If Now Was Then...(Part 4)

Have you ever wondered what it would look like if today's current teams were playing in an era of long-sleeve jerseys and leather helmet? Neither did I until a few months ago during the <yawn> Preseason, so I decided to have some fun.

We have already taken the tours through the NFC North, the NFC East, and the NFC West. Today, finally, the South shall rise again...sort of.

I present to you the "If Now Was Then" versions of the NFC South.

The NFC South

ATLANTA –I basically gave Atlanta the same treatment as Arizona last week. However, with black always having been in the Falcons' color scheme, Atlanta’s secondary jersey is black instead of white. A thin white outline on the cuff-to-cuff stripe highlights the opposite colored stripe. A red helmet with a black flying wing and black stripes tops each combo.

CAROLINA – Carolina blue is now the primary, relegating the black to secondary status. This should please Tim Brulia to no end, along with a few others I know.  I moved the stripes to the arms from the shoulders since the Panthers don’t know how to make the stripes look right in that position. A Carolina blue helmet would be unique in this era.

NEW ORLEANS – I stuck with the same black and gold colors. Similar to the “star” I placed on the Cowboys’ helmets, I created a gold cross on the black helmets because, well, after all, they are the Saints.

TAMPA BAY –  Black in Florida? No way. I kept the pewter/dark grey along with the red. Secondary jersey needed to be white in Florida, not grey. Sleeve stripes are the pattern from the creamcicle days, however. 

TAMPA BAY (Part 2) - Purists might be upset that I didn’t go the orange creamcicle route for the Bucs as I went ‘old-school’ colors for Seattle last week. At Rob’s urging, I threw an orange set together for him. It was extremely difficult to resist the temptation to give this set a plain red helmet – the proverbial cherry on top of the cream-cicle! 

So there we are, exactly how the 16 NFC teams would have appeared on your HD TV back in the 1940s.

I close with a word of warning. Next week we begin looking at the AFC. Most of these teams had their roots in the AFL. The recent AFL documentary "Full Color Football" was given its name in part due to the brightness of the AFL uniforms compared to the mostly dark colors prevalent in the NFL in the 1960s.

MAKE SURE YOU ARE WEARING YOUR SUNGLASSES NEXT TUESDAY!

Bill Schaefer