Skip to content
 
Uni Watch

Did The Giants Tan Throwback Pants Make Them Look Pantsless?

By

Over the past couple days I’ve heard nmerous complaints about the New York Giants “Century Red” uniforms, but over on social media, there seems to be a different complaint/observation I hadn’t foreseen.

Let me first start by saying that I very much liked the multi-year throwbacks the Giants wore on Sunday, even if the result for the team was less than ideal. Sure, it’s not a modern uniform in anything but the template/cut, but I think it might some day even be the basis for a future uniform. The red/blue helmet and jersey took a bit of getting used to, but overall I thought it was a solid look.

With that being said, the uniform wasn’t a true throwback, since the helmet, jersey and pants were representative of different years. If there were any single year it most resembled, 1932 or 1933 come the closest. But no matter. The team wore it for the first game of the year, and it won’t be worn again this season.

Just when I thought I’d heard every possible criticism, several folks on Social Media seemed to think the tan pants made the players appear to be naked below the waist. I watched a good chunk of the game, and reviewed hundreds of game photos, and not once did this thought ever cross my mind. And yet…

Now, I’m guessing these tweets were as much tongue-in-cheek as a serious observation, but never did I get the sense that the pants in any way gave off the appearance of nakedness. And obviously, there are a lot of players whose skin tones don’t match the color of the tan pants. While those tweets (to me at least) don’t in any way look like the players are bottomless, but they were probably good for a few retweets and likes.

But even if those tweets were all in good fun, that does remind me of the disastrous uniforms of a Colombia women’s cycling team, Instituto Distrital de Recreación y Deporte-Bogotá Humana-San Mateo-Solgar, which were unveiled in 2014. You may remember them.

Now those uniforms, rightfully so, were met with much derision on Social Media. In fact, when they first started appearing, Twitter flagged the photos as “inappropriate.” The Colombia cycling team may not be the most egregious example of terrible uniform design, but it is close, and an example of what can happen when certain shades are used.

Other NFL teams have worn tan pants in previous seasons to represent the canvas pants worn during the league’s early years. Perhaps I missed it, but I don’t ever recall anyone ever saying Green Bay or Washington’s players looked like they were naked below the waist.

I suppose the Giants tweets are all in good fun (and I’ll admit I kinda chuckled at the first one I saw). And there are more than enough legitimate complaints about the multi-year throwbacks — even if I liked them — without resorting to nudity jokes.

All in all, no harm/no foul I guess.

Let’s just hope this won’t dissuade the team from wearing the throwback again next year!

 
  
 
Related Posts

Let’s Rank All 20 of This Season’s NFL Throwbacks

Jacksonville Jaguars to Debut “Prowler” Throwbacks This Sunday

Minnesota Vikings Unveil New “Winter Warrior” Helmet and Uniform

New York Giants Throwback Could Be Unveiled on Monday

Uni Watch Reader DIYs 49ers Jerseys for Annual Super Bowl Project
Categories
NFL
Comments (0)

    IMO it is probably a result of the low quality images these people are taking. They definitely look less “nude” in higher resolutions

    Agreed. I didn’t even think twice about it when watching at a 4k resolution. When you get it looking like the Zapruder film I can see the “nude” effect. This is just Twitter losers trying to make something out of nothing.

    Watching that game, it never looked like the Giants weren’t wearing pants. Not one time. These are some low quality and maybe even doctored images that give any appearance I’d the sort.

    I used to live in a neighborhood where every day the same UPS delivery person drove one of their big vans with the open sliding doors on both sides. His skin tone was almost exactly UPS brown, so he looked naked as he drove around.

    Had redzone on while moving around the house… so can take a couple of seconds to dial in to what was on screen. But I never thought that they were pant-less.

    Although they certainly didn’t look like the Giants. In fact, with those tan pants and red shirts, there was at least once I thought it was the 49ers before I caught up!

    I was at a bar with my softball teammates last night, and footage from the Giants game was on the TV. One teammate said “Who the hell is wearing Habs jerseys!?” and another said “Oh I assumed that was the Alouettes doing a tribute to the Canadiens.”
    The response was unanimously negative.

    I had a similar experience at Target, a girl wearing tan leggings looked like she forgot her pants. It’s especially alarming from a distance when you can’t see any seams, creases or wrinkles in the fabric. C’est la vie.

    I absolutely thought some players looked pants-less when the Packers wore those yellow circle throwbacks.

    That’s funny. Probably more so with the white players. I wonder if this would be worse for a CFB team with no hosiery. Do any college teams have tan pants?

    Great uniform, doctored images by people clamoring for attention with a non issue. Case closed.

Comments are closed.