Unlike the Jaguars, Ravens, Panthers, Bengals and a host of other teams who are apparently not “uni superstitious,” the Detroit Lions have taken things to the other extreme this season.
After opening the season with a victory while wearing Monolulu blue, the following week the team wore its “standard” (and gorgeous) new silver/blue/silver-gray/blue against the Bucs in Week 2, and lost their only game of the season.
The following week, they debuted their all white combination (another victory), and in Week 4 they debuted their new alternate blue helmet and mono-BFBS alternates (their third victory of the season). So in four weeks, the Lions wore four different looks, leading many to believe they might go down the path blazed by the aforementioned teams of breaking out unique uni combos every week.
But that didn’t happen.
With victories in Monolulu blue and all white, the Lions proceeded to only wear those combinations from Week 5 through this past week (the Lions played on Thanksgiving). Clearly they don’t want to “mess with a winning streak” as Crash Davis would say. Despite the promise of several different uni combinations when the new set was unveiled, the team has seemingly refused to wear anything but the all blue/all white look. I get it: they haven’t lost when wearing either combo, so why mess with success?
Despite this, most of us expected them to at least wear their throwbacks (an option introduced with the new uni set) on Thanksgiving. Even the venerable GUD had shown them in throwbacks, but the day before that game, the team revealed they’d be wearing the Monolulu Blues again. Despite the fact that the Lions were technically “undefeated” this year in the throwback, their desire to keep wearing the same uniform in which they had yet to lose was enough to supersede wearing the Thanksgiving throwback.
So, what will the team wear tonight when they host the Packers?
You guessed it…
This should come as no surprise, given they haven’t worn anything but Monolulu blue at home since the blue helmet/mono BFBS uni in Week 4.
What (if anything) will it take for the Lions to wear something else besides the all-blue and all-white? Well, they still have two “alternate” weeks left, and we know next week they’re wearing the blue helmets and black jerseys again. For any of us hoping to see them in blue/black/blue/black…
…I have some bad news. They’ll be going mono-black again next week. Because streak.
The Lions will be on the road for weeks 16 and 17 — you can pretty much write down in pen that they’ll be going mono-white for at least the first of those games. Should they win (again) in Week 16, I guarantee we’ll get silver/white/white/white in Week 17. I’m also very confident the Lions will wear Monolulu blue again in their final home game of the regular season in Week 18 — unless the Packers can put up an “L” on them tonight. Then, and only then might they wear something else that final weekend “if” the winning streak in mono-blue is broken.
Like I said, I get why they want to wear the “lucky” uniforms week after week. It’s just a shame they’re so superstitious and continue to wear what are arguably their two worst uni combos every week. But the players and fans apparently love the “blueberry” (as they call it) look and want the team to continue wearing it. I guess you can’t argue with success.
It’s gotten to the point where I’m rooting for a Lions loss simply to see if that will prompt them to wear a new combo. But maybe even a single loss in what is otherwise a “perfect” (record-wise) look won’t cause them to change things up.
With the best record in the NFC and nearing the #1 seed (at this point, probably only the Eagles or Vikings can overtake them), I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more Monolulu blue in Detroit in January.
It may not be a combo I like, but it seems like all of Detroit has gotten on the Monolulu train. If it works for them, that’s all that matters.
What say you?
why do they hate their fans so much?
I think the fans love the Monolulu.
Based on their Reddit sub, they don’t “love” the blueberry unis so much as they’re as superstitious as the players and think they’re responsible for the wins. Lots of posts in there about hoping the team goes back to their regular uniforms once it loses a couple games in the monoblue/white.
Yeah, even Reddit hates them now. I remember last year, I spoke against them when they wore them against Minnesota to clinch the division and received so much negative karma. This year has been totally different now they see the light. They are getting tired of the blueberries now and the mono whites.
Where the Lions went wrong was wearing these all the time and replacing the traditional set. People love the traditional home combo with the new uniforms more than the last ones. Fans are getting sick of seeing these same unis every week. Saints fans have said the same thing about missing the gold pants.
Ok, that’s fair.
I’ve said countless times on here that uniforms don’t win games, but human beings are irrational when it comes to this. It’s why teams ascribe the term “good” to uniforms that are actually pretty terrible, but because the team has success in them, they’re beloved way more than they should be.
No one with eyes can tell me Pat Patriot doesn’t look better as a uniform than Flying Elvis (any version), but many, particular older fans, think of the Pat Patriots as “loser” uniforms, or if not quite that, uniforms worn when the team was not successful on field. They’re viscerally wired to think “these are the unis we wore when we sucked” as if it was the uniforms’ fault.”
I don’t fault Detroit (players or fans) for wanting to stick with a winning look. It’s human nature. But it’s not the uniforms causing the winning. If they lost in the Monolulu blue in week 1 and won in the blue over silver-gray in week two, they’d probably be sticking with those and we’d all be praising the team for bringing back a modern classic and sticking with it.
Instead, the opposite has happened.
Fans have ruined on the monoblues because they’ve worked them way too much. I’ve seen a lot of fans go as far as to saying they’ll root for the Packers to win to end the streak.
A lot of the fans either wanted mono blackberries, black on blue, or silver pants. The only fans that are okay with the momovlues are the superstitious fans and there’s not a lot of them left.
The fans love winning. If they wore 11 eleven straight wearing tinfoil and tuile, the fans would approve.
As a Lions fan, I definitely does NOT like the mono looks. They are all terrible, especially compared to both the new silver/blue/silver-gray/blue look and their throwbacks. Mono-color looks are bad universally, and the Lions are especially so with stripeless pants.
At least last season, when the Lions went mono blue, the pants had stripes. Why would they remove the stripes with the new uniforms?
I can only assume the pants are stripeless (like the white pants) so they could mix/match them with the black jersey/blue helmet. If you have silver stripes on the blue pants (matching those on the blue jersey), then they wouldn’t match the stripes on the blue helmet (which are black). Without stripes, the pants could be worn with the blue, white and black jersey. Same goes for the white pants (they can be worn with the blue, white or black jersey). Other than that *reason* I think the design geniuses like the stripeless look. But the ability to mix and match is probably the reason only the silver-gray pants have stripes. Those would never be paired with the blue helmet or black jersey.
Normally, when we think “mono” we mean matching jerseys and pants. But I think what most of us have more of a problem with is the matching pants and socks – especially since so few teams these days wear striped or dual-colored hosiery. IMO, contrasting socks would make any of these “mono” or “color rush” unis more palatable.
I actually kind of like want them to get knocked out early in the playoffs because of this. What if they win it all and all we see for years is mono out of them when they really could have a nice set.
I take it your not a true lions fan.. who would want their team to get beat….?????
I am not. Just a fan of football and good uniforms.
Well it looks like a lot of us including some Lions fans will be big Packers fans tonight and hoping they end the streak. A loss tonight would be huge in proving that the uniforms aren’t good luck.
It’s crazy that they have new uniforms and the other combos have either not been worn much or at all this season. We’ve seen the other teams with new uniforms where almost every combo so far no matter if they won or loss in them.
Unfortunately, I think it’s coming down to likely this Dan Campbell era needing to end. I hope the Lions get bounced out of the playoffs and they never win the title. I never thought I’d prefer the Lions to be a bad team than a good one all over the uniforms.
I understand your feelings on these $200 per ticket Pro Teams wearing playground monocolor unis and having to endure horrific loud rap music between EVERY snap.
I gave up Saints season tickets in large part due to the hip monochrome unis and “street cred” atmosphere of this foolishness. And yes, it has bled down into the SEC and other college football, with the crappy music and strobe light stadium lights after every big play. F*ck them.
Lions are one of the teams I usually root for. After so many miserable years, at least they’re winning games and playing like an actual football team. So in that sense, they can wear polka dots for all I care.
I don’t much like the new set, and their monophilia is unfortunate, but I’ve kind of made peace with this being their look these days. I generally have a very strong preference for stripes, but I really don’t like the stripes on this set anyway,
The closest I’ve come to hoping they lose for the sake of uni-karma was on Thanksgiving, but I guess I don’t feel all that strongly about it.
I’m a Detroiter and a Lions fan, and I hate it. Mainly because of the lack of pants stripes. Also because I prefer the silver pants in general, but I’d be okay with the blue and white pants if they had some freaking stripes.
Just my opinion, but I’d caution against saying definitively that they’re wearing mono solely for superstitious reasons, unless they say otherwise. We don’t actually know that — it’s just an (admittedly very plausible) assumption.
We might just be entering a Lions era of constant mono looks, which could carry over regardless of results as unfortunately has happened with the Saints. I think it’s important to make the distinction that we might think (and hope) that it’s superstition, but that we don’t know for sure.
Believe me, I’ve thought of that over the past several weeks.
But if it’s NOT superstition, then why didn’t they wear the Throwbacks on Thanksgiving?
Trust me, they believe in not messing with a streak (a valid, if irrational reason). And we may indeed see them stick with the Monolulu if they lose, because of the “mojo”. No way they’re not wearing mono-blue and mono-white the rest of the way if they don’t lose a game in either.
Here’s hoping that they lose so they can get back to a better looking uniform.
I’ve mentioned this before, but the team has thought the Monolulu Blue unis are good luck for a while. Since last year, at least. Probably longer. It’s not just a thing from this year.
link
Skip to the 1:10 mark of the above video, you will hear Goff says “Ay, these young kids don’t know this yet, but we always play good in the blueberries.”
This video is from last year, week 3.
For the record, I’ve grown to like the uni set. I don’t usually like mono uniforms, but I like the Monolulu blueberries.
The mono blue and looks terrible, and the leotard looks are a travesty.
I’m 59 years old, and although I’ve never been a Lions fan, my favorite uniform in NFL history was the Honolulu Blue over Silver after they switched from the gray numbers to the white… think Barry Sanders era.
That uni was beautiful, and for some iconic reason it somehow looked even prettier on Thanksgiving day.
Tonight’s uniform is an updated version of that uni, and boy, I am looking forward to watching tonight’s game!
Woops. I misread that one!
Dump the Monolulu Blue combo and bring back the best uniform in football.
I understand the superstition. When the 49ers last won the Super Bowl in the 1994 season, they stopped wearing their regular uniforms after a blowout loss to the Eagles in Week 5. From that point on, they wore either their red or white throwback uniforms all the way to the Super Bowl (against the Chargers, who really should have worn their all-white throwbacks). The Niners’ only loss in the throwbacks was a meaningless Week 17 game against the Vikings (they had already secured the number one seed, and backups played part of that game).
I feel like the Lions are trying to follow a similar script. If they go all the way, fans will forever associate the all-white or Monolulu Blues with a championship. As good as the updated blue jerseys and silver pants look, they are more reminiscent of the teams that came up short.
Does the AFC or the NFC get 1st pick of uni combo this year? If Lions and Bills make it to the SB and Bills get the pick and they go with blue, then can Lions still wear their lighter blue? What if it’s the Lions and the Chiefs and the Chiefs choose red? Can there be a color-on-color matchup like UCLA-USC?
NFC is the home team this year.
There has never been a color-vs-color Super Bowl. I doubt there will be this year.
Regarding the “home” and “away” designations, these alternate every year. The first Supe had the NFL (now NFC) as the home team, so to make it easier to remember, just know that every ODD numbered Super Bowl will have the NFC as home team, and every EVEN numbered Supe will have the AFC as home team. This year will be Super Bowl LVIII (58), so the AFC is the home team.
So, if Detroit makes its first Super Bowl this season, they’ll be the designated “away” team and will not have first choice for jersey color. That will belong to the AFC (Chiefs? Bills? Ravens?) winner.
The Niners weren’t supposed to wear the throwbacks in the Super Bowl. That was meant to be a regular-season thing only, for a maximum of three games. The Niners simply ignored the rule all year.
Turns out that wasn’t the only rule they were ignoring.
So, if they were to be waxed 59-0, does that mean no more footie pajamas this year?
If the Lions still played in what they wore in 1984, would it be a problem?
Of course not. This whole thing is a manufactured matter, with many people having bought in to it as a meaningful part of the fan experience. Right where they want you.
The fact that they produce reveals for mid season games should tell you what this really is.
What is it really then? The only part of the uniform most fans buy are jerseys. Nobody wears football pants or socks. So what is the point you are making, besides contrarian snark?
So by your logic, alternate helmets are a waste of time as fans dont buy them. Yet its at a fever pitch now.
Are you making my point for me or is it just poorly thought out emotional snark?
Really sick of the undershirt nonsense. What genius is behind that mess? It’s one thing that the players do it – another entirely that they practically use it as a selling point now. LAME
They will wear this outfit as they win the Super Bowl and completely forget about silver pants forever after. Until Dan Campbell retires or gets fired, then they might return. The Lions are a fun team to watch, Campbell and his staff are gutsy coaches, but this is such a bad look to go with success.
Seems like the idea is to manufacture a reason to hold a particular jersey in high regard- which is weird because couldnt one just say “because i like them”? Why add bs to it as if that somehow validates it further when it clearly is not needed. One can like what they like for reasons that they like it; without the supernatural.
Any team that had a change, then won a superbowl (broncos for example) should then never ever change the uniform again. Ever. But its a waffle situation. Eventually it would be argued that they won because they changed- so lets try it again- but only when they are ready right? none of those reasons are real at all. Its called ‘marketing’ which is just a fancy term for manipulation.
If you choose to be manipulated, cool. Just dont dress it up as something other than what it is. Its dishonest.
Once upon a time a fan bought a jersey because they were a fan of the team, not the jersey design; at least the male fans. Women would typically be the ones who pick who they like based on uniforms. Maybe Adam Carolla was right- just off by a few decades.