NFL Uniform Concepts from Jon Robertson

Army-Navy 2022: Army Sings Last

Believe it or not, in the 123 times Army has played Navy, yesterday’s game was the first to go into overtime, with Army emerging victorious.

Obviously, one can’t really comment on either team’s uniforms without including the backstories behind them. So, if you’re interested, Army’s uniform story is here, while Navy’s is here. There are far, far too many details to get into, so I’d like to divorce the unis from their storytelling and focus solely on how they looked as uniforms.

Army may have won the actual game, but Navy won the uni battle.

Navy’s white uniforms with red stripes were crisp and clean, and their fonts were legible and bold. They looked good, even if they didn’t convey a traditional Naval look.

Army’s uniforms, especially with the “mud splatter” gradient going from jersey to pants, looked more like costumes than uniforms, and their numbers, both in color (gold) and font, were hard to read. Were the numbers not large enough to be seen from space, I might have had difficulty identifying the players.

On the other hand, I really liked Army’s helmets, and wasn’t particularly a fan of Navy’s. The olive color with the muted splatter pattern worked well on the hats, while Navy’s “NASA” logo on one side and Astronaut painting on the other felt disjointed.

Of course, we can’t legitimately divorce the uniforms from the storytelling; without that context, the unis look just as I described: a clean, crisp white uniform with legible numbers vs. a drab, gradient one with hard to read numbers. We find this “problem” with the MLB City Connect uniforms as well as the NBA’s City uniforms.

Uniforms exist to differentiate two teams at their most basic level. Obviously, that box is checked, but as much as folks these days are wont to accept uniforms that bear little resemblance to a core “look” (and this trend is not about to go away), the less and less I appreciate them. Army/Navy with their “unique” one-offs have been, and continue to be fun, but they’re no longer the only ones doing it. You now have two leagues who will have entire sets of “special” uniforms that barely resemble anything the team wears or has worn. Army/Navy’s one-offs were never created with a merchandising angle (or at least naive me would like to think that), but clearly they have been the inspiration for uniform-by-storytelling for MLB and the NBA. They may be “City Connect” in name, but they’re becoming uni dis-connect for me.

/rant

You can see more photos from the game here.

Guess The Game From The Uniform

Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.

Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.

Today’s GTGFTU comes from Jimmer Vilk.

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

GTGFTU -- A Follow-up

Yesterday, I posted a GTGFTU from Jimmy Corcoran, and explained Jimmy had a backstory to accompany it. In case you missed it, Jimmy’s “clues” for the Guess The Game From The Uniform were as follows:

A couple readers correctly identified the game. But the game in question was much more personal for Jimmy, and I’ll let him explain.

Phil, at first glance this appears to be a meaningless game between two teams that will not be in the playoffs, but for fans of the Houston Oilers uniforms from this era it was much more than that, can anyone guess this game?

This game between the Houston Oilers and Cleveland Browns was played on Dec. 15, 1974, in the Houston Astrodome. The score was Browns 24- Oilers 28 and it was the end of an era for a short lived but beloved helmet. This was the last game the Houston Oilers wore their light blue helmets. But these helmets never really faded away thanks to uniform aficionados like Uni Watch’s own Jimmer Vilk who reminds us that this was the Houston Oilers best look in team history. They only wore these helmets for three seasons 1972-74 and had losing seasons wearing them so when Bum Phillips came in for the 1975 season they switched to white helmets. The white helmets still looked good, and this was great era of Houston Oilers football, the Luv ya Bue! Earl Campbell era. But as Jimmer has noted in the past, nothing popped on those unis quite like the light blue helmets! Forty-eight years after they last wore them, they still look magnificent.

Though this was a meaningless game, there were a couple of odd circumstances that stood out to me, first Billy “White Shoes” Johnson is wearing black cleats, I know he also went by Hummingbird Johnson, but I have seen him wear white cleats in the Astrodome with the light blue helmets, why the black cleats? Also, Billy Johnson catches a touchdown pass in the game but does not do his funky chicken end zone dance that he made famous in the 1970’s. In this last game of 1974, it is a different version of Billy Johnson.

At the end of the game the players lift up Sid Gillman in a victory celebration, at first glance this would seem odd considering the Oilers finished 7-7 and did not make the playoffs, there really isn’t that much to celebrate. But this was the last game as a head coach for Hall of Famer Sid Gillman, Sid started out as the Oilers general manager, but things were such a mess when they got rid of their head coach Sid took over to try and get things back together. Sid could be a screamer; I have seen him in action as a kid but there was also something very nice about him, he would but his arm around you and say how was your day kid? And it looks like those players are lifting him up and giving him the respect because he came to the end of a brilliant coaching career.

Three years later I was a ball boy for Sid at Ron Waller’s pro Seminars camp, I was hoping I got to work for Jack Faulkner or Ray Malvasi of the Rams, I had worked for them before at other camps and they were fun guys to be around. Ronny told me I was with Sid since he would be working with the QB’s, he would need me to carry the bag of footballs and make sure he always had a new football to give to the QB. My father would be with Ron Waller throwing to the WR’s. As we were walking onto the field my father grabbed me and said, this isn’t Ronny Waller (Ron was a family friend and like an uncle) He said don’t talk to Sid unless he asks you something and stay out of his way when he is coaching, he doesn’t play around.

I had not been a ball boy for two years since the Philadelphia Bell folded but I was confident that I still had the skills to get the job done and I would not let Sid Gillman down. Everything went fine in the morning practice and Sid was happy with the job I did. I listened to him explain how he wanted it done in a calm voice to the players but when they would screw up, he would let them have it. In the afternoon practice I held his clip board while he was showing the QB’s the proper mechanics. Sid came over and said Jimmy you don’t talk very much what’s the matter? I said my father told me not to talk to you unless you ask me something. He said are you kidding me? King Corcoran is giving advice on how to talk to coaches? the guy who has been cut by 5 teams and not one coach in the league can stand him? that’s rich. I couldn’t stop laughing, he had my father’s number, and it was all true what he just said.

Sid had a dry sense of humor, when the QB’s would drop back he would say, you see where he points his foot? don’t ever do that. You see where he holds the ball by his chest? don’t ever do that. After the second practice the coaches went to Sid’s hotel room, he went into his suitcase and said Jimmy you did a great job for me today I want you to have this. He gave me a team issued Chicago Bears t shirt. I put it on, and Ron Waller took a picture of us. I couldn’t have been happier, I always liked having the gear you couldn’t buy in a store. I miss those light blue Oilers helmets from a bygone era, and I miss Sid Gillman, what a coach.

Jimmy Corcoran

Thanks for sharing Jimmy! And yes, those were at one time (and may still be?) Jim’s favorite uniforms (or at least the helmet). Jimmy included a couple extras too:

And one for Jimmer:

And Jimmer has told this story before, but just in case you hadn’t heard it. He was so enamored of that Oilers blue helmet that he asked for one for Christmas waaaaaaay back in the day.

Here’s a look at the happy camper one Vilkmas morning…

Broncos Contest Reminder

Paul here. In case you missed it on Thursday, the results of our Broncos-redesign contest are now available over on Substack. You can read the first part of the article here. In order to read the entire thing, you’ll need to become a paid subscriber, which I hope you’ll consider doing. Thanks!

And finally...

…that’s all for this morning. I’ll have a special “All Army/Navy Five and One” with Jimmer Vilk later this morning, as well as a ticker. Big thanks to Jon for his NFL concepts and to Jimmy for his heartfelt thoughts on his GTGFTU submission.

Everyone have a great Sunday and a better week, and I’ll catch you all next weekend.

Peace,

PH