
Good Monday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a good weekend!
If you’re a fan of uniforms — and if you’re reading Uni Watch, it’s good bet you are — Week Five of the NFL season delivered an absolute smorgasbord. One of the most eagerly anticipated games was between the Broncos and da Raidahs, with the Broncos wearing their 1977 “Orange Crush” alternates (which should be their permanent regular uniforms).

But they weren’t the only team debuting throwbacks. The Jacksonville Jaguars, celebrating their 30th season, debuted their own 1998 “Prowler” throwbacks against the Colts. They were, in a word, luscious.

But the Jags and Broncs weren’t alone in debuting a brand new uniform. The Houston Texans also broke out their new “H-Town Blue” uniforms for the first time ever.

And finally — while not a new uniform — the Bengals broke out a never-before-worn combination of orange/black/orange/black.

So yeah, it was quite the week for the uniform aficionado in all of us. And that was just an appetizer! If your whistle isn’t whet enough, here’s your full rundown, feature what may have been the best overall slate of uniform matchups in a long time.

Only the terrible lighting in Atlanta could put a damper on what was otherwise an absolutely outstanding looking game to kick off Week 5. For the second straight week, the Falcons wore their 1966 throwbacks, while the Bucs went with their Super Bowl look of pewter/white/pewter (I’m starting to come around to liking this look even more than when they go white over white). I know the Bucs wear black socks with their pewter pants, but when indoors with bad lighting, those often don’t provide quite enough color separation. Wonder how they’d look with white or red hose…

The Jets continue to look good wearing their new “Gang Green” uniforms (note the actual sleeves on the receiver!), while the Vikes decided the Brits were worthy of a true purple people eater look. With the Jets in white pants, I didn’t hate the Vikes’ going purple over purple, even with the purple socks. The Vikes wouldn’t “waste” the opportunity to wear throwbacks, but imagine how great this game could have looked if they had.

The Bengals busted out a new look for this game, going orange/black/orange/black, and I gotta say, I. Love. It. The Ravens countered with a black/white/purple/white combo that also looked pretty solid. Love that the Ravens wore white hose, which not only avoided the yoga pants look, but provided some maximum contrast.

I’ll say this much for this game: there was no problem at all with contrast. The Texans debuted their new H-Town alternates, and they are such a dark blue that they appeared almost black. You would, in fact, be forgiven if you mistaked them for black. And while there may have been contrast between the two teams, only in closeups were the Texans numbers particularly visible. In retrospect, perhaps the Texans should have made those numbers “H-Town blue” instead of red.

Speaking of contrast, there was plenty in the Bears/Panthers game. I would have preferred the Panthers to sport white hosiery instead of black — or better yet, have worn Process Blue pants. Not a terrible looking game by any means, but not the best possible matchup.

‘Twas a very fall color game in Washington, and it even featured a Great Pumpkin sighting! But seriously, this was a low-key great uni matchup. The Commanders in burgundy over gold still gives me a Trojans feel, but that’s not a bad thing. I’m still hoping the Commanders will bust out the gold pants with the white jerseys.

Ever since the Jaguars unveiled their “Prowler” throwbacks, I’ve been waiting to see them on the field. They did not disappoint. And of course, the Colts may have the best mono-white uniforms in the NFL, especially when they have royal hose. It was made even better by many of the Jags wearing low whites and black shoes.

This was probably yesterday’s least appealing matchup, with the Pats mono-navy below the neck and the Dolphins in bright white in bright sun. Just an ugly game with an ugly combo.

This game had so much potential. But, as you’re all likely aware, there was a serious heat wave out west, and the 49ers had originally planned to wear their “regular” home uniforms, which would have made this matchup a T5. Knowing the heat wave was coming, the 49ers asked the NFL for permission to wear their white throwbacks, but were denied; however, the NFL did let the Niners wear red throwbacks (which feature white pants) as a minor accommodation. So instead of this beauty of a matchup, we got this instead. It’s not awful, but not nearly as good as it could have been.

The day’s best looking game featured the Broncos in their “Orange Crush” 1977 throwbacks, and boy was it a beaut! Royal and orange never looked so good. And every Bronco wore those those beautiful striped hose, even if they all swagged them a bit differently. Yes, these should be permanent.

While I’m definitely not a fan of the Rams in blue over “bone”, it’s probably the best possible matchup between these teams for two reasons: 1) they always wear blue socks, so this avoided the leotard look and 2) their “sol” (yellow) pants would have clashed with the Packers’ gold pants. Definitely a case of the total being greater than the sum of its parts.

Maybe this is the one week when I’m glad the Giants’ road uniforms are so red heavy, because the Seahawks’ are very mono blue. I’d still like to see the Seahawks in gray pants (Giants too), but this one wasn’t terrible looking.

And we close out the Sunday games with another all-time classic uni pairing of the ‘boys and Stillers. Sure, their uniforms have changed a bit since the epic Super Bowl X meeting, but they still both have that old school feel. Seriously, it doesn’t get much better than this. In many a week, that would be your top uni pairing — but this week? Did it even make the 5 & 1? Read on to find out.
What did you think of yesterday’s games? Which matchup was the best? The worst? Fire away…
I feel like in the last few years, the Bengals have always had contrasting socks and pants. More teams should be like the Bengals!
I’ve seen a few non-QB players wearing longer sleeves on their jerseys this year, as was pointed out in the Jets game. I wonder what’s inspired that trend? I like the look but I’m surprised players are choosing it from a functionality standpoint.
*mistook not mistaked
Why does the htown uniform just feel like it has no real thought put into it. It just feels like a uniform where they made it to fill the quota of when a rebrand happens to have 4 new uniforms but like It doesn’t scream Houston to me based on it being a city uniform
Just feels like they ran out of ideas and said let’s just scrap pieces and put it on a navy blue canvas. In other words let’s throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks
Agree. I think this is the case with a lot of new uniform designs, but this one especially. It feels like they don’t really have people who know how uniforms should look designing these things. Almost like they just want to throw out different for the sake of it being different, or finding a trendy idea and just dropping it in there somewhere. That is backwards to me. They should start a new design as traditional as possible.
“What does a standard uniform look like” and then if you have some way you want to be innovative, see where it might fit. If you look at nontraditional elements that have stood up, that was what happened. The ram horns on the classic Rams uniforms are just an innovative modification to normal shoulder stripes. Likewise with the Bengals classic uniform and the tiger stripes.
The BFBS/WFWS project that’s been running here has shown me what could have been for Houston. If they stuck with their old navy (rather than midnight navy) and rendered the numbers in (ugh) “H-Town blue” with red outlines and the light blue trim for sleeves and collar, they’d have the base of a nice set of darks. Pair that with a white helmet for some pop. I love the new H logo, but I don’t know where it fits in. Maybe on that white helmet? Now for the sleeves: I don’t know. I thought their old USC shoulder darts were fine, the horns are growing on me but I wish they had more inward lateral movement on the chest as opposed to turning upward and tapering off so quickly. They could also just do a plain sleeve with red or baby blue trim at the hem.
I realize they’re not allowed to use the light blue as the predominant color for reasons having to do with Nashville stealing it, but their entire remake was mediocre and the HTown variant was especially slapdash. The helmet is an interesting idea but maybe instead of a blue so dark it appears black to everyone looking at it, play around with the red a bit more and emphasize the Oilers blue a little more prominently as an accent color? These are just boring, real create-a-franchise dreck.
Because they’re being held back by the Titans. They’re trying to make a color pop when they can’t use a lot of it.
Imo the Broncos have done the best of all the current uniform updates in the league. Obviously the orange throwback uniforms are fantastic, and I’m also surprised by how well the updated unis have looked this season as well. I grew up loving the late 90s navy Broncos uniforms, so I’m actually happy they didn’t go full retro with the refresh. Other than pairing the white helmet with the navy blue uniforms, I think they ‘crushed’ it.
I do agree that the broncos have come up with a great new set of unis. This throwback is also a great looking set, but what it really does for me is wish that they had lightened up the blue in the new set to something a little brighter and richer. Maybe not this particular paler shade of royal, but a darker royal or lighter/brighter navy.
The new Bronco unis look good only when using dominant orange. Orange jersey white pants and white jersey orange pants. The white/white looks as bad as anything ever.
Agreed. IMO the Broncos have always had the greatest disparity between great home uniforms (blue/orange/white) and meh road uniforms (blue/white/white). Let the roads be blue/white/orange pants and they become a great home/road set.
I think blue/white/white road uniforms would still look good if they had orange numbers on the white jerseys, and had solid orange socks. Would give it some pop, sort of like how the red in current Giants road unis provides pop. Except in this instance, it would actually fit the teams since the Broncos are an orange team (or should be anyway).
Really, really, really liked the Bengals’ combo. Surprisingly nice contrast with the Ravens purple pants.
I completely agree, “Royal and orange never looked so good.”
You can add Giants/Seahawks to the &1. The only saving grace in that game was the Giants in red socks. But, still you have 3 games of all navy blue vs. all white. It’s so boring, especially when compared to the glorious games mentioned.
Also, players wearing sleeves seems to be a growing trend. Noticed quite a few players on the Jets and some on the Packers too.
ESPN’s uniform write up also called the Texans uniforms black. They definitely looked so dark as if to appear black, but it is pathetic when a writer would call them black, do a little research on the topic.
Are these Texans alternates the same color navy as their standard dark uniform? If so I wonder what it was about yesterday’s design that made them look much darker.
While I didn’t dislike the new Bengals combo, it felt derivative of the Browns’ orange/brown/orange set. Naturally there is a reason for that, but it always makes me think the Bengals should just go with the orange jersey full time to contrast themselves more.
The Broncos uniform was a thing of beauty. Really when you see them it just comes down to “that is what a football uniform should look like”. Stripes everywhere, contrasting socks, tv numbers….
What makes the Broncos uniform great was readily apparent when you contrast with both the Dolphins and Cardinals uniforms. Neither is inherently awful, but in the case of Miami, mono white is the norm and a good look for them, lack of contrasting socks kills the current uniform. Arizona meanwhile without tv numbers or contrasting socks looks like a uniform you get from a unlicensed merch supplier.
This weekend was also a case study in the importance of contrasting hosiery, and especially, striped socks!!
NFL historian JaguarGator9 mentioned on X how a lot of those uniforms should be permanent.
The Jets player shown in the image wasn’t a receiver, he was a defensive player, a linebacker or defensive lineman.
DJ Reed, #4, CB or Safety.
Was I the only one who thought the game ball in the Texans/Bills game looked almost black on TV?
I’ve noticed this in several games this season. What’s the deal? Are the game balls darker than they usually are?
You mean the basketballs. Lol
I feel like teams should always sport a uni combo that provides as much color contrast as possible with their opponents. The Ravens v Bengals game was a great example of how well that can work, despite both teams normally leaning heavily on black. And as Phil mentioned, the Panthers could have achieved this with their blue pants. Ah well.
(Also, personally, I don’t mind the Spy v Spy look. It has to be really nice for the QBs.)
Which one of the &1’s is Spy vs. Spy? Neither of the dark uniforms are black. Yet another uni-watch term jumping the shark.
True, but the Texans “blue” was about as close as you can get to black without actually being black as possible. And NE’s navy is also quite dark. So, no, neither was black, but the effect was basically spy vs. spy.
It’s crazy how much better the Orange Crush unis look than either the previous era Broncos uniforms or the new set. How can you incorporate a look this good into your rotation and not feel immediate hot shame that you didn’t just make these the permanent set?
Because that old D horse logo is bad and other than the tones of blue and orange, it really is just a bunch of stripes — bland, boring, outdated stripes.
Which is better than over half of the current NFL uniforms. With that statement, you must like the HTown Alts and the Cards in all red.
The H Town ones could have been better, but I do like what the Texans did with their redesign. And yeah I like the Cards in all red especially with the college-style “ARIZONA” lol ˘ ³˘)♥
Lifetime Broncos fan here. I agree with you, Brodie, and not Sacha. These throwbacks looked amazing, and it was a jolt to the eyeballs (in a good way) that reminded me how great the Broncos used to look. I instantly wanted these as the primaries rather than anything the team has worn in the last 27 years.
There’s no accounting for taste when in it comes to someone like Sacha, but stipes are NOT outdated. They provide balance and break up those bland, boring, won’t-age-well-at-all swatches of uninterrupted color that have become the unfortunate hallmark of lots of modern “superhero” unitard designs. And the “D” logo? It holds up as well as it did when it was introduced. Good design does not go out of style.
Not all stripes are outdated sure (looking at you vikings), but the logo is just bad when you’re not looking at it through the rose-tinted lens of nostalgia, same with the stripes and really the whole setup; it screams 70s in the worst possible way. Their current design is way better (and better than what they had before).
Ditto re the Jets/Vikes game having the chance to be exceptional looking had the Vikes sported their throwbacks. Heck, would have been greatly improved had they just worn their white pants with the current set.
I sometimes play a little uniform game with myself: what would a perfect NFL Sunday look like? This Sunday might have come pretty close, if you limit it to uniforms the teams use now.
Yes, I do agree with your analysis. This was the best good looking matchup weekend of the season.
Saints fan here to remind you that whatever good will they’ve earned in the uni-verse with their amazing color rush, they’re wearing that horrific black helmet with that set tonight which looks absolutely TERRIBLE on the field. So, don’t get your hopes up, this game tonight is probably going to look awful.
The Saints wore a black helmet in their inaugural preseason.
I waited years for a black Saints helmet but it wasn’t exactly what I expected.
It could have been a full throwback uniform tribute and it would have looked a lot better.
link
Oh, i know about the preseason helmet. If that was the helmet they wore here, it’d be fine. The old Fleur-de-Lis and the regular center stripe. The one they went with though is hideous. The “stripe” kills it, and it just doesn’t look right with the color rush set.
GTGFTS: Yankees at White Sox June 4, 1977. Richie Zisk leaves the yard (literally) in the 2nd, launching a home run over the right field grand stands and out of Comiskey Park.
Correction – left field, not right.
Wow, that’s impressive! How did you know that, where you there or is Zisk’s grandiose slam that much in White Sox lore?
I noticed that the DH’s are listed as B’s, presumably for Batters? Wonder why they couldn’t (or didn’t) use DH. Interesting.
I honestly had no idea the Houston Texans wore a dark shade of blue on Sunday until reading this article. The uniforms looked black. It never occurred to me the color was anything else.
Saw them being dark navy up close on this site but on TV they did look black. Horrible look.
GTGFTU: Monday, November 28, 2022, Pittsburgh Steelers (24) at Indianapolis Colts (17), at Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN
I could tell this was a recent game as I recognized player #88 as Pat Freiermuth, who’s on my fantasy team this year. The Colts have also only been wearing those throwbacks since 2021. Notice the shoulder striping is different and the horseshoe logo on the back of the helmet as opposed to the side
They haven’t worn them in 2024, and in 2021, they wore them against the Buccaneers, but here’s an issue: Their opponent in both the 2022 and 2023 throwback games was the Steelers, wearing the same combination in each (Minus socks, which aren’t clearly visible in the image). How am I supposed to tell the difference?
The jersey template. Nike changed templates in between these two seasons, and this one shows the older template, without the awkward seam at the top of the jersey that looks like the top of a cape
I hate the Rams bone jersey, and the all bone look is awful. Sure the yellow pants are the best, but bone pants with this combo is pretty good.
I was okay with the off-white color for the pants, but the white/yellow stripes really hurt the look as a whole. Any blue stripe down there would have helped, but the bone set just doesn’t seem to mix well with the others.
Figured I’d come here to the expert panel. My boys want to be San Diego padres for Halloween and wear city connect jersey, which im going to DIY. I know the front font is a custom, but does anyone know the font used for the name and number on the back? I’m sure I can screenshot and print and cut, but a preloaded font saves me some steps. TIA
Chris
I think this is a custom font that was made for that uniform, but you could try looking for Baywatch (the corny old TV show) inspired fonts like “Yellow Jacket” or “Blaster”.
I get that this week had a few highly-anticipated returns of classic uniforms, and that they were paired with generally good-looking opponents. And I also get that a few other teams ended up choosing really good looking combos vs each other, creating really good-looking matchups.
But the notion that ANY of them look better than Steelers vs Cowboys is nonsense. If everyone got their wish and all these teams with great throwbacks DID make them permanent, the novelty of them wearing the throwbacks would be gone, and their rankings in the 5&1 would move back down the ladder, and Pgh/Dal would be at the top. The fact that a lot of these uniforms are ‘special’ is what pushes them up the rankings, not because they ACTUALLY look better.
Both the Cowboys and Steelers’ uniforms have gone downhill, despite remaining “basically” the same, over the years. If they both wore what they did in Super Bowl X, then yes, this would be close to a perma-#1 as there is. The ‘boys mutating shades of blue on the pants and the Stillers going to futura italic for their fonts are both downgrades from what they used to wear.
Paul even penned what is still one of my favorite pieces ever, back in 2007, regarding the various “quirks” in the Cowboys uniform. (link)
It’s still a great matchup, but it’s not what it once was, and it is definitely not “higher” than any of the four I picked above it (YMMV, of course).
I won’t disagree about the Cowboys’ mutating blue; they’d be better off with silver pants and navy numbers/stripes to match the helmet. But I’m one of the few ‘Italics Are Better Than Block’ guys for Pittsburgh, and it’s a hill I’m more than happy to die on.
One thing would have made those Denver unis perfection: blue pants.
Not so sure. It would have spoilt those beautiful socks. They really popped with the white pants.
Easy solution of orange socks with white and blue stripes.
The beauty of striped socks is that it doesn’t really matter what colour the pants are.
Lots of great looking matchups, Broncos-Raiders and Cowboys-Steelers are a tie for me. On detail level, the Bengals should keep the orange pants with the black jerseys. I know the other team from Ohio looks very good doing the same, but thet can do the brown jersey white pants better than the Bengals look with black jersey and black or white pants.
How can you possibly have ANYTHING over Bengals-Ravens?
I know people love The Bengals in those orange pantaloons but from a distance they sure look a lot like The Browns.
I think the big problem with that is the fact that the Browns changed their orange to the same as the Bengals a few years back.
It used to be lighter, much better looking back in the Bernie Kosar days…
link
1000% agree. Looks good but just feels wrong.
I’ve been a Bronco watching 90% of games for 50 years. The throwbacks look great but they are historically inaccurate. The orange tone was darker from 1968-77. A reddish orange. The sock stripes were the best detail of that set and those are nicely reproduced in yesterday’s uniform.
Yes, there’s no question the orange that the Broncos used back in the ’70s was a darker more reddish orange. I’ll still take this slightly modern update over what they have been wearing for the last 27 years.
Lifelong bronco fan as well. I liked the shade orange on yesterday’s unis better than the 70s- more pop!
I don’t think you’re ever going to get the Commies in white over gold unfortunately. The lack of ANY gold accents in the white jersey makes it seem pretty obvious to me that they don’t intend for them to go together. Unfortunately, I think it’s far more likely that they will eventually pair them with black pants.
I liked the Texans “H-Town” alternate less than I thought I would. I never thought it would be great, but I liked the powder blue, and thought the outlined bull logo looked cool. None of that popped nearly as much as I had thought, and the red kinda overpowered the rest of the uniform.
I agree, it was a very disappointing uniform. That light blue is awesome, and adds another dimension to the set…or at least if would if they allowed it to. I think this must have looked much better on the graphic designer’s software and in the concept art than it does in real life.
The old-timey “H” logo is a great idea, but it’s not yet ready for prime-time. I still think a revised iteration of all this could look really good, but they’ll probably just throw it all away in few years and try something else, having learned nothing.
The best home uniform the Broncos had was during the late Elway era until 1996. The Jersey, pants and sock stripes were more consistent and blue outline added to names on back. This is the design the team should return to. The orange was lighter than 1977.
They should also return to their 1978-79 road uniforms white jerseys with orange pants. White over white always looks horrible.
The Ravens-Bengals game was gorgeous. I hope the Bengals don’t minimize the orange pants because they lost.
The Ravens combo worn yesterday is the best looking road uniform in the league, with Steelers a close second.
Halloween vibes
“The Ravens combo worn yesterday is the best looking road uniform in the league”
link
“The Ravens combo worn yesterday is the best looking road uniform in the league”
link
I apologize if this has been discussed before, but when did the NFL start relaxing its uniform guidelines so much? It seems like players never wear socks anymore, opting for tights in all sorts of colors. For example, Justin Jefferson wore black tights yesterday while most of his teammates wore purple. Players’ uniforms are often untucked, there was a RB yesterday who’s backplate was visible, lime green mouth pieces are a thing, it just all looks so sloppy. Do you think the league will step in and enforce stricter guidelines like they used to, or is this the new normal?
I’d lean towards the new normal. Even the MLB has embraced the off the wall colors.
“In retrospect, perhaps the Texans should have made those numbers “H-Town blue” instead of red.”
In retrospect, the Texans should have stuck with their old time-tested uniforms.
Also, it’s possible the Titans also own the powder-numbers-outlined-in-red look…maybe they don’t but they should:
link
Nobody owns a friggin color (or even two colors specifically placed together).
I can see the petty Adams’ making a stink about the Texans possibly adopting a powder (Love ya) Blue jersey with white numbers and red outlines…but there is nothing about that new Texans uni (which is gadawful) that the Titans could make a stink about if they used that template, H-Town blue, and red (or even white) outlines.
YVVM n’at, but Tennessee can just eff off.
Seconded.
There wasn’t much of a “hint of fall in the air” at the Washington/Cleveland game. It was pretty warm.
For shits and giggles I sampled the “blue” Texans fabric (which looks totally black to me) and it came up #323647 in photoshop values (R50 G54 B71) which comes up squarely in the blue range.
My wife states she clearly sees blue – I see black. Apparently women (gathering) developed better color sense than men (hunting). Take that for what its worth but I suspect you get more females saying they see blue than men. I don’t know the science. This is what she told me.. lol
We were unfortunate enough to get Texans – Bills as one of the early games in my tv market yesterday. Those H-Town unis were just jarringly bad. Like other comments above, I saw them as black even though I know they’re technically very (very!) dark navy. That is the single worst uni in the entire league.
Broncos – Raiders, outside in the sunshine on grass, was perfection. The best looking game by a mile yesterday. Denver’s throwback looked absolutely glorious and really highlighted how crappy their regular unis are.
I was shocked how good Cincy – Baltimore looked. The Bengals orange pants are getting all the attention, but the Ravens’ purple pants (and white socks) are what made the difference.
Broncos looked amazing. I tuned in to get a look, and kept watching. The colors looked great, and they looked especially great in that super-bright Denver sunshine.
If they were to “make it permanent,” I would suggest a couple of changes. I’d change the order of some of the stripes (make the pant stripes blue-orange-blue), and some material changes to make the colors look better. The blue on the sleeves and the orange on the helmet were a little bit diluteded by the bleed-through of the underlying material. This is probably more authentic to the target era for the throwbacks, but for a permanent thing, they should fix it. Maybe simplify the sock stripes a bit.
I’d make some small changes to the D-Horse logo, mainly to blend the horse with the more modern bronco somewhat, and I’d consider making a secondary version with the horse facing front for the other side of the helmet. The helmet logo should be bigger, although the cutouts in the new helmets problematize that somewhat.
Houston was a big disappointment. That falls squarely in the “looks better in the design software” category. As noted, the navy was too dark, and the light blue was underutilized. The players with light blue accessories showed how much this uniform really begs for more of that lighter blue. I love the script-H, but it didn’t work in real life on the helmets. It probably needs a white outline, and to (unfortunately) ditch the 3d effect. Get rid of the “H-Town” bumper. You’re Houston. Be proud of who you are. I do like that they used the different logos on the helmet and sleeve. More teams should do this. The numbers need some work: the font is goofy (especially the 7), and needed more color contrast.
I noticed that the Steelers have their name on the neck bumper of the back of their helmet. Is that new? Because I could’ve sworn it was always blank.
I would like the Bengals to keep those orange side panels on the pants and apply them to the white pants as a nod to the old days.
I think they look better in orange/black/white, with some orange trim on the pants. I don’t hate the orange/black/orange, but it’s a little too heavy and also looks a little too much like the Browns at first glance (although it will always be hard for Cinci to get away from that).
For the orange pants, I’d like to see the tiger stripes extend a little wider towards the front and back, and maybe a little more white trim in there somewhere.
Could the Bengals possibly look better than they did this Sunday? I don’t think so.
I don’t know if I’ll ever understand the obsession with color as the only thing that makes or breaks a uniform. It’s not just Phil; I’ve seen it elsewhere. I’d rank things like striping and number font way above color. I absolutely hate teal, but the Panthers have a good design so I’m ok with it. I like purple (sorry, Paul), but the Ravens’ uniforms are so silly looking that they can never look good.
Anyway, I too hate the lack of pants-sock contrast, but if that’s the worst thing about a uniform, I can live with it.
It’s definitely not just color as the “only” thing that makes or breaks a uniform, but to me that’s probably the most important factor. Especially for two-color (other than white) teams: colors should be complementary, not clashing. For three color (other than white), it’s imperative that all the colors work well together, at least to me.
But certainly I consider stripes and fonts of import. A uniform like the Broncos’ previous set, for example, has great complimentary colors: link
Navy blue and orange work well together, but the parentheses stripes and number fonts (which I don’t hate) are more than enough to downgrade the uniform IMO, despite having great colors.
And as you should well know, I much prefer pants with standard stripes. Solid color pants aren’t a dealbreaker, but I’d give anything to see a burgundy/white/burgundy stripe on these pants: link
But do I like the burgundy & gold combo (regardless of anything else)? Yes. Could it be improved? Absolutely. But color is definitely important first and foremost!
I hear what you’re saying for sure, but think of it this way: I think those Denver uniforms are so good that they could replace the two colors with any two (suitably contrasted) colors and I wouldn’t think any less of it.