New Uniforms of 2020

In addition to all teams (other than the Bears) reverting to the NFL Shield at the bottoms of their V-collars, seven teams have made 'significant' changes to their uniform for the coming 2020 season.

As the graphics artist for the GUD, I usually have to look at uniform reveals through a different eye. "You mean I gotta draw THAT?!?"

Additionally, where a team has shown what combinations of jersey, pants, and socks they plan on wearing during the season, I like to be prepared.  I assemble every possible combination eliminating the need to miss Sunday football because someone decided to put together a strange new pairing that no one expected and I need to assemble it.

Atlanta Falcons

White Jersey combos

This is a great place to start because this needs to be said and it's best to do it right off the bat. Teams need to stop matching socks and cleats. In their uni-release, only a single red-pants combination was proffered - white jersey, red pants/socks/cleats - found above in the lower right corner. I don't like any of these red pants combinations. The foremost reasons are the fact that the pants stripe and jersey side panel stripe conflict with each other and the red pants completely conflict with the black helmet when having only white in between. I'm not a fan of all-white uniforms either but the black socks and red socks combos with the white jerseys and pants in the top row would work for me as long as the Falcons wore white shoes. I'm not really a fan of any of the black pants combos in the middle row.

Bottom line: Don't match pants, socks, and cleats. Contrast is needed.

Black Jersey combos

As for the black jersey combos, let's start by eliminating all three of the white socks combos down the left side as well as the bottom right corner again with red pants, socks, and cleats. All four of these are simply bad looks.

My favorites are the two black jersey and white pants combos with the colored socks - again assuming the Falcons go with white cleats. The all-black in the center is passable but my favorite is in the middle of the bottom row - black jersey, red pants, black socks and cleats.

We knew that the Falcons were likely keeping their 'throwback' uniform although they were forced to use it with the new matte-black helmet. Not really a big deal.

However, as 'the art talent' here at GUD, let me tell you...there are two things I can't stand - sublimation patterns and gradients. Here is the first "You gotta be kidding me" of the new season. The really bad news is that I kinda like the gradient combo. I just hope that it doesn't create a trend of more teams going with this kind of look.

Overall, I don't mind what Atlanta did. With the exception of the gradient uniform, they really went minimalist and that's OK. The matte black helmet doesn't bother me although I do think the over-sized helmet logo is comically big and after all, isn't just a tip of the cap from the Falcons to their divisional-rival Buccaneers saying "We like what you did with that big flag on your helmet. Take a look at our big bird!" The one thing I really wish they'd correct is the big ATL on the chest. The over-sized numbers would look better if they didn't have to be squeezed into view along with the big, honkin' "ATL."

Cleveland Browns

White Jersey combos

Cleveland ownership listened to their long-suffering fans and got rid of one of the great uniform monstrosities ever perpetuated in the League ranking right their with the 2014-19 Bucs, 2013-17 Jaguars, and the 2002-10 Bills. A little known fact about Browns uniforms is that the Browns tend to match socks with jerseys. However, every once in a while, the Browns would throw a curve ball at us and wear brown socks while wearing white jerseys. It could happen so I planned on being ready. The two combos to the left are likely what we will see for most Cleveland road games this season. One thing I don't care for is that the Brown pants need a white stripe between the two orange stripes. I know these are essentially their Color Rush pants from past seasons. but to be worn as part of a normal rotation with these new uniforms, they need the white stripe.

Brown Jersey combos

I just mentioned the brown pants being last year's Color Rush pants and missing the white middle stripe. To top that off, it appears the Browns kept the all-brown Color Rush combo but removed all stripes. Basically, the Browns said we need two sets of brown pants. The Browns love their brown pants apparently, but does everyone out there remember what Deadpool said about the brown pants? My apologies for the brief, graphic violence but I couldn't resist. Children get your parent's permission first...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKC0jN-GfhA.

After they released their new uniforms, the Browns announced that they got some negative feedback from fans because they did not include options with orange pants. Congrats to the Browns. They gave their fans what they wanted to see with these retro new uniforms. The lack of orange pants was an oversight. The team admitted the error, and stated that they'd find a way to get the orange pants. Kudos. These looks are the Cardiac Kids that I remember from when I was a youngster. There's something just so right about these two looks. I hope we get them frequently this year.

Indianapolis Colts

The most notable change that the Colts are making is the re-shaping of their horseshoe as seen above. Other less notable changes include changing the Nike 'swooshes' on their white jerseys (and likely their white pants, too) from blue to black. Why? The Colts added a logo to the inside of their collars that may or may not have been plagiarized from an Indiana high school team (but I'll let the courts decide that). The Colts also returned to a number font used in their early days. However, because of our use of the number 11, the change won't be noticeable since the ones will be the same for both the new and old number fonts.

Los Angeles Chargers

White Jersey combos

Go ahead, I dare you to find something wrong with these uniforms. Nit-pickers could say something like "There are no TV numbers." Or "the bolts on the pants don't have enough zig-zags." These people need to get a life. I admit that I am getting tired of the italicized number fonts and would have preferred a nice, old-fashioned block font, but I digress. Hmm. I guess I was able to find a 'negative.'

Powder Blue Jersey combos

Personally, I think the Chargers should do something like only wearing the yellow pants either for all of their day games or for all of their night games, some kind of gimmick like that.

Alternate Blues combos

I like the all-royal but it seems superfluous with the all-navy. I really hope the Chargers actually wear white shoes with the all-navy combo. White helmets and white shoes would book-end the uniform nicely. I wonder of the Chargers field-tested the navy uniform with the numbers hollowed-out, as well. Probably made the numbers too difficult to read though.

One other thing...if the NFL ever does do away with the 'One-helmet Rule,' in the words of my daughter, I think this would look 'sick' for night games...

Los Angeles Rams

Bone & Blue jersey combos

The Rams became the last team to unveil their new uniforms. I believe that these blue and bone jersey combos must be evaluated together as one group.

First, let me say that I have no problem with the helmet. Over the years, many fans have been bothered by the fact that the Rams' helmets always had a navy shell that clashed with the royal of the their usual uniforms. That has been corrected with a brilliant, metallic, royal blue shell. The logo is new and different. It's not great. It's just different and I'm sure we'll get used to it. At least they didn't use the gradient coloring on the helmet logo!

Honestly, the jerseys are my biggest problem with these uniforms. The glossy piping of the numbers would have looked better as just regular fabric. This was too big of an attempt to be 'glitzy.' The fold-over-the-back-of-the-collar logo tags are gimmicky. The jerseys would have looked better if they just slapped the logos right on the collar - inside and out. The contrasting look of the tag on the bone jersey is superior to the blue-on-blue tag on the royal jersey. That one would have looked better had it been a yellow tag. The collarbone 'patch' and the peculiar zig-zag stitching limited to just a small portion in the upper right corner is just stupid.

But my biggest peeve for these jerseys is actually the 'sleeves.' The blue jerseys have the Ram horns. The bone jerseys have some kind of wave or shark fin. Why would you not simply put the Ram horns on the bone jerseys also? That makes no sense.

And you already know my feelings about gradients. My question is why not have two blue jerseys. One would have the gradient numbers to be worn with the gradient-striped pants as a Color Rush combo. Another blue jersey without gradient numbers could be worn with the yellow pants. The gradient numbers look unusually out of place when worn with the yellow pants.

New England Patriots

OK. I'm taking bets. I'm willing to bet that this is the last time that an NFL team has a new uniform reveal and only reveals two combinations.

I like what they did. I like the red-blue-red stripes on the white jersey. But at the same time I still agree with those that say its too much red in a blue-oriented jersey. A blue-red-blue stripe pattern probably would have been better.

Like the Browns, the Patriots left the door open to possibly add white or silver pants in the future. I got one for you. What about red pants? Those could be a worthwhile option with the white jerseys.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Bucs pulled a 'Browns' and simply went back to something that works. They never should have moved away from this design in the first place. While keeping a large helmet logo, the Bucs still reduced the logo considerably. Now, instead of being 'freakishly large,' now they have a logo that's just 'big.' The Bucs also ditched the bling-bling chrome grill. Good. Grills are for cars and patios, not football helmets. I would like to see the new Color Rush uniform worn with some red socks and white cleats. 

So who will be getting changes for next season, in 2021? Cardinals? Bengals? Broncos? Eagles? I guess we'll have to wait. Hopefully there will only be two more months before we start thinking about preseason games.

Bill Schaefer

GUD

It's Almost Here

It's Almost Here
by Rob Holecko


Indianapolis, Indiana, 1:00 PM CST - Well if you are like me you are all "pre-gamed" out and ready for kickoff, but it is still four-plus hours away.  Here at the Gridiron Uniform Database we have some exciting new features that we'll be unveiling around kickoff, so stay tuned.


We'll have three more of Tim's trivia questions for you now, and we'll be back at kickoff with three more.  In Monday's blog, we'll go over the answers to all of the questions and you can see how you did.


Now whether you are putting the finishing touches on preparing massive amounts of food and beverages for many friends and family or heading out to a Super Bowl party, or you're just settling in to watch the game at home by yourself, we hope you enjoy the game (and the commercials.)


Here is the pre-game installment of trivia questions:

~ ~ ~

What was the first Super Bowl to feature a team wearing a dark jersey/dark pants combination?

What were the four Super Bowls where one team did NOT have names on their jerseys?

What were the two Super Bowls where the game officials wore special uniforms?

~ ~ ~

On This Day...

Later today either the Giants or Patriots will become the next franchise to win their fourth Super Bowl Championship. Six years ago today the Steelers won their fifth Championship in Super Bowl XL in Detroit against the Seattle Seahawks.

An Exciting Fourth Quarter

Note: We've been busy at The Gridiron Uniform Database Blog this week and haven't been able to bring you articles daily as we would have liked.  Tim's Trivia Questions will continue to appear, and while we intended on running one every day this week, we just haven't been around to write for the blog everyday.  We hope you understand, and we'll give you three questions in today's entry. 

An Exciting Fourth Quarter
by Rob Holecko

Super Bowl XXXVIII was played eight years ago yesterday, on February 1, 2004.  Played in Houston, it was on the one year anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, and it also came to be remembered for the "Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction" that occurred at halftime.

But perhaps instead this game should be remembered instead for the most exciting 15 minutes of Super Bowl football ever played.  At the beginning of the fourth quarter the Patriots led 14-10, and the two teams combined for thirty-seven points in the fourth, and an exciting 32-29 Patriots victory.  Wikipedia summarizes the fourth quarter as thus:

Beginning wiith 3:57 left in the third period, the Patriots put together a 71-yard, 8-play scoring drive, featuring tight end Daniel Graham's 33-yard reception to advance to the Carolina 9-yard line. Running backAntowain Smith then capped off the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run on the second play on the final period to increase their lead, 21–10. This was the start of another scoring explosion, one that became one of the biggest explosions in Super Bowl history, with both teams scoring a combined 37 points in the last 15 minutes, the most ever in a single quarter of a Super Bowl.

Delhomme started out Carolina's ensuing drive with a 13-yard completion to wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad. After committing a false start penalty on the next play, Delhomme completed a pair of passes to Smith for gains of 18 and 22 yards. Running back DeShaun Foster then scored on a 33-yard touchdown run, cutting the Panthers' deficit to 21-16 after Delhomme's 2-point conversion pass fell incomplete. The Patriots responded on their ensuing possession by driving all the way to Carolina's 9-yard line, but the drive ended when Panthers defensive back Reggie Howard intercepted a third down pass from Brady in the end zone. Then on 3rd down from his own 15-yard line, Delhomme threw for the longest play from scrimmage in Super Bowl history, an 85-yard touchdown completion to Muhammad. Carolina's 2-point conversion attempt failed again, but they took their first lead of the game, 22-21, with 6:53 remaining. It was the first time in Super Bowl history a team down 10+ points during the 4th quarter had come back to take the lead. Two other times teams came back to tie the game; the Tennessee Titans against the Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV and the Rams against the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI.

However, New England retook the lead on their next drive, advancing 68 yards with the aid of a pair of completions from Brady to Givens for gains of 18 and 25 yards. Once again the Patriots were faced with third down and goal, but this time they scored with Brady's 1-yard pass to Vrabel, who had lined up in an eligible tight end position. Then on a two-point conversion attempt, running back Kevin Faulk took a direct snap and ran into the end zone to make the score 29-22. Despite amassing over 1,000 combined yards, Kevin Faulk's two-point conversion constituted the only points he scored all season.

The Panthers countered on their next possession. Foster started the drive with a 9-yard run and a 7-yard reception. After that, Delhomme completed a 19-yard pass to Muhammad, followed by a 31-yard completion to receiver Ricky Proehl. Then Proehl, who caught the fourth quarter game tying touchdown pass against the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI 2 years earlier for the St. Louis Rams, finished the drive with a 12-yard touchdown reception. Kasay's ensuing extra point tied the game, 29-29, with 1:08 to play in regulation and it appeared that the game would be the first Super Bowl ever to go into overtime.

However, Kasay kicked the ensuing kickoff out of bounds, giving New England the ball on their own 40-yard line. Brady calmly led the Patriots offense down the field with a 13-yard pass to Brown on second down. An offensive pass interference penalty on Brown pushed New England back to their own 43-yard line, but another 13-yard reception to Brown and a 4-yard pass to Graham brought up a critical 3rd down and 3 from the Carolina 40-yard line. The Panthers defense could not prevent the Patriots from gaining the first down, as Brady completed a clutch 17-yard pass to Branch. On the next play, Vinatieri kicked a 41-yard field goal to give New England the lead, 32-29, with four seconds left in the game. Carolina failed on their last chance, as Rod Smart went nowhere on the ensuing kickoff, and the Patriots had won their second Super Bowl in three years. This was the fourth Super Bowl to be decided on a field goal in the final seconds. Super Bowl V was won on a last second kick by Jim O'Brien, Super Bowl XXV had Scott Norwood miss his field goal chance, and in Super Bowl XXXVIII, Adam Vinatieri made his.

We are proud to add this game to our database of NFL matchups.  There has never been a Super Bowl played on February 2, however in two years, the NFL will play the first outdoors, cold-weather site Super Bowl with Super Bowl XLVIII scheduled to be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, home of the Jets and Giants, on February 2, 2014.

~ ~ ~

Tuesday was Media Day at the Super Bowl, and in answering the media's various and disparate questions, the players of both teams, the Giants and the Patriots, wore their uniforms with the Super Bowl patches, and displayed for the first time what they will be wearing when they take the field Sunday.

While we won't officially add the uniforms for Super Bowl XLVI to the database until kickoff, we can go ahead and offer a sneak peek and display them for you today in our blog.  The Giants will again be the road team, and the Patriots the home team, so visually the teams will look a lot like they did when they met in Super Bowl XLII.  The league alternates Super Bowl years between the NFC and AFC Champion being the home team.  This is similar to Super Bowls X and XIII, when the Steelers and Cowboys met both times in Miami.  The Cowboys were the home team in XIII, while the Steelers were the home team in X, but whichever year the two teams met, the Cowboys would have worn white and the Steelers black, because the Cowboys generally wore white at home, although they did wear blue in Super Bowl V, when they faced the Colts.  The only visual difference between Super Bowls X and XIII was that X was played during the day, and the Orange Bowl still had astroturf.  By Super Bowl XIII, the NFL was playing the Super Bowls at night, and the Orange Bowl had switched to a grass surface.

~ ~ ~

Tim's Super Bowl Trivia Questions - "Are You Smarter Than TimmyB?" 

For today's installment, here are a few logo patch and supplier vector related questions for you:

What was the first Super Bowl where the team wore that year's Super Bowl logo patch on their jersey?

What was the first Super Bowl where the team(s) wore the supplier vector?

What was the last Super Bowl where a team did NOT wear the supplier vector?

Doug Flutie's Drop Kick

Doug Flutie's Drop Kick
by Rob Holecko

from Celebrate Boston:

On January 1, 2006, the New England Patriots were facing the Miami Dolphins. Doug Flutie was in at quarterback while starter Tom Brady was being rested for the playoffs. With 6:10 remaining in the fourth quarter, what looked like a 2-point conversion attempt turned out to be history in the making. As Flutie gathered the snap, he bounced the ball at about the ten yard line, then booted it between the uprights for the extra point. It was the first successfully executed drop kick play in an NFL game since 1941. The January 2, 2006, Boston Globe describes this historic event:

"[It turned] out the Patriots had been practicing it in recent weeks, a result of a conversation among ESPN's Chris Berman, Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and Flutie. Berman remembered seeing Flutie execute a drop kick while playing in the Canadian Football League.

'We had a couple tryouts out there and Doug shanked a couple, but he hit a couple good ones, so I thought if we had an opportunity to do it in one of these last couple of games, we'd give him a shot,' said Belichick, who smiled as Flutie hugged him after the kick. 'I think Doug deserves it. He is a guy that adds a lot to this game of football running, passing, and now kicking. I'm happy for him.'"

Tom Brady, now a legend himself, said about the play, "Doug was so nervous for three weeks because that's been in the plan. I think he was probably more worried about drop kicking than he was about quarterbacking. He was so excited when it went in. I think everyone was. He just adds to his legend."

Although Flutie did not discuss whether 2005 would be his final season, Pats' coach Bill Belichick commented about the drop kick, suggesting that the play was a retirement present of sorts for his veteran quarterback. On May 15, 2006, Doug Flutie announced his retirement from the game at age 43.

Also, "On This Day..", fifty years ago today the AFL played it's first ever Championship as the Los Angeles Chargers played the Houston Oilers.  You can read about this game here in the Pelican Park Eagle blog.

We are proud to add these game to our matchup database, and Happy New Year from the Gridiron Uniform Database.

Week 16 Uniform Rankings

Week 16 Uniform Rankings
by Tim Brulia

Reviewing Week 16 as the 2011 regular season is rapidly drawing to a close...

Texans-Colts: Texans in white/navy and the Colts in blue/white. Nothing special here. A blue-light special with a hint of red mixed in.

Raiders-Chiefs: A look that stands the test of time. Practically the same in 2011 as it was in 1971, 40 years ago. Raiders in white/silver and the Chiefs rock red/white. Nice colors, as you'd expect.

Jaguars-Titans: Jags go white/black and the Titans go columbia blue/navy blue. Titans apparently finding their formula after an era of mix and match. Thinking the Jags in all white might have brightened things up, but we haven't seen that combo since early in the season when they were in their white at home phase. Not a bad matchup.

Dolphins-Patriots: Dolphins work the white/aqua combo and the Patriots go with standard navy/silver. Decent colors at play here, aqua, navy, silver, white with touches of red and orange. A good matchup.

Cardinals-Bengals: Big Red in white/white and the B's in orange/white. After three straight home games in which the Cardinals went red/red, the Arizona lads go back to an all white look, while the Bengals take the field in alternate orange. A little bit of a twist, but I'm not feeling too fuzzy on this matchup.

Broncos-Bills: Broncs in all white and the Bills in blue/white. A bit more Bronco orange would have been nice, but that couldn't be done here. Still feeling the Bills 2011 blues in a good way, though.

Rams-Steelers: Rams in white/navy and the Steelers in black/yellow. Rams wore the best of the three pairs of pants in their closet (yellow throwbacks are not an option) against the Standard Steeler fare. Actually one of the better uni matchups.

Giants-Jets: Crosstown rivals in standard get ups; NYG in white/gray and NYJ in green/white. Very colorful matchup, believe it or not! Sparkling!

Vikings-Redskins: Vikes in all white and the Skins in burgundy/yellow. Leave it to the Redskins to make me look like a fool when I said last week in this space that the Skins tucked away their yellow trousers for the season! They brought 'em back for this week and they feed very nicely off the Vikes whites.

Buccaneers-Panthers: Bucs go with the white/pewter look with the Panthers in the black/silver. If the Cats could had gone with the carolina blue here, this would have been an ace matchup. It's still nice, but that would have set me off, positively speaking.

Browns-Ravens: Browns going for the full white for the 15th game in a row and the Ravens trot out the magnificent purple/black combo. As a Steeler fan, I'm not supposed to say anything good about either of these teams. But I cannot deny the uni goodness from this encounter, especially the dark birds' combo.

Chargers-Lions: Bolts in white/navy and the Lions in honolulu blue/silver. Hmph, this is really a nice matchup. I just like how this one is pulled off, and I really can't explain why!

Eagles-Cowboys: Birds in green/white and the Cowboys in standard white/silver-green-blue. Have seen this one many a time before and it always plays out well. Top 10 material as always.

49ers-Seahawks: SF in white/gold and Sea in all seahawk blue. The Seahawk blue look, always unique is starting to dull my senses a little. A spark of white pants might have changed my mind, but then again would that be too much white with the Niners white shirts?

Bears-Packers: Bears in white/navy and the Pack in green/yellow. Now you know this show of colors from the traditional rivals is always a peach to this reporter. These teams have great color schemes and they know how to use them. Well done!

Falcons-Saints: Falcs in all white and Saints in all black. I am a rare case, but the all-blacks of the Saints just works for me. I could stand to see just a tad more red on the Falcons, but this is good enough.


So they rank as follows (bottom to the top this week):

16) Jaguars-Titans
15) Texans-Colts
14) 49ers-Seahawks
13) Raiders-Chiefs
12) Broncos-Bills
11) Cardinals-Bengals
10) Buccaneers-Panthers
9) Rams-Steelers
8) Dolphins-Patriots
7) Falcons-Saints
6) Eagles-Cowboys
5) Vikings-Redskins
4) Chargers-Lions
3) Giants-Jets
2) Bears-Packers
1) Browns-Ravens

Catch ya next week with the final regular season installment!

~ ~ ~

"On This Day..."
by Rob Holecko

Four years ago today, the New England Patriots were 15-0 heading into their regular season finale against the New York Giants.  The game was a Saturday Night NFL Network telecast, but with the game being of such significance, the league decided to simulcast it on CBS and NBC as well.  As the Wikipedia article describes it:

The NFL Network had exclusive rights to broadcast the Patriots-Giants game, and in the weeks before the game, the network increasingly promoted the game via television commercials on other stations. It was clear the game was one of the most anticipated of the season, and could therefore serve as an important promotion for the NFL Network, which had tried unsuccessfully over the previous year to expand its viewership by becoming included as an "extended basic service" on the major American cable TV providers such as Comcast and Time Warner.


Political pressure from the Northeast to make the game more widely viewable preceded the decision to simulcast the game on CBS and NBC. Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania senator who was the Republican ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Committee's head, wrote the league a letter threatening to reconsider the antitrust exemption currently enjoyed by the NFL under United States law. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts had pressured the league and cable companies to settle their dispute so "no die-hard Pats fans will be shut out from watching their team take aim at football history."

In the end, 15.7 million viewers watched the game on CBS, 13.2 million on NBC, 4.5 million on the NFL Network, and 1.2 million on New York, Boston and Manchester, New Hampshire television stations.  The game was the most watched program on television since the 2007 Academy Awards and the most watched regular season NFL game in more than 12 years.

The Patriots won the thrilling game 38-35, and Tom Brady and Randy Moss set records for most touchdowns in a season (passing, Brady, 50 & receiving, Moss, 23) to cap off the first 16-0 undefeated season.  Although the Giants would win the game that really mattered, the rematch in Super Bowl XLII a few weeks later, the Patriots capped off the most successful regular season in league history in this game.

We are proud to add this game to our database.

Happy Independence Day

Today as we all enjoy the fourth of July festivities, we at The Gridiron Uniform Database want to wish you a happy and joyful holiday, and we'll now bring you a short, patriotic themed database update. ~ ~ ~

     Brought to our attention by frequent contributor Mako Mameli, the New England Patriots, during the years 1984 to 1987 and 1990 through 1992, they had a blue middle vertical pant stripe that was much wider than what we had in the database.  So we will be widening it accordingly.  During the 1988 and 1989 seasons the Patriots only wore white pants.

     Other than that, we are on vacation for the rest of the day, and we will be back tomorrow with hopefully a bunch of database updates, including a wrap-up of that discussion of the Eagles' wordmark from last week.

     Also Tuesday we will unveil the second group of first-round match-ups in our Best NFL Uniform Of All Time tournament contest.

1986 Patriots Old

1986 Patriots New

History of the Buffalo Bills Uniforms Part III

Here at The Gridiron Uniform Database we are continuing our week-long look back at the uniforms of the Buffalo Bills, today looking at the 1974-83 uniforms.  The Bills will be unveiling their new 2011 uniforms this Friday Night. ~ ~ ~

Joe Ferguson quarterbacked
the Bills from 1973 to 1984

     In 1974 the Bills changed their helmet logo, from the "red standing" buffalo to the familiar logo of the "blue charging" buffalo, and they would keep this uniform through the 1983 season.  This style would pretty much be synonymous with the Joe Ferguson years.  The wore the red socks from the 1973 season for just the first year of this style, and then from 1975 through 1980 the uniform was predominately blue.  In 1981 they brought back the red socks and kept them for the last three years of this style.

The royal blue pants really "pop" under the lights after the
sun goes down in a late "4PM start" game at Tampa in 1982

     Throughout this era, they kept the bright royal blue pants, which they introduced in 1973, with the white jersey and wore the white pants only with the blue jersey.
     The Bills made the postseason in their first season in this helmet, going 9-5 under Lou Saban and losing to Pittsburgh in an AFC Divisional Playoff game.  They then had a few lean years, and when Chuck Knox became the head coach in 1978 things started improving.  In 1980 they went 11-5 and won the AFC East, but lost to San Diego in the playoffs.  In 1981 they were a Wild Card team at 10-6, and defeated the New York Jets in the wild card game, before losing to Cincinnati.  They would last wear this outfit (with the white helmet, anyway) during a 8-8 campaign in 1983 under new coach Kay Stephenson.

~ ~ ~

     Today we want to thank for a website mention Jesse Alger and the guys at a Miami Dolphins website, the Finsiders.  They used our graphics in constructing a slideshow of the Dolphins uniforms through the years called "Aqua Through The Years," showcasing how the Dolphins seem to change the shade of their jersey color more often than some teams seem to change their socks.
   
     We do also want to give credit for a slight change in our database to John Smith.  He was mentioning to us that the 1991 and 92 Patriots -- the last years they wore the red jerseys -- were outfitted by Russell Athletic.  He provided us with information that game-worn jerseys in his collection proved this data as well as photos from the era.

     While we do include the manufacturer information with some of the jerseys in the database, it is primarily to describe the detail of the manufacturer logo that appears on jerseys.  For example in this 1993 Patriots detail, we have included the "Uniforms by Apex" detail to describe the detail of the manufacturers logo that appears on the sleeve below the "Flying Elvis" patriot logo.
     In many of the older uniforms, primarily before the mid-1990s, the manufacturer logo did not readily appear on the jersey, it was only on inside tags, or many times on the shirt-tail which would not be visible, tucked into the pants.
     This may be the case with the Russell Athletic logo on the 1991 & 1992 Patriots.  While the manufacturer information is appreciated, if it is not describing an appearing detail of the jersey, it is outside the scope of this database.  If we were to attempt to go back and include manufacturer information on all past jerseys in cases where the logo wasn't visible just for the purpose of including this information, we'd have a lot of work on our hands.
     John did provide us with one item to update, however, and that was that the 1990 Patriots did wear white facemasks, and we have made that change to the database.

The Patriots wearing white face-masks on December 9, 1990 against the Steelers

~ ~ ~  

"Our thanks to Matt Damon,
unfortunately we ran out of time"

     We also have some changes involving the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, which we promise we'll try to get to tomorrow. Also Thursday, we'll have Part IV of our look back at the Bills' uniforms through the years.

No Helmet Logo For You

     About four years ago Uni Watch ran this photo from a 1963 Chargers-Patriots game that showed the Patriots player (#56 here, trying to tackle Lance Allworth) without a logo on his helmet.  Although the two teams met in San Diego two more times that year, once in the regular season and again in the AFL Championship game, we presume it's from the August 10, 1963 preseason game, because according to pro-football-reference.com the Patriots had no #56 on their roster.
     While AFL teams going helmet logo-less is certainly not unprecendented, and it would also make more sense if it was the preseason... (These guys played games without logos) ...we cannot prove it simply based on this photo.  Did they go logo-less for the whole preseason, or just this game?
     Was is just this guy without a logo, or the whole team?  Did he have a logo on the other side, or were both sides blank?  For all we know, as unlikely as it is, this guy's logo may have simply come off of his helmet on the play before this one.  If you know anything further about the logo-less (or not) helmets of the 1963 Boston Patriots' preseason, please let us know in the forum.

~ ~ ~

Updated

Old

Jeff Hostetler in 1994;
bad throwback

   Speaking of changes to the database, since we launched on Sunday, the increased traffic has led to an expected surge in the amount of corrections to the database.  As we are currently in the middle of migrating our database to our servers, the old images may still be showing up on our pages for another day or two, but the changes will soon be reflected in the database.  The Jeff told us of a correction for the 2009 Throwback uniforms of the Oakland Raiders.  When the Oakland Raiders wore their original white road uniforms with the silver-with-black outlined numbers, they used a font with a squared top on the number - that was in 1963-64 and 1970.  (We have confirmed that in 1970, when they brought back the silver number, they did also bring back the squared-top font.)  In 1994, when they did the NFL 75th Anniversary throwbacks, they got a little lazy, and used the rounded font, something the Raiders apparently never wore.  We initially had the rounded font for the 2009 throwback, however, as The Jeff pointed out to us, they were more accurate the second time around when they did the AFL throwbacks in 2009.  We believe the Raiders iconic black home uniforms have never sported a "squared-off" one, not in throwbacks, and not originally, regardless of what this Mitchell & Ness 1980 throwback looks like.

The Raiders' white 63-64 uni had the squared font

George Blanda, playing at an age when even Brett Favre would have been retired, knew how to wear a "one"

Darius Heyward-Bey (upper-right) sporting the correct "one", seconds into Jamarcus Russell's illustrious career

~ ~ ~

Updated

Old

     Another quick correction we want to make, the 2006 and 2007 Browns actually wore silver/gray facemasks, a correction pointed out to us by mark in the comments of the Uni Watch article about our website on Sunday.    We thank both The Jeff and mark for these contributions, and there will be many more tomorrow as hopefully by tonight we will have solved our hosting issues and have the database rebuilt and we will be ready to begin working again on the 2010 team pages.

~ ~ ~

Coming up tomorrow:  Exciting changes regarding the Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants as well as a picture from a 1969 Lions-Saints preseason game that has given us a new perspective, and a change to the 1948 New York Giants uniform.  Later in the week, a look at the 1941 Eagles -- Did they wear green or black?  Coming up next week, as the Buffalo Bills get set to unveil their new uniforms on the 24th, beginning June 20th, we'll have a look back at the previous uniforms of the franchise.