{"id":1311138,"date":"2019-06-07T16:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/nfl-at-100-evolution-of-uniforms-from-bees-to-color-rush\/"},"modified":"2019-06-07T16:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T22:44:00","slug":"nfl-at-100-evolution-of-uniforms-from-bees-to-color-rush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/nfl-at-100-evolution-of-uniforms-from-bees-to-color-rush\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL At 100: Evolution of uniforms, from bees to Color Rush"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In this 1925, file photo, American football player Red Grange of the Chicago Bears is shown during a game against the New York Giants in New York. As the NFL enters its 100th season, what players wear on the field may have changed the most, going from leather helmets and long-sleeved turtlenecks and sweaters to plastic helmets with jerseys and pants almost shrink-wrapped to fit.(AP Photo\/File)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014 Tex Schramm often called Gil Brandt into his office to look at the fabric swatches draped all over his furniture, wanting another opinion on the right jersey and pants combination for the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

He sure hit on a winning combination. Decades later, Cowboys\u2019 jerseys remain among the NFL\u2019s top sellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe uniform thing was a special project to him,\u201d said Brandt, now historian and player analyst for NFL.com after helping Schramm build the Cowboys. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how much time I spent with him looking at these uniforms and saying, \u2018Yeah, I think this is the best. This will show up the best on television.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As the NFL enters its 100th season, what players wear on the field may have changed the most, going from leather helmets and long-sleeved turtlenecks and sweaters to plastic helmets with jerseys and pants almost shrink-wrapped to fit. The main reason why players wear a jersey remains unchanged even a century later: to tell who plays for which team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want something to identify yourself, right?\u201d said Jon Kendle, director of archives and football information at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

POPULAR AND ICONIC<\/p>\n

Alphabetically, and not by order of sales, Dallas, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Seattle and New England are the NFL teams with the best-selling jerseys over the past five years. Competing for or winning championships certainly helps popularity. And some looks are simply built to last, making for an iconic look mien the Oakland Raiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you say Raiders anywhere in the world, you think silver and black,\u201d said Amy Trask, former Raiders chief executive officer and now an analyst with CBS Sports.<\/p>\n

The Raiders\u2019 look was so recognizable that owner Al Davis chose tradition when approached with the idea of pairing the black jersey with black pants or silver on silver \u2014 Color Rush years before the NFL unveiled that look in 2015. Trask says she smiled during those talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe simply wasn\u2019t interested in doing that,\u201d Trask said. \u201cFair enough. His call. He was the owner. He heard us out. He listened to our presentation. He said no. And then I got in my parting words: \u2018Fair enough. But then when we don\u2019t maximize revenues in this area we can\u2019t bemoan the fact that we\u2019re not maximizing revenues in this area.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Stable ownership is a key to NFL teams keeping essentially the same look for decades. The Chicago Bears have been owned by the same family since George Halas attended the 1920 meeting where the NFL was organized, while the Packers have been publicly owned since 1923.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t really changed the look very much,\u201d Kendle said. \u201cWhereas sometimes you get new owners that come in, they want to put their stamp on the organization. They want to freshen up the look, so to speak, and new uniforms or new looks that can identify that kind of change in regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

HELPING FANS AND TEAMS<\/p>\n

Wanting to be fan-friendly has driven other changes.<\/p>\n

Names went on the back of jerseys in 1970. Players also chose their own numbers for decades, with quarterback Otto Graham wearing No. 60. Brandt credits Schramm and Don Weiss with devising the numbering system adopted in 1973 (and subsequently tweaked) limiting players to numbers by position. That\u2019s why quarterbacks and specialists wear a number between one and 19.<\/p>\n

NFL teams now have up to four uniforms, with a color and a white required for home and the road. When NFL games first hit TV, home teams wore their color uniform with the road team in white to help viewers distinguish the teams. Then Schramm wanted the Cowboys to wear white at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur explanation was that we wanted our fans to have the ability to understand what the Bears\u2019 jerseys looked like, what the Cardinals\u2019 jerseys looks like, what the Packers\u2019 jerseys look like,\u201d Brandt said. \u201cWhen in reality, we did it because we thought it created an advantage for us in that they had to sit on the sunny side of the field, and we got to sit in the shade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now teams, especially in the South, often wear white at home early in the season to turn up the heat on their opponents.<\/p>\n

DECORATED HEAD GEAR<\/p>\n

Helmets became mandatory in 1943, and Los Angeles Rams halfback Fred Gehrke painted horns on his helmet in 1948.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sort of spawned a whole new creation of, \u2018Wait a minute. We can use this leather helmet as a canvas to represent our brand,\u2019\u201d said Shandon Melvin, the NFL\u2019s creative director. \u201cAnd from that point on, you started to see these things pop up, and there was much more of an interesting take on how teams would differentiate themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney wasn\u2019t sure if he wanted a variation of the U.S. Steel logo on the Steelers\u2019 helmet, so players wore it on the right side only in 1963 as a test. The Steelers went 7-4-3 that season for a rare winning record and stuck with that look. That was the same year the Raiders, who then hired Davis as coach, put their logo on the helmet as well.<\/p>\n

Brandt credits Dallas coach Tom Landry\u2019s wife for suggesting a star for the Cowboys\u2019 helmet in 1960. Why? Because her husband was going to be a star.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how the star on the helmet became a reality,\u201d Brandt said.<\/p>\n

SO MANY OPTIONS<\/p>\n

Teams are allowed two optional uniforms with choices of an alternate color, a throwback or the Color Rush featuring one color.<\/p>\n

Not all throwbacks are possible. The Tennessee Titans can\u2019t wear the Columbia blue and oil derrick of the Houston Oilers because the franchise switched from white to a blue helmet with a uniform redesign in April 2018, and the NFL has a one-helmet rule. Teams like the Bears can simply strip the decal off the helmet for a classic look.<\/p>\n

Some throwbacks didn\u2019t work as well as others. The Steelers used a 1933 throwback with black-and-gold horizontal stripes that made them look like bees, a look switched in May 2018 for a throwback to their 1978-1979 championship teams. Jonathan Wright, the NFL\u2019s director of uniforms and on-field product, said the Steelers loved their look and sometimes teams just want to give their fans something else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not looking to change because they think it\u2019s not necessarily a success,\u201d Wright said. \u201cThey\u2019re looking within their limitation of how many uniforms they can have to give the fans something else that they can connect to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Chargers are going back to their past, wearing the powder blue as their primary home jersey this season. Fans have kept the jersey popular through the years, a look that Brandt says he likes the most \u2014 aside from the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

The New York Giants did a color throwback using the NFL\u2019s third color option in 2004. The team known as \u201cBig Blue\u201d actually wore red as its primary color through 1952 before switching to blue. The alternate red jerseys lasted through 2007.<\/p>\n

DON\u2019T WEAR THAT AGAIN<\/p>\n

Then there are perceived jinxes regarding uniforms. When Seattle lost to Chicago at home early in 2009, the Seahawks didn\u2019t wear the neon-green jerseys again, with then-coach Jim Mora having a simple answer: \u201cWe didn\u2019t win in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cowboys fans start moaning whenever Dallas takes the field in blue jerseys, expecting a loss. Brandt says the idea of that jinx stems from an early defeat in St. Louis. The Cardinals made their rivals wear blue jerseys and then beat Dallas. The next season, a billboard near their hotel greeted the Cowboys boasting that Dallas would be jinxed by being forced to wear blue again.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo then that started it,\u201d Brandt said of the rumored jinx. \u201cAnd on occasion, we had everybody wanting us to wear blue jerseys on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yes, there\u2019s a stat for a team\u2019s success in every uniform combination.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it leads to kind of these superstitious ideas,\u201d Kendle said.<\/p>\n

Winning can make a look very popular. The Cleveland Browns snapped a 19-game skid wearing their Color Rush look for the first time when Baker Mayfield came off the bench, leading the Browns to a 21-17 win over the Jets last September.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately that Color Rush uniform became the popular uniform for the Cleveland Browns,\u201d Melvin said.<\/p>\n

DESIGN EVOLUTION<\/p>\n

Today uniform changes are no longer as simple as checking fabric samples. The NFL\u2019s creative division, first started by then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle in the 1960s, helps teams design new looks in a process that can take up to five years. Tampa Bay had the biggest redesign, switching from white and creamsicle orange with a pirate in 1996 to a waving, tattered flag with pewter and red colors in 1997. The Bucs tweaked that again in March 2014.<\/p>\n

Melvin said owners want a uniform that will stand the test of time and be as relevant in 20 years as today. The challenge is getting fans to accept change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve learned is that fans are typically pretty resistant to change, and they\u2019ll really warm up to it over the course of a few years,\u201d Melvin said.<\/p>\n

The biggest difference from a century ago may be noticed only by the players themselves \u2014 and the equipment staff. Wool and cotton were the materials of choice for years, in turtlenecks and sweaters to more modern jerseys. The development of nylons and polyesters, whisking away sweat without becoming heavy, now allows designers to leave little for defenders to grab, unlike the 1970s when Earl Campbell often lost pieces of his jersey.<\/p>\n

Wright said to credit Nike for reducing the number of seams in today\u2019s uniform, from 21 individual pieces of fabric sewn together for a jersey and pair of pants a few years ago now down to approximately five.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be surprised at how impactful that is from a weight standpoint, from a strength and tenacity standpoint,\u201d Wright said. \u201cThat\u2019s a game changer that doesn\u2019t really get a lot of credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

With TV going from black and white past high-definition to 4K, expect NFL uniforms to grow beyond the numbers, name and logo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s allowing us to put details in and textures and materials into things that wouldn\u2019t have been seen by most fans years before,\u201d Melvin said. \u201cSo we were trying to take advantage of that opportunity where we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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