Good morning, Uni Watchers. It’s Friday — we made it.
Well, I definitely have the norovirus, and it literally knocked me out for about 26 hours between late Thursday afternoon and late Friday. Fortunately, the vomiting and diarrhea stopped (I think for good) by late Thursday, but I was barely able to get out of bed yesterday. Anyway, I felt a tad better last night, and I wanted to post this today, as it’s a bit of a tradition for me.
Wild Card Weekend means it’s time for me to contunue my annual exercise in futility ritual of picking the winners of all Wild Card games in the only way that ever makes sense on this particular website: by better uni, of course. I usually break (but barely) the 50% correct barrier for the entire post season, although I had a two year streak of 8-5 over the course of the playoffs. If you want to see my WC picks for 2024, 2023, 2022 or 2021 you can.
What makes a “better” uni? Well, that’s all in the eye of the beholder — you may (and probably should) disagree with some of my selections. Feel free to do so in the comments below.
I made these picks late Thursday. As of that time, two of the six teams had not revealed their pants selections (which can sometimes affect my choices); I’ll make my picks without that info, as sometimes pants and hosiery color determines my selection, and in those cases I’ll note it if there is a difference based on selection.
Let’s get started!
Time: 4:30 pm ET
TV: CBS
SPREAD: CHARGERS -3
Better uni-wise, the Texans wouldn’t stand much of a chance against the Chargers, who — aside from their all navy color rush — don’t have a bad looking uni combo. Had the Texans chosen to wear white pants, which is their best uniform combo, I still wouldn’t pick ’em, but I would give them stronger consideration. However, the Texans have chosen to wear an all midnight navy combination, which sometimes looks black in certain lighting conditions, so it’s a no-brainer to take the Chargers here.
THE PICK AGAINST THE SPREAD: Chargers, giving 3 points.
Time: 8:00 pm ET
TV: Amazon Prime
SPREAD: RAVENS -9.5
As are most matchups between these two teams, this one will be a good one — the Steelers in their standard black/white/gold/black road, and the Ravens in their primary black/purple/white/black homes. While the Steelers have a great look, I greatly prefer their home to their road, and my personal favorite Ravens uni is what they’ll be sporting Saturday night — so that tips the scales ever so slightly towards Baltimore. Both clubs will look good, but the Ravens will look a tad better.
THE PICK AGAINST THE SPREAD: Ravens, giving 9.5 points
Time: 1:00 pm ET
TV: CBS
SPREAD: BILLS -8.5
I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t expecting much from the Broncos when they redesigned their uniforms for this past season, especially with their uni design and penchant for wearing same color hosiery and pants, especially during the first several weeks of the year. But not only did the unis grow on me, I found several of their combos quite excellent. As is their wont, the Broncos never announce pants/socks until 24 hours or less before gametime, so we don’t know what they’ll pair with their white tops; as it is, though, the Bills are wearing their best look — white/royal/white/royal — and that will be enough for me to take them, no matter what the Broncos wear. If the Broncos wear blue pants/white hose, or, even better, white pants and blue socks, the game will look great. Should Denver somehow wear orange pants, the game will look fantastic. But Buffalo’s uniform is better.
THE PICK AGAINST THE SPREAD: Bills, giving 8.5 points
UPDATE: The Broncos will wear orange pants and hosiery for this game. They have never worn this combination before.
Time: 4:30 pm ET
TV: Fox
SPREAD: EAGLES -4.5
While the Eagles have not officially unveiled their lower half stylings, I fully expect to see them in white pants and socks. The Eagles wore their midnight green jerseys eight times this season, and in all but one did they wear white pants/hose. The one exception was in week 14, when they wore white pants and black socks (probably their best non-throwback outfit). The Packers, of course, will be in gold/white/gold/green — certainly one of the best road looks in the NFL. If the Eagles wear white/white (as I expect), it’s a slam dunk Packers uni-win. If the Eagles should go with black hose, I’ll still pick the Pack, but it’s a much harder call.
THE PICK AGAINST THE SPREAD: Packers, getting 4.5 points
Time: 8:00 pm ET
TV: NBC
SPREAD: BUCCANEERS -3
After some really nice looking games earlier, we get a drab, dark matchup for the Sunday night game. Because Nike can’t (or won’t) make shiny pants, the Bucs’ pewter pants often end up looking dark brown or even black, while the Commanders have chosen not only to go with burgundy pants but burgundy hosiery as well, leading to that yoga pants look. Washington probably wouldn’t take this game no matter what they wore (although white pants over burgundy socks would have helped), as Tampa gets the nod here.
THE PICK AGAINST THE SPREAD: Buccaneers giving 3 points
Time: 8:00 pm ET
TV: ESPN
SPREAD: VIKINGS -1.5
I hate to ever hedge a bet, but in this one case I will: since the Rams have not yet announced their pants choice, I am strongly leaning towards them if they wear gold pants — while there are many things wrong that small tweaks could fix, for the most part the Rams uniform is an underrated modern design. The Vikes now have a thing for wearing matching pants and sock color, having done so in almost every game this season — and they’ll do so again Monday night when they wear purple pants/hose. The only way the Rams uni loses out to the Vikes is if the Rams go mono-royal, which they did once this season. The Rams also paired their blue tops (once) with “bone” (dishwater) pants, which while not a great look, is still better than what the Vikes will wear. I’m expecting the Rams to wear sol (yellow) pants, but they should win the uni battle in anything but mono-royal.
THE PICK AGAINST THE SPREAD: Rams getting 1.5 points*
* (Pick changes to Vikings if Rams wear all-Royal)
UPDATE: The Rams will wear sol (yellow) pants and royal socks.
Feel free to disagree in the comments below.
Wow, repeating yesterday’s GTGFTS. Inadvertently, no doubt.
Aww, cut Phil some slack. His job is hard enough without having to deal with bi-directional digestive tract evacuation 24×7.
Ahh, the double dragon aka the Texas turnaround. That’ll knock you out every time.
“Texas Turnaround”… LOL, never heard that one.
That old Lambeau Field scoreboard is worth a double dip. If the Packers organization were any fun, they’d replicate it on one of the video boards for a throwback game, but I’m not holding my breath.
GTGFTU – 1970 Week 1, Broncos at Bills
BUF 25, DEN 10
Incorrect:
1969 Week 3: Buffalo 41, Denver 28. Jack Kemp at QB in his last pro season.
The Broncos started the 1970 season 3-0 and were the last unbeaten team that season. Then the clock struck midnight.
Mistake: it was actually DEN 25, BUF 10
Kemp was actually in Congress in 1970
Maybe it is just me, but all these new uniforms without tv numbers on the jersey automatically go into the bad category. They just look cheap and fake, even the designs that aren’t awful in the group above, like the Chargers, look bad as a result.
I’d also throw out there that I do not understand the love for the Chargers yellow pants. I suppose it isn’t completely awful when they have a white jersey, but when they go white/blue/yellow it makes the uniform look completely unbalanced, pairing a white helmet with anything but white pants makes it appear as if they forgot to color in the helmet. Darker pants than helmet create a pant-heavy design which is really out of place considering how much the helmet is the focus of football uniform designs.
when they go white/blue/yellow it makes the uniform look completely unbalanced
Darker pants than helmet create a pant-heavy design
You say that as if those are bad things…
Helmets are an important part of a uniform, but they are just a part. Sometimes it’s okay to let the jersey or the pants be the star of the show.
My love of Nebraska’s red road pants is well documented, but I love the Chargers’ gold pants just as much. Neither team looks right when they go all-white, and the Chargers look too light when they go white/blue/white. The gold pants make the home uni stand out as opposed to looking washed out.
You’re misinformed on a few accounts. Chargers in White/Powder/Gold/Powder is superior to white pants. White jersey and white pants is superior to white jersey/gold pants.
And lack of TV numbers are great. Especially with teams who have them on the arm instead of the shoulder. On the arm, half the time half the numbers are now tucked under so they are useless anyway.
Not sure how Denver wearing white pants would be “even better” than blue, especially when Buffalo already has two major elements that are white. Otherwise, I agree with all the picks, apart from the audible on the Rams – mono anything has got to be better than A/B/A/A.
The Vikings’ unis are superior to the Rams’ regardless of what pants the Rams wear. Those jerseys are abysmal.
Late Thursday to late Friday? Did you time travel, Phil?
In all seriousness, hope you’re feeling better. Myself, I had a nasty sinus headache that felt like the mother of all migraines that affected me from Tuesday night through all of Wednesday. There’s still kind of a lingering bit I can feel, but it’s mitigated, and more importantly, my eyes don’t hurt looking at light and my brain doesn’t feel like it’s trying to escape out of the front and back of my head when I have to cough.
GTGFTU: 28 Sept 1969, Week 3, Broncos 28 – 41 Bills. I think we would all be in favor of seeing this matchup again.
Based on uniforms, Packers are your Super Bowl champs.
Not a betting man, but if I were I’d certainly take the Pack’s away set over the Birds midnight over white.
Hoping the Commies make an early exit…image those uniforms sticking around due to the ‘we won in those’ phenomenon.
GTGFTU: September 28, 1969 Buffalo Bills 48 – Denver Broncos 28 at War Memorial. In what would be Jack Kemp’s final season for the Bills.
*41 beaten to the punch in any case
Get well, Phil.
Feel better, Phil! -C.
I only disagree with two picks (sorta). First, the Rams blue over dishwater is EASILY the worst of their 3 possible pants options, and blue over sol is the only combo where I’d pick them over the Vikings (assuming they go with purple pants and socks). Second, the Broncos white/white is far inferior to white/blue or white/orange.
Agree with all of these except Steelers-Ravens. Too bad Houston has home-field — would much rather see the Chargers in light blue and avoid that terrible mono-dark. On the bright side I really like the Bucs’ red look — the pewter is too dark, but it doesn’t bother me too much.
I think the Bucs have one of the biggest disparities in quality between their home and road uniforms. (Actually would make a nice article topic …)
Anyone who thinks Ravens uniforms look better than Steelers’ don’t belong in the uniform judging game
It’s all relative. The Ravens have a few looks that could be considered terrible, but they’re going with one of their best combos. The Steelers look consistently good regardless of what they wear.
It’s all subjective! I think that the Steelers have some of the best uniforms in all of sports, but the Ravens look is (in my opinion) underrated. I will concede that I actually prefer the Ravens black jersey to the purple jersey.
link
Any team can (and unfortunately too many teams do) wear a black jersey. It takes guts to wear a purple one. The Ravens black/purple/white look is fantastic to my eyes.
I can’t disagree with any of that!
I know that most Uni Watchers already know why, but the Ravens gave a brief explainer as to why they can’t wear their black jerseys.
link
Personally, I think their black-black-white uniform combo is tragically underutilized.
link
5 of the 6 games could have had yellow/gold/sol pants involved. Instead we get the WFT in burgundy pants and the Rams in (I’m guessing) blue, but hoping gold/sol.
I’m glad that Washington brought back the
gold pants…but they should never be worn with their crappy white jersey, so I’m relieved that combo is not happening.
I dunno if the Ravens still have theirs buried somewhere in their locker room:
link
The Rams will be wearing Sol pants on Monday as announced on their Instagram page.
Hope you get well soon, Phil!
Love these posts. Though I think it would be too late now, I think it would be great if you/Uni Watch could do a ranking from best to worst potential Super Bowl matchups. Think Paul did this once, but know it’s a ton of work. Maybe it would easier to do it once we get to the divisional round?
I’ve never liked the Ravens various uniforms, and the Steelers look great regardless if they are home or away.
What if the Broncos went white hosiery meeting the pants with orange socks on the bottom? Kind of similar to the look Burrow has been doing lately.
So…like the opposite of low whites? Low oranges?
I was so psyched when the Broncos teased wearing white hose this morning (link), only to have them in orange pants and socks for the game (link).
Still a pretty good looking game, but white (or even navy) socks would have made it a great looking game.
Yeah, basically a reverse of how they did it before. With the white part at the bottom. I think it could look pretty good. Burrow has been doing something like it lately.
Brining back stripes on socks would help 1000% as well too.
Heh. It’s funny how far hosiery has come. Back in the day, the reason for the low whites was because the tall part of the sock (color or striped with color) was actually a stirrup, and football players wore their stirrups the opposite of baseball players. Whereas in baseball the sani (short for sanitary sock) stayed underneath the stirrup, creating the trademark look, in football players wore their low whites over the stirrup. Fabrics being what they were back in the day, many times socks were secured with white tape applied after putting the stirrup on, so it would sometimes give the appearance of a white stripe (or two) to a solid color sock.
This pic of Bart Starr has both. You can see the outline of the stirrup openings underneath his low white socks, and he also has white tape applied to the top of the stirrup to help hold it up.
link
Being at the Bills / Denver game yesterday, I talked to so many people about Broncos uni’s and they all had same reaction. Those neon orange pants and socks were giving people headaches. Bad for the eyes.
Broncos looked fresh in orange pants but need navy or white socks. I really do not like the current pant-sock same colore regime in football.