The NFL’s penultimate regular season games take place over five days for Week 17, from two Christmas Day games, to a TNF game, then three Saturday games, and all of yesterday’s action. It concludes with MNF tonight. We had only one alternate uniform worn: the Texans wore their “H-Town” midnight navy unis on Christmas, and yesterday, the Eagles were the only team to sport a throwback. And boy, how good does Philly look in kelly green?
Is it a perfect uniform? Not quite. But it’s really good. I never thought the white numbers needed black outlines, I always thought it looked a bit off that the pants have a white stripe with black outline, but no thin black stripe on the green stripes, especially when the socks have the thin black top and bottom. Pick a lane.
But other than that…just a beautiful uniform. If they won’t go back to these (or something like these) full-time, then they should at least wear the throwbacks the max number of permissible times. With the Jets wearing “Legacy” green, the Eagles can take full ownership of kelly. At least for a few weeks a year.
How do you guys feel about the Eagles in kelly green?
And with that, let’s just delve right into the action.
Chiefs vs. Steelers
The Chiefs busted out their rarely-worn white over white combo for Christmas, and reminded everyone why it’s their best road look. And of course, all four teams to play on Christmas wore a special cross candy canes patch, which meant Walter Payton Man of the Year winners Russell Wilson and Cam Heyward had a really crowded patchwork on their jerseys. It was a beautiful uni game too!
For the second Christmas game, the beauty that was KC-PGH quickly morphed into the brutal matchup between the Ravens and Texans. Houston wore their “H-Town Alternate,” which is, at least in theory, midnight navy. But even against a black helmet/black pants team, Houston’s uniforms look black. I know there are some who think this is a good look, but I’m not one of them.
Seahawks vs. Bears
Thankfully, the Bears almost always look good, but the weather and the Seahawks’ navy hats, pants and socks led to a very dark navy matchup. Not the worst looking game, but not great either.
Chargers vs. Patriots
The Pats continued their trend of wearing silver-gray pants, and it makes such a big difference in their overall look when they do. And their navy/silver-gray provided fantastic contrast to the Chargers white/gold/blue. Easy Top Five looking game here!
It might seem hard to believe, but this was actually the first time the Broncos went navy/white/white/navy, but it’s a fantastic look, and the resulting uni matchup was superlative. It’s amazing how much better the Broncos look when they wear color-contrasting socks.
Whenever these two teams meet, there’s always a potential for an “And One” but that most certainly wasn’t the case on Saturday night. The Cardinals’ best uniform is their mono-white, and while the Rams’ royal over sol look could be tweaked a bit, it’s still their signature look. Another T-5 contender!
Panthers vs. Buccaneers
After going the first 13 weeks without wearing it once, the Bucs have worn red jerseys over pewter pants three of the past four weeks. And with Carolina in silver/white/white/blue, it was a pretty nice matchup, but probably not nice enough for a T-5. My one complaint about the Bucs — and it’s not minor — is just how dark the “pewter” pants are. If Nike could just find another dye lot to lighten the pewter a bit, it would go a long way.
I touched on the Eagles throwbacks above, but what a fantastic pairing those unis created against the Cowboys. And yes, they should make these permanent. This is an easy T-5 contender, and one of the best-looking games of the year.
OK, so this wasn’t quite as good as the “Greatest Game Ever Played,” but it was still a great looking matchup. There are some teams I don’t mind going mono-white, but the Colts belong in blue socks. I prefer the G-men in white pants, but in this instance, blue over gray would have been a bit better. Still, yet another Top Five contender.
OK, so not every game will be a T-5 contender, but at least da Raidahs keep this one from being the And One. And we all know the simple fix to keep the Saints from going camouflage — just wear the gold pants. Other than their one throwback game, the Saints wore gold/black/black/black at home for every game. I know the players love it, but it’s just a terrible look.
The Bills and Jets were another stellar matchup, and another Top Five contender! Normally I prefer the Jets to wear white jerseys with white pants and green socks, but with Buffalo in white pants, this was a phenomenal pairing up in Orchard Park. It’s not quite a color palette special, but it’s close.
This won’t sniff the top five, but considering the possible matchups here, this could have looked a lot worse. And fortunately, the teal and powder blue didn’t clash. It wasn’t beautiful, but it wasn’t awful either.
Dolphins vs. Browns
With the Dolphins in mono-white, yesterday would have been a good game for the Browns to bust out orange pants, but it certainly wasn’t the worst-looking game of the day. And with just a tiny bit of aqua, the Dolphins are another team that should really wear aqua socks with an all-white uni.
A good-looking game could have been even better looking had the Vikes worn purple hose. Seriously, this looks really nice, right? It’s really a color palette special, but the all-white below the waist just seems to throw the balance off. Top Five candidate but for the socks.
Falcons vs. Commanders
The Commanders have been pretty good about wearing their gold pants with burgundy jerseys at home this year, but for this “big” game, they decided mono-burgundy was the way to go. The problem — and it’s NOT unique to Washington — is stripeless pants look AWFUL with same-color hose. Either stick with gold pants or put gold/white/gold stripes (as seen on the sleeve caps) on those trou.
I’ll go ahead and be the contrarian. I prefer the Eagles in their modern dark green unis (but not the BFBS) from the late 90s on to their Kelly Green throwbacks.
I tend to agree. The kelly green set they are wearing as alts now is too… I don’t know… almost pale looking. I’m sure someone made sure that “green” is the same one they wore back in the day, but to me, it’s so much lighter and the helmet seems almost washed out. Maybe a green in between the current ones would work?
I would’ve been a little bit on board with you prior to Nike, when the midnight greens were *actually* midnight green. But now their green jerseys are closer to the Jags than the Packers.
What qualifies as a color palette special?
colors which look great together when facing each other, obviously.
My five and one
5 Packers/Vikings white pants and socks are not a good look for Vikings
4 Eagles/Cowboys Love Eagles look, but may looked even better against another team
3 Patriots/Chargers
2 Jets/Bills Only improvement would have been a natural grass field
1 Chiefs/Steelers
Panthers/Buccaneers was close but like you feel the Bucs pants are just a bit too dark
Cards/Rams was also close, just believe Rams pants are a bit too bright against mono white
And one
Tie Ravens/Texans and Falcons/Commandeers mono look isn’t good nor is a white top with black pants as it’s football not a funeral or a uniform at a restaurant Also thought tonight’s game would be terrible but noticed GUD had changed 9ers from ugly white pants and block shadow to beautiful gold, so it will be halfway decent!
Washington had such a classic look with the previous unis they had for decades especially the striped pants. Agree that the more I see the Giants the more I prefer the gray pants with their current set especially on the road. Ugh Falcons why couldn’t you go back to the 80s-90s unis with the silver pants.
Eagles uni fix is so simple, just take the existing temple and render it in kelly green and silver (with silver pants). Maybe you change the numbers back to block font too? But the current uniform is a modern classic design, the dark green isn’t awful, but the kelly green is simply much better. The dark green was a byproduct of many teams getting away from bright colors in the 90s (and also the owner’s wife not liking kelly green). I can tell you the fans prefer it.
They are in the same boat the Rams were when they ditched the navy/gold a few years back. The uniform itself was great, it just needed to be color swapped to the vibrant blue/yellow classic Rams colors. Given the Rams didn’t use this simple fix, I have no hope Nike… I mean the Eagles will either.
Agreed, modern helmet logo with Kelly green over silver and block numbers would be incredible.
Just my opinion, the Bucs’ pewter pants are that dark because that uniform’s earlier incarnation from 1997-2013 had pants that showed sweat too easily. Instead of retaining that lighter color they made the pants darker. I personally prefer the white pants, but pewter pants are considered the team’s identity. Again just my opinion.
“Action Green” is the Seahawks; the Jets’ shade is called “Legacy Green” (f/k/a “Gotham Green”).
Oy. Yes, Legacy Green. My bad.
Now fixed. Thanks, Jay!
GTGFTU: November 11, 1960
Boston University Field, Boston, MA
Boston Patriots 38, New York Titans 21
Beat me by 3 minutes!
GTGFTU: 1960 Boston Patriots (Joe Johnson) v New York Titans (Fred Julian) at Nickerson Field (Boston University), November 11, 1960. Boston won 38-21.
I love the Eagles’ Kelly Greens, but it is still nagging me that the helmet is a couple of shades too light and looks (for lack of a better term) chalky…
One other thing: I was sad the Eagles didn’t at least throw a “66” decal on their helmets for Bill Bergey…
I like the Eagles midnight green but i don’t care for the Kelly green style, maybe take the current unis and make a Kelly alt in the new style.
The Rams just need to kill the gradient on the numbers and they would be perfect.
The Falcons number font is bad ( and I like custom number fonts, block on everyone looks dumb) but the real problem is they look so much better when their white jerseys have red numbers.
The Giants need to stick to grey pants on all their uniforms
As a lifelong Eagles fan I love the Kelly green unis. Such a treat when they break them out. I went in person to last year’s matchup in Philly against the Dolphins (the debut of this uniform, actually) and I can say they look even better in person. If they stick with wearing them as an alternate and keeping Midnight green the main color, I will be ok with that. Midnight green also looks nice. But they really should just ditch the black unis and wear the Kelly greens three times a year so we can at least see these beauties as much as possible (like the Falcons realizing their throwbacks are superior and wearing them three times and ditching the gradient uni).
No fan of the Braman era Birds throwback …the helmet is simply too light, as are the sliver wings…which also seem too small.
The Cards/Rams would have been in my top 5.
GTGFTS: December 16, 1973 @ Shea Stadium, Bills won, 34-14. Simpson ran for 200 yards, Jim Braxton ran for 98.
Simpson also became the first NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season with the 200 yards in this game.
The Jets have a thing for allowing historical rushing records to be broken. They were also the opponent when Barry Sanders broke the records years later. Coincidence? I think not.
Barry Sanders never held the NFL all-time rushing record.
Walter Payton broke Jim Brown’s record against the Saints in 1984; Emmitt Smith broke Payton’s record against the Seahawks in 2002.
Sanders did break the 2,000-yard mark against the Jets in 1997, but did not break Eric Dickerson’s single-season record.
Thanks Graf. Yes, the 2K season record was what I was referring to.
I was at that game and it was so unbelievably cold with the wind whipping around Shea. OJ broke the record early in the game and my father and I looked at each other and said, OK, we saw what we came to see, we’re outta here. I can at least say I was at a record-breaking game but we were on the LIE with the heater blasting.
I was at that game and it was so unbelievably cold with the wind whipping around Shea. OJ broke the record early in the game and my father and I looked at each other and said, OK, we saw what we came to see, we’re outta here. I can at least say I was at a record-breaking game but we were on the LIE with the heater blasting.
Even though this is the Cardinals best look, they need to wear red socks with this. The Bucs dark pewter pants are terrible. They should wear the creamsicle as their main uniform, and wear the pewter as a throwback. That’s the problem when you win the Super Bowl in an inferior uniform, similar to the Patriots Brady era Flying Elvis being inferior to the Pat Patriot. And yes, the Eagles Kelly Green is their best look, though their dark green is also a good look. What I don’t like about the dark green are the black accents, like the black socks. Adding black to this dark green makes me think that they went with the darkest green wishing they could have just gone with black, but the league wouldn’t let them.
The Cards’ white set is so close to being great. If the silver stripes were black, it would be almost perfect. The silver makes no sense.
I contend that the silver stripes on the pants and sleeves tie in with the facemask and oh-so-subtle (but oh-so-cool) flakes on the white helmet.
1 mis-step may be the word mark on the sleeves…and yeah, cardinal socks (or at least sock toppers) would look good too, but not having them doesn’t move the needle downward. YVVM.
Hmmm. Interesting thought. I guess I could see that if the beak on the helmet wasn’t yellow. Perhaps if it was red (like a real cardinal’s beak) the silver would be less odd looking to me. I think it’s that little use of yellow (a light color) and then another that’s never been part of their set (silver) in addition.
Eagles look great in Kelly green. The black outlines are unnecessary but they don’t detract from the overall look for me
Texans need to burn those terrible HTown monstrosities
I’d have put the Colts Giants game waaay up my Top 5 list.
I much prefer the Browns with orange pants (always), but if they must wear the white ones, doing so with the brown jersey is superior to the all white ice cream man look.
The Texans’ uniforms are awful. It was a downgrade. Their navy is way too dark.
The Saints could have one of the best looks in the NFL but they instead keep going with the worst look. It’s mind boggling they trot out in those stripeless black pants.
The Patriots have completely flipped my opinion of their uniforms. When they only wore the navy pants all the time, I thought they were pretty meh but the silver/gray pants have made their navy over silver looks really good imo. They now look like an upgraded version of their previous uniforms.
Agree with all of this. The more I see the Texans, the more the dark blue bothers me. Patriots have turned into an actual good looking team (first time since Pat Patriot!) with the silver pants. Very welcome development that I never expected.
I agree with the earlier post the Eagles look better in the 80’s 90’s dark green /silver combo than the kelly green. The kelly is overrated but the uni design is solid. The Panthers white over white with blue socks is a very underrated uni.
There should be a league-wide mandate: if you MUST got mono, your pants MUST have striping of some kind. Pretty please. I hate that the Lions keep doing it in particular with the white set, but pant stripes would make it so much better. I hate the Commies’ all maroon set, but again, a set of pants stripes is sorely needed.
No, white jersey and white pants is always the worst choice. Chiefs, Broncos and Cardinals looked awful with colored pants available to wear.
Interesting. Do you mean for everyone? I think white jersey/pants looks great when the helmet is also white. Are you thinking the Colts should go white/white/blue? To me, no way. I would say the same about the Cards or any other team with a white lid, with the possible exception of the Chargers’ yellow pants (although I prefer all white for them also). Totally agree re the Chiefs. Red/white/red on the road only please.
As much as I loved the Colts’ blue road pants, I don’t need them. Their all-white uni is the best ever.
The Cards, on the other hand, need red pants for half of their road games.
The Colts always had a solid uni but they messed up the number font a bit a few years ago. Even though the change was minor it wasn’t an improvement.
Do you really have to say the pewter pants the Bucs wear are too dark literally every single week?
Not every week.
Only when they wear them.
LOL,
Ravens-Texans is in the running for worst looking game of the year. Yikes! We’ve had a whole season to evaluate Houston’s new unis, and they are still just as horrendous as when they were unveiled. Four more seasons in these, then on to hopefully a sane redesign.
Agree with Phil that KC’s best road look is Red/White/White/Red. In fact, it’s their best overall look, period.
Lions/Texans looked worse.
And I cannot remain silent to Phil’s uni-blasphemy any longer. Red pants on the road for the Chiefs. ALWAYS.
“I cannot remain silent to Phil’s uni-blasphemy any longer. Red pants on the road for the Chiefs. ALWAYS.” Seconded.
The “blue”/white/”blue” uni is fantastic. Love the shoulder horns. Keep that combo.
I wanted to love the red helmet, but you can’t appreciate it from a distance.
The Cardinals should switch to a silver helmet with matching pants with red/white stripes. They could use the white helmet/white pants 3 X per year as an alternate.
I cant believe I have never noticed this before and i dont know if its been discussed here before, but why do the Raiders have their helmet logo so far down on their helmet? When i saw it yesterday vs my Saints i couldnt unsee it the rest of the game, its incredibly distracting
I’m not sure exactly *when* the decal placement was lowered, but if you go by the GUD, look at the 2015 placement, and the 2016 placement (the GUD changed their base helmet style between 2015 and 2016). It’s shown up higher in 2015, and the current position in 2016 and beyond.
Again, I don’t know when the lowering of the decal occurred, but the GUD shows it being lower with their 2016 helmet graphic.
link
Phil,
I am curious why you care so much about the sock color.
Probably because it can make a huge difference in how the uniform looks.