Good morning Uni Watch! It’s Friday — we made it.
It’s August…so you know what that means: “ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL”?
The NFL’s 2024 Season officially kicked off last evening, with the first pre-season game of the year, the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. For last night’s game, the Chicago Bears took on the Houston Texans, with the Bears the designated “Home” team.
As you’re all no doubt aware, the Texans were one of several teams to introduce new uniforms for the 2024 season. Click on that link for Paul’s take on the new uniforms.
With the Texans as the road team, they wore their new away uniforms. Before we look at them in action, here’s a quick refresher…
You may recall, Paul wasn’t too kind to the new road unis in his writeup.
We already saw this more than a month ago. Personally, I hate it. Tapered stripes usually look best if they taper toward the back, providing a sense of forward motion. The front-tapering horns just feel awkward and forced. Also, no TV numbers, and the number font still sucks. … So far, they’ve only shown this jersey paired with navy pants, but I suspect they’ll do a bit of mixing and matching once the season starts.
Last night the Texans went blue/white/blue/white (the same combination shown in their unveiling). Here’s how they looked on the field.
For many unveilings, I’ll say “I’ll need to see these on the field to give a full opinion,” but what we saw at the unveiling was pretty much exactly what we got on the field.
While the helmet is new, it’s basically the same helmet as the team previously wore, except they added their new “H-Town” logo on the back of the helmet. But the jersey and pants are brand new. The team says these are a “traditional design with a modern edge,” and marketing-speak aside, I’d say that’s a pretty apt description.
The jersey’s most prominent feature is the “horn/stripe” on the sleeve caps wrapping to the front of the jersey. I think it’s pretty gimmicky and completely unneeded; they could just as easily made the horns plain stripes.
As you can see, because it’s the road jersey, it has “HOUSTON” in red block letters. Numbers are new, and naturally in a bespoke font, and rather thick at that. They are blue with a red outline. The shoulder “horns” are blue, with a thin red line inside the blue design that doesn’t fully extend. You can see how the red stripe stops on the shoulder cap, with the blue horn extending onto the front of the shoulders.
It’s impossible to see in any photos, but the numbers actually have perforations.
Jersey backs feature the Texans logo on the collar, with a block blue NOB beneath. Numbers are in the same pattern and style as on the front.
Before we get to the pants, because the Bears (midnight/midnight/white/midnight) uniforms are almost color inverses of Houston’s, it looked a bit like a scrimmage on the gridiron. Houston’s navy is basically midnight dark and that’s almost identical to the shade the Bears wear. Now — I don’t actually mind “scrimmage looking” games, but I know a number of you don’t.
The above photo gives you a good look at the Texans’ pants. When I first saw them, I was not a fan of the asymmetrical pants stripe, with a thick red/thin white stripe. I’m actually OK with that. But what I don’t like at all is the truncation — if you look closely the stripe terminates at the top, leaving a blue gap between the end of the stripe and the jersey (or untucked undershirt as the case may be).
The thing is: the “blank” space isn’t really blank. There’s actually a Texans logo in the void where the stripe ends and the waist. But with most guys wearing their undershirts untucked, it’s rarely seen. And even when it is visible, it’s almost impossible to make out at any distance. They should have simply made the pants stripe the full pant length.
In addition to the mostly untucked shirts, most of the players are hiking their pants up even higher this year than last. Some players even have them at biker short length (especially the kickers). I get that this is the new “style,” and I don’t want to sound like an old man screaming at the clouds, but this is still going to take some getting used to.
Overall? I liked the old Texans uniforms, but these aren’t that big a departure from their previous set. They still “look like the Texans” in these unis.
Here are a couple videos showing the uniforms in motion.
1️⃣8️⃣ x 2️⃣2️⃣ = 6️⃣
📺 » ESPN/ABC pic.twitter.com/m5lolqq5nN
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) August 2, 2024
DAVIS TO TEAGAN FOR THE TD ‼️ pic.twitter.com/H9y4TlmNLH
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) August 2, 2024
The Hall of Fame Game also gave us our first look at the new NFL kickoff rule. I may end up doing a separate article on this with Jimmer Vilk (as he’s a big USFL/UFL guy and they have a similar setup in that league), and it’s too long to explain in a short space. Fortunately, this article gives an excellent explainer.
And here’s some video of how the new kickoffs will look:
WTF IS THIS…Exciting news from the gridiron! The highly anticipated Dynamic Kickoff makes its grand debut in the Hall of Fame game. Get ready for some electrifying football action! 🏈⚡ #NFL #DynamicKickoff #HallofFameGame pic.twitter.com/ilfDjTLcVG
— 3 Ps & A Pod (@3Ps_Pod) August 2, 2024
Confused? This might help:
The New NFL kickoff rule, the dynamic kickoff, explained before the first official game where it is used. The Hall of Fame Game might have some juice! I think @PatMcAfeeShow has the better graphics though! pic.twitter.com/ZuktGTFz5O
— HELP JOSH ALLEN (@Syracuse_Eric) August 2, 2024
Anyway, the new kickoff rule will definitely take some getting used to, but it’s supposed to be more exciting (as more kicks will be returned) and safer (as guys won’t be hitting each other after a 25-yard sprint). It’s going to be used for the full season on a 1-year trial basis. The change may be continued next season, or changed, or even possibly scrapped altogether. It’s something the NFL will be monitoring all season. I know I’ll need to see a few of these before I can say I like it — I’ve watched a few of these from the UFL, and Jimmer sent me a link of an actual touchdown being scored with the new safety rule, so if it leads to more action and fewer injuries, then I’m all for it.
Well. Now that you’ve seen the new Texans road unis in action, are they still as bad/good, better/worse, or about what you expected? What do you think of the new unis in general? Let’s have your thoughts and comments!
Plusses: I’m definitely warming to the pants stripe. It’s different, but it feels okay. Not so worried about it finishing before the belt.
Minuses: The horns rise *way* higher on the front of the jersey than I suspected. They look like the hideous Jets “stripes” from last year, inverted. The number font is also brutal.
These unis do a great job in storytelling, provided the story is that it’s a shitty expansion team with no idea what the hell it’s doing, where it’s been, or where it’s going. I think they nailed it.
Well, the Texans are basically still an expansion team that hasn’t been anywhere. It’s not like the Cowboys adjusted their font and striping, although if Dallas released their current uniforms in 2024 this place would EXPLODE with negativity about the mismatching blues and silvers, black on the white sleeve stripe, wearing white at home and essentially mothballing the blues, having a white throwback and fauxback, etc. T
What? Many of us have been dogging the Cowboys since the inception of Uni Watch.some are okay with the quirkiness… not I, dawg.
Guess socks are a thing of the past. Much like stirrups in baseball.
Unfortunately :(
I don’t really like the don’t but otherwise it’s a solid uniform. The “horn” stripe may be a touch gimmicky but I think it works and you can’t sit around and be critical of the movement towards “clean” and then hand wring a team going a bit outside the box. Most importantly when I clicked on the game there was zero doubt it was the Texans.
Still hate them, as a Texans fan. Makes us look like a G5 team.
I like them!
They still look like the Texans, and let’s face it… their original unis were solid but they were just…there. From the neck down, nothing about the previous unis moved me at all.
The horns are a nice touch.
I’m kinda of the opposite mindset. The Texans had a simple but underrated uniform. In fact, if they were an older team, we’d maybe even talking about it being a classic look. But rather than leave simple alone, they add horn stripe gimmicks and H-town logos, and new number fonts (although the font alone isn’t awful in my opinion). Just feels like so many uniforms: they’re trying too hard.
I don’t understand why the blue is so dark. Looking at the rear view of Akers’ jersey, it appears that the colour used on the Texans logo is noticeably lighter than the rest of the uniform.
I miss the red numbers. Added some color. These look a lot more bland.
I think you hit the nail on the head Phil when you said you can still tell these are the Texans which is a nice job by the designers for not treating this like a do over. I found the prior set to be a little boring, and these, for me, are a little more interesting without being outrageous. I would rate these as a slight improvement.
GTGFTS: 1988 World Series Game 2. The game after Kirk Gibson hit his walk-off homer.
Correct game, but the Gibson homer was Game 1. This was a run-of-the-mill 6-0 shutout in which Orel Hershiser got as many hits as he allowed in the game (3).
um…he said the game AFTER Kirk Gibson hit the walk off home run
Here’s my ‘men can’t tell colors’ opinoin: I know Chicago uses nnavy, but I can’t tell if Housont was wearing black. They all looked the same!
Also, those kickoffs are crazy!
This isn’t one of those “today I learned” moments, but it was only a couple of years ago that I learned that the Texans wear blue and not black. Since their inception it was always so dark that I considered it black. No other team that I am aware of has such a dark hue of blue. It’s a bit like my dad’s hair color. I think it’s black. He describes it as very dark brown.
Really? You see this and think black? link
I’m assuming the little steer logo is on both sides of the pants. Is the running back above wearing a blue shirt that’s covering it on his left side? If so, from looking at the pics, it gives the effect of the little logo missing on some players. If it is on both sides I understand it’s just a matter of the long undershirts covering it on one side or the other as the players move, etc., but it just makes whole idea of it stupid. Folks, either have no stripes, or have them extend all the way up. Geesh. I do like the look of the wide stripe and thin one together though.
Re the horns on the jerseys, it’s a silly change, but I don’t think it looks all bad. Not an improvement, though, and those numbers blow.
Meh. The Texans uniforms were fine the way they were, and I liked that they had the TV numerals on the sleeves below the shoulder stripes. These ones, I agree that the “horns” on the sides look stupid curving up toward the front; by “stupid” I mean “backward,” like they put the bull’s left horn on the right side and vice-versa. The Jets’ “wing” stripes had the same problem, with the plane’s left wing on the right side &c.; Nike should really stop trying this.
The new numeral font is also terrible, and again, was fine the way it was. I said it then and I’ll say it now, the Texans did not need a new look. This isn’t a huge downgrade, but it’s a downgrade.
If you’ve ever looked at a bull face to face, that’s what their horns look like. They curl up towards you, which is how they can hook something and toss it like a rag doll.
Yes, I see that now.
These, honestly, don’t look as bad on the field as I thought. As a matter of fact, I think they will grow on me. With everyone wearing their shirts untucked, I don’t think the truncated pants stripe is really an issue. I actually like the pants stripes. And, I actually like the “H-town” jerseys too (just not with the mono-look).
GTGFTU
since it shows no other team, it could be either 49ers vs packers 2010
or rams vs packers 2011
Look more closely…
Defensive player has gold pants with a hint of a red stripe, so I’m going with 49ers.
That has to be it. I was at that game, in fact: 12/5/10 against San Francisco (with an impressive Donald Driver TD catch).
I’m gonna say 11/16/2014 Eagles 20 at Packers 53. Corey Linsley is the center and he was a rookie that year.
That’s Scott Wells, not Linsley. The Packers didn’t wear Reebok unis in 2014.
It’s funny, I feel like this season the NFL and NCAA have officially swapped. So many college teams going back to their glory days of basics and stripes while NFL is throwing ugly word marks on the front and doing other wonky things.
Spot on
I was at the HOF game last night. Thankfully, our group was smart enough to leave at halftime before the deluge. I was able to be at field level when several of the players from both teams came out. Even from a distance, the Bears uniforms are very distinct. The Bears look like the Bears we’ve always known. As the Texans players approached me, aside from the carryover logo on the side of the helmets, I wouldn’t have recognized them if I hadn’t already known they were playing. The Texans uniforms looked really bland. The number font, although custom, appeared generic. They didn’t “feel” like the Texans. And a main culprit of this is their midnight navy looks black. As players were walking side by side, Houston’s navy looked darker than Chicago’s navy. I don’t know if the Pantones back me up on this, but that’s how they appeared.
These aren’t good. Everything they changed from their previous uniforms are worse than before. The sleeve horn stripes are horrible,
I really liked the Texans first and only other set. Would have been a classic if they just kept it until the end of time
The new kickoff rules gave me a concussion. Thanks, NFL!
At least the players were wearing white hosiery rather than the “navy” shown in the promo ad. I probably wouldn’t have noticed the pant stripe if it wasn’t pointed out. The number font is lousy.
I’d give them a D+/C- because they have the bones of a decent uniform but the details drag them down.
The shorter the pants get, the more I think they look like Steve Urkel.
Genuinely, I liked them on TV a lot more than I liked them in photos. I think the stripe works better than I expected it to on the jersey, and in general I think it’s white actually pretty strong. They definitely still look like the Texans. Not super excited for the red set or the Houston alternate set, But then primary white and blue sets should be good. I think given that this game looked OK.
I think the Texans should have adopted the new pants design, and left everything else the same. My one issue with the prior look was that the logo, shirt stripes, and number font were all curves and angles, and the straight blocky stripes on the pants didn’t mesh with the rest of it. (I do hope they wear the red pants with the home and away jerseys sometimes. That would be cool.)
I think the sleeve stripes effectively evoke bull horns. The home blue jersey has TV numbers and a Texans logo instead. I’m not sure which is better, but I don’t like the inconsistency.
All in all, I don’t think they’re better or worse than the previous look.
The number font is the BIG deal breaker for me. I can’t unsee certain numbers (2 and 4 in particular) attempting to look like bull heads. The horns are not bad in theory and look acceptable from the side. From the front the execution is weak. Maybe if they stretched further toward the chest or had a stronger upward curve, but they just fail an otherwise okay idea to me. The pant stripes are not my cup of tea. The rams do this too. One mega stripe, one baby stripe. Why? Match the “stripe” pattern on the sleeve horn. Or, since the horn is thick navy, thin red, thick navy, and the pants are navy, just do a thin red stipe. And I don’t care that the stripes don’t go all the way up, but… just make them go all the way up.
Don’t show me the ACME Packers, right now. Not after the Winter Warning reveal. This should be their alternate.
And to be honest (I’m not a pack fan, so nothing is really sacred) I’d prefer if they used the big dot design now. Just put it on a green uni, tan pants. The white uni can have a green dot and yellow numbers, green pants.
Thank God TeamBuilder is in Madden this year. Texans, among others, will be getting real updated uniforms.
These Texan uniforms being ‘new’ really is an insult to intelligence. Need a jewelers loop to see the differences from the old.
The design communication of these “uniforms” is just comically bad. the horns disappear into the rear armpit, both horns then point inward (like no longhorns ever) and then point as if they are going to gore the player in the face. IF Nike insists on costume-ifying NFL uniforms, could they atleast have had the horns the right direction, then connect them across the chest plate. A simple tweak like this would at least make a player running look like a charging bull, rather than these horrendous, disjointed elements.
Texans had boring duds before so paralel move. The shoulder horns look good from the front and confusing and off-kilter at best from the side/back. Pants stripe is ok except wtf with the gap at the top. Do not like that look.
I’m totally blind to this navy. It looks black to me. The Bears look black. The Yankees and Tigers look black. I’m told a large % of men have the same blindness. Women easily see the blue. So yeah to me The Texans went from blue to black in this move.
And finally, tuck your shirt in good grief. All this hooey about looking good on the field and you run around looking like you just woke up in a clothes hamper. WTF?
Wear skin tight jerseys to reduce players being able to grab you. The, wear a baggy ass undershirt sticking out from underneath it? I have never understood that.
Personally, I don’t actually think the number font is that bad. The uniforms have some good design, but are executed poorly, and I think they would look quite nice (or at least okay) if they kept their old uniforms but with the new numbers
Regarding the new Texans uniforms: I haven’t pulled up a comparison, but if I were glancing at the screen, I would have thought I was watching a Falcons game. The uniforms look almost identical to me. So it’s gonna be a no from me, dawg. Unimaginative and bland at best.
I actually don’t mind the Texans uniforms. Maybe I’m just happy they went with navy pants and white socks instead of mono white or leotard blue from the waste down. They look somewhat sharp, they just really aren’t a big enough departure from the last set to move the needle much. I guess the horns on the jersey are a more distinctive look then generic striping, so there’s that. And, I like the number font.
These aren’t terrible. I was never a massive fan of the original Texans look so I would say at worst it’s neutral
* Really like the pants stripe
* The horns work for me. They are different and I’ll be interested to see them with the Red horn helmet. That said they do look like the inverted Jets stripes.
* Numbers are odd but not distractingly so
* The wordmark is just the right size to not be offense. In general I don’t like them but that’s probably about as big as I would go. Jets and browns went another size up and that’s when it gets bad.
Y’know, I like these more than I thought I would. I had feared the red wouldn’t pop as much as it does, and while it is CERTAINLY still a predominantly navy and white jersey, the red is clearly present, and is a true accent color, rather than being relegated to barely noticeable like I feared when they were unveiled.
Frankly man — and no offense intended — the whole thing sounds like the proverbial old man yelling at clouds. This seems to be an echo chamber filled with old white hipsters, and very little diversity of ideas. Why is the focus seemingly always one person’s subjective view and not on covering the underlying information?
That’s what the comment section is for, friend. All of this is subjective. If you like the uniforms, great. Tell us why. If you don’t, also fair. We’re just expressing opinions here (while, yes, sometimes shaking our fists at the wind and/or clouds).
Well said, Scottie
Can we stop with the tired “old man yelling at clouds” and the “old white hipsters” insults already?
There is no echo chamber here. Phil and I basically are the same age. He doesn’t like the new unis… I do.
People in the same age range don’t all think the same way. Shocking, I know, but you’ll get used to it.
Unless you work in marketing or sales, where age, race, etc. are factors, WHO CARES how young or old you are or what your race is when discussing unis? I don’t know how Phil feels about this, but on the weekends, I don’t want to see “Get off my lawn” or “old man yelling at clouds” or any phrase putting down someone’s age (young or old) in the comments. We can and should be better than this.
It’s all good.
As I mentioned when I began my Editorship, I realize today’s uniforms aren’t designed to appeal to me, so I’m fine if folks want to disagree with my takes. Even so, I try to put myself in the shoes of the younger demographic when reviewing new uniforms, and I try to find something that does appeal to me. I’ll even (eventually, hopefully) come around to the new style, which means untucked undershirts and bicycle-length shorts. It’s not a look to which I’m accustomed, just as full length baseball pants are a look I’ll never feel is *right*, but the pendulum always swings back, style-wise, eventually. We’re seeing more and more baseball players wearing their pants cuffed now (even if those are beginning to border on bicycle-length in some cases), which is good. The “new” style is much more pleasing to my eye.
Same thing will happen with design — and we’re already seeing it (mostly in college, but in the pros too) — teams are returning to a more “classic” style. That’s not designed for *me* but for those 30 years or more my junior. But I like ’em.
There are some things I like about the Texans new unis: I do like the pants stripe (though I wish it went all the way up to the top of the waist), and the team “Looks like the Texans” which is a good thing. But if I don’t like something, I’m not going to pretend to like it. I’ll say so. We all have different opinions and they’re all welcome here. And if I tend to sometimes sound like an Old Man Yelling At Clouds, so be it. And feel free to let me know that if that’s what you think.
The only thing I would ask: IF you do feel that way, don’t just make that statement and then bolt. Tell me WHY you think I’m wrong and offer up your own opinion! Simply saying “YOU’RE WRONG” and then taking your ball and going home is neither constructive nor even conversational.
I’ve been writing for this blog for more than 16 years, so I’ve had my share of criticism. I can take it. Just try to back it up if you’re gonna come at me.
Hear, hear!
Well said, Phil. I find myself questioning some of the newer trends. One I don’t like, but understand. I’m not a fan of the “bicycle short” look. But, if players can argue that knee pads/pants over their knees slows them down, who am I to say that they are wrong? But, the skin tight jerseys (so you can’t grab a hold of the player) and then the baggy undershirt just makes no sense to me. I don’t think me almost being 51 years old has anything to do with that LOL.
Being a Bears fan, let’s go back to the 80’s. A LOT of players in those years didn’t even have sleeve stripes. Why was that? It was because they cut the sleeves off and rolled them up into a knot under the armpit to avoid dangling sleeves that the opponent could grab a hold of. It was a prelude to the “cut” that we see today.
So, yes. Maybe some of the styles of today’s athletes will one day seem common and we won’t even see it as an issue years from now. :)
100 percent with you, Jim!
One of the most boring, pointless rebrands in recent memory.
Off topic – Phil, North Fork?
Nope. South Fork (Springs, to be exact)
Jim Vilk says:
“I like them!
They still look like the Texans, and let’s face it… their original unis were solid but they were just…there. From the neck down, nothing about the previous unis moved me at all.
The horns are a nice touch.”
When I tuned in to the game last night this was exactly what I was thinking.
I agree 100% with Jim.
Is Toro, the Texans bull mascot, going to have both head and shoulder horns now?