Here at The Gridiron Uniform Database, we hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. In a moment, Tim's review of last week's uni-matchups. Speaking of Thanksgiving matchups, we we're all disappointed that the Lions didn't wear their throwbacks yesterday, but the Cowboys made up for it by wearing their throwbacks, proving once and for all that the "no throwbacks or alts after Week 10" rule hasn't been adopted by the NFL (unless there is a "Thanksgiving Day exception") As far as we know, however, the Bucs are still planning on wearing the Creamsicles on December 4 against Carolina, and we also wouldn't mind seeing "Pat the Patriot" once more this year.
The Cowboys did wear the Thanksgiving throwback they have been sporting in recent years, however I personally would have rather seen this throwback featured to the left. Also we're thankful that the Ravens went with white pants with their Black alts, choosing to eschew the "head-to-toe" black look that doesn't look good on the Saints, let alone the Ravens.
Our Bill Schaefer came up with a "What If..." tweak -- what if the Lions used the darker shade of Blue in their logo on their uniforms instead of the Honolulu blue? Bill writes, "How much better would the Lions look if they used the same blue of their field logo and end zone script? (Maybe if they were playing outdoors on grass it would even look better yet! -RH) This is a quick mock-up done on spur of the moment using dark blue like the Lions used back in late 60s and into the 70s." Here's what Bill came up with:
And one more thing, the 2010 head-to-head matchups are all on the website! You can easily view them by going to the new 2010 past season index page in the index (linked on the front page to the right of the 2011 weeks listed below the web counter) There you will now find "Weekly Indexes", "Past Team Indexes" and the recently added "Past Season Indexes." While we do intend on eventually having all of the 'Weekly' and 'Team' indexes completed and on the website, as we've said before, our priority is first getting all of the head-to-head matchups on the site. So we will be adding "Past Season Index" pages in order to make it easy to find all past season matchups. So next onto 2009... (We plan on doing them in reverse chronological order, i.e. 2009, 2008, etc, however if there is a particular past matchup [like this, this, this or this] you would like to see the artwork for, just let us know - either in the comments below, in the forum or by email or twitter.)
Also in the next day, some major database updates, including some AAFC revamps and some other recent changes involving two of our favorite words here at The Gridiron Uniform Database: socks and durene.
Now onto the Week 11 Uniform Rankings:
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Week 11 Uniform Rankings
by Tim Brulia
It's time to review the Week 11 uni matchups. If sources are correct, we may not be seeing any more alternates or throwbacks this season. We definitely didn't see any this week. Having said that, we may still see off the cuff combos as the pants hold the key to what could be some rarely seen combos. Stay tuned.
Jets-Broncos: What I said. Jets in white/white, BUT with green socks. Something we haven't seen in four years! Broncos in the rare navy/navy combo. Score one for the unexpected! A very nice and colorful look.
Buccaneers-Packers: Bucs trot out the white/pewter garb and the Pack in the normal and effective green/yellow. Bucs go to the pewter and it works well against the Packer fare. A fine matchup.
Panthers-Lions: A battle of the felines that is also a bit of a battle of the silvers and blues. Panthers go with the white/white and the Lions rock the Honolulu blue/silver. A slightly underwhelming matchup.
Jaguars-Browns: Jags in the teal/white combo and the Browns in the ever present white/white. This nice as the Jags wearing teal, no matter how stretchy and bland the design is, always score style points when the teal is used. Browns keeping the all-white streak perfect thus far for the 2011 regular season.
Raiders-Vikings: Raider in standard white/silver with the Vikes going purple/white. Nothing exciting, but it's actually a decent looking matchup.
Bills-Dolphins: The slumping Bills in blue/white and the Dolphins in the home white/whites. Oh, how I yearn for the Fish to bust out and flash those aqua trousers at home! Too much white (helmet, pants) for my fancy.
Cowboys-Redskins: In the Joe Gibbs days, we would've seen the Cowboys in their blue jerseys and it would have been one of the nicer looking games. But this is 2011 and the Skins wear burgundy for the home games. And they also wore the white pants, too. Cowboys in white/silver blue green. It does remind me of those old Cowboy-Redskin shootouts...in Irving. I would've preferred the Skins in yellow pants (or possibly burgundy?), but this is a nice one anyway.
Bengals-Ravens: Aha! Bengals go with the white over black and the Ravens go with purple/white. Nice! Loads better than had Cincy broke out the white/white look. Kudos to the Bengals for making this one better.
Cardinals-49ers: And again the Big Red fail us with the white/white look. Niners in the usual red/gold. Might have been a lot of red if the Cardinals had indeed wore red pants, but it would have a bold and better move.
Seahawks-Rams: Seattle in white/white, with the Rams in blue/blue, making this their most worn combo so far this season. I do like this one. But it's not grabbing me like it did when StL wore all blue last week. Too much blue, when the Seahawks are included, maybe?
Titans-Falcons: This one leaves a good taste in my mouth. Titans in white/columbia blue and the Falcs in red/white. A lot of nice and different colors in the palette here. Thumbs up!
Chargers-Bears: Bolts in white/navy and the Bears in navy/white. Another one where, for whatever reason, 2 + 2 = 5. These are nice unis worn by both teams, but when they are united, just aren't working for me. We'll see how they stand when I rank them. They might get away with it!
Eagles-Giants: Another NFC East matchup. Gotta say this about this division. They all wear quite colorful unis. Eagles in white/green and the Giants in blue/gray. Simple, yet effective.
Chiefs-Patriots: Chiefs, thankfully, resisting the temptation to go all white so far in 2011. KC keeps the very nice white/red combo intact and the Pats in their normal blue/silver combo. Nice looking matchup.
And with that, here's how I rank the above from top to bottom:
1) Titans-Falcons
2) Jets-Broncos
3) Bengals-Ravens
4) Eagles-Giants
5) Cowboys-Redskins
6) Buccaneers-Packers
7) Chiefs-Patriots
8) Seahawks-Rams
9) Jaguars-Browns
10) Chargers-Bears
11) Raiders-Vikings
12) Cardinals-49ers
13) Panthers-Lions
14) Bills-Dolphins
