2020 NFL Off-season

Well, that's why, sure, but it's still stupid. New stadium but same old fans, or in the case of the Rams, same old non-fans. It is my firm opinion, and always has been, that teams change uniform designs when they know they're a ways away from winning and have few ideas on how to get there.

 

The Rams have planned to change their uniforms since they moved to Los Angeles. IIRC, the rollout was delayed for several reasons. The NFL requires a waiting period for redesigns (presumably to get rid of old merchandise inventory) and they wanted to debut the new uniforms and logos with the new stadium in 2019. Then the stadium got delayed, so they pushed it back to 2020. That's why they've had this weird, mismatched hybrid of throwbacks and 2000s St. Louis-era uniforms for the past few years.

This is from May 2018, but covers it pretty well. I'm assuming they got permission to switch to the blue/gold throwback look as the primary uniforms for last season, since they seemed to wear those most of the time. You can question the wisdom of redesigning a pretty good look, but the timing has a logic to it.

NFL seems to be against one part of Rams' uniform plan for the 2018 season

 

The timing's logic is not my problem. My problem is the logic of doing it at all. Uniform design changes are never a sign of success, past or future. Look at the franchises in sports with the most changes. The Jets, the Padres, the Chargers, the Kings (basketball), The Sixers have like six different uniforms now. Real sign of a franchise confident in its direction. Alabama never thinks about changing uniforms. They know they'll sell just as much merch with a winning heritage as with some new crap to peddle.

 

The typeface is fine. The gradient is asinine.

 

The Patriots changed uniforms this offseason.

 

Yes they did, and a good thing too, design wise. True story. The franchise was set to go back to the Pat Patriot helmet logo and red jerseys with blue and white shoulder hoops for the opening of Gillette Stadium in 2002. Then they screwed up the plan and won the Super Bowl as the Flying Elvises, so that was scrapped, but there has long been a faction within the franchise that has felt the uniform design of the dynastic period sucked. I mean, if you're gonna let Brady go, might as well cut a bad uniform, too.

 

I think that NFL teams should abandon their road whites, which are a legacy from the days of black and white television. For example, I think the Patriots blue uniforms are iconic now and should be their primary color. And if the Patriots travel to Kansas City they could still wear their blues while the Chiefs wear red. If the Patriots play the Giants on the road they could wear their red uniforms to distinguish from the dark blue Giant home uniforms.

 

Both teams wearing colors make it harder for the spotters in the TV booth. So unlikely to happen.

 

Even red and blue?

 

Yeah. UCLA and USC had to beg TV to let them return to the traditional both teams wearing colors format. And of course, there's for whom white jerseys are its primary uniform, the Cowboys. At various times the Dolphins and Rams have had white as their primary uni, too.

 

Redskins, too.

Michael Gee might know, but when the Patriots went to blue jerseys from red in the early 1990s, the numbers initially were red. They were white the next year. I was told they had to ditch the red numbers with the blue jerseys because they simply weren’t easy to read quickly.

 

This is true. From the old Foxboro Stadium press box, they were unreadable.