New Uniforms for 2023: An Impartial Ranking

 As we approach kickoff for the 2023 Hall of Fame Game in Canton and the official start to the 2023 Preseason, let us take a few moments to review the new uniforms and helmets that we will be seeing throughout the season.

I have ranked the 13 new uniform additions by team, whether it be a single new helmet or a completely new uniform. Additions that were used last year like the Pat Patriot throwback helmet/uniform in New England or the return of the red helmet in Atlanta are not included.

Here we go.

#13 - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS

Nothing about what the Colts did makes sense. They have a regular blue jersey. They have a blue throwback jersey. Why do they need a third blue jersey? From a distance, the pattern in the new blue jerseys will likely be hard to detect. The black outlines around the white numbers will be hard to notice due to being against the aforementioned blue. And this doesn't even take into account how ridiculous these jerseys will look if the Colts also add 'Captain' patches onto the other side opposite the alternate logo placed on the left collarbone.

As for the black helmet, we likely should have seen this coming as a few years ago the Colts changed the color of the Nike swooshes on their white jerseys from blue to 'anvil black.' So does that mean anvil black is now a Colts color?

The Fix: The Colts should have just kept it simple and only added a dark-royal-bordering-on-navy helmet to pair with the blue throwbacks. When you overthink, this is what happens.

Grade: F

#11 (tie) - DENVER BRONCOS

There's a tie for the  #11/#12 spots. Denver comes first alphabetically so I'll explain them first.

A white helmet. That's it. To be paired with Color Rush / Throwback-styled orange jersey and orange pants. 

Why? What does Denver gain from this? They aren't going to have lucrative merchandising increase for a new helmet. The Color Rush costume hasn't changed (the helmet logo has minutely) since it came to be in 2016.

What's worse? In the reveal video, one Bronco is wearing the all-orange costume with orange socks, too. A second Bronco is wearing white socks paired with the all-orange. It doesn't seem like the team even knows what it's going to do with them.

The Fix: Denver has had the same Color Rush uniform since 2016. Alter it by replacing the navy blue with light royal blue trim. Add a light royal blue helmet in the same style. Add appropriate stripes to the socks. Boom.

Grade: D+

#11 (tie) - DETROIT LIONS

A new blue helmet is added for the sole purpose of pairing it with the awful all-grey Color Rush uniform.

I'll ask again...Why? The short answer is that the all-grey uniform didn't match with the normal Detroit silver helmet. I can understand that. But then you create a blue helmet to rectify that one problem and you don't even bother to correctly match the blues of the helmet and jersey? At least it matches the blue of the anniversary patch the Lions will be wearing this year.

The Fix: Detroit's heart was in the right place and their intentions were good. Fix the helmet's shade of blue to match. This oversight reminds me of when the Vikings brought out their current look and their helmets bore a shade of purple that looked like the paint guy at Home Depot put in a little too much red and way too much white when trying to match colors resulting in a lighter, redder shade of purple. It's an easy fix. Admit it. Fix it. Boom.

Grade: D+ (can go to a C if they fix the blue)

#10 - HOUSTON TEXANS

This change may well have slipped under the radar. Select teams are not only adopting Nike's new FUSE template for their jerseys this season, but a small percentage are also using a modified version of the FUSE that has a straight seam across the upper chest rather than the more visible V-shaped seam. Houston is one of those teams. Incorporating that modified FUSE has enabled Houston to 'flip their horns.' Since their inception, the Texans' shoulder stripes (horns) have narrowed to a point directed away from the body. These new horns curl ever so slightly towards the center of the torso instead.

Was this change needed? No. Will it change how we view the Texans' uniforms in a bubble? No.

The Fix: This was a change that wasn't needed. For good or for bad, there's nothing to really fix. It's just...different.

Garde: C-

#9 - CAROLINA PANTHERS

The Panthers' changes were two-fold. 

They altered the hoop-stripes. The only problem is that there are still going to be variations of how those stripes look due to the tailoring of jerseys for players of different positions. This is the same problem Carolina has had for a while.

The second change was in tweaking the shade of blue. Honestly, if no announcement had been made, you'd have been hard pressed to find someone in Bank of America Stadium that said "Gee. Their blue sure looks different this year."

So they altered the hoop-stripes but still have wide variations in how they will look. They changed the shade of blue and almost no one will notice.

The Fix: Find a way to tailor these stripes so that they appear the same on all player positions. Worse comes to worse, change them to look the same as the Colts' hoop stripes. Vary the width of the stripes rather than having all three the same as the Colts do.

Grade: C

#8 - ARIZONA CARDINALS

The uniforms that the Cardinals have worn for the past 18 seasons were dated and bad. Not a good combination. This is a change that needed to happen sooner rather than later and that's why I have them rated one notch above Carolina.

Is there something that will make your eyes pop out of your head and go WOW!?! No.

An overdone uniform was replaced by a minimalist uniform. It's addition by subtraction. They're not great by any stretch, but they're an improvement. I think we all can agree on that.

The Fix: Remove the obnoxiously large wordmark on the chest of the red jersey or simply replace it with 'CARDINALS' in smaller type similar to what is on the sleeves of the other two jerseys. 

I still maintain that Arizona missed the boat by using silver instead of copper. Arizona is the Copper State and a dark copper would have made for a much better trim color. The silver that is used will be hard to see against the white next to it. 

The other fix will be to mix-and-match within reason. The reveal only included mono-everything: white, red, and black. Hopefully, like Washington who did the same thing at their reveal a year ago, they won't be afraid to mix things up.

Grade: C (C+ if they mix-and-match)

#7 - CLEVELAND BROWNS

Two years ago, the Browns celebrated their 75th Anniversary by introducing an all-white throwback to their very first season - 1946. However, due to the One-Helmet Rule, the Browns had to use their regular orange helmets with modified features to pair with them. Now, with the OHR discontinued, Cleveland introduces a white helmet to pair with the throwbacks.

While the 1946 leather helmet was plain white, the Browns have added stripes and a browns facemask. Despite the stripes, the white helmet is a wonderful nod to the team's history despite technically not being totally accurate.

The Fix: Honestly the stripes shouldn't be there if the Browns were attempting to construct honest throwbacks to 1946. But someone probably had to be THAT GUY in the room that said "I know its supposed to be plain white but it's just TOO plain. Add some stripes." These are the Browns. The 'No-Logo-On-The-Helmet' Browns. Plain is in their DNA and they love it. Lose the stripes.

Grade: B

#6 - NEW YORK JETS

The Jets surprised the football world by unveiling throwback uniforms from the 1980s. The correct helmet logo is placed on the current metallic green helmet. No biggie. The uniform is a great representation of the look the throwback is mimicking. Jets fans will like it. 

The Fix: The only question I have is why is this franchise all of a sudden so averse to wearing green jerseys or pants? After the 2022 Preseason last year, the Jets wore green jerseys and pants together once and green pants below white jerseys once. That's it. Two games. Every other game was a combination of white or black pants and jerseys. I get that in the first half of the 1980s, the Jets wore white at home most of that time. However, with an infusion of green desperately needed, why not use the green throwback jersey instead?

Grade: B

#5 - SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

These throwbacks look phenomenal. The blue pops. The green is bright. The silver helmets sparkle. So why are the Seahawks only #5 for me?

It really isn't their fault. Due to modern jersey tailoring, sleeves nowadays probably only have about 40% of the area to work with compared to the jerseys they are trying to duplicate. For me, part of the appeal for the Seahawks' jerseys were how the stripes exiting behind the bird-head logo, continued all the way around the sleeve, and back around to the beak again. It was a brilliant effect, but, due to the minimal amount of space to work with, the current design can't offer that. 

The same can be said with the helmet logo. Due to modern helmets and their design, the facemask and chinstrap snaps force many helmet logos onto the back half of the helmet for several teams. This is one of those cases. One Twitter follower said he thought he was looking at a 1970s football card of DK Metcalf because he was positioned facing the camera (below) and the logo could not be seen. He honestly thought they had forgotten to add the logo to DK's helmet or that, as in cards from the 1970s, it had been airbrushed off. The result is that the amount of helmet logo that can be applied to this throwback's helmet is greatly reduced.

The Fix: Unfortunately, there isn't one. We are limited by the times. That incudes Nike's inability to reproduce the shiny silver pants that we should be getting with these uniforms. The Seahawks did well with what they had. They did a great job replicating a classic look that fans all over will love. No one will say "That's a terrible looking uniform."

Grade: B+

#4 - PHILADELPHIA EAGLES

Finally, kelly green has come back to Philadelphia. The thing I like the most about these uniforms is how the Eagles didn't have to use some sort of gimmick to get the correct logo to fit onto the sleeves. No abbreviated stripes. No reduced size. Just right.

The pants have the correct striping and are pretty close to the shade of grey/silver. The only regret here is that Nike could not replicate the sheen of those original pants (See "Big Jerome" below). It also seems like the helmet is lighter green than the jersey instead of being darker than the jersey. The helmet is significantly lighter overall compared to its predecessor. The sock stripes also appear to have thinned somewhat.

The Fix: The only thing I'd tamper with here is to darken the green of the helmets. Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that Nike is capable of fixing the pants otherwise they'd have already done it for the reveal. Oh, and where the heck are the black shoes? Black shoes are a must for these.

Grade: A-

#3 - MINNESOTA VIKINGS

Let me start by saying that I'm not a Vikings fan. Their new throwback uniform goes back to their original look from 1961 and the first half of that decade, which is new ground for a Vikings throwback. Truthfully, everything about this uniform is 'spot-on.' Except for one detail. The helmet.

Why, if you are putting so much effort to get the look just right, do you make perfect versions of the jersey & the pants, but then drop the ball on the helmet? And here's the kicker...the Vikings are actually using a second helmet shell of a different color than their regular shade of purple. They had a chance to use the era-accurate glossy dark purple helmet shell. Instead, they opted for a lighter, matte purple than what was called for.

The Fix: If these throwbacks stick around, which I would guess they would, next year's throwback helmet will likely get fixed. I feel safe in that assumption. Why? Because the Vikings have done this before. 

As I stated in discussing Detroit's new helmet, when the Vikings debuted their current uniform set in 2014, the helmet didn't match. It was much too light. And it was highly noticeable on TV, to boot. Unfortunately, it took until 2019 for the Vikes to fix their purple helmets. But the point is, they did. This fix won't take as long. And like Philadelphia, these uniforms absolutely require black shoes, as well.

Grade: A-

#2 - TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS

Bucco Bruce and the creamsicle orange jerseys have returned. Nike went the extra mile and made these versions a more vibrant shade of orange than their 2012 efforts which were much paler by comparison. Even the red trim really jumps out at you. These were extremely well done and historically accurate.

The Fix: Nothing. But there is one thing to look for as far as being historically accurate. On the back of the helmets where the striping ends, the Bucs have always cut off the bottom corner of the red stripes' outer edges. It's a quirky little detail that I will be looking for. For some reason, the Bucs' reveal didn't include photos of the backs of the helmets.

GRADE: A

#1 - TENNESSEE TITANS

Sorry to disappoint, Bucs fans, but these are just a little bit better. And it's funny but no one will look at these uniforms and call them Titans' throwbacks. These are OILERS uniforms.

Why are they better? Accuracy and attention to detail. The number fonts are a perfect match. The bold red outline goes BANG when you see them. But the best part of all is how they purposely mismatched the blues. Normally, this would be a problem but not here. Historically, these Oilers' blue jersey uniforms were done using two similar, but separate, shades of blue. 

The jersey's blue needs to match the blue pants stripe. It does. The blue of the socks is slightly darker and matches the blue in the helmet logo and stripe. They do. You had to be aware of this ahead of time to plan the outcome the way it needed to be. They did. And it's magnificent.

The Fix: Are you kidding??? One thing, Titans. PLEASE do not have players disrespect one of the greatest uniforms ever by wearing plain white socks instead of, or overtop of, the actual uniform's socks. PLEASE!

Grade: A+

That wraps it up, folks. One thing is certain, in a League dominated by darker colored jerseys, the majority of these throwbacks bring us back to a day when vibrant, colorful uniforms adorned our TVs every Fall weekend. That is a very good thing.

Bill Schaefer

"Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold..."

Just a couple lines from an animated Christmas presentation from my childhood. Maybe "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" or "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." Not sure which. Pretty sure it was Burl Ives singing as a stop-motion snowman, though.

Back on Thursday, this photo was posted on Uni Watch showing the Lions in their dugout at Tiger (Briggs) Stadium. It clearly shows 3 Lions players wearing the golden helmets worn in 1953.

We know that, in 1953, the Lions broke with tradition and wore gold helmets for all but 1 game (They wore royal blue helmets for a night game against the Colts). We have come across several photos of the gold helmets. Most, if not all, photos of these golden helmets show unusual splotches of green. This characteristic is evident in photos of Bobby Layne's gold helmet as well as Doak Walker's gold helmet on display in the HOF.

                   

We would like your assistance. Can anyone out there inform us how far beyond the 1953 season these 'gold' helmets were still being worn? 

It is my belief that during the next three seasons, 1954-56, some players may simply have told the equipment manager "Don't paint mine silver. Keep it gold." This would explain why all of the silver helmets are nicely painted and completely silver while others still remained golden. We think the dugout photo above is most likely from 1956 - as evidenced by the presence of the TV numbers on the sleeves (Thanks, Tim!). * - As a side note, isn't that an absolutely remarkable shade of blue on those jerseys?

The only problem with this logic is that most of these helmets were reportedly painted on the inside of a clear plastic outer shell. Notice inside both helmets above that the inside of the shell is, at the very least, grey in color.  It is this 'silver' paint inside the helmet that is possibly the culprit here that has purportedly 'degraded' into gold. If this is the case, it would have likely been impossible for an equipment manager to strip this 'silver-paint-gone-bad' out from the inside of the helmet and repaint it on the inner shell with a fresh coat of silver. To me, this indicates that the dugout photo must have players mainly in NEW silver helmets with a few players opting to keep their (possibly) more comfortable, broken-in 'gold' helmets from the 1953 season.

A May 2009 UW lead article also includes one other important snippet of information that I think has been largely overlooked...

"Another issue, which needs edification, is the 'amateurish' greenish splotches [that] adorn the helmet’s shell. One might think that a professional football helmet would never have such discoloration. While that assumption is probably correct even for the 1950s, there is a plausible explanation. The gold paint used during this period was not pure; it was a blend of yellow, golds, and copper. The copper pigments had a tendency to degrade and turn green." The effect of which we still see today on pennies that develop a greenish residue over time. Captions for photos of these helmets have referenced this fact that the gold paint of the era included copper in it. Over time, the copper oxidized and produced green splotches on the helmets

If the helmets were painted on the inside with silver paint and they 'degraded' to the gold color we see, why then are the green splotches - evidence of copper found in 1950s gold paint - present? In addition to my duties as this site's graphic engineer, I make my living teaching high school math, not chemistry or metallurgy. Unless 60-year-old silver paint also contained characteristic amounts of copper like the gold paint is supposed to have, why did the green form at all? Just because the appearance 'turned from silver to gold,' that doesn't mean the chemical composition of the silver paint turned into gold paint. If they were truly painted with silver paint, no green splotches should have ever formed.

Another theory has also been uncovered. On the Helmet Hut website, a question was asked about these very same gold helmets. The response claims that it is not the silver paint that transformed to gold but rather the interior of the clear plastic shell, itself.

This is a great question and our answer may be challenged by readers who believe differently. It is our humble opinion that although some pictures of 1950s Lion's helmets seem to indicate otherwise we believe that the team never wore gold colored helmets on the field. Some fans believe the Lions wore gold helmets to commemorate the multiple NFL championships the team won in the 1950s.

The Lions have primarily used Riddell helmets since the late 1940s. Up until the late 1950s the Riddell helmet shell was made from a clear or see through soft plastic material trademarked "Tenite" by the company. This helmet was referred to as the "RT" or "Riddell Tenite" model. (In the early 1960s Riddell changed their helmet model name to "RK" or "Riddell Kralite" when they switched to a non clear harder plastic material they trademarked "Kralite.") The earlier 1950s clear plastic "Tenite" shells were painted at the Riddell factory on the inside surface of the shell prior to installing the interior suspension. It is interesting to note here that Riddell used clear shells painted on the inside surface long before helmet companies such as Macgregor, Kelly or Maxpro featured the same technique.

The clear soft "Tenite" plastic shell would yellow as it aged. After years of aging the original brilliant silver luster Lion's helmet appeared to turn gold when the highly reflective silver paint was viewed through its yellowing but still translucent plastic shell. If you look at the center ridge of a 1950s Lions helmet it will still appear silver compared to the remainder of the helmet which has seemingly turned gold. Regardless of aging the center ridge retains its original silver appearance because it was originally a separate strip of non clear plastic that was painted silver on its exterior surface. Riddell used this plastic strip as a trim piece to cover the joint where the two halves of the helmet shell were glued together.

Here is some interesting additional information regarding the 1950s Lion's helmets. In the early 1950s NFL teams played several night games and a white colored football was used. The league barred the Lion's from wearing their silver helmets for night games because they felt the white ball when viewed under stadium lighting was too easily camouflaged by the Lion's silver helmets. To comply with the league ruling the Lions painted their helmets blue for night games and then repainted them silver for daytime games until 1955 when the white colored night football was replaced by the conventional brown leather football for all games.


In February 2012, a thread was created in our own Forum. 

In it, a gentleman posted an email he received from the Lions saying that the 1950s helmets had blue stripes (we posted photos showing they did not) and were never intended to be gold. As we were able to prove that the blue stripe never existed, that pretty much calls into question the accuracy of the Lions' recent statement regarding the lack of an intention to 'go to gold helmets.' But another part of this email is even more interesting. 

"For night games, they had to paint their helmets blue because the they too closely resembled the white ball under the lights."

If my bachelor's degree grasp of the English language is still functional, I take this to mean that each player had one helmet. For night games, they were painted blue. Whether this painting was applied to the inside or outside of the helmet makes little difference. The team had the ability to change the color of the helmet. These helmets had to have, at one point, been made gold in color and thereby displaying the tell-tale green residue from the copper used in gold paint. Perhaps some element of gold paint prohibited the team from being able to strip the gold paint from the inside of the shell despite efforts to change its appearance - visible by the grey interiors shown above.

True or not, both the email from the Lions' and the Helmet Hut information still claim that the team was able to paint the helmets blue for night games so why did they not feel the need to change they 'goldening' helmets to the silver they should be unless they wanted them to be gold? Since the helmets were gold for the entire season, it is not likely that on the morning of Week 1 of the 1953 season, the Lions' equipment manager arrived for the game and magically all of the helmets had turned golden overnight. This process had to have taken place over time meaning the team could have changed them if they wanted to - just like wanting to paint them blue for night games.

The other question then is, if the majority of the players had nice silver helmets, why did some retain the 'golden' ones? Sure the reason could be as simply as personal comfort as stated above. But maybe something more devious was at hand.

We already know that back in the 1940s the Lions experimented with wearing 2 different colored helmets - one color for linemen and one color for 'skill' players. It was thought this was done to help the quarterback identify targets downfield. Could these players be wearing the gold helmets amongst the rest of the team's silver ones for some alternative purpose similar to this?

Our lead photo above clearly shows that the majority of the team pictured had pristine silver helmets while a few are of the 'gold' variety. The dugout photo is NOT from 1953 (ie. the TV numbers). 

Whether or not these helmets were INTENDED to be gold or not, it doesn't change the fact that they WERE gold. A modern day comparison, of sorts, would be this year's Minnesota Vikings helmets. The team states that the intention is to match the purples of the helmets with the purple of the rest of the uniform. Clearly the matte purple on the helmets does not match the rest of the uniform and we at GUD depict that. 



What the Lions' dugout photo does is confirm that these gold helmets existed and were clearly different from the standard silver versions.                      
                           
Different theories can exist as to why they ended up the color they were. Did they start silver and turn to gold? Did they start as gold and later develop the characteristic green splotches due to the presence of copper in gold paint? We may never know the 'why.'

The only thing needing clarified remains...If this photo is, indeed, from the 1956 season, it likely indicates that the gold helmets must still have been in use for 1954 and 1955, as well. Just how long after 1953-56 were some Lions still wearing these 'gold' helmets?

Bill Schaefer

Matching Rivals: Lions & Cowboys

Silver and blues.

Beginning in 1968 the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys had an uncanny resemblance that lasted 10 seasons. They got there from a series of gradual modifications and and one significant color change, then diverged through another series of small changes and the addition of a secondary color palate.

When a football fan thinks of the Detroit Lions, usually two things immediately come to mind: Thanksgiving and Honolulu Blue. Probably cool throwbacks too. Those plain silver helmets and basic medium blue jerseys are one of the NFL's iconic looks, and it has served the Lions well over time, making Detroit's team instantly recognizable, no matter if its Calvin Johnson, Barry Sanders or Doak Walker wearing them. In fact, this uniform served as inspiration for Al Davis when he outfitted his Oakland Raiders in the early 1960's, combining the silver with the West Point Military Academy's black.

The Lions heyday took place in the 1950's, when Bobby Layne's Lions served as a thorn in the side of Paul Brown's Cleveland team, besting them three times for the NFL title. Northwestern stripes were added to the white jersey in 1957, the year of Detroit's last championship team. The NW stripes were added on the blue jersey and socks in 1963, the same season the blue lion appeared on the silver helmet. A pair of blue stripes running down the pants and helmet completed the template for the modern Lions uniform for the next 40 years.

Through the late 60's and early 70's, white gradually became an accent color on the uniform. First as the center stripe on the helmet, then the pants. Eventually white trim bordered the silver numbers and Northwestern stripes on the blue jerseys and socks.

Silver, blue and white were in abundance at the Cotton Bowl in September 1968 when the Lions visited the Dallas Cowboys. Although Detroit saw an opponent that looked strikingly similar - silver pants and helmets with blue and white stripes - that wasn't always the case.

The Dallas NFL franchise was born eight years earlier and they looked quite different than they do today. The Cowboys wore a white helmet with royal blue strips and a star on either side. The jerseys were royal blue with white shoulders also sporting a star. The pants were white too, as silver did not appear until a complete uniform overhaul in 1964. This season the Cowboys began a white-at-home trend that still holds true today (excepting the occasional alternate jersey or throwback uniform.)  Dallas visionary and architect Tex Schramm was behind both decisions, noting that the new silver helmets and pants looked better on color TV, and the hot Texas weather played into their home field advantage. "When the Chicago Bears were over on the sunny side of Texas Stadium wearing those navy blue jerseys, it was about 20 degrees hotter. The visiting team had to sit in the sun and they just cooked."

Showing more symmetry with the Lions, in 1967 the Cowboys joined Detroit as the only NFL teams to annually host a Thanksgiving Day game. When the number of stripes on the Dallas jerseys and socks reduced from three to two, and a blue boarder was added to the helmet star in 1967, the Cowboys were as sharp as Tom Landry in his fedora and their classic look was set. There are the same uniforms Roger Staubach wore as the Cowboys were the NFC's powerhouse team throughout the 1970's, appearing in a then record five Super Bowls.

On the Cowboys march to their first Super Bowl appearance in 1970 they met the Lions in an NFC Divisional Playoff game that statistically seemed more fitting to the leather helmet era. The defenses so dominated the contest that the two teams combined for a mere 21 total first downs and a meager 130 yards passing. A first quarter field goal and fourth quarter safety were all the Cowyboys would need to advance to the first ever NFC Championship Game. As was the case for all five meetings during this era, the Cowboys wore their white jerseys and the Lions their Honolulu blue. 

Beginning in 1978 the Cowboys began subtly alter their appearance. The first change was to the tone of silver used for their pants, to what they called "metallic silver-blue", although the helmets stayed the same. In 1981 the Cowboys made a radical change to their away uniforms, actually introducing a unique color palate. The pants returned to a true tone of silver, but the blue jerseys, socks and pants stripes were now navy blue, and they added the player's uniform number to the hip of the pants.  This new, albeit brief, trend showed up on the home silver-blue pants the following year in 1982 and stayed through 1988. 

The Cowboys white uniform has basically remained consistent up to the present time, while their road uniform has gone through several iterations on progressively darker tomes of blue and striping and number font changes. Alternate jerseys with starred shoulders were also worn during the mid '90's. The Lions changed very little, through the 80's and 90's as well. Silver numbers on the blue jerseys became white in 1982 and the Northwestern stripes were removed from the socks in 1989. For one season they wore blue pants with the white jerseys in 1998. Adding black as an accent color in 2003 (and unfortunately as an alternate jersey in 2005) Detroit diverged from their Thanksgiving counterparts completely.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sep 15 1968 Det @ Dal
Dec 26 1970 Det @ Dal (NFC Divisional Playoff)
Oct 30 1972 Det @ Dal
Oct 6 1975 Det vs Dal
Oct 30 1977 Det @ Dal

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In a couple of weeks we'll be back with a slightly different twist to the "Matching Rivals" series. In 1969 imitation was indeed the highest form of flattery when a coach moved from a successful franchise to a struggling one, and brought his own uniform design with him to help change their fortunes.

The Boys Are Back

Today we are back in full force from our various vacations and technical malfunctions and are ready to hit this blog today at The Gridiron Uniform Database with a vengeance.  We have no less than 36 database updates to bring you, and we will try to do a huge chunk of them today. ~ ~ ~

     Let's get started with the 1994 and 1995 Raiders. Thanks to Mako Mameli, who brought this change to our attention.  We have added Starter manufacturer logos to the front of the pants.  Discussion is on-going in our forum about the number font of the 1960s Raiders.  I believe at one point we thought it was as simple as the black jerseys always had a particular font, and the white jerseys with the silver-with-black-outline (1963-64 & 1970) had the squared-off numbers and the other white jerseys -- the regular black numbers -- had the standard numbers.  Now, thanks to Mako, we are finding it is more complicated than that.

Cookie Gilchrist of the Bills in a 1962 Preseason tilt against Boston. 
Still undetermined is the status of the Pats' logo-less helmet on #85

     Another change we are debuting today is a 1962 preseason variation for the Buffalo Bills -- they did use this combination shown in this picture, and we are adding it to the database.

     We have made some changes to the 1957 Eagles and Browns, thanks to some images posted to our forum.  For the Eagles, we have changed the pants that they wore with the stripe-less white jersey to the white pants, and for the Browns, we added the preseason variation of number-less helmets.  They apparently waited until the regular season to debut their helmets with the numbers on them.  Thanks go to LarryB and BD Sullivan for this forum thread that brought us these updates.  This whole discussion owes itself to the images available online at the USC Digital Library, which has many 1950s Rams images in its collection.

Here are some images from the USC Digital Library:  1957 Eagles at Rams (left),
1957 Browns at Rams (center) and 1955 Packers at Rams (right).

     In these above images, in the picture on the right, which you can see in more detail here, we are currently looking into the Packers' stripe pattern.  Of this Packers image, our historian Tim Brulia says, "It's from 1955 and the Packers look to be clearly wearing WHITE stripes on the jerseys and socks and WHITE numbers on the jersey. Helmet and pants are clearly yellow."  Debate continues on this issue.

~ ~ ~

     Another preseason change for the 1967 Detroit Lions:  We have determined that for the '67 season, the Lions wore a plain white preseason jersey, similar to the plain blue one they wore in 1968.  Speaking of preseason, tomorrow we will be bringing you Tim's column about some trends of uniform apparel in the history of NFL preseasons that you may have not already known

~ ~ ~

     The 1994 Kansas City Chiefs have also received a minor update -- again it's Mako Mameli pointing out to us that we were missing the NFL Shield logo on the pants for the 75th Anniversary throwbacks.  Thanks Mako for all your contributions, and keep them coming.

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      We still have many more database updates to bring you, but we will save them for another time.  We have more on the 1996-2003 Eagles we discussed earlier this week, plus Houston Oilers and New York Jets changes, as well as a modification to the 1990 San Francisco 49ers, thanks to Larry Schmitt that we have to update.  We'll bring you those in the coming days.

     Yesterday I announced a contest regarding the NFL Network's Top 100 players of 2011 poll that they have been airing this summer.  Tomorrow night at 8 PM Eastern Time they will reveal the top 10.  They have already released numbers 11-100 in the past weeks (to the lower right on this page), and I thought it would be fun to have a contest to pick the order of the remaining ten.  This is similar to a contest we are having at another internet community that I am a part of, and I thought it would be fun to bring it here.  The rules are simple, pick the order of the remaining ten players, you start at 45 points, you get a bonus for getting a player at the right spot (+10 for #1 spot correct, +9 for #2 spot correct, etc., down to +1 for #10 spot correct), and you lose a point for each spot each player of yours is wrong by (i.e you have Brady at #1, he is #2, you lose 1 point; you have Brady at #1, he is #3, you lose 2 points etc.)  Minus-10 is most points you can lose, if a player you select isn't in top 10.  You would score a perfect score of 100, if you get all ten right, while the worst possible score you could get is -55, if all ten of your picks do not make the Top 10.  There is a thread in the forum to enter your picks, so get to it!

     Our other on-going contest is the Best NFL Uniform Of All-Time tournament.  Voting will soon end on the first group of entries, so if you haven't voted on those yet, hurry up and do so.  Monday we will have our second group of first-round match-ups, so be sure not to miss that.

Ch- Ch- Changes

With all of the traffic we have received in the last few days, we had numerous updates and changes submitted by many visitors to the site, however, due to some technical difficulties, we have been unable to update them in the last day or two, so today we will devote the entire column to these changes. I've gotten some comments and e-mails that you all seemed to like the 'Mr. Wizard' theme video embed with Bill's column Monday, so I'm going to make embedding a youtube video a regular feature here at the website.  I'm not a big David Bowie fan, but I do have this song running through my head right now, and since we have so many "ch-ch-changes" to update, it seems apropos.

With all of these changes today, we'll dispense with showing both 'before' and 'after' images, however we are working on a way of displaying the progression of previous database images which will give credit to the submitter for the change.      We'll start off with the 1948 New York Giants, thanks to bigbluelarry, who alerted us to some Charles Connerly pictures that showed a different helmet pattern than what we had.      Another change that we made came to us from Dante X, who informed us that the 1993 New England Patriots -- the first year of the blue uniforms, when they wore numbers like this -- actually had gray facemasks.  I wonder if Dante is this guy, who was a coach on that team?  Probably not.      After much debate we have decided to change the brown of the supposedly brown horse on the controversial early-season 1962 Broncos helmet.  This is not to say we endorse or don't endorse any particular theories about the said color of the horse, however, at this time, we have agreed it is probably more purplish-brown than just straight brown. Also a slight change in the angle of orientation of the horse from the previous image.  I'm sure this debate will continue.      Speaking of the Broncos, we have a slew of changes thanks to anyonebutdetroit.  After looking at his submissions, the 1989-93 Broncos now have three stripes instead of five stripes on the sleeves, the nameplate has been changed for the 1994 to 96 uniforms, and we have added the monochrome blue look the Broncos wore in the 1997 preseason.  An additional change will be coming tomorrow as we have confirmed a mistake we had with their 1994 road throwback uniforms.      We have changed the stripe pattern on the Philadelphia Eagles 1974 to 1984 uniform pants, it's wasn't much of a difference, but a small detail change none-the-less.  The image to the right is the new stripe pattern, there is now more silver showing between the green stripes and the white stripe in the middle.      The Miami Dolphins franchise has had a few changes, for the 1973 image we have eliminated some of the combinations of the helmet and sock variations.  Compare this with the updated image to the right, and for the 1969 season, we also have some changes with the sock patterns.  As many of you know, the Dolphins in their early years have been very inconsistent with the uniforms.  They had two different helmets, one with the dolphin all the way across the sun, and another with the head of the dolphin inside the sun.  At times players have even worn different versions in the same game! All these Dolphins changes come with thanks to dirwulf.      Finally, a picture (right) surfacing from a 1969 preseason game between the Saints and the Lions has yielded a few changes.  This picture was seen at Chris Creamer's SportsLogos.net forum, and in it we can see that the Lions wore stripe-less jerseys, and the Saints debuted their 1970 nameplate-less jerseys.  Previously, we did not have the Saints' combo of wearing the white jerseys either with the black numbers in 1969, or with the preseason black helmet.  Isn't that Saints' black helmet cool?

1948 New York Giants 1993 New England Patriots 1962 Denver Broncos 1992 Denver Broncos 1997 Denver Broncos 1974-84 Philadelphia Eagles 1973 Miami Dolphins 1969 Miami Dolphins 1969 New Orleans Saints 1969 Detroit Lions

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     Well, there you have it. Thanks to all those who have helped make this database that much better by offering corrections.  Keep them coming!  Tommorow we'll bring you that Broncos throwback change we mentioned, plus updates to the New York Giants and to a stripe pattern of the Minnesota Vikings for a year in the mid-1960's. Join our forum and you too can be part of the debate.