Good morning, Uni Watchers. It’s Friday — we made it!
ICYMI, I had a couple later articles you may have missed yesterday: The Mets will be unveiling a new alternate jersey on Saturday, and the University of Hawai’i, who last year collaborated with Uni Watch to create a reader-designed uniform for the Women’s Basketball Team, have unveiled the winner’s design as actual uniforms, and they’ll be worn this weekend.
Now then.
We’re down to the final four teams seeking to win this year’s Super Bowl, and this Sunday is what many consider the best weekend (even better than the Super Bowl) in football: the AFC and NFC Championship Games. Three of the combatants have been to this point many times in the past few years, and the names should be very familiar: Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles. Joining the party this year are the upstart Washington Commanders, who are seeking their first Super Bowl appearance since 1992.
Speaking of…depending upon the outcomes of Sunday’s games, we have two potential Super Bowl rematches: the Chiefs defeated the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII (57) by a score of 38-35. And the Washington Commanders, who went by another name, defeated the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI (26), by a score of 37-24. That was the last Super Bowl appearance for the Commanders.
In picking the Wild Card Winners by better uniform (and against the spread) this year, I went 3-3. Last weekend, for the Divisional Round, I went 2-1-1 (the push being the Eagles/Rams game, where the spread was Eagles -6). Interestingly, I had to flip a coin to pick the winner of Eagles/Rams — the unis being so close — and it ended up not mattering (no matter who I picked, it would have been a push). So heading into the penultimate weekend of the playoffs, I’m about where I usually am: a little bit above .500. I’d love to pick both Conference Championship games correctly so I’ll guarantee at least a .500 overall record.
All four teams have unveiled the uniforms they’ll be wearing for the Championship games. Other than the Bills (who we’ll get to in a second), the uniforms are what I expected them to be. Let’s take a look now at the matchups, and my picks against the spread.
NFC Championship Game: Washington Commanders vs. Philadelphia Eagles
Time: 3:00 pm ET
TV: FOX
SPREAD: Eagles -6
The first of the two Championship games will feature the teams wearing the same uniforms they have worn throughout this year’s playoffs: once again, the Commanders will be running back their burgundy/white/burgundy/burgundy combo, while the Eagles will again wear midnight green jerseys, with white pants and hosiery.
Neither of these uniform combos is particularly good, and in fact, the Commanders in burgundy pants and socks, paired with their road white jerseys, is probably the worst (non-BFBS) combo they can wear — I actually prefer mono-burgundy to this look. If the Commanders would just pair the burgundy pants with white hose, they’d look much, much better. But the burgundy yoga pants may be the worst bottom half of a uniform for any team in the league.
The Eagles have won twice in green/green/white/white (a combination they wore for more games than any other in the regular season), so they’re going to stick with that one more time. If the Eagles would simply wear their black socks instead of white, that would be a good-looking uni. The NFL’s trend of wearing same color pants/socks affects both of these teams negatively. But at least the Eagles’ white pants have stripes.
So we have two teams in less-than-stellar kits (I’ve picked against both teams in both of their games so far) but something’s gotta give. And I can’t bring myself to ever pick the Commanders in burgundy pants and socks, although I’ll be rooting for them to win the game. But this isn’t about who I’m rooting for — it’s who has the better uniform. And, begrudgingly, that’s the Birds.
THE PICK AGAINST THE SPREAD: Eagles giving six points
Time 6:30 pm ET
TV: CBS
SPREAD: Chiefs -1.5
This is going to be an outstandingly good-looking game — it’s a given the Chiefs would wear their normal home red/red/white/red (an excellent uniform combo); the Bills, however, are actually wearing a combination they did NOT wear once during the 2024 season — but it’s their best road look: white/white/white with blue socks. When the Bills have worn their white jerseys this season, their lower half stylings were white/white three times, blue/blue twice, and blue/white (another good look) three times.
But the Bills in white/white/white/royal is, IMO, the team’s best road look — which is going to make picking the winner by better uniform tough. In fact, this one is going to come down to a coin flip, since I consider the unis that close.
The coin has been flipped. And my pick for the AFC Championship is…
THE PICK AGAINST THE SPREAD: Bills getting 1.5 points
I never want to look ahead, but the NFC is the designated “home” team this year, so if the Eagles defeat the Commanders, it’s almost assured they will run back the green/green/white/white. If the Commanders win, I sincerely hope they go burgundy over gold — their best combo. On the AFC side, if the Chiefs win, I guarantee they’ll go red/white/red/white, and I would expect the Bills will probably repeat their white/white/white/royal look. My biggest fear is if the Commanders upset the Eagles, they’ll eschew wearing dark jerseys (as would be their prerogative) and try to make the magic happen one more time in burgundy/white/burgundy/burgundy. But again, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
Who are your picks for Sunday’s games?
Mono white (excluding socks) against white pants just can’t be any team’s best look, sorry. If the Bills swapped their pants and socks, this would be a perfect matchup.
Agree here. For teams with white helmets, I do prefer mono white (aside from socks) as compared to white jersey and dark pants. BUT in this game red/red/white would pair perfectly against white/white/blue.
Since teams don’t necessary have just one home and road look, I am all about the road team adjusting their look to best contrast vs the home team. The blue pants is the better choice against KC.
I’m glad Buffalo is wearing their All white uniforms I love them Ther my favorite I wish Washington would Wear thrr all white uniforms Instead of wearing them ugly Burgundy pants wear white pants Don’t understand why this yr they don’t wear Ther All white uniforms last year they wore them like 6 times
So across the two games, you want 7 of the 12 core uni elements to be white?
Commanded should wear white pants instead of them ugly Burgundy pants And I disagree with you I like Eagles white socks I hate the black socks .I love Buffalo combo the best It’s great looking All around Commanders should wear the same thing All white uniforms with Burgundy socks or the White socks either one would look better than what they chose
I’m an Eagles fan, not great at uniform history, but that guess the uniform was from this year! December, 22 @ Washington.
Wierd thing I actually like the Eagles road uniform and pants better than the home greens. They have more pant options compared to at home where it’s just white pants and socka basically.
GTGFTU: Week 16 of this season, 22 Dec 2024, Eagles 33 – 36 Commanders. Washington turned the ball over 5 times and still won.
Guess the Game From the Scoreboard – Miami vs. Jacksonville in the AFC Divisional Round of the 1999 season. It was Dan Marino’s final game. The game took place on 1/15/2000.
This might sound really stupid, but, I think it is the scoreboard of Raymond James Stadium, that saw Tampa Bay beating Washington 14-13.
The clue for this is the fact that it says on the scoreboard “TODAY’S OTHER GAME:”
Oof, my mistake – I am certain you are correct! I missed that key bit of context.
Should Washington win, they continue to wear the ‘lucky’ leggings look, right? I’d love to see the burgundy over gold get to the Big Game, matched up against the Bills’ W/W/B/W combo…yes, blue pants (I don’t think they’ve ever worn those against DC NFL).
KC in R/W/W/W versus the Birds home standard would be a treat too.
I am increasingly convinced that the Commanders’ white* jersey was designed before the team name was decided and then it was too late once they settled on a name. That’s just such a placeholder jersey that has absolutely nothing to do with the name or concept of “Commanders.” It looks like a generic create-a-team jersey. There’s nothing to tie it to the other two looks and nothing visually interesting about it. Unless they win the title this year in that jersey, I’d be shocked if we don’t see something completely different (and more “Commanders-y” as soon as they’re allowed to roll it out.
*Autocorrect wanted to change this to “shite,” and you know what? I agree.
Careful what you wish for. What exactly would make the jersey more “Commanders-y”? I fear that you’d get a bunch of goofy elements like you see on the Titans’ current set.
I’m not saying it would be a good thing, necessarily, but even just more or less a white version of their home burgundies would be better than whatever it is they have now. Some consistency that ties the whole look together would be okay. And honestly, their home uniform with the gold pants looks all right! Sure, it needs a few tweaks (pants stripes, get rid of the giant chest wordmark, etc), but all-in-all it’s one of the better looks introduced in the last 10-15 years.
But yes, I agree with you: anything other than a conservative redesign would probably wind up looking more like their black uniforms than their classic style.
Phil- Sorry for your loss.
Man, I SO wish the Bills would wear the blue pants with the white socks, instead of the other way around. Especially against the Chiefs…it would be a color-palette special. I just can’t stand the all-white look on ANY team, but especially those who have a better option like the Bills do.
THIS is what that game should look like:
link
The inverse earlier this year was also a fantastic looking game:
link
I’ve got Kansas City and Washington – I like both unis but Commanders could use a slight refresh
AFC game is miles above the NFC game. Which is a shame because Eagles and WFT do have the ability to look good. They choose not to though.
I don’t like the mono-red pants-socks look, but the real Commanders problem is the jerseys. So poorly designed. I’m glad they’ve mostly gone away from all-white and all-red looks.
Those burgundy pants the Commanders wear remind me of velour track pants from circa 1983.
Helmet color and logo tips the balance to KC.
Watching the Eagles/Commanders game right now. I like the Eagles Kelly Green better, but this dark green has grown on me. However, it would absolutely look better if they wore silver/grey pants to match their helmet wings.
And the Commanders need to bring back the 1980s/90s uniforms with the white jersey and burgundy pants, and put the “W” in the white circle on the helmet.