What the hell is this?
And this?
And of course, this?
Look, I’m a football fan and I usually couldn’t care less about what the players are wearing. It’s just completely immaterial. But at this point, so-called “special” jerseys have become a distraction. Good writers are wasting column inches on this topic and my Twitter timeline contains far too much uniform chatter.
What I can’t comprehend is how the NFL lives up to its “No Fun League” reputation in almost every way, fining players for even minor breaches of uniform policy. And yet a league that is all about consistency and conformity allows its teams to wear silly, distracting jerseys twice a year, and multiple variations as often as they want beyond that. Throw in the strange emphasis on a single cause with pink in October and now camouflage in early November and it’s rare we see teams in their regular, unaltered uniforms these days.
A nice summary from Peter King of the MMQB:
This constant fiddling with everything players and coaches wear, and the pink and the camouflage and the prison-stripe uniforms and so many throw-up throwbacks … it’s out of control. Isn’t there a uniform cop in the NFL offices who, very occasionally, says, “We’re making ourselves looks bad here. We’re a parody of ourselves. Are we seriously allowing our teams to looks different for more than half of each season?” The NFL so bastardizes everything about the uniform that it’s altogether laughable when they fine a player for having some odd-color shoes or different eye-black, or fine a player such as Cam Heyward when he puts his late father’s name in small letters on his eye black. Example: Marcus Mariota, wearing this all-Carolina Blue uniform for the Color Rush (!!!) game and blue shoes, and with the Salute to Service camouflage towel tucked into his waist, dives to the pylon for a touchdown Thursday night. Camera goes to the sideline. There’s coach Mike Mularkey, with the camouflage headset, camouflage cap and camouflage lapel pin. Last month, it would have been the pink towel flying on Mariota’s dive to the pylon, with pink cleats, and the coach on the sidelines with the pink hat and pink-accented headset. In nine of 17 weeks this season, the NFL makes the uniform not a uniform. And in some other weeks, the uniform is something that’s not a uniform. In the Oxford Dictionary, uniform is defined as “not changing in form or character; remaining the same in all cases and at all times.” The NFL does not have uniforms anymore. The NFL has costumes.
Prior to 2002, the NFL didn’t do anything special with uniforms. And while progress is usually something I can get behind, I miss those days from a jersey perspective.
