The Jacksonville Jaguars led the Nike uniform revolution five years ago with a unique, somewhat controversial look, capped by a two-toned helmet.
Say goodbye to excess, Jacksonville.
The club ended its State of the Franchise event Thursday with an unveiling of new uniforms, which removed gold and returned the emphasis to teal and black, starting with the lids. Gone is the gold half of the helmet, as is the matte finish, returning to a high-gloss, all-black paint job the team wore for its first 19 years of existence. It's an immediate upgrade.
With it comes the franchise's first uniforms with numbers lacking any semblance of a border. The result is the cleanest, simplest look in the organization's history.
With the earlier release of the Miami Dolphins' updated uniforms, Thursday's theme quickly became one of simplicity. Jacksonville dumped gold everywhere except in its logo, relying on its very 1990s pairing of dominant colors. It's a union that has grown from trendy to traditional, punctuated by a lack of accents on most of the uniform.
What remains is the neck accents, which are sharper and have an increased aesthetically pleasing effect with less going on elsewhere. The Jags shield has also been replaced with the team's primary logo on the left chest.
Perhaps the coolest addition to the Jags' new duds? The socks.
Despite the franchise's emphasis on teal (remember the teal burgers and teal champagne during the team's playoff run?), the black tops have been designated as the team's primary jersey. There's hope for the teal contingency, though:
In review, even as one who thought all the Jaguars needed was to ditch the two-toned helmet for an all-black look, this is a slight upgrade. The team attempted to do something similar with its last redesign before Nike took over for Reebok (see: NFL Network's own Maurice Jones-Drew in those sets/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/1817719/136320090.0.jpg)) but missed the boat with unnecessary piping, which only looked good on the short-lived black alternates. Much like the Dolphins' changes, less is more for these up-and-coming Jaguars.
Related: The Jaguars also announced a new name for their stadium, TIAA Bank Field, and the creation of the NFL's first dog park, which will be located in the south end zone of the stadium.