Week 13 Weekly Uniform Rankings



Tim's been a little busy this week, so Rob here pinch-hitting.  My uniform sensibilities may not be exactly the same as Tim's, but I'll give it my best.  As Tim says, this is only one man's impression of how the games looked to me this week, and may rank entirely differently if viewed at a different time.  One thing that is one of my pet peeves when it comes to uniforms is I prefer pants and jerseys to contrast (no mono-looks) and I hate when both teams wear the same color pants.  The perfect matchup for me is a classic looking color-over-white for the home team and white-over-color for the road.  And as a avowed Bucs fans, I hate the Bucs' pewter pants, and really like the red-over-white look for them, but if they went back to orange full-time, I wouldn't hate that either.

First of all lets acknowledge the dreadful news out of Kansas City. Our heart goes out to all affected by what happened there.  A lot of people (media pundits and what-not) compared the Chiefs playing Sunday with the NFL's decision to play after JFK's assassination 49 years ago, but I think that no one can criticize the Chiefs for their decision to play.  Apparently they left the decision up to the team captains and if the team wanted to play and they felt that it helped them take their minds off of the tragedy for a few hours, I believe no one outside of the organization has any place in telling them otherwise.  Sam thing if they had decided not to play, as well.  With that being said, let's go on to the rankings....

#16. Jaguars-Bills:  Both teams in white pants and a boring mono-white look from the Jags, means that even with the Bills' new unis, this matchup came in last.

#15. Texans-Titans:  Both teams in dark blue pants drop this down in the rankings, and the Titans using only the two combos they've used this year (as opposed to as many as seven in 2006) make this matchup less than stellar.

#14. Colts-Lions:  Well at least this matchup had contrasting pants, and I can't really fault either team -- it was the Colts' standard road fare against the Lions' standard home fare, so no surprises here.  It just was kinda blah to me.

#13. Cardinals-Jets: Thirteen out of sixteen is probably three higher than this game would rank if you ranked it on the merits of the game rather than the uniforms.  None-the-less, this game could have looked better if Cards wore red pants, instead of the mono-white....  Come to think of it this game would have been better in 1991 both uniform wise and QB wise with Ken O'Brien vs Timm Rosenbach, too.

#12. Bengals-Chargers:  Two teams not really going anywhere out of the AFC (even if the Bengals grab a Wild Card, it'll be one-and-down) both wearing white pants in a late start that not much of the nation saw.  Ho-hum.

#11. Panthers-Chiefs: Another game with both teams wearing white (don'tcha think against a color-over-white home team, Carolina would look better in the silver pants like they wore once at Indy in 1998?)  Even with a good-looking classic Chiefs uniforms, this matchup still misses out on the top ten.

#10. Seahawks-Bears:  I actually like the Seahawks mono-white look (preferably against a dark-colored pantsed team, however) and while I wouldn't have wanted the Bears to go mono-navy to accomodate them, I think this game would have looked great in Seahawks white-over-navy.

#9. Saints-Falcons:  The Falcons went throwback on Thursday night, but due to the Saints over doing the white-over-black this year, this matchup comes in at #9.  I like this outfit of the Saints, but not every week.  I like this Falcons throwback, but for the fourth year in a row, it no longer is a "blast from the past"  I'd like to see a red-helmet gray-pants 1981 Steve Bartkowski era throwback from them in the future.

#8. Vikings-Packers:  What can one say about the classic Packers' green-over-yellow at Lambeau.  It even makes the Vikings look good in mono-white, although had they gone with the purple pants (sorry Paul Lukas), this matchup may have been even a slot or two higher.

#7. Patriots-Dolphins:  Just what is expected these days from these two teams.  The Patriots (outside of an occasional Pat The Patriot throwback) never stray from their standard, and the Dolphins are apparently allergic to their aqua pants this year.

#6.  Eagles-Cowboys:  Another typical look, in fact we usually see this one twice a year, since the Cowboys always wear white at home.  I guess unless they meet on Thanksgiving or the Eagles man-up and wear white at home like Vermeil and company did in the 1981 NFC Championship Game to force the cowpokes into their under-rated blue duds.  Or maybe the NFL will schedule Dallas to play at Philly in September one of these years and they'll go white at home for weather's sake.  Otherwise it's more of the same to come in this divisional matchup.

#5. Steelers-Ravens:  Call me crazy, but I like the Ravens' black alt (when paired with white pants, that is) and against the Steelers' road unis, this game looked good!  Even if I still haven't forgiven the Steelers for going to the slanty-numbers fifteen years ago.

#4. Buccaneers-Broncos:  For two teams that both used to wear orange at home, this is the first game between these two with an orange jersey since they played in Denver in 1996 on Sunday Night TNT.  (When the Broncs had their old orange jerseys and the Bucs wore orange pants.)  This game looked good too, as sharp as a Peyton Manning touchdown pass.

#3. 49ers-Rams:  A couple Rams' throwback snafus aside, this game looked good as well.  It's good to see the Rams in their true colors again, the only thing better would have been to have played this game outdoors, like in Anaheim or even the L.A. Coliseum.

#2. Browns-Raiders:  Another classic matchup, again the Raiders in their silver pants redeems the Browns all-white.  Although, personally I prefer the Brian Sipe-era orange pants, I can see the merits of this classic look, both for the Browns and the Raiders.

...and that leaves as our number one matchup for this week...

#1. Giants-Redskins:  This was a great looking game... the Giants in their road white-over-gray, the 'Skins in the maroon-over-yellow.  The colors were vibrant, the game was under the lights, it was an exciting game with RGIII playing like Michael Vick did in this very stadium a couple years ago on MNF, throwing and running for scores, before Michael Vick started playing like Jeff Blake.

Well, there it is....  Tim should be back next week with Week 14's rankings, and we'll see how he likes the Hall Of Fame patches all the NFL teams will be wearing this week and next.

The "Super Sundays" That Could Have Been...16-20

Today we begin the 4th group of 'season-enders.'

Was the uniform match-up that we got for these games better than the alternative? We shall continue to see.

1981 (XVI) - San Francisco (NFC) vs. Cincinnati (AFC)
ACTUAL: Inside the haze of the Pontiac Silverdome, this was a great looking match-up. I can remember how loud the announcements for player introductions for the Bengals were compared to that for the Niners.  Only 260 miles separated Cincinnati from suburban Detroit meant that Bengals fans showed up in force. Alas, it wasn't enough and a dynasty began.
ALTERNATE: Good by itself, but comes in second in a two-horse race. 
EDGE: ACTUAL


Which Super Bowl XVI combo do you prefer?
  
pollcode.com free polls 

1982 (XVII) - Miami (AFC) vs. Washington (NFC)
ACTUAL: Washington wearing their home whites allowed the Dolphins to use their aqua jerseys. One of the better combinations of the first 17 years.
ALTERNATE: I just can't envision John Riggins busting around the left end on 4th-and-1, stiff-arming Don McNeal into the Rose Bowl turf, and rumbling down the sideline for the dramatic touchdown while the teams are in these uniform combos.
EDGE: ACTUAL


Which Super Bowl XVII combo do you prefer?
  
pollcode.com free polls 

1983 (XVIII) - Washington (NFC) vs. Los Angeles Raiders (AFC)
ACTUAL: Great look.
ALTERNATE: Um...not quite so much. Like the Colts/Cowboys match-up, chances are we'd likely never see this particular combination.
EDGE: ACTUAL


Which Super Bowl XVIII combo do you prefer?
  
pollcode.com free polls 

1984 (XIX) - Miami (AFC) vs. San Francisco (NFC)
ACTUAL: In a vacuum by itself, this combo wasn't too bad. However...
ALTERNATE: ...having a chance to get the Dolphins in aqua would definitely been the way to go if the chance had been there.
EDGE: ALTERNATE 


Which Super Bowl XIX combo do you prefer?
  
pollcode.com free polls 

1985 (XX) - Chicago (NFC) vs. New England (AFC)
ACTUAL: The only redeeming quality for this match-up was that it was the opposite pairing from a Week 2 encounter between these teams. Plus, I never cared for the white monotard look of New England's pants and socks even back then.
ALTERNATE: The Bears deserved to wear this combination. They took it out on Tony Eason and Steve Grogan all day.
EDGE: ALTERNATE


Which Super Bowl XX combo do you prefer?
  
pollcode.com free polls 

Despite capturing the last two games in the series, the ALTERNATES still come out on the short end by a score of 3-2 by my count.  This puts the combined totals at ACTUAL - 13, ALTERNATE - 7 on my scorecard.



Don't forget to offer your input via voting on this set of five.
Return next week for games 21-25.
Bill Schaefer

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