
Good Monday Morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a good weekend!
The NFC and AFC played their Conference Championship games yesterday, pitting the Commanders of Washington versus the Eagles of Philadelphia for the NFC crown, while over in the AFC, the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs met in another postseason game, and unfortunately for the Bills, the Chiefs once again reigned supreme in a very exciting and close game. The same could not be said for the Commanders and Eagles. Unfortunately for the Commanders, who’ve been playing with house money all playoffs long, they never quite got it together in Philly. The team had been pretty flawless through its first two playoff games, but they ended playing from behind right from the get-go, and enough turnovers for three games all happened yesterday.
For uniform fans, we had one fantastic-looking game, and one that was…not nearly as good. Still, it was actually a little better than I expected, so that’s something. Let’s take a few looks…
Commanders vs. Eagles

The Commanders and Eagles repeated the combinations both had worn in their two prior victories of the playoffs, so this matchup was entirely expected. I’ve stated on numerous occasions I think the Commanders’ burgundy/white/burgundy/burgundy is their worst possible combination (excluding their BFBS). But even as bad as the Commanders looked (I still have no idea why they have four colors of pants, none of which have stripes), I actually didn’t think the overall matchup was that bad. The midnight green of the Eagles actually complemented the burgundy quite well.

I was rooting for the Commanders (even though I picked the Eagles in my “better uniform” column), and this is an immensely talented team that will probably be primed to make some deep playoff runs over the next decade. So for any Commanders fans, don’t get too down — I’m sure you never thought your team would make it this far, so I hope you enjoyed the ride and are already looking to take the next step this coming season. It’s obviously not quite the same comparison, but I looked at the Commanders as this year’s New York Mets. I loved every minute of the season, and the Mets ended up also falling in the penultimate game (or penultimate series). I’m sure not too many Commanders fans will be rooting for the Eagles in the Super Bowl, but if the Birds win, Commanders fans can take solace that they lost to the Super Bowl champions.
But back to the uniforms. For whatever reason, the Eagles have found their home “look” — green/green/white/white. I’m 100% confident they’ll run this look back in two weeks when they play the Chiefs in SB 59. I really hate the white pants/white hosiery look, but it’s the Eagles’ thing. The team wore white pants and socks for every game they wore green jerseys this year, except for one, when they wore black hose (a much better look).

I’m not glad the Commanders lost, but at least we’re spared the (very distinct, I thought) possibility of the Commanders (as the NFC is the “home” team for the SB this year) running the b/w/b/b look in the Big Game. We’ll never know what they would have worn, of course, but had they won their third straight road game, superstition may have driven them to try to win one more in their burgundy overload. By the same token, even if the Commanders had won and chosen to wear their burgundy jerseys, we’d have no guarantee they’d pair those with their gold pants (which would make this year’s Super Bowl pretty good looking).

I know folks love to point out the Commanders have “no” gold on their white jerseys, which is why they won’t pair them with their gold pants. But the swoosh (of course) is gold, and as seen above, some Captaincy patches also have a gold “C”. Next season I’d love to see how that looks…

Doesn’t look that bad, right?
Congrats to the Eagles. After yesterday’s blowout, I’m wondering whether Philly will be favored in the Super Bowl. Right now the line has opened at Chiefs -1.5, but we’ll see where the line settles as we get closer to the game.

The nightcap between Buffalo and Kansas City was a gorgeous looking game — definitely one of the best in the playoffs so far. When I made my pick by better uniform, I literally flipped a coin, as I had the two teams’ uniforms as basically equals. But look at the photo above. The side views should have convinced me that KC has the superior uniform. It’s not that the Bills uniform isn’t excellent, but check out the stripes on the jersey and pants. Notice anything a bit off? The pants (like the helmet) have a thin blue/thick red/thin blue stripe, but the sleeve stripes are in the opposite pattern: thin red/thick blue/thin red. While I knew the stripe pattern discrepancy existed, it wasn’t until I intensely focused that the lack of symmetry bothered me. If I could do it over, I would now give the slight edge to the Chiefs’ home uniform, and I wouldn’t have put it to a coin flip. And I discounted the collar pattern, which I don’t especially like either.

But even with those minor flaws, the Bills still look great in white/white/white/royal. And overall the game was not just exciting and close, but it was a pleasure to watch from kickoff to the final “gun.”

Congrats to the Chiefs. Will they become the only three-peat winner of the Super Bowl? I know which team will have the better uniform for the Super Bowl, so if that plays out, then yes, we’ll see our first team to ever win three straight.

The only difference is they’ll be playing this one inside the dank Superdome, so we have to hope the lighting is good, and lights stay on.
What did you guys think of yesterday’s uni matchups?
I am holding out the slightest hope the Eagles will change up the hosiery if only bc that exact uni matchup was a loss in the SB.
Also, if Wash replaced the BFBS on the white jerseys with gold, theyd be set to wear gold pants. Also, kudos to their starting CB duo for wearing white socks yesterday. Such a better look than yoga pants.
GTGFTU:
Panthers 27 at Seahawks 37. Sept 24, 2023. Seattle wore the same uniforms that they wore in the Super Bowl win against Denver ten years prior. It was the first time Seattle has ever worn a white jersey at home.
I don’t believe in this stuff but I’m hoping the Eagles deviate slightly from their last SB due to bad luck. Black socks would be a massive improvement. My preferred look for them would be green/green/black/green, which would allow the Chiefs to wear whatever they want.
Also, there are some typos in the last few paragraphs:
“Ihe Eagles”
“only differnce”
“Superdomwe”
ay yi yi.
Thanks, Charlie. Now fixed.
Watching the Eagles/Commies game, it was pretty clear what is so wrong with a lot of the new uniform designs, of which Washington is one. Just look at their helmet, burgundy with a yellow/gold logo and yellow/gold stripe. It is pretty well baked into football uniform design for the helmet stripes to match the pant stripes, especially if the helmet and pants are the same color. Put a single yellow stripe on those pants and that uniform looks significantly better. And that doesn’t even account for the fact the white jersey looks like it belongs to a different team.
Trends like mono or non contrasting socks seem more player driven on what combos they want to wear, and is hard to throw the blame on the uniform design itself for that. But it really doesn’t take a lot to know you should design the different uniform elements to match and compliment each other.
My nightmare. The Super Empty Bumper Bowl.
I hope whenever Washington is eligible for a uni revamp they, at very least, ditch the white jersey design. It’s just terrible in almost every way.
Guess the game from the scoreboard: October 27, 2002, Niners 38, Cardinals 28. Even as a Niner fan, I do not see the significance of this game. Any one knows anything about it?
The one thing that sticks out is that the 49ers appear to have scored a touchdown on the first play of the quarter but have not yet kicked the PAT — 14:55 remains in the fourth , but they have 6 in the 4th quarter in the line score.
“and lights stay on.” HA! A necessary dig. Still unforgiven 12 years later.
Washington looked terrible without contrasting socks and the gradient details in the jersey are not pretty. Eagles would benefit from silver pants and/or black or green socks. KC is perfect, Buffalo will never get the striping right but that is not a problem. That collar is, however. Love the blue socks.
I love KC’s set, but it’s not exactly perfect. Sorry to mention this, but the helmet logo with the black outline is the only place where black appears. This was pointed out on this site some time ago, and I can’t unsee it now.
And conversely, there’s no gold on the helmet, but it’s on the jersey, pants and socks.
So no, it’s not perfect. But it’s still really good. Bonus points for wearing striped socks, which are becoming a vestigial element for football uniforms nowadays.
Agree Phil. Was just pointing out the breaking glass sound in my brain when the logo thing was pointed out…
The only reason why I was rooting against the Commanders was because of Coach Quinn‘s backwards hat.
I’m sad for the Commies but also glad that they didn’t win in those…had they bested the Birds yesterday, who’s to say how long DC would stick with those tragic threads and bad branding.
Get back to work … and work on reviving the old WFT chassis.
Washington’s white jersey. One of the mysteries of the NFL. That team has a unique historic look. Why they would mess with it is beyond me. Without wordmarks etc it would be difficult for a lot of casual NFL fans to identify what team that even was. Any WR era set would be an improvment.
I happen to be one of the few who thinks the Eagles home set is one of The NFL’s best. At least without white stockings which just looks wimpy. Everyone on the planet loves The Chiefs duds but me. Too red. They look like the KFC of the NFL. And I’m sick of looking at them. Vile Philly fans aside I am pulling for their team in the big game.
PS watched the movie BIG FAN last night. What a wild slice of NFL lunacy that one is.
Funny thing I noticed yesterday is how difficult it was to distinguish the Chiefs’ uniforms from the Refs’…
LOL, but this is an old, tired gripe. And nonsense to boot.
GTGFTS: Week 8, 2002, October 27: Final score was San Francisco 38, Arizona 28. The particular moment is right before Jose Cortez kicks the successful PAT after Kevin Barlow scored the Niners’ last TD of the game. Thomas Jones would score later in the quarter with a Bill Gramatica extra point to bring the Cards back to within 10, but no closer.
C’mon, Chiefs…go all white below the helmet for the SB!
Nooooo! Far inferior look. Red britches please.
I’d love to see that but some consider those ‘bad luck’ because … SB1.
What are the chances the eagles wear white since they’re the home team. Switch it up vs the chiefs this time and last year they wore white jerseys white pants vs KC on MNF and won.
Personally I thought Washington looked good outside of the numbers, The Eagles do need socks but I just don’t care for a dark jersey with white pants, although the have no better options.
KC was good and the game would have been close to perfect if the Bills had worn royal blue pants.
Yes, the Bills best road look is blue pants. As soon as they trotted out in white pants, I knew they would lose to the Chiefs in the playoffs. Again.
That black stripe on the sleeve on the Commies’ white jersey drives me crazy.
Eagles fan here and I have thought the current uni has been dated for a long time now. I like the midnight green but would love a complete kelly green uniform update similar to the chargers modernizing an older look. I realize that’s not realistic or preferred among the majority of eagles fans though.
With that in mind, I think there are times watching eagles games where I think the uniform hits pretty hard still I think it could just use a uni-tweak to bring it back to a top uniform.
Jersey – Midnight green/white main color. I would keep the number font mostly the same, while removing the Serifs to sync up better with the current wordmark. Remove the silver outline so it’s just a white number and black outline.
Logo/shoulder sleeve – the current logo is fine, could maybe use some tweaks. I think modernizing a full eagle holding football would be ideal.
Helmet – midnight green main color. modernize the wing a little bit since it reminds me of a seagull wing at times. Make it slightly larger to take up more space on the helmet.
Pants – white home/midnight green away pants . Better side stripes would go a long way.
Socks – I completely agree with the black socks. It looks so much better with the midnight green jersey/white pants.
I much prefer the Eagles green-white-green look, so hoping against all odds they go with that combo.
There’s an interesting debate here, though — when a Super Bowl rematch happens, as neutral fans, do we want to see the matchup stay the same or flip? We’ve seen Niners-Chiefs look the same twice, and now we’ll probably see another repeat with this one. Pats-Eagles also looked the same both times, and obviously the Cowboys wore white for all of their rematches (Steelers/Bills).
All things being equal, I think it’d be cool to see the matchup flip, but I could see the argument in the other direction.
The KC socks alone should have made the Bills/Chiefs pick a non coin flip. Shame on you, Phil… ;)
I’ve come around to really liking the Eagles dark green, though I prefer their Kelly green. However, I would love for them to have silver/grey pants to match their helmet wings.
And Washington should just copy their 1980s look with white jersey and burgundy pants, and the helmet could also be like the 80s, but just change out the Native American with a “W”.
Since Philadelphia is the “home” team for the Super Bowl, they get to choose which uni to wear. How far in advance do they have to declare this? Some other readers here speculate the Eagles wearing white jerseys which would be a nice change of pace.
As far as superstition goes, the Eagles lost in the Super Bowl to the Chiefs in green jerseys already. But they beat the Patriots in green. Might be good luck to try white jerseys.
If Washington insists on keep the stupid gradient in the white jersey numbers, they should at least replace the white gradient dots with gold ones.
Scoreboard game was from 2003, Cardinals at 49ers