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Seahawks Will Go Icy White vs. Lions on MNF, for Spy vs. Spy Matchup

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As I reported earlier this week, the Detroit Lions strongly hinted they would debut their new blue helmet/black jersey on Monday Night Football against the Seattle Seahawks. Later that day, the Lions left no doubt about their aesthetic proclivities for the MNF game.

In my article, I noted we did not know whether the Lions would pair the blue helmet/black jersey with their black pants or their blue pants. Clearly, which pants they will wear will make a big difference in the overall appearance. Blue/black/black/black is a LOT different than blue/black/blue/black.

I also noted what I thought they would ultimately wear:

I’m definitely excited to see the blue/black/blue/black combo. I get the sense the team will probably go with the black pants for the uniform’s debut, and then go with the blue pants the next time it’s worn. I have no knowledge of that, obviously, but it’s just a feeling I get. I hope I’m wrong.

Unfortunately, I think I’ll be proven correct. While I haven’t seen any official confirmation from the team, the GUD has now depicted the Lions with black pants for the MNF game. As I’ve said before, the GUD is almost always correct with their uniform previews, so if they have them in black pants, that’s good enough for me.

And if you think about it, debuting the black pants Monday makes sense: they debuted their blue pants Opening Night, going Monolulu Blue against the Rams, followed that up by debuting their silver-gray pants against the Bucs, and finally debuted their white pants in Arizona, going full-on Icy White. So, it stands to reason they’ll debut their new black pants this Monday.

That last game, against the Cardinals, was a Spy vs. Spy game.

For our younger readers who are wondering what the hell a Spy vs. Spy game is — it refers to a comic that appeared in Mad Magazine (of which I was a voracious reader a half-century ago) — and which features two characters. “One is dressed in white, and the other in black, but they are otherwise identical.” So a Spy-vs-Spy football game is just another way of saying one team dressed in white, the other in black.

You’re probably well aware of the current tendencies for football teams (in particular) to dress in all-black or all-white (some call it Darth Vader vs. Stormtrooper or use names like “Mono-Black” and “Icy Whites”). Earlier today Chris Diamond gave us Part II of his latest project in which every team has a full black and a full white uniform.

Now a true Spy-vs-Spy game would probably also include helmets being either black or white, but for UW purposes, Spy vs. Spy will refer to all-black or all-white from the neck down — so that means jersey, pants and hosiery are all the same color (be it white or black).

After playing in one Spy vs. Spy game against the Cardinals (in that instance, the Lions were the all-white Spy), the Lions will have the favor returned, since the Seahawks yesterday declared they’ll counter the Lions blue over all-black with…

…you guessed it: all-white below the helmet. UGH.

What could have been a pretty good looking game of the Lions in blue/black/blue/black versus the Seahawks in blue/white/blue (likely with blue socks), instead will become another monochromatic Monday. I know some were hoping the Seahawks would wear their “Action Green”, but they were always going to wear white jerseys for this game. But did they have to go with not just white pants but also white hosiery? Would navy socks have killed them? What about the “Wolf Gray” pants?

So instead of a colorful game, Monday Night under the notoriously bad Ford Field lighting, we’ll get something that resembles this…

…hopefully their untucked undershirts will at least match the rest of their monochrome looks.

BFBS vs. WFWS. Darth Vader vs. Stormtrooper. Spy vs. Spy. Whatever you want to call it, this game could have (potentially) looked so much better. Even if the Lions were to wear blue socks or the Seahawks wear navy, it would inject some color-balance. But such is the state of uniform styles these days. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a few more of these as the season wears on.

What do you guys think? Are you disappointed the Lions will be basically mono-black? Should the Seahawks have countered with blue or gray pants (or at least navy socks)? Do any of you like the mono-below-the-neck look?

Love to have your thoughts…

 
  
 
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Comments (32)

    Not “bad” in an aesthetic way cuz it’s black & white, but it’s boring for no reason.
    Poop

    As another ferocious reader of Mad Magazine and the Spy-Vs-Spy comic your reference brought a smile to my face, until you dropped that “half-century” line which has ruined my day. :)

    To add further insult to injury, creator Antonio Prohias retired in 1987 and passed away in 1998, over a quarter century ago now. Yeah, I’m feeling old too (I’ll be turning 50 in three months’ time, so…).

    It’s always a little dicey reading the Twitter/X replies and filtering real vs. snarky vs. bot, but the replies to that main Seahawks tweet/post seem to be along the lines of “this is really awesome/this is the best uni matchup/they need white helmets/do this more often.” Not my commentary on it (*my* commentary: not a fan of all the spy-vs.-spy, but that’s just my taste), but an observation from one platform of the popularity of this uniform matchup with fans.

    I wouldn’t know anymore about the atmosphere on the outlet formerly known as Twitter, as I quit that site a year ago and it’s now completely unusable for non-users.

    Well, the Honolulu blue numbers should look slightly better than Arizona’s red numbers… but that’s not a high hurdle to clear, is it?

    I blame NCAA schools for normalizing this mono crap over the last few decades.

    I agree. Used to be that NCAA schools would wear a solid color uniform for a big game/rivalry game. Which, I can go along with. But it has become the norm and has lost the “excitement” of seeing that look once a year.

    Phil “I don’t say icy whites, I just use the term when directly reporting on releases from teams.”

    Seahawks do a press release announcing they are pairing their white jersey with pants, no use of the nonsense term. Phil proceeds to use icy whites in the headline and twice in the article.

    At least when Paul was covering the tragic fall of uniform design he refused to acknowledge the awful marketing and gimmick terms. Far more palatable to read about questionable uniform designs when they are just described honestly in plain language. If this site is now going to just treat this nonsense marketing as legitimate the site stops being special. Might as well just read any of the other uniform “news” releases that view uniform as completely in the moment of merch sales. This site was special because it did the opposite, and actually treated uniform design and discussion with respect and knowledge of history, purpose, and aesthetics.

    Thanks for your thoughts, Greg.

    I used “Icy Whites” today to tie in to Chris Diamond’s earlier piece, which ran this morning, and in which he partially titled “Blackouts and Icy Whites.”

    This is not a term I’ll be using (unless sarcastically) to describe all-white uniforms going forward. I hope you can appreciate the context.

    The fact that the Lions even have this uniform option in their wardrobe is disappointing. The Seahawks just added insult to injury. I really do not like this trend, and I look forward to the day it stops.

    Preferthe ‘Hawks in wolf gray pants with all sets…but the white-over-white isn’t exactly new or bad – it’s the sannie socks that suck.

    When will we get teams wearing all pink for breast cancer?

    Or just grey for greys sake alternates?

    If our society is gonna go douche, we should go all the way, right?

    Lets get the packers wearing viking colors and put a little storybook with it to justify it and corral the herd.

    I still laugh when I think about everyone having these really nice high definition TV’s these days and now we keep getting solid black vs solid white combos LOL

    It’s such a bummer that HD came along right about when the move away from bright, vibrant uniform colors towards muted dark ones happened.

    Wolf Grey was removed from the Hawks rotation when the Throwbacks were introduced. Pete Carroll preferred the Action Green over the Grey, to much dismay everywhere. And though the White on White [on White!] is not their best look, it’s fitting against a team in its worst look. I might watch this one on the radio.

    Wolf gray jerseys were removed, yes. But they still have the pants as an option (and they wore them last season when they also had the throwback).

    Man that uniform, untucked, with no socks on the Lions #58 looks absolutely atrocious. The Seahawks should have also worn navy socks, because their white/white uniform I think is fine, but I can’t stand the Color Rush white unitard look.

    The Seahawks PHOTO is white. The Seahawks CARTOON is Wolf Grey. One would thing the graphics team at the Hawks could get that right.

    Probably busted link was to GUD week 12, 1996.
    Classic Seahawks away vs classic Lions at home “scrimmage game.”

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