In a welcome break from the frenzied Tim Tebow/Peyton Manning/Saints bounty news cycle of the past few weeks, the NFL world is buzzing today with Nike's unveiling of the new uniforms for the 2012 season. Outside of the Seahawks, there weren't many major changes. This begs the question: Which NFL team's current look (helmet, color combo, etc.) is most in need of a makeover?
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- Jason Smith NFL.com
Titans, Lions both need help in the color department
The two things I'm not a fan of on uniforms are small numbers and bright colors. No one can pull off tiny digits, which make teams look like they had them ironed on at a cheap sporting goods store. The bright shades, well, the Chargers throwbacks pull it off and the Dolphins have been able to wear aqua with pride. But that's it. The two teams who break both of my rules are the Titans and Lions. I look at the Titans uniforms and I see a team that's still trying to fit in after moving all those years ago. Honolulu Blue is a nice color, but in no way is it identifiable with the blue-collar image of the city of Detroit. It's hard to take a team seriously that wears that color and plays in a dome.
The Titans need a complete makeover. I would incorporate some orange accents (a slight homage to the Volunteers -- see, we're all in this together) to go along with black as their main color. Who says the Raiders own the market for black? I would go with that, along with bright orange numbers. They would look sharp and intimidating. And at the very least, it'll be the most popular selling jersey to buy in the month of October.
The Lions are a bit easier, no need to totally re-do their color scheme. I love the silver, and I think if you amp that up a bit to make it the secondary color instead of the accent, you're halfway there. Turn the blue down from bright to midnight for a sleeker, cooler look. I could even deal with the Honolulu Blue as the accent but no more than that. Wow, I feel like Cinna after making up Katniss.
Dear Rams, please go back to your old yellow and navy. You know how sometimes you look out in the driveway, and your ride doesn't seem as cool as your neighbor Ralph's Eurowagon does? That doesn't mean his is better than yours. You don't have to trade in. The original color scheme with the Rams helmet worked for years. It looked cool. It was unique in both color scheme and helmet design. Hey, you won a Super Bowl with it. What have you won since? Diddly poo. Does that have something to do with Kellen Clemens and Dane Looker? Yes. But change the damn uniform -- DeMarco Murray has run all over that thing.
Here are few other football fashion thoughts:
- The Falcons must go back to red helmets.
- The Ravens are the only team that looks better in all black.
- The Jags need an update. Any update.
- If Denver went back to the blue helmet with the D and the horse, I wouldn't complain.
- The Pat Patriot look was awesome in New England. Yes they won Super Bowls in the new Flying Elvi helmet with navy uni's, but even that's been awhile. At least wear the throwbacks more often.
Since the day the Bills finally dumped their malodorous, ode-to-the-Montreal-Alouettes uniforms in favor of the retro-chic white hat/royal blue jersey look, the Cincinnati Bengals took over the ignominious top spot on the worst NFL getups as assessed by the Uniform Monitor (aka Me). Such a shame, since I consider black and orange to be the best color combo in sports.
No matter your opinion of the guys who wear them, the uniforms of the Philadelphia Flyers, San Francisco Giants and Baltimore Orioles prove the potential for sartorial splendor. But as they've done in so many other areas over the past four decades, the Bengals bungled their uniforms. Here's a novel idea for the Cincy wardrobe department: Go back to the cleaner (read: less silly) originals. My eyeballs thank you in advance.
All we need to do is to take a look back at the celebration of the 50th year of the AFL in 2009 and realize most of the original teams of the upstart league had better uniforms. The Jets and Broncos were worse, while the Raiders and Chiefs were essentially the same. But the Patriots, Oilers, Chargers and Bills all had superior uniforms. Thankfully, the Bills thought so too, going back to traditional duds last season. The Patriots and Chargers continue to taunt their fans with horrible designs which easily could be rectified with a return of Pat Patriot and the powder blues, respectively.
The Titans could use new uniforms, but I would abhor a return to the old Oilers' look. If anything, the Texans should be the team that gets to use those throwbacks because it's not like the fans in Tennessee have any connection to Earl Campbell and Bum Phillips.
Of course, that leads to another team that could use an upgrade: the St. Louis football club. Although, it might want to wait until the team moves back to Los Angeles to go with the old-school uniforms made famous by the Fearsome Foursome. That's right, I'm talking about the old blue and white uniforms of the Los Angeles Rams -- easily the best uniforms of all time. (Though the addition of the gold during the Jack Youngblood days was rather sharp, too.)
