Are there any internal rules for which facemask color has to go with a particular jersey color or pant color, or can the facemasks be mixed and matched at will?
Brady2024: I do not know the answer to that.
UW: You said they considered going back to a royal blue helmet but that it tested very poorly. I assume you’re referring to focus group testing that they did.
Brady2024: Yes.
UW: Is that something you were told, or were you involved in any way with the focus group testing?
Brady2024: That’s something I was told.
UW: Who told you that?
Brady2024: [Redacted.] I was told that they showed it to Broncos fans and non-fans, and they’re very strongly wanting to create their own identity.
UW: I don’t think you posted anything on the message board about the socks. Do you know anything about them?
Brady2024: Well, you’re gonna hate this, but they mostly just match the pants.
UW: So white socks with white pants, navy socks with navy pants, and so on?
Brady2024: Right.
UW: As you know, there’s another guy who’s been talking about the new uniforms — a trainer and massage therapist named Mario Vetanze. You probably saw I interviewed him. Have you had any communication or contact with him?
Brady2024: No. But we have some mutual friends.
UW: Overall, what do you think of the new uniform set?
Brady2024: I love it. I think it’s really, really cool. I feel like if you’re a Denver- or Colorado-born person, you’ll be proud of these uniforms.
UW: So you think fan response will be positive?
Brady2024: My honest opinion is that there’s going to be a lot of negativity on the day of the reveal. But when people see it on the field, and they see the entire vision start to come to life, I think they’ll come around to it.
UW: Why do you think there’ll be a lot of negativity at the beginning? Just because people don’t like change?
Brady2024: Yeah, I think people just don’t like change.
UW: Anything to add?
Brady2024: Just that they’re not looking to have a defined home jersey. They might wear white at home sometimes, depending on on how the team is feeling.
———
And there you have it. Do we know for sure that Brady2024’s account is accurate? No. But as I said earlier, I find him to be a credible source.
As for the design: I’ve said before that this sounds to me like the NFL’s first City Connect uniform. (And I don’t mean that in a good way.)
Incidentally, if Brady2024’s account turns out to be true, this won’t be the first time Nike has used the elevation lines on topographic maps as a form of “storytelling.” The Portland Trail Blazers’ 2020-21 City uniforms had the same gimmick:
You know it’s getting bad when Nike is double-dipping on its gimmickry.
If anyone knows more about Denver’s new uni set, feel free to be in touch. Anonymity assured, of course.
I’ll be curious to see how the mountains on the “sleeves” translate to shoulder pads. They look ok on a flat picture, but I don’t know if the effect will show when it’s stretched out.
If you want a general idea, Utah Utes had mountain sleeves in 2014 (coincidentally, the Utes also experimented with topographical lines on the uniforms back in 2010 when first switching to Under Armour).
Looking forward to 2029 when the Broncos ditch these are return to something very close to the orange crush uniforms.
Good interview though, the way Brady talks about the uniforms it all seems legit.
You and me both, Greg. As a lifelong Broncos fan, I’m already cringing at the description of these uniforms. I particularly hate the idea of the white helmets. Just no!
Bingo. This is the Cardinals & Falcons Part 3. All of these teams have great, simple vintage uniforms they should modernize and use. With both of the previous teams mentioned, I heard they were ditching their cartoonish late 90s, early 00s designs I thought, “great, I know what they’re going with, because why would they go with anything other than the obvious,” yet in both cases, they introduced slightly less cartoonish, but still pretty bad uniforms. They’re going down the same road here. The orange color rush uniforms are perfect, just do two more versions of those in navy and white and there you go. But this design sounds just as cartoonish and busy as the currents, if not more-so.
I’m just imagining 5 years of another Nike “story telling uniform” before something more traditional is introduced.
A topographic map of Denver itself would be largely devoid of lines since the city and everything east of it is pretty flat. Those lines don’t really get interesting until you get into the mountains. So I’m guessing the lines will just be gibberish for storytelling purposes.
That’s right, people are often surprised to learn that Denver is one of the flattest major cities in the country. Also that it’s not in the mountains or particularly close to them, or particularly snowy! I myself live in the mountains in Colorado so I’m fine with all of this imagery, it just doesn’t apply to Denver. Maybe they can switch to Colorado Broncos to go with these new Duds?
“…they’re very strongly wanting to create their own identity.”
I don’t understand their desire to try and achieve this when the Broncos already have a unique stripe pattern and number font…is that not an identity? Why try to harken back to a uniform element(the unique sleeve strip pattern) that most fans have never seen on the field live when you’ve already achieved what you wanted?
“Well, you’re gonna hate this, but they(the socks) mostly just match the pants.”
What is compelling Nike to give up on this uniform element? Is it such a big cost to Nike and the NFL to have striped socks?
I hate change for change sake almost as much as I hate it in thinly veiled attempt at a cash grab, and that’s all this seems to be. I’m going to put the Jets in this camp as well. I didn’t care for the black elements of their latest template, but it was still a decent look for what I think is a uniform design that aged(if you can consider 5 years aged) nicely.
There are very few times a team has a strong identity from their uniform in design elements themselves, the identity almost always comes down to the color scheme. The Broncos’ identity is very much a blue helmet with an orange jersey. The fact they are going to the white helmet actually hurts their identity. The various little gimmicky designs within the uniform will have no staying power. Outside of helmet logos themselves, I have a hard time thinking of NFL teams were the designs within their jerseys are a strong identity that people easily recognize. The Bengals tiger stripes. Chargers lightning bolts, outside of that I don’t think the average person would recognize the design (stripes, etc) sans colors, of a team’s jersey as iconic in anyway.
I think the Jets’ uniforms are actually pretty nice… just not on the Jets.
As a lifelong Broncos fan i’m not a fan of going away from blue based helmets.
Keeping navy is a win, always liked it better than the lighter blue
Kinda wishing we where getting the D logo updated, but i’m fine with cyberhorse staying
Like the thought of using the mid 60s jerseys as a template
No pants stripes or sock stripes seems dumb
Should keep the current number font
Hey Paul, quick question about the redacted names. There were three spots where names were redacted: the phone, the description of the other jerseys, and the description of the focus group. Were all three the same name?
No.
Interesting, thank you. That lends him some additional credibility if he’s got multiple sources.
Wish they’d just go back to the buckin’ bronco look of the 60s. Those are great uniforms! Or just stick with what they have. Never liked the white helmets. Doesn’t feel Bronco-y at all to me.
Sounds not too promising: very gimmicky uniform and another white helmet we are not waiting for. The lack of striping on the pants and socks is also a minus. This will go the usual way by now: replaced again in 5 years by Nike designers who do not give a hoot about team sports.
The royal blue D helmet testing poorly? That’s a bunch of BS.
And if it came down to the “SB winning color” navy blue version of the D helmet, pretty sure most Broncos fans would go with that if the royal was considered too “SB losing”.
Anyway, that whole comment about being uniquely Denver sounds to me more like the WalMart folks trying to recreate the Broncos in THEIR own brand.
These uniforms sound dreadful. No way the horse-head logo beat out the horse-D logo.
Like the dude said above. Looking forward to the 2029 re-design. Or 2025 when they make the throwbacks the permanent home uniform, a la Jets Sack Exchange.
Denver has always been one of my #2 teams. Hope my Lions don’t fall prey to this Nike bs.
The royal blue D helmet testing poorly? That’s a bunch of BS.
And you know this because..?
Anecdotally speaking, if you drive around or live in Denver, you’ll absolutely see the old D logo around town more than the current horse head logo. This includes people wearing broncos gear (not uniforms), and flags in yards, decals on cars etc. Again, this is based on me paying attention to this for years but the D logo seems to be way more popular around the city.
It’s certainly anecdotal, but I would strongly agree with this. Even after 25 years, the royal blue and the d-horse logo are far more popular among Broncos fans in Denver than the current cartoon design. By far the most common Broncos hat and Broncos shirt you see worn around town is royal blue with the d-horse logo. As a non-Broncos fan living in Denver I’ve always thought that’s kind of funny that nobody actually wants to wear their current design colors and logo.
Completely agree. I have no idea who these Broncos fans are who claim to hate the royal blue look are but they certainly aren’t common in Denver. If these rumors are true I expect these uniforms to last the minimum 5 years
My guess is, these focus groups skew young, heavily weighted towards the demographics that buy the most merch. Longtime Broncos fans of a certain age–however well represented they are w/r/t yard signs, decals, etc.–probably aren’t the main target.
As a longtime resident of the Denver/Boulder area, I must agree. Orange Crush era colors are beloved.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s BS, but that raised my eyebrow too.
I live in Colorado, and the throwback royal-and-orange look seems pretty popular, although I’m sure there are plenty of people who prefer the navy. It doesn’t seem like a clear-cut majority or strongly-held popular opinion either way, outside of their focus groups.
Whatever they offer up will sell, because its a geographically broad fan-base that generally has money to spend and is pretty supportive of the team, quarterback disasters notwithstanding.
Stripe less pants on another new uniform and with same colored socks. ** vomit emoji ** Can we fast forward to a place in time where the yoga/leggins look and shirts having out is banned?
No stripes on the pants just brings me back to the 90’s college football era. Finally, that went away. For the most part.
Bad things come in threes: No stripes on the pants (I don’t get this trend at all), socks matching pants (leotard shit) and the number font (angular? quoting SNL, “you are beautiful and angular). Ugh. The mountainous design on the sleeves will likely look interesting on some, bad on others, depending on how they prefer to wear them. Overall, this particular aspect seems like it will become outdated most quickly.
I don’t mind the white helmet as much as some seem to. I just hate the idea of the inevitable white/orange/orange or white/blue/blue looks, which will suck. If they stick to white pants with the blue or orange jersey, might look fine.
Someone earlier remarked this feels like change for change’s sake. I think I agree. If you remove the parenthesis and side panels from the existing set, it would be much improved with traditional stripes on the helmet and pants. I like the horse head logo, although I know many don’t. I’m one that never liked the ink blot bronco from way back or the D with a horse logo.
Those lines on topographic maps are typically referred to as “contour lines”.
Thank you for teaching me that!
In addition to the Blazers alternate jersey from a few years back, contour lines were also featured as a pattern on the uniforms of the Swiss soccer team in a recent men’s World Cup.
Many, many, orienteering club and national team jerseys feature local contours of the areas they represent, but that makes sense as a design “gimmick”, since orienteers actually race with topographical maps in their hands.
Great scoop Paul, and sad news. The mid-60s contrasting sleeve design WAS what they should have done. That or the 70s- early 90s uni (with contrasting pants of course) which was recently their Color Rash look. The ‘mountain’ is a direct ripoff of the Nuggets. And the Rockies for that matter. Not to mention very minor league. And the 5280… that was cheesy when the Nuggets did it. I’m probably in the minority here, but I actually like the number font. That is their trademark from their Super Bowl wins. I’d keep it with the orange 70s stripes. Two eras of history; a double ‘harkback’.
The helmet logo remains the horse head but it has a shiny finish to stand out from the white shell.
So a white horse in the snow?
That’s not going to stand out very much.
I’m starting to feel like Roger Murtaugh…
As noted twice in the article, it will have an outline to help it stand out.
Yes, so it *will* stand out… just not very much.
An orange pants option is included in the re-fit?
Geez – not looking forward to seeing that. Woof!
As for the rest – taking a wait-and-see approach here…on the field, these combos might appeark better than described/mocked-up.
The Broncos have been a modern/less-traditional team for decades – I’m OK with them leaving the “80’s variety with the classic D” look as a mere change-of-pace one. It’s a tough mountain to climb uni-wise when you’re competing with the likes/looks of KC, LV and SD, err…LA.
Another team overthinking things. The classic look is best…..geez.
I really try to be open minded to things and not judge unit before I actually see them, but if these reports are accurate (and I see no reason to doubt they are) this is going to be a cluster-you know what of a uniform.
I’ve said this before but it’s sad that I no longer look forward to uniform reveals, they’re just not designed with me (us) in mind. I now expect the worst and hope for ok. It all sounds dumb (conture lines? Really?), the helmet sounds palatable at least, the NFL sock situation continues to be depressing. It just doesn’t matter, the reaction will be negative and guess what they’ll still sell like hotcakes, and then that will make the powers that be (Broncos brass, but let’s be honest NIke) that their design decisions were correct. In reality fans are so dedicated that they want to support their team, regardless of how the look, and fans continue to take advantage of that fact.
My BS detector is going off for one big reason…
Brady 2024 says he’s only see the white uniform and hasn’t seen the orange jersey. But when someone make a mock-up of an orange jersey, which he says he’s never seen, he said it was accurate.
I know a lot of the time home and away jerseys are just color swapped versions of each other. But still, this makes me skeptical of him.
They should permanently go back to brown and mustard.
link
That set has always been a guilty pleasure for me.
It’s arguably the most visibly distinct of their visual identities, although my sense is that the yellow & brown is not very widely appreciated. Judging by the stated reasons for avoiding royal blue (too similar to other teams such as Boise State), it’s probably too similar to University of Wyoming (Cheyenne is not too far from Denver) for their criteria.
And don’t forget the striped socks!
Hey Paul. I like the pic of your cat, but my attention immediatley went to the blanket – i believe that’s called a “Afghan” blanket. My grandma and my aunts waaaay back when i was a kid in the 80’s would make them and my parents had one too that i would use. I used to love sticking my fingers thru the holes. Just curious, have you ever done any posts on those? There’s so many styles and colors and they are seemingly something that was VERY popular back in the day.
Interesting! Just a few years ago the Univ. of Utah football team wore uniforms with mountains on the shoulders. And, If I recall, at some point they also had a topographical design element on jersey numbers.
Nothing is gonna look more collegiate than copying element from a college football team.
The lack of pant stripes and the same-colored socks are unwelcome news. I’m looking forward to seeing this new set, but I don’t think I’m going to like it.
White helmets make some sense for any team with cowboy or wild-west imagery, but I think everybody having white helmets is a downgrade. I’m tired of all these teams unveiling all-white sets and pretending like its creative (take a drink when someone calls it “clean”). Also, the AFC West already has the Chargers in white helmets. Denver as a blue helmet team is something that makes more sense to me.
The talk about creating an identity is pretty confusing to me, because I feel that the Broncos have a clear-cut visual identity already. They pretty much own the blue/orange/white (hat/jersey/pants) combo, so it seems like they’re trying to fix something that isn’t broken there. It seems like their conflating “visual identity” with “bag of gimmicks.”
As others have noted, the reported focus-group resistance to the royal blue is surprising, because I live in Colorado and I see lots of people displaying throwback merchandise with the royal-and-orange scheme. I think focus groups are overemphasized in general; every terrible uniform you can think of probably passed through a focus group at some point (bespoke digital clock number font!). I’m not convinced that the group-think actually improves designs all that much.
I also think its silly to focus on so many design elements that are invisible from a distance.
Happy to see an update coming, but I don’t think this one is going to be much of a keeper.
Alright, I’ve been sitting with this for a minute, and I have a bit of a bone to pick. A little bit about me first just for context I guess, I’ve been visiting this blog for years now, however I’m a habitual lurker and only comment once in a blue moon. So you know, Hi guys! I’m the guy who’s been standing in the corner this whole time lol. I am a Colorado native, I’m a Broncos die hard, and I’ve watched every game, save maybe 5 due to work and before the invention of the DVR, since 1997, which was an AWSOME year to start being a Broncos fan. That’s the year I moved to Denver from elsewhere in Colorado and had new friends that were sports fans for the first time. The Broncos are one of my favorite subjects in all of conversation, and as such I constantly seek out new and Better Broncos content all the time. I’m not saying I actively listen to everyone, but I bet your be hard pressed to find anyone I haven’t atleast given a shot. What I’m trying to say is that I’m as plugged into Broncos Country as anyone, if I may toot my own horn.
Which brings me to my problem.
“a fairly obvious move that all the Broncos blogs and beat writers were apparently too lazy to do themselves” – Paul Lukas
First, the whole insinuation is that this story isn’t being covered in Broncos Country, which considering the original source is the teams own forum seems a little misleading. But that’s not a blog nor was it an interview, so maybe I’m just making a mountain out of a molehill of semantics, fair enough. I suppose “MOST the Broncos blogs and beat writers” would be perfectly fair.
The real kicker however is “lazy”. Which brings me to Mike High Mario Vatenze.
Here’s some inside scoop for all you national readers of UniWatch, Paul “Super detective” Lukas is not the person to discover Mile High Mario in the sports world. If you know where to look, and a lot of people in Broncos County do, you’ve known about Mile High Mario for a while. Because he’s a frequent guest on a YouTube show called Let’s talk Broncos. It’s a good show. The team is made up of some passionate Broncos fans, a local radio personality, and as I mentioned, Mile High Mario. Mario is extremely funny for any of you guys that have not actually heard him talk, and he has a very entertaining report with another one of the hosts, Zack (or Zach).
So no big deal, just the show where your source work,s who have totally, albeit briefly, talked about the new unis.
Anyway they’re a smaller channel but think they do great! They may not have a former player on their panel or anything but they got their press pass, they’re traveling when need to, they have a guy that watches film (although I don’t watch enough film to tell you if he does a good job, but he’s definitely putting in the work), they have a cap expert and hot take guy ( who I CAN tell you does an excellent job because cap management and team building is something I geek out on myself). They do multiple shows a week and they try to bring content from different angles.
In fact the one thing I WOULDN’T call them is “lazy”. In fact in fact, as someone who consumes content from all around Broncos Country literally daily, there’s quite a few blogs and beat writers I wouldn’t describe as “lazy”.
Here’s a fun fact!
Did you know the Colorado Buffaloes, due to coach Prime, were one of the most popular college teams to cover this year?
Did you also know that Colorado debuted several new uniforms this season by surprise? No fanfare, no media, just showing up on game day with something new on.
I knew that!
You know where I didn’t get that information?
UniWatch. Paul “Lord of Uniforms” Lukas. And let me tell you I looked. I was actively looking for it. Unless it got buried in a ticker because I don’t read all of those or unless you put it on your Substack, but even then you usually at least give a teaser here at UniWatch. I mean considering we just got done talking about other riveting content like a copyright sign disappearing and some belt loops getting changed, I would think the hottest team in college football showing up in new, unannounced, versions of their unis THROUGHOUT THE SEASON would be just thing a place like this would be interested in.
But they didn’t guys! That’s so weird! Gee golly, the only explanation must be that Paul “Sherlock Holmes asked ME for advice” Lukas is just lazy right?! I mean right guys? That’s the only possibility. Paul and UniWatch are just lazy.
And here’s another scoop for you. The rumor is the Buffs are also getting new unis this year.
You know where I learned that?
Not UniWatch.
Look, you guys remember when Sean Payton talked trash on Nate Hackett, and it was just a real bad look, talking down about a colleague and all that?
That’s you now!
Paul “The NEW Sean Payton” Lukas!
I hope everybody, Including Mr. Lucas, can pick up on the sarcasm and perhaps a bit of satire in some of my above comments. I have a lot of respect for the work done here. But I found that comment to be rude, and just as necessary as it was accurate.
You could have said “thanks to these sources for giving me an early scoop that allowed us to get on top of this story before most sources”
You could of said “wow!, it was really interesting to find some new sources that aren’t part of the mainstream yet, and gave me a scoop that nobody else has right now”.
Instead everyone else is lazy. Lazy indeed.
PS.
I happen to do graphic design for a living. Got a bachelor’s degree and everything. That means that when it comes to design and aesthetics, my opinion is just as educated and as valid as anybody’s, including UniWatch and even Nike. That said, aesthetics are subjective and while my opinions may be “educated” that doesn’t mean it makes someone else’s invalid. We all have opinions and preferences, it’s not always about right vs wrong. That’s good advice that occasionally gets forgotten here, no offense to anyone. I told you that so I can tell you this.
Purple is an AWSOME color, and anyone who doesn’t think so is an idiot.
Have a great day everyone!
Believe me, I was no “super-detective.” Mario was easy to reach. If he’s such a well-known quantity in BroncosWorld, why didn’t anyone interview him about the new uniforms?
Frankly, it didn’t take much legwork to interview Brady2024 either. Just some patience.
I’m happy to have these scoops, but it’s pretty sad that nobody else bothered to interview these guys. I’m not claiming that I did anything spectacular. On the contrary, the fact that I’m the only one who spoke to these guys says a lot more about the rest of the Broncos’ media world than it does about me.
As for college football, I make no secret of the fact that I don’t much care about it and rarely cover it (although Phil covers it, and I know we had the Buffs news in the Ticker). Is that a gap in my coverage? Yup! Fortunately, you had plenty of other places to read about the Buffs.
But you have nowhere else to read interviews with Mario Vetanze and Brady2024, because nobody did those interviews but me. Again, that doesn’t say much about me, but it says plenty about people covering the Broncos.
Awww, you posted it! That thing was sitting in moderation so long I was starting to think you wouldn’t. Thanks for doing that!
Look guys, I’ve read your comments and it feels like not everyone understood the point. That’s my fault, I was trying to ham it up in what I was hoping was a very obvious way, but it’s 2024, and I guess culture is so outrageous that nobody can tell the difference anymore. So I’m sorry.
Here’s a spoiler alert:
I don’t actually think Paul Lukas and UniWatch are lazy.
I don’t actually care if UniWatch covered the Buffaloes, (although I’ll say I respectfully disagree with the alleged reason for not doing so)
I do not care or have any complaints about effort of interviews.
The only thing I had a problem with is calling the effort of my local community “Lazy”. I think putting other people down in order to prop yourself up is a very ugly thing to do, and I wanted to tease the usually very nice and wholesome Paul Lukas for momentarily getting up on his high horse and sticking his nose in the air at people who’s effort I personally appreciate.
Paul called an entire group of people lazy because they haven’t covered a story yet to his satisfaction, so I pointed out a story he didn’t cover and called him lazy. Is UniWatch lazy for not covering the Buffs, obviously no. Which also mean they are also not lazy because they haven’t covered a story Paul has. Get it. And I was practically tripping over myself trying to make it obvious what I was doing.
That’s all guys. And I’ll die on this hill. It was a crappy thing to do.
I mean goodness you’d think a group of people that sit around getting all worked up about the socks some 20 year old is wearing would have a sense of humor (that’s a joke!). So you can put your torches and pitchforks down, nobody is coming for your leader.
The response I was hoping for was a “Yeah, yeah, ha ,ha. I get it. I’ll edit the comment”, with maybe a return snarky comment.
But that’s Ok. You guys have no sense of humor, and you are very serious about copyright signs. That’s ok, I’m still glad you guys are here!
Thank you to Paul Lukas and UniWatch for putting up with tomfoolery. In the future please refrain from putting others down to stroke your own ego. In my opinion it’s beneath you. At least I think it is. We’ve never met or anything but usually this community usually strike me as some very nice people. Instead maybe be happy you got the scoop first!
Have a wonderful evening everyone!
Paul called an entire group of people lazy because they haven’t covered a story yet to his satisfaction.
Actually, that is false. I called them lazy for not pursuing a specific interview with a specific source — a source who you yourself say is well-known in the Broncos community. I never said they didn’t cover the rumors; I said they didn’t bother to go to the *source* of the rumors. There’s a difference.
That said, I appreciate your tone and the spirit in which you’re posting here — thanks for that!
I had no idea comments could be this long. Wow.
When they’re that long, they get flagged as spam, but then I can approve/liberate them, as I did in this case.
You can choose to be critical all you want of Paul regarding this particular story, but if you are a frequent reader of uni watch you’d know why he didn’t bother covering new uniforms for the University of Colorado (either this past season or the announcement of new ones coming next season). Save a small few programs, college teams roll out new and one-off uniforms so frequently it really doesn’t merit coverage on here, and is why Paul really doesn’t get into it. I think most people agree with that position, new happens so frequently in NCAA football that there needs to be something noteworthy about the new uniforms to merit discussion.
Colorado’s new uniforms debuted Labor Day weekend, which is traditionally “closed” on Uni Watch — I had just finished another August doing the blog every day. But during the first “Saturday Morning Uni Watch”, which covered all the games played through Labor Day, Terry Duroncelet (my SMUW guy) had coverage of their new unis, and I went back and checked and the Buffs were covered several times throughout the College Football season, especially when they introduced new looks or combos.
When it was announced they would have new uniforms for 2024, I tweeted this (link) and I’m pretty sure it was included in the ticker.
If you read weekends, then you’d know we covered Colorado and Prime a LOT this year.
Great scoop PL.
I’d probably get laughed out of the room for pointing this out in any other venue, but maybe the minutia-minded Uni Watch community will appreciate it…
The city of Denver owns a piece of land around Echo Lake, below the summit of Mt. Blue Sky. That property reaches an elevation of 11,057 ft. above sea level. While it lies outside the governmental boundaries of Denver, it is fully owned by the city. That technically means that Denver has one of the greatest elevation ranges of any city in the US.
Just something to think about when considering whether mountains should be part of Denver’s identity.
Now *that* is a great bit of trivia. Thank you!
Loved the reference to “The Sharper Image” font. I spent a decade working there, and in my time we had 2 separate fonts. The first, for most of the company existence, was very sports based, matching the blocky angular look of football jersey numbers. The second was a sleek, “stealth” look designed by ad firm Goodby Silverstein, meant to be more edgy. The logo the company that owns the IP of Sharper Image uses is a softer, more compact version of the “stealth” logo, designed to fit in in any department store. I actually think the new Denver wordmark is closest to the “stealth” logo, myself.
Nope. I’m not gonna like this.