Week 9 Uniform Rankings

Before we get to Tim's rankings, we here at The Gridiron Uniform Database want to unveil a new feature that we told you about earlier this week, and that is the beginning of the addition to the database of the yearly week-by-week uniform displays.  If you'll notice on the main front page, the team names are now clickable, and you can click on them and see the teams uniforms for the year on a week-by-week basis.  You can also access this page by clicking on the "Index" link to the right of the weeks, where you'll see a new section entitled "Historical Teams Week-by-Week Index."  When looking at the 2011 teams, you'll notice that the AFC teams have a little more information than the NFC teams.  As were putting in the information, we decided to eliminate that part of it for now, as our goal is to get the information onto the website as fast as possible.  We intend on adding the 2010 weekly team schedules next week, and adding a year each week as we go forward.  We hope you enjoy this new feature of our website!

~ ~ ~

Week 9 Uniform Rankings
by Tim Brulia

Hi, all. My apologies for the tardiness of this week's installments. Without further adieu...

Falcons-Colts: Falcons in the white/white look and the (now) hapless Colts in the normal blue/white get up. Nothing unusual or really exciting about this one. I think the Falcons still have black pants in their closet. That would have helped here.

Browns-Texans: Browns continue to go white/white as the Texans whip out their dark blue/white kit. Again, nothing exciting, but it's not all that bad.

Dolphins-Chiefs: Again, no surprises. But, this is a nice one. Shows what a nice little boost a pair of dark pants provides a uni matchup. If this game were at Miami, it would have been much more dull. With the Fish in white/aqua and the Chiefs in red/white, this is a goody.

Jets-Bills: This one was a pleasant surprise. The Bills decided to go white at home for the first time since October 19, 1986. A span of 25 years. Why? Who knows and who cares? It was an interesting change for sure, and the Jets made the occasion a little better by including their green pants for a green/green combo. While it was rumored in uni circles that the Bills would show off some blue pants, they stayed with a white/white look. But the Bills put a twist on the occasion with the blue socks that are normally worn with the blue jersey. It worked well.

49ers-Redskins: Niners in the white/gold combination while the Redskins went with the yellow pants to go with the burgundy tops. Interesting variations on a burgundy/red and a yellow/gold basis. Not flashy, but I like it.

Seahawks-Cowboys: Of course, with the Cowboys at home, they go white/quasi-silver which make the Seahawks go quasi-blue/quasi-blue. Not really a bad uni match up, but it's one I can't get all that worked up over.

Buccaneers-Saints: Bucs go with white/white here, but they story is that the Saints breakout the 1967 throwbacks for aseconf time this season and the "metal" colors compliment each other. The pewter, the (various shades of) gold, the black, etc. with a hint of Buccaneer red. It works nicely.

Bengals-Titans: In the mid-2000's, these teams would mix and match so often, that this encounter could have been a whole explosion of color. But these have toned it down a little, so what was worn (Bengals in white/white, Titans in columbiablue/navy blue) was not an unexpected jolt. And actually, the Bengals going all white probably worked better than had they worn their black pants for this one.

Broncos-Raiders: Absolutely no surprises here. Broncos in white/white with the Raiders in black/silver. Not bad, but not the best, either.

Packers-Chargers: Chargers going back to dark at home (navy/white). Not a good time to do so as it forced the Packers to go with white/yellow. Always a tad disappointing when the Chargers nix the powder blues, but this is what we have and it's just OK.

Giants-Patriots: Hearkens back to that Super Bowl XLII matchup. Giants in white/gray and the Pats in dark blue/silver. Lots of silver/gray, lots of blue and lots of red. 

Rams-Cardinals: Rams with about every combo possible this season. Their 7th. In the white/gold look and the Cardinals rocking their black alternate jersey with the white pants. Would have been quite interesting and amusing if the Big Red would have trotted out their red pants for the occasion. This was still a nice little matchup here.

Ravens-Steelers: Ravens keep the black pants at home, which did surprise me, to go white/white while the Steelers pulled out their early 1960's throwbacks. I do like to see them once in a while, the yellow helmet/black jersey with 100% yellow trim and the white pants. Alas for the Steelers, the throwbacks did not faze Flacco and his crew as they pulled out a thriller.

Bears-Eagles: Nice color matchup provided by two of the NFL's old guard. Bears in white/navy and the Eagles in the green/white. Smart look by both teams without even trying.

And so, the countdown:

14) Falcons-Colts

13) Seahawks-Cowboys

12) Giants-Patriots

11) Broncos-Raiders

10) Browns-Texans

9) Packers-Chargers

8) Ravens-Steelers

7) Buccaneers-Saints

6) Rams-Cardinals

5) 49ers-Redskins

4) Bengals-Titans

3) Bears-Eagles

2) Dolphins-Chiefs

1) Jets-Bills

If You Hear Hooves, It May Be Zebras After All

NFL Game Officials Uniforms

by Tim Brulia

In most every single team sport (volleyball and water polo are the only exceptions I can think of), there are not two but THREE teams on the playing surface. The two competing teams, and the officials.

In every historical uniform database that I am aware of, no description or graphic portrayal exists of the uniform history of a sport's officials' uniform through the years...until now.

The Gridiron Uniform Database is pleased to present the newest addition to our research findings, a descriptive chronological history of Game Officials uniforms of the National Football League, All-America Football Conference and American Football League from the very beginning (1920) to today. You can find the chronology under the research tab at the top of the Gridiron Uniform Database's main page.

The chronology lists the years when major changes occurred to the unis as well as when any change, however minor, occurred to the uniform. We also include the details of the AFL's officials and the AAFC's officials uniforms as well.

We also include the four occurrences of memorial armbands that were worn by NFL officials.

We even include special patches and special occasion uniforms by the refs over the years.

A couple of "Did You Know's?" to whet your appetite...

1) Did you know that for the first 27 years of the NFL, a ref didn't have to wear a cap if he didn't want to?

2) Did you know that for Super Bowls I and II, the combined NFL-AFL officiating crews wore a special uniform?

There's many more little tidbits like that throughout the research. Please take a look!

And as always, please alert us at the Gridiron Uniform Database if you spot any errors or something else we may have missed, either by email or on our forum.

Enjoy!

The Monday Rob #1

The Gridiron Uniform Database Blog
The Monday Rob #1

by Rob Holecko

I have heard from many of you that you miss the articles that the Gridiron Uniform Database blog presented earlier this year, after the launch of our impressive site this summer.  While I appreciate the comments and kind words, producing a worthy blog article every day did take a lot of time, spare time which I just haven't had to devote to the website after the academic year started back up again.  Also, during the first few months of this site, there were many changes and corrections to the database that provided a lot of content for the blog, content that somewhat dried up as many of those changes have been completed, leaving daily blog updates somewhat unnecessary.

But due to popular demand, we have decided to debut here today a new Monday column that will run every week called "The Monday Rob."  It will give me a weekly opportunity to cover the type of material that I used to bring daily in the blog, such as new developments here at the Gridiron Uniform Database, and a weekly "rundown" of the NFL uniform news of the weekend.  Tim Brulia will continue to bring his weekly uniform rankings, Vilk-style, later in the week.

This new weekly format will afford us the opportunity to keep everyone up to date with what's been going on around here, without the time commitment of a daily report.  With the limited spare time that I have had to devote to the Gridiron Uniform Database, I frankly thought it was a better use of that time to devote it to working on the database itself than on daily blog entries.

While from the front page of the database you can easily view all of the yearly team images from 1933 to 2010, either by year, or by team, our next goal is for our visitors to be able to view what uniform was worn in every single matchup in NFL history.

With limited time to work on this, it has been a slow process for us.  We have begun to add the matchups to the site week-by-week, from the present going backwards, however, so far we currently have only completed the weekly pages back through Week 13 of last year.  While we will continue to do these on a week-by-week basis as time permits, we have come to realize that it is a priority of ours to get this data on the website much sooner.  To that end, on Friday of this week, November 11, we will be debuting a new feature here in the database which will greatly speed up this process that I hope everyone will enjoy.

Another new feature that we have added recently is on the research tab, you'll see a text-based breakdown of the uniforms worn in the Pro Bowls through the years prepared by our chief historian Tim Brulia.  While it was a text-based document like that of the NFL teams that eventually lead to our Bill Schaefer creating the images that now make up the Gridiron Uniform Database, and we currently have no immediate plans to add graphics of these Pro Bowl uniforms to our database, we do have more new research that we will be adding to the research tab in the coming days, so stay tuned.

Speaking of additional research, Tim also recently completed another trip to the Library of Congress in Washington and we will be adding that research, focusing on the AAFC, in the near future as well.

You also may have noticed that we have spruced up the graphics around here a few weeks ago.  We just wanted to give a little recognition for the new look, our new banners are the wonderful work of Mark Young, whom we (Bill, Tim and myself) give our wholehearted thanks to!

Without further ado, here is the weekly round-up...

~ ~ ~

Weekly Roundup
The Bills wore white at home yesterday for the first time in 25 years to "whiteout" their game against the Jets, however, we didn't realize until it was pointed out by "Wheels" in the Uni Watch comments that they were wearing their "home" blue socks that they have worn with the blue uniforms in the previous home games, and not the ones they wore with the their white unis on the road.  The Jets pleased those of us who like to see contrasting pants matchups as well as jerseys, even though it made them look like this.   Counting the unique 9-11 ribbon combo they wore in Week 1 against the Cowboys, and the throwbacks they wore Week 2 against the Jaguars, the all-green Sunday is their sixth different uniform combo this year.  They are outdone only by the Rams, who wore their seventh different uniform combo in eight games Sunday against the Cardinals when they donned their white-over-golds.  Only the blue-over-white combo which they wore in Weeks 4 and 7, have they worn more than once.  Their opponent Cardinals wore their black alts, and it must have done them good as they blocked a Rams game-winning field goal attempt at the end of regulation and won on a 99-yard punt return in overtime.  It was their first win ever in the black uniforms, they are now 1-3, with losses last year to the Bucs and 49ers and earlier this year to the Giants.  

We are now in November and the cooler weather means it is the time of the year when the warm weather teams like the Bucs and Chargers that traditionally wear white in the heat of summer transition to the colors.  While last week, the primary white at home teams the Browns and Cowboys, were both on the road, it gave us for the first time this year, a week with no teams wearing white at home at all, as Tim pointed out.  With the Bills white-out and the Cowboys back at home, the early season WAH Chargers wore their blue uniforms for the first time this year against the Packers.   The Steelers and the Saints both wore their throwbacks yesterday against mono-white opponents, and the Saints won, however it may be good karma for the Bucs, as the last time the Bucs lost to the Saints in the their throwbacks, on Dec. 2, 2002, they went on to win the Super Bowl.  This was the second time the Saints wore their throwbacks this year.

~ ~ ~

 
We'll see you in a few days with Tim's Weekly Rankings, and don't forget Thursday Night Football starts this week!

Week 8 Uniform Rankings

Week 8 Uniform Rankings

by Tim Brulia

 

For the first time this season, we saw all home teams wearing dark at home. In my opinion, this was the best week of uni matchups so far this season. And here we go:

 

Cardinals-Ravens: The all white of the Cardinals against the purple/white of the "angry birds." Not a bad matchup, really, but I think it would have neat to see at least one of these guys in dark pants, preferrably the Cardinals.

 

Colts-Titans: This AFC South tilt featured no real surprises, Colts in all white and the Titans int their now customary cool/cold weather home design of columbia blue/dark blue combo. At least the Titans kept the white to just the helmet. Average matchup.

 

Jaguars-Texans: Another AFC South game with the Jags in the now familiar white/black combo. And it seems like when the Texans host the Jags, it's in the "battle red" combo (red/red). Er, not quite. Tex is going with the white pants this year. But the battle red socks make an appearance. Used to be the Texans would wear their red socks with the deep blue pants. Nice to see them here, but wish they'd bring them back for more than "battle red". But this is a nice change of pace for Tex.

 

Dolphins-Giants: The Fish in the white/aqua combo with the Giants in customary blue/gray. Interesting matchup, though nothing unusual, really.

 

Vikings-Panthers: Vikes in the all white combo, with the Panthers - 2 weeks in a row! - in the alternate Carolina blue/silver combo. If the Vikes would have done the right thing and wore purple pants for this one, I think it may have been the game of the year (uni-wise). But alas,...

 

Saints-Rams: Saints avoid the black pants again, but it is still a bit early. Rams trot out - I believe - their sixth combo of the year with the retro 1973-1999 classic, still a popular combo with many of you. And of course, the Rams pull off their first win of 2011. Hmm. Nice matchup.

 

Lions-Broncos: Lions in a look that has stood the test of time with the white/silver combo and the Broncs in the orange/white. While the orange jersey is likely to be worn for the last time this season, it will return as THE home jersey for the Broncos next season. And that IS a good thing.

 

Redskins-Bills: Boy is this a nice looking game! 'Skins in the white/yellow get up with the Bills rocking the crisp blue/wjite combo, with the "Toronto" patch for effect as this game was played at Rogers Centre. But everything works well here. The colors just seem to pop here. A dandy look!

 

Bengals-Seahawks: Bengals get out the white/black combo and the Seahawks were in the all-blue at home. Thankfully the Bengals wear the black pants. It does add up a bit to what could have been a blah game had Cincy gone with a white/white combo.

 

Browns-49ers: Very classic look for these two. Something you might have seen 40+ years ago. It's nice, but just a little dry for my mouth.

 

Patriots-Steelers: I guess when these AFC powers clash, the unis look as strong as these two teams play. Again,l a nice range of colors between these two gets a nice thumbs up.

 

Cowboys-Eagles: Not much flash, but again, nice colors bring out some uni goodness. Cowboys in the usual white/quasi-silver and the Eagles in the green/white combo. Is it me or does it seem like the Eagles' green is just a pinch lighter this year?

 

Chargers-Chiefs: Classic AFC matchup with the Chargers in the standard white/dark blue and the Chiefs in red/white. No surprises, but then none needed.

 

So once again, here's how I rank them, top to bottom:

 

1) Redskins-Bills

2) Saints-Rams

3) Lions-Broncos

4) Patriots-Steelers

5) Bengals-Seahawks

6) Jaguars-Texans

7) Vikings-Panthers

8) Dolphins-Giants 

9) Cowboys-Eagles

10) Chargers-Chiefs

11) Cardinals-Ravens

12) Colts-Titans

13) Browns-49ers