What is it with white uniforms being worn at home in the NFL?
Am I the only one left who believes the tradition is for home teams to wear dark and for the visitors to wear white? It used to be a simple, foolproof way to tell immediately when you tuned into a game on the telly where the game was being played.
"Oh, look -- Bears wearing white, Jags wearing dark -- looks like sunny Florida is the host of this game."
Now, even mainstay clubs like da Bears are wearing white at home! (They did it against the Lions a couple weeks ago). This is terrible, I tell you!
Even the exceptions to the rule were, well, the exceptions, so you forgave them their fashion faux pas: the Cowboys and the Browns were, as far as I can recall, the only two teams who wore white at home. I don’t know that the Cowboys have ever worn blue unis at Texas Stadium. But now, white jerseys are being worn at home with such reckless abandon that I have no idea what the rules are anymore.
The Lions only wore white at home once as far as I know, and that was for the Thanksgiving Day game of 1970. The Raiders were in town, and back then, they had silver numbers on their white jerseys. The TV folks didn’t think that would look too nifty, so they asked if the Lions would wear white so the Raiders could wear their menacing black. Other than that, it’s been Honolulu Blue in Detroit (and Pontiac), as it should be. None of this white at home nonsense for our supposed kings of the football jungle.
The funny thing is, I always thought that dark colors are stronger than whites for football uniforms, and don’t you want to project strength as much as possible, especially in front of your hometown fans? So wouldn’t you want to wear DARK at home instead of pansy white?
Guess not, because NFL teams are turning everything upside down with the threads, and I don’t like it, not one
bit. But I may as well spit into Lake Michigan for all the good complaining is going to do for me.
The Lions play at Tampa tomorrow and I have no idea if the Bucs are going to be decked out in white or that weird shade of orange that they wear sometimes. I say sometimes because they probably end up wearing it more on the road than at home. The Bucs are another one of those dark/white offenders.
Hey, I just thought of something: a certain little-used Pistons big man just might find himself useful in the NFL.
Darko, we need you for the home team in the NFL.
1 comment:
This bugs me too. Dark jerseys at home! (Even the NHL is doing this now, right?) Like you said, the dark colors look stronger. The Redskins are another team that mostly wears white at home, but when Marty Schottenheimer was their coach, he had them wear their red jerseys because he thought they looked more imposing.
But I'm guessing it's mostly a weather thing. Like when it's hot and sunny (such as when the Bears played the Lions two weeks ago), coaches think wearing white will absorb less heat and give their team a bit of a break. I bet Tampa's in the whites tomorrow (not that they need the help).
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