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As a huge fan of both football and design, naturally I became interested in the combination of the two.
So I decided to rank my favorite and least favorite uniform matchups of the week in the NFL. These rankings are completely arbitrary and decided by nothing but my own preferences.
Don't like my picks? Feel free to argue with me.
Best
1. Pittsburgh Steelers at Miami Dolphins
I'm a fan of Miami's current uniforms, but my oh my are the throwbacks gorgeous. I understand why the Dolphins wear white at home in that heat, but it's a shame such a great color doesn't get worn more often.
The aqua and orange against black and yellow results in a pair of sharp color contrasts that play well off one another. It helps that this uniform contrasts at all four levels. White against black for the helmets, aqua against white for the jerseys, white against yellow for the pants, and aqua against black for the socks.
Miami's throwback endzone earns them a bonus point, too.
2. Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens
Orange against purple is fun. Cleveland's uniforms are pretty much always good, and Baltimore provides a nice color contrast. I just really enjoyed this matchup.
Baltimore could use purple socks instead of black to break things up and maybe some stripes on the pants, but this is a really good matchup.
3. New York Giants at Jacksonville Jaguars
This is as good as the Jags can look in their current set. Take this uniform, find a way to get a little more gold in there, and you have perfection. The Giants also have a good set, although I miss the grey road pants. Still, great contrast here in the bright sunlight.
4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers
It only took until Week 7 for Tampa to wear red over pewter. This is the best uniform the Buccaneers have in the rotation, although the white over pewter is pretty good, too. Carolina's uniforms aren't my favorites, but I like this combination and the electric blue balances well against Tampa's red.
5. Chicago Bears at New England Patriots
There was a lot of navy blue in this one which is why it wasn't higher. Can we just take a second and revel in how good the Patriots look with the grey pants, though? I daresay this is the best the franchise has ever looked. (I take objection to the concept of a team named after the group that fought the Redcoats wearing red themselves. That's my issue with the throwbacks as full-time uniforms). It's a shame the team played so poorly, since now we may never see these again. That's three straight losses for New England in navy over silver now.
Worst
1. New Orleans Saints at Arizona Cardinals
If I flipped this game on while channel surfing, I would have immediately flipped past it looking for the Thursday NFL game. Everything about the matchup says MWC game.
New Orleans, I'm starting with you. You have some of the coolest colors in the NFL, and you can truly own the color gold in the league if you so choose. Why on Earth would you decide to wear as little color as possible? Black, block numbers and plain pants. This could be literally any team at any level.
Now, for the Cardinals. You already have some of the worst uniforms in the sport with random piping everywhere. I'm pretty sure this base set was in the Reebok catalog in 2002. Taking the same awful jersey and making it black doesn't fool anyone, it still looks bad.
The black helmet is cool. I particularly enjoy the red flakes in it, although I think they would look better during a day game. I just don't like this helmet for you. Nothing about an all-black uniform says "team named after a distinctively red bird" to me. Hand over these helmets to the Falcons and go back to the white ones so we can all get on with our lives, please.
2. Detroit Lions at Dallas Cowboys
This is just unpleasant to look at. That much Honolulu blue strains the eyes, while Dallas's mismatched colors always look off. Combine the two and you get three different shades of blue, three shades of silver, and one headache. That could also be four of blue and three of silver depending on exactly what color those Dallas pants are