I don’t know how many of you have Week Five circled on your NFL calendars, but I surely have. Not only will we get to see the Falcons throwbacks again (this time against Tampa Bay on Thursday Night), we’ll also have the Bengals debuting a new combination (black jerseys over orange pants, with black socks), AND we’ll get to see the Texans debut their new “H-Town” alternates as well.
But that’s not why I’m most excited. Nay, Sunday afternoon will give us perhaps the best uniform matchup of the season, when the Denver Broncos debut their “Orange Crush” throwback uniforms against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders haven’t announced what they’ll wear, but it will either be their normal road uniforms (which are great) or, if they’re really feeling saucy, they could break out their equally lovely throwbacks. No matter, either pairing will look fantastic.
Yesterday, the Broncos gave us a little taste of what’s to come on Sunday, with a teaser video showing the jerseys on hangers, and decals being applied to the royal blue throwback shells:
They’re perfect. 🤌#ThrowbackTo77 pic.twitter.com/n3oamiSTyp
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) October 1, 2024
As a brief refresher, here’s what’s coming our way:
And a couple more looks from when the uniforms were first unveiled:
Glorious!
I know some of you are a tad too young to remember these (while this or a similar look was worn from 1968 through 1996, these are “specifically” throwbacks to 1977), but those of us of a certain vintage have been very much looking forward to seeing their return for decades. Younger Broncos fans may equate their previous uniforms (the “parentheses” set) with the team’s most on-field success — three Super Bowl wins came in those — but few can argue the 1977-era uniforms were the best looking. Yes, they lost four Supes in those unis (three of which came in the orange jerseys), but they were all great looking games.
Here are those three orange jersey’ed Super Bowl games:
Super Bowl XII
Super Bowl XXII
Super Bowl XXIV
The Broncos were one of the original AFC franchises, beginning play in 1960. They had almost no success for their first decade and a half, until 1977, when they were finally able to gain a play-off berth following the 1977 season. Led by linebackers Randy Gradishar and Tom Jackson, as well as the rest of the “Orange Crush” defense, the Broncos went 12–2 and claimed the best record in the conference. They won their first two postseason games to advance to the Super Bowl, which they lost to the Dallas Cowboys. They’d make three more trips between then and Super Bowl XXIV (losing all four). After jettisoning the orange tops following the 1996 season, the team won their first two Super Bowls the next two seasons — wearing the “parentheses” uniforms. If only they had delayed their uniform change for a couple years, those parentheses unis might never have been worn.
But that’s neither here nor there now. All that matters is the team will debut their best ever uniforms against Da Raidahs this Sunday. My only hope is that the players will all wear the beautiful striped hose we saw in the unveiling videos.
This may be the only weekend of the year where you can put down the #1 “Simply. The. Best” matchup in the Five and One. Mark it in royal and orange ink!
Do you all agree that these are the Broncos best ever look? If not, I’d love to hear what you think is better. And do you in any way consider the Orange Crush to be “bad luck jerseys” (much the way some fans feel Pat Patriot or Bucco Bruce represented losing periods in those franchises’ histories)? Fire away…
Obligatory “these should be the primary uniforms,” comment. (they really should though)
My eyes keep telling me the Broncos’ helmet blue is too light. Anyone else seeing that? I feel the same way about the Eagles’ kelly green helmet. Seems both were darker with the original sets.
The helmets were also a LOT smaller back then too :) But, I understand why that is. And, for good reason.
100%. I think the problem isn’t that the color is choice too light, but the way the modern helmets reflect light. Every part of the helmet looks too uniform in value. To see a great comparison, look at the one-off Eagles kelly green helmets from 2010 compared to the current kelly green helmets. The kg helmets from 2010 appear to have a wider range of value from light to dark. The current kg helmets are bright even in the places you’d expect to be more dark in value.
Maybe my eyes, but the orange jersey is too “light”.
The “77 Broncos” wore a more blood orange jersey. The lighter orange depicted here wasn’t until early 80s
I love the uni, but it’s not 1977 to me. Much more the 82-96 version.
But I also need coffee.
I agree. I’ve never liked this set for that reason. I don’t care for the logo either, but I can’t deny it’s a classic.
If everyone wears those socks it’ll be perfect!!! I’ve watched games *despite* the uniforms. This will be a rare case of watching solely *because of* the uniforms.
Let’s not forget, the Jags are wearing their “throwbacks” this weekend as well.
(Yes, I was saving that ;))
Ooooops. Sorry if I stole your thunder LOL
I don’t associate these uniforms with bad luck. We had a lot of success in them, we just couldn’t win the SB. Some might say they are cursed since we lost all those SBs in them and won multiple with the redesigned unis, but we also got our ass kicked in a SB in the new uniforms. I associate these unis with prime Elway moments, like The Drive.
Clevelanders may disagree ; )
These were/are terrific – it’s a shame the Broncos didn’t win it all wearing them…no matter, good to see them again!
Hey look, and honest to god football uniform.
As a lifelong Broncos fan since the 80s i love the D logo, but i like the current colors a lot more than the royal blue. Also, the 80s-90s pant stripe of blue-orange-blue is better than the 70s one.
Now if only they would scale the logo appropriately with the helmet size! Broncos have this problem with their new set too – If you google images of John Elway in 1997 with the updated Bronco and then compare that to the current set, it’s a joke how small the logo has gotten compared to the helmet size.
This is a problem with most of the “classic” helmets in the NFL too: The Giants, Packers, Chiefs, Saints, Cowboys, Raiders, Bears, Colts, and 49ers could all benefit from a 15-25% size increase on their decals. The Eagles and Seahawks also need to scale up their game. Again, take a look at Donovan McNabb’s Eagles helmet vs. Jalen Hurts – the wings look wimpy now in comparison. (you won’t be able to unsee this, sorry in advance).
This is more annoying to me than most other uniform nuances – anyone else agree?
Totally agree. The modern helmets with all their openings and grooves do not help logos but there must be a way to make the team logos look bigger. The recent California Golden Bears retro helmet also suffers from a too small bear claw.
I like the throwbacks because the medium blue is less neutral than the navy of their regular set.
So many teams in sports went to a darker blue in the late 90’s/2000’s. Guess that was the trend back then along with teal/purple LOL. I prefer the more royal blue.
Why is the D on the helmet red? I know it was like that back in the day, too – but I always found it annoying.
I’m glad to see they’re wearing these vs. the Raiders, a team who’s uniform set was actually being worn when these were around. I always kind of hate when you’ll see a team choose to pull out their throwbacks when playing an opponent who’s dressed in a very modern (often crappy) Nike designed set.
It appears that the shade of blue on the helmet will be a tad lighter than what was actually worn in 1977. It would be nice to see the two helmets side-by-side for comparison to make sure.
That being said, there were plenty of pictures of games in the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News back in the day, where the helmets seemed extremely light. These usually seemed to be day road games when the Broncos were wearing white jerseys, so the daylight and white jersey would really reflect lighter, especially in black and white newsprint photo.
The jersey color though is about just about right. Here’s hoping they all wear the socks as hinted.
Besides the colors being washed out compared to the OG, the sleeve stripes is a rare case of modern tailoring doing it way better.
Hopefully the Broncos will eventually do what the Jets did and throw their current unis in the trash in favor of the vastly superior throwbacks. Imagine the AFC West, already the best dressed division in the league, with four great looking teams instead of three.
Also I prefer the orange-blue-orange pants stripe on these over the blue-orange-blue of the Elway unis.
It’s almost like it could just be a money making scheme at this point. Release trash unis with the throwbacks. Sell as many of thr trash unis to generate some revenue and then move to what everyone actually asked for.
I’ve been catching up on 49ers Super Bowls (as noted in the “G” goalline post :-)) and finished watching Super Bowl XXIV a couple of days ago.
It was brutal.
But so were Denver’s unis. Film quality doesn’t help, but I thought the D helmet looked so dated. Like one of the old fashioned logos (the 49er with the pistols, the Colt’s bucking horse). Great to see them on the field for some nostalgia, but no way should they be anywhere close to full time.
(although actually, my comments apply just to the logo: I like the Charger-esk shoulders less the more I see them and that striping pattern hasn’t been bettered.)
Thank you for saying so. I’m no fan of the older uniforms either, despite the nostalgia factor.
Overall, I’m really looking forward to these. I’d prefer a more uniform stripe pattern, but I get that they’re replicating a specific set. I remember thinking that the pre-parenthetical uniforms were a bit ugly “back in the day,” but I’m happy to see them again.
One of the commenters noted the smallish look of the helmet logo, and I can’t unsee that now. Small price to pay, though.
I love this helmet and the helmet logo, and I’d like to see a slightly updated version of the sneezing horsie someday.
I’d also like to see some royal blue pants as an option to go with these.
There is the obvious glaring omission: how will anyone know what altitude they’re playing at? Hopefully they’ve got 5280 and some random triangles embroidered on the jock strap so nobody gets confused.
I think you may be right that this will probably be the #1 look of the week. Theoretically though, if Tampa Bay were to wear throwbacks against the Falcons that might give the Denver-Oakland matchup a run for the money.
With the Colts at the throwback Jags and the Cardinals visiting Santa Clara… it’s gonna be a tough call.
I really appreciate these promotional photographs that actually let you get a good look at the colors and the uniform in good lighting.
I’m so sick of these tired, played-out, formulaic, photo sessions of players trying hard to look tough in yoga pants under mood lighting, heavy shadows, and the flourescent stick-lights in a black void.
This is the best possible Broncos look. They may even replace the D with the current robo bronco, but keep this uniform.
It’s cool to see the old uniforms from time to time, but i must say i like the new stuff better (and I’m not a young guy; I fully remember the 1980’s super bowls.)