History of the Buffalo Bills Uniforms Part V

Today we are wrapping up our week-long look at the Buffalo Bills' past uniforms.  As you no doubt have heard by now, the Bills will be unveiling their new 2011 uniforms tonight.  Tomorrow at The Gridiron Uniform Database, we will be discussing the new uniforms and what we think of them. ~ ~ ~

     In 2002, the Bills changed their uniforms to a style that has been, to say the least, criticized roundly by fans, media and critics alike.  The new-look was a non-traditional look for the NFL, with the multi-colored panels and monochrome blue home unis.  The style was reminiscent of something you might see in the CFL -- which I guess is kind of ironic, considering the Bills have begun playing one game a year in Toronto in the last few years.

     The Bills never made the postseason wearing these uniforms -- their best season was a 9-7 mark in 2004, and overall they have gone 59-85 in these unis.

     So many will say good riddance to these "athletic aesthetic eyesores" as they bid adieu with tonight's unveiling.  Yesterday's poll showed that many of you agree with us that the 1962-73 and 1974-83 uniforms were the best -- over 80% of you voted for those two of the five.  Only one person voted for these most recent uniforms, and who knows, he was probably either under the age of thirty, or drunk, or both.

Mock-Up 1

Mock-up 2

     What will the new uniforms look like?  Well, thanks to a leaked Madden '11 game image and the internet, we seem to have a good handle on what is to come tonight.  Based on this image to the right, people have made mock-ups of what the new uniform will probably look like, but who knows maybe knowing that the Madden image would get leaked, they put out a red herring to put us on the wrong track.  At any rate, if the leaked images are correct, it looks like a return to the 1970s unis, with the white charging buffalo helmet and the blue pants.  They could do a lot worse than that.

Bills' current ('02-'10)
Monochromatic blue

"What-If" 1984

"What-If 1973"

     Well, we can't be for sure what will be unveiled until we see it, but we wouldn't be disappointed to see this uniform or maybe even something a little more outlandish -- our Bill Schaefer made a couple "what-ifs" based on if older Bills uniforms had tried to incorporate the monochromatic blue look that the '02-'10 uniforms used, but in the style of the older unis.  At any rate, I do hope the new unis pair the white home tops with the royal blue pants, like they wore through 1982, and get rid of the navy entirely.  Buffalo Bills' blue isn't a navy blue, it's a royal blue.

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     So all eyes tonight will be on the Bills' unveiling and stay tuned here at The Gridiron Uniform Database where tomorrow our resident historian Tim Brulia will give his take on the new Buffalo duds, and in the coming days we'll be launching a couple contests here where you can win big!

That's a non sequitur

     On-going debate about future database changes is continuing in our forum, and as always, you're invited to participate.  Have any ideas or suggestions for future blog topics?   Drop us a note in the comments section below.

     In the mean time, I'm building a deck.