The Dawg Staph

I should've written a book, but this will have to do. I spent my significant time off researching this topic, so enjoy the findings:

Every team in the NFL has team colors, logos, and uniforms, and over the decades that the NFL has been in existence, as well as all the teams in the AFL that merged in 1970, these colors, logos, and uniforms have changed. Each of these gives the team a sense of identity, and sometimes that identity becomes stagnant and needs to be revamped, and the easiest way to change the attitude of team is to change any one of these identifying elements.

On April 20, 2009, the Detroit Lions updated their primary logo that had largely remained unchanged since 1970. They added some teeth to it, an eyeball, and a few white marks to accent a mane, all in an attempt to make it more ferocious and menacing and change the losing culture that had plagued the team for decades.

But do logo, uniform, or team-color alterations really change the identity of an entire franchise?

After some research, I will present the findings. Staying within the Super Bowl era (1966-present), I’ll go through each team in the NFL and their attempts to redefine the outlook of their organizations by changing what they clothe their players in, and whether or not these changes correspond to any trend in the success of the said organization to predict if the Lions really look to a more prosperous future.

ARIZONA CARDINALS
The oldest, continually-run professional football team in the United States, the Cardinals were founded in 1898 as the Racine Normals, becoming the Racine Cardinals, and changing their name to the much more recognizable Chicago Cardinals when they joined the NFL in 1920. They moved to St. Louis in 1960, becoming the second team in the city to have the nickname of Cardinals, joining the MLB franchise. Needless to say, the Cardinals have never been title-contenders until Ken Whisenhunt, Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, and Co., led them to Super Bowl XLIII this past year, but what else can we learn?

1966-1987: During this period in St. Louis, the Cardinals compiled a win-loss record of 153-164-10, a 46.8 winning-percentage, 3 playoff trips, and 12 losing seasons in 22 years. They only had 8 seasons of 8+ wins, a little over 33% of the time. The last three seasons in St. Louis showed records of 7-8 (1987), 4-11-1 (1986), and 5-11 in 1985.

1988-1995: The Cardinals moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1988, and the only major alteration to the uniform was the inclusion of the Arizona state flag and cardinal-head logo to the sleeves of the jerseys. Still they managed a 7-9 record in Gene Stallings’ final year as head coach and Neil Lomax’s final year under center. During this time-period, they compiled a record of 44-84, 34.4%, with no playoff appearances and not a single winning season. The new environs of Phoenix didn’t help, nor did the subtle addition of the logo and flag. In 1993, to broaden the market appeal of the Cardinals, they were renamed the “Arizona Cardinals,” as we know them today.

1996-2004: They took the cardinal-head off the sleeves in 1996, and the fates of the Cardinals began to change. Vince Tobin was inserted as head-coach, and Jake “The Snake” Plummer became the starting quarterback in 1997, who led them to a 9-7 record in 1998 and their first playoff appearance since the strike-shortened 1982 season. It was only a minor alteration, one that would easily go unnoticed unless you were a die-hard Cardinals fan (which didn’t exist until 2008) or a uniforms-junkie. Still it’s hard to argue that the name-change five years before and the uniform change, along with a coaching change, ushered in a new attitude in the desert and produced some success. Still, their combined record from these years was 51-93, 8 losing seasons around that one, special 9-7 year in 1998.

2005-Present: Finally, the Cardinals introduced major uniform changes in 2005, giving the cardinal-head logo an update, adding black as an accent color and trim lines to the shoulders, sleeves, and pants. Also, they put red shoulders on their white away jerseys, giving the team a very different look, obviously trying to jettison their losing past in favor of a more hopeful future. In 2006, they even moved to the futuristic University of Phoenix Stadium, further separating themselves from a lack-luster history. 2005 was the first year that Kurt Warner started, and within three years they went from a 5-11 record to winning the NFC West and facing the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII. Not too shabby.

ATLANTA FALCONS
An expansion NFL franchise in 1965, the Falcons played their first season in 1966 and experienced typical growing pains for a new team, going 3-11. They’ve had lots of ups and downs, including a Super Bowl trip and their franchise quarterback being sent to jail in the prime of his career, but let’s see if any of that corresponds to logo or uniform changes.

1966-1970: The original Falcons uniforms included red helmets with a black falcon crest, along with a black stripe flanked on either side by two white and two gold stripes, supposedly an homage to the rival college football programs of the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech. They had white pants with either red or white jerseys, and the falcon logo pasted onto the sleeves. This period was not kind to the Falcons, as they went 16-51-3, 22.9%, all losing seasons and never winning more than 6 games in any season. They had double-digit losses 3 times in 5 seasons. They could only go up from here, right?

1971-1977: The Falcons switched from red jerseys to black jerseys for their home ensemble, and they posted their franchise’s first winning record of 7-6-1 in 1971, and they set another franchise record for wins in 1973 going 9-5. Coincidence? I think not. Still, the success tapered off with three straight losing seasons from 1974-1976 (3-11, 4-10, 4-10), and the Falcons needed another shot in the arm…

1978-1989: In 1978, the Falcons switched from white pants to silver pants, and they really hit their stride. They finished with a 9-7 record and made the playoffs for the first time in the franchise’s history. This uniform change corresponded to a regime change as Leeman Bennett took over the year earlier. A new attitude was in the air, as the Falcons stormed to a 12-4 record in 1980, setting another franchise-record for wins, and another playoff appearance. As is typical, the Falcons could only ride that good feeling for so long, and from 1983-1989 they posted 7 consecutive losing seasons, averaging 4.7 wins per season over that stretch.

1990-1996: 1990 saw the Falcons exchange red helmets and red jerseys for black helmets and black jerseys and ushered in Jerry Glanville as the head coach, but won only 5 games. One year later, though, and the Falcons won 10 games and went to the playoffs for the first time since 1982. There’s a shot in the arm.

1997-2002: Continuing to build off their success, the Falcons changed the numbers on their white jerseys from black to red, the same time as Dan Reeves was brought in as coach and Chris Chandler was tagged as the starting QB. The team went 7-9, and one year later, in 1998, the Falcons went 14-2 and met John Elway’s Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII, which they lost. It seems that whatever luck came with such a small alteration would vanish, as the Falcons also experienced 4 losing seasons with an average of 5.75 wins over these 6 seasons. Still, Michael Vick was drafted #1-overall in 2001, and he led the Falcons to a 9-6-1 record in 2002. The same year, Vick led the Falcons to a victory in the playoffs over the Packers in Lambeau, becoming the first team in the history of the NFL to pull off the feat.

2003: In an attempt to ride the wave, they dramatically changed the uniforms – red trim on the pants, red jerseys as the alternates – and updated the falcon logo with red and silver accents (also making it appear more aggressive) for this new era of the Falcons that was supposed to be headlined by Vick. However, in the preseason of 2003, Vick broke his leg and missed the first 12 games of the season. As a result, the Falcons got off to a rough 3-10 start, and Reeves was fired. Wade Phillips took over, Vick returned, and the team finished 5-11.

2004-Present: While the uniform overhaul took place in 2003, the Falcons switched the red jerseys with the black jerseys as the team’s primary home jersey. 2004 also saw the arrival of the younger Jim Mora, the return of Vick, an 11-5 record and a playoff appearance. All the planets lined up, until Mora talked too much about becoming the head coach of the Washington Huskies and was dismissed, Vick was sent off to jail for bank-rolling dog-fighting, and Bobby Petrino skipped town in 2007, resulting in a 4-12 record. However, the Falcons used that top-10 pick to draft QB Matt Ryan out of Boston College, and added him to Pro-Bowl RB Michael Turner and first-time head coach Mike Smith, and they turned the franchise around with an 11-5 season in 2008. It’s in the jerseys!

BALTIMORE RAVENS
It’s hard to count moving a franchise to an entirely different city with an entirely different nickname as just changing uniforms or logos or colors within a team, but for the sake of argument I guess I will count them. And no, alternate jerseys aren’t considered because they aren’t the primary dreads for any time – hence the name “alternate” – so the Ravens’ black get-ups aren’t getting love here. Despite the wishes of Chandler and many others in Northeast Ohio, the Ravens were formed in 1996 when back-stabber extraordinaire Art Modell moved the Browns to Maryland, then defiled it even more by making purple one of the Ravens’ primary colors. At least he left the franchise history of the Browns in Cleveland, which they boldly took back up in 1999 when the Browns returned. The Ravens managed to build from the ground-up quickly, winning a Super Bowl – also to the chagrin of Chandler and everyone else in Northeast Ohio.

1996-1998: The Ravens first three seasons saw records of 4-12, 6-9-1, and 6-10. Ted Marchibroda was the head coach, and he sucked. Vinny Testaverde started the first two years and Jim Harbaugh the last, and they both sucked. It looked like the Ravens weren’t going anywhere fast until…

1999-Present: … the Ravens were forced to change their logo after Frederick E. Bouchat, an amateur artist and security guard, sued the Ravens for copyright infringement based on their original logo. The Ravens gave in and switched the logo to the now-distinguishable purple raven’s head with the “B” in the middle of it. Bouchat may have sped up fate: Brian Billick came on as head coach in 1999, steered the team to an 8-8 record, and the very next season orchestrated a 12-4 campaign that culminated in a Super Bowl XXXV victory over the New York Giants. They’ve been to the playoffs 5 times over the last 9 years, and only had 3 losing seasons, with a 91-69 combined record.

BUFFALO BILLS
A charter member of the AFL, the Bills were founded in 1960. Their original colors were royal blue, silver, and white, and were quite similar to the Lions color scheme. The red bison wasn’t added until 1962, the same year that red replaced silver as one of their primary colors. The Bills have been close to reaching the top of the mount

ain, but failed 4 consecutive times in the 1990s. We’ll get to that.

1966-1973: The helmets were white with red and blue center stripes, blue jerseys with red and white stripes on the sleeves. 1966 saw a 9-4-1 record with a trip to playoffs under the first year of coach Joe Collier’s tenure, as well as featuring Jack Kemp at quarterback. O.J. Simpson was drafted in 1969, ran for 2,003 yards in 1973, was voted MVP, and led the Bills that year to a 9-5 mark, their highest since 1966. Despite the Juice’s success, the Bills’ combined record over this period was 36-63, 36.3%, 6 losing seasons in 8 years, and twice finished with only 1 win (1968 and 1971). Not too great, Bills.

1974-1983: The standing red buffalo was replaced with the stylized charging bison as the Bill’s primary logo, and the Bills repeated with a 9-5 record in 1974 and reached the playoffs for the first time since, you guessed it, 1966. The Bills went to the playoffs 3 times, but had 4 straight losing seasons from 1976-1979. The Bills became mediocre in 1982 and 1983, and they needed something else to push them over the top.

1984-2001: The background color on the helmet was changed from white to red in 1984, and the Bills fell to a sorrowful 2-14. By 1986, however, help was on the way, as Marv Levy saw his first full season as head coach and Jim Kelly was brought in as the starting quarterback. Over this 18-year period, the Bills went 150-137, 52.3%, 10 playoff appearances, 4 Super Bowl appearances (losses in XXV, XXVI, XXVII, and XXVII), with only 7 losing seasons – 4 of those in a row from 1984-1987. Once Thurman Thomas became the team’s leading rusher in 1988, it was up, up, and away for the Bills, and the helmet change signaled that a new wave of success was on the way for the Bills.

2002-Present: The Bills drastically changed their uniforms and team colors for the first time since 1962, following the typical NFL trend as they traded in their familiar royal blue for a new, darker navy-blue. The jerseys featured red piping down the sides, and the white jerseys had navy-blue shoulders. They went 8-8 in 2002, after having gone 3-13 in 2001. 2002 saw the arrival of Drew Bledsoe as the starting quarterback, and their best season was a 9-7 campaign in 2004 with Mike Mularkey wearing the head-set, Bledsoe under center, and Willis McGahee carrying the rock. 9 wins that year was the most they had since Doug Flutie was the man in Buffalo. The initial high of the uniform transformation washed off quickly, with Mularkey fired a year later in 2005 and three straight 7-9 seasons under Dick Jauron. Maybe they need to switch something up and reignite the flames of triumph…

CAROLINA PANTHERS
Haven’t been around long enough to change anything. Those blue alternate jerseys are nice, but they don’t count for anything. Call me when they do something else.

CHICAGO BEARS
A founding member of the NFL, the Bears have a lot of history, just not of uniform or lo

go changes.

1966-1972: The original “C” logo for the Bears was actually white with blue trim, and their record reflected the strange choice of colors for this. They were a combined 36-58-4, 36.7%, no playoff trips, never more than 7 wins in a season, and 5 losing seasons in 7 years. This is definitely a stretch of the Bears’ franchise history that they would like to forget.

1973-1982: Finally, in 1973, the Bears changed the “C” from white to orange, and things mildly began to pick up. They were 60-83, 42.0%, and actually enjoyed 2 playoff trips, one in 1977 after a 9-5 campaign, the most wins since 1965 and the first playoff trip since 1963 when George Halas was still the coach, and the other trip in 1979 after a 10-6 season. 1982 saw the NFL strike and the arrival of Mike Ditka as head coach and Jim McMahon’s first full season at QB, ushering in a new era in the Windy City.

1983: The Bears thought a quick facemask change from grey to navy-blue would do the trick, and it did. The Bears went 8-8, after a 3-6 season in 1982 and 6-10 in 1981.

1984-Present: Unfortunately, 1983 also saw the passing of the legendary George Halas, and the Bears chose to honor him by adding the initials “GSH” on the left sleeves of their jerseys. Those initials have remained ever since, and the uniform change quickly shoved the Bears over the top. What began in 1982 continued, and the Bears posted a 10-6 season in 1984, then the remarkable 15-1 season in 1985 that culminated in their victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. Plus, this gave us the unforgettable “Super Bowl Shuffle,” and we got to laugh at how cool Jim McMahon thought he was and how fat William “The Refrigerator” Perry really was. These jerseys have remained unchanged for 25 years now, and the Bears have been the playoffs 11 times, made another Super Bowl appearance (however briefly) in XLI against the Colts after the 2006 season, and were a picture of stability in the NFL: each head coach lasted at least 5 years with the team. They’ve got a nice string, but their fortunes haven’t been as good as that 8-year run from 1984-1991. Looks like it’s time for a change…

CINCINNATI BENGALS
The Bengals were Paul Brown’s second attempt at running a franchise in Ohio, and it’s not hard to believe that he named this team after the Massillon Tigers, the high school he graduated from in 1925 and the team he coached from 1932-1940, winning 6 straight state championships and outscoring their opponents in the 1940 season 477-6. Of course, Brown attached himself to the upstart AAFC Cleveland Browns in 1945, won every AAFC championship, merged with the NFL, won 3 more championships, and was promptly fired in 1962, a year after Art Modell –the man who took the Browns to Baltimore – purchased the team. Brown was pissed, and in 1968 he formed the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFL as the owner and coach. His primary goal was to s

pite Modell and the Browns.

1968-1980: The early Bengals uniforms were almost identical to the Browns uniforms at the time: they featured the exact same shade of orange, but instead of brown they had black as a primary color. The helmet design was the same, except for the “Bengals” script. The Bengals went 3-11 in their first season, but managed to make the playoffs their third season in the league. In 13 years, they only went to the playoffs 3 times, won 10 games thrice, and finished with 4 or less wins 5 times. This was not the hey-day of the Bengals.

1981-1996: The Bengals decided to switch things up a little bit in 1981 as they replaced the “Bengals” script on the helmets with tiger stripes, as well as adding tiger stripes to the jerseys. This also represented Forrest Gregg’s second year as head coach, and the Bengals set a franchise-record mark of 12-4 that featured a loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XVI. They went 7-2 in the strike-shortened 1982 season, making the playoffs. Then, in 1988, the Bengals returned to the Super Bowl and found the 49ers waiting for them again, and the Bengals would lose again in XXIII. This period was the most successful period for the entire Bengals franchise, but ended with the failed Shula regime (1992-1996) that resulted in 5 straight non-winning seasons.

1997-2003: The Bengals didn’t change much; they added the leaping tiger as an alternative logo and added it to the sleeves of their jerseys. Needless to say, this minor addition had no effect on the team’s success, as the Bengals dipped back into the doldrums, never winning more than 8 games, which it took them until 2003 – and the hire of Marvin Lewis – to pull off. A minor highlight during this period was Corey Dillon’s record-setting rushing performance of 246 yards against the Tenneessee Oilers in 1997, his rookie season. Of course, that record would be broken by Adrian Peterson in 2007, but at least they had something.

2004-Present: In 2004, the Bengals did the first overhaul of their uniforms since 1981, and it was perfectly timed to usher in a new era of football in southwest Ohio. Quarterback Carson Palmer, drafted #1-overall in 2003 after a Heisman-winning campaign at USC, sat the entire 2003 season behind Jon Kitna, and would become the starter in 2004. It was also the second year of Marvin Lewis’s reign, and the Bengals had kicked out Corey Dillon after calling out the management. They changed the logo to an orange “B” with tiger stripes on it, and they added orange sleeves to the black jerseys with black sleeves and orange shoulders on the white jerseys. The Bengals went 8-8, and in 2005 they had a spectacular season, going 11-5 and winning the AFC North – only to have Carson Palmer’s knee be torn to shreds in the opening stages of the game. It was the first time they’d won 10 games or more since 1988, and it was the first time they’d had a winning season or made the playoffs since 1990. Of course, like all good things in Cincinnati, this success vanished, and the won 8, then 8, then 4 games in the 3 seasons after, had their Pro Bowl wide receiver change his last name to Spanish gibberish, and featured a year in which Ryan Fitzpatrick, the pride of Harvard, led the team in passing yardage.

CLEVELAND BROWNS
Speaking of Paul Brown, how ‘bout the people who named their entire franchise after him? Brown was already a beloved sports figure in Ohio, so it wasn’t a surprise that his last name was the most popular submission in the 1945 naming contest. I’m repeating myself a little, but for the benefit of Chandler I’ll recount the Browns’ successes, all of which happened before the Super Bowl-era in 1996: 4 AAFC championships from 1946-1949 in the league’s 4-year existence; NFL championships in 1950, 1954, 1955, and 1964; and the career of the best running back of all-time, Jim Brown (1957-1965). Sadly, the time from 1966 hasn’t been as kind in Cleveland, and it would seem that Paul Brown’s hex on his former team could be the culprit.

1966-1974: The Browns uniforms were the standard orange, brown, and white, complete with the logo-less helmet, the only team in the NFL to still not have a logo on their helmets at all. This was a period of success for the Browns, seeing them go 75-49-3, 59.1%, with only one losing season (1974, 4-10). They would also earn 5 trips to the playoffs in 9 years, including three in a row from 1967-1969, something that all Browns fans would go ape-shit over today.

1975-1983: The Browns introduced a minor change in their uniforms, switching from white pants to orange. That season, they would fall to a woeful 3-11, but the very next season, in 1976, the first year with Brian Sipe as the full-time starter, the Browns would improve to 9-5. Sam Rutigliano would take over in 1978, and the Browns would enter another prosperous stretch that featured Sipe’s MVP in 1980, the year of the "Kardiac Kids," coupled with an 11-5 season and a trip to the postseason. Forget that the Browns went 4-5 in 1982 and still made the playoffs. However, the pants-switch reinvigorated the franchise for a few seasons, but ultimately that brief feeling disappeared.

1984: The Browns did something extremely odd in 1984 that is altogether difficult to explain, but I’ll do my best: brown numerals were outlined in orange, orange numerals were double-outlined in brown and white, and white numerals were double-outlined in orange and brown. This occurred in the same season that Rutigliano was let go and Marty Schottenheimer took over. Needless to say, the change was confusing for everyone, and the Browns finished 5-11 with Paul McDonald as the starting QB.

1985-1995: The incomprehensible change in 1984 was not popular amongst the fans either, so the Browns switched back to a normal look in 1985 and would stay that way until 1995, plus they switched the pants back to white. 1985 was a watershed moment for the Browns: it was Schottenheimer’s first full season as head coach and Bernie Kosar’s first season as the starter. The Browns went to the playoffs every year from 1985-1989, went once more in 1994 – under Bill Belichick – and only had less than 7 wins twice in 11 seasons. This also did encapsulate “The Drive,” but I’ll just stop there before Chandler has his own cardiac arrest.

1996-1998: Modell moved the team to Baltimore in 1996 and incurred so many death threats you could fill Lake Erie in its entirety several times over with all of them. The Dark Ages for football in NE Ohio…

1999-2002: The Browns featured a reboot as the franchise returned in 1999, moving the numbers from the sleeves to the shoulders and expanded the stripes on the sleeves. They drafted Tim Couch with the #1-overall pick out of Kentucky, had Chris Palmer at head coach, and sucked to the tune of 5-27 in two seasons. Butch Davis arrived in 2001, brought the team up to 7-9, and led them to a 9-7 record in 2002 that featured a playoff appearance against the hated Pittsburgh Steelers that ended in a loss, despite back-up Kelly Holcomb starting the game and throwing for a Browns’ playoff record 429 yards. The high-times in Cleveland were short-lived, I’m afraid …

2003-Present: Al Lerner, the beloved owner who brought the Browns back to Cleveland in 1999, passed away in October of the 2002 season, which some believe was the necessary motivation for that team to succeed as they did. In 2003, the Browns took a page out of the Bears’ playbook and added Lerner’s initials to their left sleeve. Naturally, the move backfired, as the Browns fell to 5-11 in Davis’s last season and Holcomb’s only season as the team’s leading passer. 2004 saw the arrival of Romeo Crennel from the New England Patriots, and despite a 10-win season in 2007, Crennel was fired after a 4-12 record in 2008. Maybe the Browns should add a logo to their domes…

DALLAS COWBOYS
“America’s Team,” the Dallas Cowboys have appeared in more Super Bowls than other team in NFL history with 8. They’ve prided themselves in their tradition of excellence beginning with Tom Landry and leading all the way up to the present-day. Over the years, not much has changed in the way of Dallas’s uniforms or logos, and that makes it a lot easier on this guy.

1966: The first major change happened to Cowboys uniforms happened in 1964, when the white helmets changed to the much more iconic silver ones. In 1966, the Cowboys went 10-3-1 under the legendary Landry with Don Meredith as the starting quarterback.

1967-1969: The Cowboys fiddled for the last time with the infamous blue star, moving the white border in and adding blue trim around that for the 1967 season, the logo that has remained with the Cowboys ever since. This brief period saw the Cowboys go 32-9-1, 76.2%, playoff appearances each year.

1970-1973: They moved the numbers from the shoulders to the sleeves of the jerseys, and this period saw the Cowboys go 41-15, 73.2%, with 2 Super Bowl appearances (loss in V after the 1970 season to the Colts, and a win in VI against the Dolphins after the 1971 season). This also featured the beginning of the quarterback duel between Hall-of-Famer Roger Staubach and Craig Morton, a duel that the Navy alum eventually won.

1974-1980: The numbers moved back to the shoulders in 1974, which was a mistake because it broke the Cowboys’ streak of consecutive playoff appearances as they finished 8-6. This was the first time they missed the playoffs since 1965. However, the Cowboys bounced back, compiling a record of 76-28, 73.1%, with 3 Super Bowl appearances (losses in X and XIII against the Steelers, and a win against the Broncos in XII after the 1977 season), and 6 playoff appearances in 7 years. Not too shabby. This period also featured the transition from Staubach to Danny White and the continuance of Tony Dorsett’s dominance, who broke into the NFL in 1977.

1981-1988: A blue elliptical with white numbers in it was added to hips of the Cowboys’ pants and changed the numerals from white to silver on the blue jerseys in 1981, and the team would suffer a drop-off to the immense success they had enjoyed for the past 20 years. The combined record was 66-54, 55%, with only 4 playoff trips in 9 years. They also had three straight losing seasons from 1986-1988 (Landry’s last years with the team), punctuated by the abysmal 3-13 campaign in 1988. The blue circles wouldn’t last much longer in Big D.

1989-1994: The circles were removed and order was hoped to be restored. Jimmy Johnson was hired as the head coach, Troy Aikman was drafted as the franchise-QB, yet the Cowboys actually worsened to a 1-15 record in 1989. Growing pains, because by 1991 they would go 11-5 and make the playoffs. The very next season, the Cowboys met the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVII and beat them, meeting again in 1993 and Super Bowl XXVIII, breaking Buffalo’s heart for the second time. The Cowboys went to the playoffs 4 times out of 6 years, 4 straight from 1991-1994.

1995-Present: In 1995, they also ditched the silver numerals and went back to white, which have remained the same ever since. They also switched to solid color socks for good. That same year, they would defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX. Still, the success was just about worn out, and in 1997, Barry Switzer’s last year, the Cowboys had their first losing season in 6 years. Since then, the Cowboys would go through 4 more head coaches in 11 seasons, after having gone with only 3 head coaches for 38 seasons. The combined record would fall to 117-107, 52.2%, and 7 playoff trips in 14 seasons. They still would average 8.36 wins per season, but they haven’t been back to a Super Bowl since 1995, and Jerry Jones doesn’t have any crazy ideas to update the uniforms in the near future.

DENVER BRONCOS
Ah, one of my primary cases for a radical uniform shift! It’s about time I got to this one, because it sure is a doozy. The Denver Broncos were a charter member of the AFL and played their first season in 1960. For those of you who don’t know, the Broncos original colors were poop-brown and piss-yellow, and I just have to include these hideous uniforms because I’ve heard that they’re making a comeback as alternates for the 2009 season. Atrocious. Either way, the Broncos had small success in the 1960s and hit their peak with Elway, but it wasn’t until 1997 and a certain uniform overhaul that allowed them to reach their fullest potential…

1966-1996: The Broncos changed the much more recognizable orange, royal blue, and white for the 1962 season, so by the time we start to look at the team they’ve already gotten their colors that they kept essentially unchanged for 31 years. The sleeves got shorter as all sleeves did across the NFL, but the logo didn’t undergo any changes and neither did the uniforms. They went to Super Bowl XII after the 1977 season and lost to the Dallas Cowboys, which just so happened to be the only Super Bowl to have co-MVPs (Harvey Martin and Randy White for the ‘Boys). John Elway was drafted in 1983, and he would take the Broncos to three Super Bowls in the 1980s, all losses: XXI against the New York Giants after the 1986 season, XXII against the Washington Redskins after the 1987 season, and XXIV against the San Francisco 49ers after the 1989 season. The Broncos only went to the playoffs 11 times in 31 seasons, and 8 of those were with John Elway under center for the last 14 years. However, Mike Shanahan arrived in 1995, as well as Terrell Davis and the “Mile-High Salute,” and the team went 8-8 after a 7-9 campaign in 1994 in Wade Phillips’ last year as coach. Then, in 1996, the Broncos went 13-3.

1997-Present: The Broncos were knocking on the championship door ever since John Elway and his flowing hair arrived in Denver in 1983, but it took a complete makeover for them to knock the door down and bust the party. The royal blue was replaced with navy blue, the orange was darkened, the logo was redrawn, stripes ran on both sides of the jerseys and onto the pants, the number font was changed, and the public hated the new uniforms. That is, until the Broncos went 12-4 and defeated the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. Then, in 1998, the Broncos returned to the Super Bowl after a 14-2 season and Terrell Davis rushing for 2,008 yards. Elway would cap his career off with a victory in XXXIII over Chris Chandler, Jamal Anderson, and the “Dirty Bird” Atlanta Falcons. Elway retired in 1999, causing a minor drop in performance, but in 2000 the Broncos replaced him with Brian Griese and won 11 games. In this time period, the Broncos have been to the playoffs 6 times in 12 seasons, the glory years from 2003-2006 with Jake “the Snake” Plummer at QB. No matter what, it’s undeniable that in the same season that the Broncos change everything, they take the Lombardi Trophy back to the Rockies. Coincidence? I think not.

If you’ve noticed, I’ve been going alphabetically, which means that this should be the Detroit Lions’ turn. However, I’m keeping the Lions for last so we can see how other teams have fared with major and minor uniform/logo changes, then analyze what they’ve got going for them. So we move on to...

GREEN BAY PACKERS
The “G” logo was created in 1961, so that predates my research. And guess what? Another one of the tradition-rich franchises in the NFL hasn’t changed a damn thing in decades, and there’s no use analyzing a team’s changes if they don’t have any. So, moving on!

HOUSTON TEXANS
Well, you guessed it, not enough time in the league to have even changed uniforms yet, so I don’t really care. Onward!

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS
The Colts formed in 1953, but didn’t hit their stride until 1956 when head coach Weeb Ewbank was paired with Mr. Black High-Tops himself, Johnny Unitas. The 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Colts and the New York Giants has been called, “the Greatest Game Ever Played,” as it was the first NFL game to go into sudden-death overtime, and the publicity after the game raised the NFL’s popularity across the country. At that time, college football dominated the television and the public, but this single game made the nation stand up and notice the NFL as it was broadcasted nationwide by NBC. With such a prominent role in the shaping of the NFL’s image, the Colts haven’t decided to change much with their uniforms over the years, though someone did think it a good idea to move from Baltimore to the cornfields of Indiana.

1966-1976: The Colts wore grey facemasks with their blue and white uniforms. They had great success during this time, compiling a record of 94-54-4, 61.8%, with 2 Super Bowl trips (a loss in the infamous Super Bowl III against Joe Namath and the Jets, then a victory in Super Bowl V against the Dallas Cowboys), 5 playoff trips in 11 seasons, and only 3 losing seasons from 1972-1974 as the Colts scrambled to replace Unitas at QB.

1977-1981: In 1977, the Colts decided to change the facemasks from grey to white, and they would enjoy a 10-4 season and a trip to the playoffs for the third consecutive year. However, they made a fatal mistake in that they changed their uniforms while they were on top and ruined the luck they had accumulated in 1975 and 1976. The year after the switch, the Colts fell to 5-11, and would experience losing seasons all the way through 1981. Their combined record for this period was 29-49, 37.2%. Not very great, and it should’ve made the Colts rethink that whole white facemask thing.

1982-1986: But the Colts shrugged that off and decided to switch from white pants to grey pants with their blue jerseys in 1982. The Colts didn’t address the main factor for their bad luck – the facemasks – and they went an abysmal 0-8-1 in the abbreviated 1982 season, Frank Kush’s first year as coach and Mike Pagel’s first year at QB. Their record would be 19-53-1, 26.0%, with 3 head coaches in 5 losing seasons.

1987-1994: The Colts mistakenly thought that the grey pants must be to blame for their terrible performances, so they switched back to white pants and watched their record soar to 9-6 in 1987, the first winning season and the first playoff trip since 1977. ’87 was the first full year that Ron Meyer was coach and the arrival of Eric Dickerson from the Rams. The Colts continued mild success for the next three seasons, then the Colts fell apart and finished with a record of 1-15 in 1991. They didn’t deal with the root problem (white facemasks), and this period would also be marked with failure: 55-71, 43.7%.

1995-2003: Finally, in 1995, the Colts decided to change their facemasks, but rather than return to the grey facemasks that had been their staple from the very beginning, they switched them to blue. The switch coincided with the arrivals of Jim Harbaugh at QB and Marshall Faulk at RB, who had bonded during the 1994 season with coach Ted Marchibroda to the tune of 8-8. In 1995, they went 9-7 and made the playoffs for the first time since 1987. The Colts even managed to survive the transition from Harbaugh to Peyton Manning, who was drafted #1-overall in 1998 and won his first MVP in 2003. They also survived the transition from the elder Jim Mora – “Playoffs?!” – to Tony Dungy, which would pay off just a few years later.

2004-Present: Even more finally, someone told the Colts that they had their best seasons with grey facemasks, and they switched back in 2004. The move would pay off, as the Colts went 12-4 in 2006 and defeated the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. Peyton Manning won two move MVP awards, and the Colts have been 63-19, 76.8%, and playoff appearances every year. It only took them 28 years of failure to realize that grey was their color.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS
Hmm, let’s see… formed as an expansion franchise in 1995, the same year as the Panthers, and 14 seasons of having the same uniforms… I don’t think they count for this discussion, do you? Yes, they’ve got the fancy black alternates, but nothing really has changed beyond that. That being said, an uniform alteration has been planned for the 2009 season, so stay tuned and see if it changes anything.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
Talk about a boring bunch of franchises in a row. The Chiefs were also an original franchise in the AFL, so they started play in 1960, lost in Super Bowl I, won in Super Bowl IV, and never changed their logo, colors, or uniforms. The faces change, but not the jerseys. This was the easiest section of my research.

MIAMI DOLPHINS
Continuing along with the recent theme, the Dolphins haven’t changed much with their jerseys since their inception in as an expansion franchise in the AFL in 1966. The aqua, coral – that’s orange for all the color-challenged men out there – and white have been the staples of the Dolphins’ uniforms forever, and they have remained unchanged throughout the years. To be honest, the only real change with the Dolphins over the decades has been the logo.

1966-1973: The original Dolphins logo had the dolphin’s head going through the orange hoop, which I’m told is supposed to be the sun – how many dolphins do you know that can jump through the sun? – and the Dolphins won both of their Super Bowls during this period. Don Shula arrived with Larry Csonka in Miami in 1970, both men joining QB Bob Griese, and the Dolphins went 10-4, the first winning season and playoff appearance in the franchise’s short history. They lost in Super Bowl VI to the Dallas Cowboys after the 1971 season, completed the perfect season in 1972 with a victory over Redskins in Super Bowl VII, and won Super Bowl VIII after the 1973 season against Fran Tarkenton and the Minnesota Vikings. The Dolphins were untouchable, but they just had to fiddle around with the logo while they were on top.

1974-1996: In 1974, the Dolphins thought they would be cute and update the logo by moving the dolphin’s body to the center of the sunrise instead of the head, breaking the string of luck that they had going for them in the seasons previous. They still went 11-3 in 1974 and made the playoffs, but they wouldn’t in 1975, and by 1976 they finished 6-8 and experienced their first losing season of the decade. They went to the Super Bowl after the shortened 1982 season, but lost in Super Bowl XVII to the Washington Redskins. Dan Marino was drafted in the heralded 1983 class, went 12-4 as a rookie, and after the 1984 season he led the Dolphins to Super Bowl XIX against the 49ers. Though he threw for over 300 yards, he also threw two interceptions and the Dolphins lost 38-16. Marino, and the Dolphins, would never go back. The Dolphins went 219-132-1, 62.2%, over these 23 seasons, making 12 playoff trips and only experiencing 2 losing seasons. Too bad they couldn’t replicate the success from before.

1997-Present: They added navy blue as a primary color in 1997 and included navy drop-shadows around the numerals on the jerseys. They also had the brilliant idea to update the logo, but rather than revert back to the old logo and recapture the success of the past, they decided to make the dolphin larger and more 3-D. This did not do the trick, as Marino retired after the 1999 season without having been back to the Super Bowl, and the Dolphins went 100-92, 52.1%, over the next 12 seasons. They still managed 6 playoff trips, but they also had the 1-15 2007 campaign that featured the excellent passing of Cleo Lemon. The Dolphins managed a rather sizeable turn-around in 2008, going 11-5 with Chad Pennington at quarterback, Tony Sparano at head coach, and Bill Parcells as the puppet-master pulling all the strings. The won the AFC East, the first time they’d done that since 2001. Things might be looking up, but they’ll never be as good as when the dolphin’s head was in the middle of the sun.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS
The Vikings joined the NFL in 1961 after having withdrawn their membership in the AFL. A power-play by the NFL, the ownership group of the Vikings decided to not take a risk with the upstart and instead sign up with the well-established NFL. In the 1961 draft, the Vikings would take Fran Tarkenton in the third round out of the University of Georgia, and the “Purple People-Eaters” era began.

1966-1968: The Vikings main colors have – and always will be – purple, yellow, and white, and it was no different back in 1966. That year turned out to be the final year with Norm Van Brocklin as head coach and Tarkenton was traded after the season to the New York Giants. Bud Grant took the helm, Joe Kapp went under center, and in 1967 the Vikings went 3-8-3. However, in 1968 Grant and Kapp finally meshed, and the Vikings went 8-6 for the franchise’s first winning season and playoff appearance.

1969-1979: They made a minor change to their uniforms in 1969, adding purple stripes to the shoulders of their white jerseys, while the white stripes on the purple jerseys remained around the sleeves. They went 12-2 in 1969, reached Super Bowl IV, which they lost to the Chiefs. Kapp gave way to QB Gary Cuozzo in 1970, and in 1972 Fran Tarkenton returned via trade back to the Vikings. The very next year, Tarkenton led the Vikings to Super Bowl VIII against the Dolphins – and lost – and then led them to Super Bowl IX the next season against the Steelers – and lost – and then one more time to Super Bowl XI against the Raiders – and lost. This was the glory period in the history of the Vikings, as they went 111-45-2, 70.3%, 4 Super Bowl appearances, 9 playoff trips in 11 years, and only one losing season. This was the height of the Purple People Eaters, yet they didn’t deliver the only trophy that matters.

1980-1984: They changed the facemasks from grey to white in 1980, and the Vikings went 9-7 and to the playoffs a year after going 7-9. This period featured the end of Bud Grant’s tenure as coach plus the beginning and end of Tommy Kramer’s career in Minnesota. Like the Colts before them, changing the facemasks away from grey was bad news, as the Vikings went 32-41, 43.8%, with a 3-13 season in 1984 that was the worst they had since 1967.

1985-1995: Also like the Colts, they refused to change the facemasks back to grey, and in 1985 they changed the facemasks to purple. While they improved from 3-13 to 7-9 in 1985, then 9-7 in 1986, but it wasn’t quite enough. Jerry Burns took over as head coach and went through Wade Wilson and Rich Gannon at quarterback through 1991, also presiding over Herschel Walker. Dennis Green – the man who is what we thought he was – took over in 1992, tried Rich Gannon, Jim McMahon, and Warren Moon over the next four seasons, and went to the playoffs from 1992-1994. These were surely good times for the Vikings, going 97-78 (55.4%) with 6 playoff trips in 11 seasons, but they weren’t quite as good as they were back in the 1970s with Bud Grant, Fran Tarkenton, and those grey facemasks.

1996-2005: The Norseman logo was added to the sleeves in 1996, and the Vikings would continue their success with another 9-7 season and a playoff appearance in Brad Johnson’s and Robert Smith’s first years as starters. This was the stretch of time that made Dennis Green look like a legitimate coach, going to the playoffs five years in a row from 1996-2000, including the memorable 15-1 campaign in 1998 with Randall Cunningham, Randy Moss, and Cris Carter, and it’s sad that just a few years later in Arizona he’d lose his mind. Then again, he was fired partway through the 2001 season after having taken the Vikings to the playoffs every year of his tenure but one, being replaced by Mike Tice, who couldn’t live up to Green’s success – that’s scary – and had to deal with the Loveboat scandal. Tice would go to the playoffs once, in 2004, which seems like it was almost by mistake since the Vikings were a mediocre 8-8. He tried to recapture the magic in 2005 by bringing back Brad Johnson, who led the Vikings to several wins in a row and a 9-7 record, but Tice was still let go. Over this time, the Vikings were 91-69, 56.9%. All of this is nice, but wouldn’t you rather have the frequent Super Bowl appearances from the 1970s with those damn grey facemasks? Should never have changed them, man.

2006-Present: The Vikings ushered in a new era in 2006 by welcoming Brad Childress as head coach and giving the uniforms a face-lift. They added trim lines around the shoulders, sleeves, and the sides of the jerseys and pants; the horn was slightly more defined on the helmet; and they took the Norseman head off the sleeves. Purple pants also became an option. The Vikings went 6-10 in 2006, but one year later they drafted Adrian “All Day” Peterson out of Oklahoma, who would set the single-game rushing record at 297 yards, and improved to 8-8. Then, in 2008, the Vikings returned to some semblance of success by going 10-6 and making it back to the postseason. They could improve their fortunes even more if they would copy off the Colts and go back to the grey facemasks …

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
The Patriots were the final team added to the AFL’s lineup in 1960, initially conceived as the Boston Patriots and with “Pat Patriot,” the Minute-Man hiking the football, as the primary logo. Their colors were apple-red, royal blue, and white, which all makes sense since those are American colors and this franchise is supposed to be a throwback to the American Revolution. The Patriots stand as another great example of how a good uniform change can improve the culture, even incrementally.

1966-1992: The Patriots moved to Foxborough, a suburb 22 miles away from Boston, and changed their name to the “New England Patriots” to reflect the move, but I don’t count that as being the same kind of franchise move that happened to the Baltimore Ravens or the Tennessee Titans. Either way, this was not a very good stretch of history for the Patriots. They went 8-4-2 in 1966, then followed that up with 7 straight losing seasons. They reached the playoffs in 1963 with a 7-6-1 record, and didn’t return until 1976, the nation’s bicentennial – coincidence? – with an 11-3 mark. 1976 was the second year that Steve Grogan would start at quarterback in his 16-year career with the team. This period did feature the Patriots’ first trip to the Super Bowl, an utter debacle after the 1985 season when they met the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX and were destroyed 46-10. Tony Eason was the quarterback then, but that would only last for 3 seasons. Overall, the Patriots only made 6 playoff appearances in 27 years and had 13 losing seasons.

1993-1999: Clearly, “Pat Patriot” needed to go. In 1993, the Patriots updated their logo with the stylized Patriot head, changed the helmets from white to silver, and switched the primary color from red to blue. All this welcomed Bill Parcells and Drew Bledsoe – who was drafted in 1993 out of Washington State – to the franchise. They struggled to adapt, going 5-11, but went 10-6 and to the playoffs in 1994, then to the Super Bowl after an 11-5 campaign in 1996. Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers were waiting for the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, and they would go on to win the game and spoil the Patriots pursuit of the ultimate trophy in the NFL. Parcells left after the season, being replaced by Pete Carroll, who lasted three seasons before being released. Looking back now, it’s a boon for USC, but Carroll went to the playoffs two out of three years and never finished with a losing record, so it’s hard to really understand what the Patriots were so pissed about.

2000-Present: Like many teams around the turn of the millennium, the Patriots decided to further update their look by changing from a royal blue to a navy blue and added grey stripes to the uniforms. Bill Belichick arrived in 2000, and so did Tom Brady in the 6^th Round of the NFL Draft. As with the past regime and uniform change, the Patriots struggled to adapt and wound up 5-11. Then, in 2001, Bledsoe went down with a season-ending injury, Brady took over, led the Patriots to an 11-5 record and win over the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. The Belichick-Brady tandem hooked up for two more Super Bowl victories this decade (XXXVIII over the Panthers and XXXIX over the Eagles) and one Super Bowl loss (XLII to the New York Giants). Their combined record is 102-42, 70.8%, with 6 playoff appearances in 9 seasons, an MVP for Tom Brady to go along with his record for touchdown passes in a season, and a perfect 16-0 regular season in 2007. The first uniform alteration changed the losing culture with the Patriots, but it was still too close since the colors remained identical. It took the modernization of the Patriots’ color scheme to complete the culture-adjustment, and that resulted in 3 Super Bowls this decade.

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
The Saints began play in 1967 with Tom Fears – a 1970 HOF inductee who played wide receiver and spent his career with the Los Angeles Rams from 1948-1956, featuring the 1949 season when he set the record for receptions at 77 – and Gary Cuozzo at quarterback. Yes, the same Cuozzo that backed Unitas with the Colts and started two seasons in Minnesota before Tarkenton came back. This tandem led the team to a 3-11 record, as bad as most expansion franchises fare, but it was also the start of what came to be known affectionately in the 1980s as the “Aints.”

1967-1974: The team was new and terrible. Their combined record over this span was 30-77-5, 26.8%, all losing seasons. Archie Manning arrived in 1971 and, although he started 10 of the 14 games, he split time with Ed Hargett at QB, who actually finished with more passing yards than Manning that season. Hargett didn’t play down the next year as Manning became the full-time starter. No matter how little protection Manning had and how many yards he threw for, it was still bad times in the Bayou.

1975-1985: The Saints thought the color of the pants might be to blame, so they switched from gold pants to white and black pants in 1975. The move coincided with the last year of John North’s reign as head coach; he was replaced mid-season by Ernie Hefferle as the Saints sunk to a 2-12 record. The best the Saints could ever do during this period was reach 8-8, a feat they pulled off in 1979 with Dick Nolan – the father of former-49ers head coach Mike Nolan – and Archie Manning, then again in 1983 with Bum Phillips – the father of Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips – and former Super-Bowl-winning QB Kenny Stabler. The combined record was 53-110, 32.95%, with 9 losing seasons in 11 years and an average of 4.81 wins per season. However, a single bright spot occurred in 1985 when Tom Benson purchased the team, and he had changes to make.

1986-1995: Benson waited out the pitiful 1985 season (an awkward 5-11 year that saw Wade take over for his dad, Bum, who was fired mid-season) and he wanted to bring a new attitude to the “Aints.” The gold pants were brought back instead of the white, and an outline of the state of Louisiana with a fleur-de-lis in it was added to the pants in place of the stripes. The elder Jim Mora was hired on, and the Saints actually had a renaissance. Mora cycled through QBs over this period (including Dave Wilson, Bobby Hebert, Steve Walsh, Wade Wilson, and Jim Everett), but all these men had Eric Martin to throw to, who led the team in receiving yards 7 times over these 10 seasons and made the Pro Bowl in 1988. In 1987, a year after the change, the Saints went 12-3 and made the playoffs for the first time in the history of the franchise, then followed that with a 10-6 season in 1988, 9-7 in 1989, and then a series of three playoff appearances from 1990-1992. The combined record over this span was 91-68, 57.2%, 4 playoff trips, 5 winning seasons, only 3 losing seasons, and an average of 9.1 wins per season. If the team ever had a hey-day, this would probably have been it.

1996-1998: 1996 wasn’t a good year for the Saints. The Louisiana logo was replaced with a simple fleur-de-lis on the pants and sleeves, and they changed the numerals to gold on both the black and white jerseys. Of course, the move jinxed Mora. He started out 2-6, was fired and replaced by Rick Venturi, who finished out that awful 3-13 season. Mike Ditka, the Super-Bowl winning coach of the 1985 Bears, was hired in 1997, and people were hoping that the fortunes of the franchise would rise. Ditka’s first two seasons (1997 and 1998) resulted in identical 6-10 campaigns.

1999: The gold numerals drew complaints from referees, coaches, players, and fans for being too difficult to see on the white jerseys, so the Saints changed the numerals to black. Plus, Ditka introduced black pants with a wide, gold stripe with the white jerseys. Ditka knew his job was jeopardy, so he traded away the entire Saints draft in order to take the stand-out Texas RB, Ricky Williams. This proved to be an awful decision, with Williams only rushing for 884 yards and the team finishing 3-13. Benson promptly fired Ditka after the season.

2000-2005: Benson knew something needed to be done, and that his most recent changes to the uniform weren’t equaling enough wins, so in 2000 he designed an improved fleur-de-lis logo, and new head coach Jim Haslett gave the black pants for the white jerseys the axe. Haslett’s regime got off to a great start with Jeff Blake at QB, Ricky Williams at RB, and Joe Horn at WR, going 10-6 and appearing in the postseason for the first time since 1992. Aaron Brooks took over as the full-time starter in 2001, Deuce McAllister started in 2002, and the Saints had a mini-revival. Over this period, they were 45-51, 46.9%, with the one playoff trip and only two losing seasons in 6 years. The 3-13 2005 season spelled doom for Haslett and Brooks, as both were given the heave-ho after it ended.

2006-Present: Benson continued to tinker with the uniforms in the same season that he brought in a new head coach and attempted to redefine the Saints image, this time hiring Sean Payton and signing Pro-Bowler Drew Brees in at quarterback. Benson brought back the Louisiana-logo that was a staple of the 1985-1995 Saints’ success, and the Saints went 10-6 after Hurricane Katrina and made it all the way to the NFC Championship game, which they lost to the Chicago Bears. Still, the Saints formed a great young nucleus by taking Reggie Bush in 2006, and have gone 25-23 in these three seasons with a bright future ahead of them. That outline of Louisiana means a lot to those Saints.

NEW YORK GIANTS
The New York Giants were the other half of that famous 1958 NFL Championship Game, and they were also one of the founding franchises of the NFL, playing their first season in 1925. They have a long history, but for the purpose of this piece we’re only looking at them from 1966 on, a terrible 1-12-1 season with Allie Sherman as head coach and Gary Wood as the leading-passer. Things would get better for the Giants.

1966-1974: The Giants started this era off on the wrong foot, traded for Fran Tarkenton in 1967 to try and make things better, but had to trade him back in 1972 after five seasons and no playoff trips. In fact, over the course of this entire time-period, the Giants were 46-78-2, 36.5%, no playoff appearances, and only two winning seasons (1970 and 1972). Not so great.

1975: The Giants thought the “ny” logo could be the source of their bad luck, so they switched to an upper-case “NY” logo. They also did some wild things to their helmets and jerseys: white stripes were added on either side of the red stripe on the helmets; grey facemasks were changed to white; and the home jerseys had red trim around the numerals with new stripes on the socks, all of which was switched for the away jerseys. This look only lasted this one season as the Giants went 5-9 in Bill Arnsbarger’s last full year as head coach and with Cowboys cast-off Craig Morton at quarterback.

1976-1978: Complementing their move to the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey – no one should ever WANT to go to New Jersey – the Giants decided to abandon the “NY” logo and change it to blue “GIANTS” script with red trim. This wasn’t quite enough for the Giants, as the finished 3-11 in 1976. Arnsbarger was fired after a 0-7 start, and Morton wasn’t asked to come back at QB. The Giants needed time to adjust to their new surroundings in NJ, something that takes eons for most people, and the hilarity of their jerseys combined to a 14-30 record, 31.8%, with no winning seasons. They topped out at 6 wins during this period.

1979: 1979 was a new dawn for the Giants, as Ray Perkins arrived as head coach and Phil Simms became the starter. They replaced the blue pants for away games with white ones, and they finished 6-10.

1980-1999: The Giants finally dispensed with the clown suits in 1980, realizing that they were going to be good again and didn’t want to have those strange stripes on their socks or helmets anymore. The white stripes were removed from the helmets, the stripes on the sleeves became more conservative, and the socks were changed to solid blue. The Giants resisted the change at first, going 4-12 in 1980, but bounced back in 1981 with a 9-7 record and the first playoff appearance since 1963. These new dreads proved to a boon for the Giants for the first decade, which featured 5 of their 8 playoff appearances during this 20-year run, including Super Bowl wins in XXI over the Broncos and XXV over the Bills. Then, from 1990-1999, the Giants only went to the playoffs three times and 6 non-winning seasons. Of course, Bill Parcells and Simms left the Giants after the 1991 season, so that might have something to do with it. Either way, by 1999, the Giants were ready for something new, and they decided to return to the past.

2000-Present: The Giants decided to usher in the new millennium with a return to their old “ny” logo and updated it by surrounding it with red trim. They also changed the blue to a darker shade of royal blue and moved the numbers from the sleeves to the shoulders. They also switched the away-jersey numbers from blue to red, accented with blue trim. The pants were grey with grey belts and included a red stripe on the side flanked by blue stripes. 2000 was Jim Fassels’ third year as head coach, Kerry Collins’ first year as starter, but the first time that these two were paired with Tiki Barber at running back. Naturally, all this change signaled a new era for the Giants, and they went 12-4 in 2000 and appeared in Super Bowl XXXV opposite the Baltimore Ravens. They lost, but they were on the right track as quickly as a logo-change. They won Super Bowl XLII against the Patroits, who at that point had been 18-0, and have a combined record of 80-64, 55.5%, having survived dramatic changes at head coach and Eli Manning’s growing pains at QB.

NEW YORK JETS
The Jets were a charter member of the AFL in 1960, officially the New York Titans until Andres J. Grosser bought the team in 1963, changed the name, changed the coach (Weeb Ewbank took over from Bulldog Turner), and changed the attitude of the team. The Titans had been 19-23, and Grosser had bigger plans for the Jets than that. “Broadway” Joe Namath was drafted in 1965, and with him and Don Maynard, the Jets were ready to take off.

1966-1977: The Jets started off the Super Bowl Era with Ewbank, Namath, and Maynard, a trio that would take the Jets to Super Bowl III, the infamous game that Namath predicted a victory over Unitas and the heavily-favored Colts, then delivered on his guarantee and brought the Jets their first championship after the 1968 season, in which they went 11-3. They followed this up with a 10-4 performance in 1969, making the playoffs again, but the Jets would falter from 1970-1973, seasons in which Namath was hurt and would played 5 games in 1970, 4 in 1971, and 6 in 1973. Their record suffered, and once Namath came back full-time, he was old and too worried about living the high-life in Manhattan, so 1974-1976 were basically a wash, and he retired after he spent the 1977 season with the Rams and played in only 4 games. No matter what, the Jets never got to the top of the mountain other than during this time period, despite an overall record of 80-93-3, 45.5%, and 6 losing seasons in 12 years, including three 3-win seasons in 1974, 1975, and 1976.

1978-1989: The atrocious seasons led the Jets to change their logo in 1978 to an exciting new script with a futuristic Jet over the top of it. The helmets became green and the pants were changed to white. 1978 was the second season for both head coach Walt Michaels and quarterback Richard Todd – joined by Freeman McNeil in 1981 – and the Jets would experience a slight resurgence. One might say that the Jets were gaining altitude. They finished 10-5-1 in 1981, the first winning season and playoff appearance since 1969, then return to the playoffs in 1982. Overall, the Jets’ record was 81-93-2, 46%, with 4 playoff trips in 12 years.

1990-1997: The Jets experienced a serious descent once they added black trim and switched the facemasks to black in 1990, which occurred in Bruce Coslet’s first year as head coach with Ken O’Brien still under center. The team finished 6-10, which became a trend for the Jets over this span. Not even Boomer Esiason or Wayne Chrebet could thwart the Jets’ plunge, as their combined record fell to 45-83, 35.2%, with one playoff trip in 1991 after an 8-8 season. The black facemasks did enough to intimidate opponents at first, but then the Jets nearly crashed and burned. Good thing that Bill Parcells was hired in 1997, a season in which they Jets went 9-7, their first winning season since 1988 (when they went 8-7-1, so a “winning season” by technicality).

1998-Present: To go along with the arrival of Parcells, the Jets decided to hearken back to their glory days in the 1960s by switching their logo back to the original green oval with white lettering. They also changed the shade of green from Kelly to forest, and changed the facemasks back to green. That year, with the immortal Vinny Testaverde – is that guy a Highlander? – at starting QB, the Jets improved to 12-4 and made the playoffs for the first time since 1991. Since then, the Jets experienced more success than the past few decades, but not quite enough to match the 1960s. The logo and uniform changes captured a little bit of luck, but they might need to do more. Their combined record was 82-78, 51.3% - the best winning percentage for any period of the team – with 8 seasons of 8 more wins and only 3 losing seasons in 11 years.

OAKLAND RAIDERS
Al Davis has refused to change anything about the Raiders. Not the logo, not the colors, not the uniforms, not the motto, and not the ownership. It all seemed to work decades ago, but not anymore. Maybe they need to kick the Crypt-Keeper out or they need to change something up. The old attitude isn’t very threatening anymore, even if your fans are the craziest people out there.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
The Philadelphia Eagles were formed in 1933, and their fans have been rowdy bastards ever since.

1966-1968: By 1966, Joe Kuharich was head coach, Norm Snead was quarterback, and the Eagles finished 9-5. Their helmets had silver wings on Kelly green helmets, and the logo featured a bald eagle clutching onto a football. Over these three seasons, the Eagles went 17-24-1, 40.5%, with just that one winning season in 1966. Times weren’t great in Philadelphia, as the Eagles hadn’t been to playoffs since 1960, HOFer Chuck Bednarik’s last year as quarterback.

1969: The Eagles decided to switch things up in 1969 by giving the eagle logo a facelift, making it look more futuristic. It kind of looks like somebody did it on acid, but what can you expect out of Philly? They also changed their helmets to green with white wings at home, and white with green wings on the road. This was the first year of Jerry Williams’ brief stint as head coach, and the Eagles finished 4-9-1.

1970-1972: In 1970, the Eagles decided that switching helmets so often wasn’t the cheapest or most efficient way to run a franchise, no matter how cool you think you are. They decided to stick with white helmets and green wings, finish 3-10-1 in 1970. Williams would be fired halfway through the 1971 season, with Ed Khayat taking over afterwards, finishing that season 6-7-1, and going a woeful 2-11-1 in 1972. Needless to say, Khayat didn’t stay head coach of the Eagles. The question is whether or not the fans decided to kill him, too…

1973: Mike McCormack replaced Khayat in 1973, Roman Gabriel arrived as QB from the Los Angeles Rams, and the Eagles responded in their usual tone with a 5-7-1 campaign. The logo changed to a much more realistic eagle, as someone realized that the other one kind of resembled the eagle that Hitler utilized for the Nazi party.

1974-1984: The Eagles changed back to green helmets with silver wings and white trim, and the Eagles responded by bouncing back for a 7-7 campaign. McCormack and Gabriel would only last another year, and then they would be replaced by Dick Vermeil (in 1976) and Ron Jaworski (in 1977). This launched the Eagles onto the first successful span in the franchise since the late-1940s. Within four years of the change, the Eagles were 9-7 and in the playoffs for the first time since 1960. They would reach the playoffs from 1978-1981, lose Super Bowl XV after the 1980 season to the Oakland Raiders (Al Davis and John Madden’s shining moment), and then revert back to their loser ways. Their combined record was 76-86-1, 46.6%, 6 losing seasons in 11 years, 4 playoff trips.

1985-1995: The Eagles made another change in their uniform when they removed the stripes from the sleeves and added the eagle logo to them, which occurred in the same year that Marion Campbell was fired mid-season and the team finished 7-9, an improvement over the 14-26-1 they’d been from 1982-1984, but not much. Jaworski would last one more year, which happened to be the first year that Buddy Ryan was at the helm. Randall Cunningham replaced Jaworski in 1987, and the Eagles would take flight for another brief time. The Eagles were 96-78-1, 54.9%, with 5 playoff appearances in 11 years and an average of 8.72 wins per season.

1996-2002: Despite a 10-6 record in 1995 featuring coach Ray Rhodes and Rodney Peete, the Eagles decided to alter their logo to an angrier, stylized eagle’s head and switch up their color scheme for the first time in the franchise’s history. The Kelly green was changed to a darker “midnight green,” the silver was practically gone, the wings on the helmet changed to white with mostly grey accents and black trim, and the lettering was changed from calligraphic to block letters. The Eagles went 10-6 in 1996 with Ty Detmer as the starter – never a good idea – but would falter in Rhodes’s last two years (6-9-1 in 1997 and 3-13 in 1998). Andy Reid was hired in 1999, which was the same year that the Eagles drafted Donovan McNabb out of Syracuse, which changed the future of the franchise. Despite a 5-11 year in 1999 in which Doug Pederson saw a majority of the action, the Eagles rebounded with 11-5, 11-5, and 12-4 from 2000-2002. They were 58-53-1, 51.8%, 4 playoff trips in 7 seasons.

2003-Present: The Eagles did a minor change to the uniforms in 2003, but it proved to make a big difference: they added black shadows and silver trims around the numerals on both the home and away jerseys, and the Eagles would repeat with another 12-4 record and trip the NFC Championship Game. They would reach the Super Bowl – XXXIX – after the 2004 season, losing to Brady and the New England Patriots. Afterwards, Terrell Owens, the mercurial wide receiver, would throw Donovan McNabb under the bus, and he would be off the team by 2006. The Eagles were great over this span, going 58-37-1, 60.4%, 4 playoff trips in 6 years, and only one losing season – 2005, in which McNabb would miss 7 games. They tied a game in 2008, and made the playoffs on by a fraction of a percentage point.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS
The Pittsburgh Steelers finalized their logo in 1963, before I started my research, and haven’t changed their uniforms in decades. They have had success every decade since, including an NFL-record 6 Super Bowl titles. However, I still hate them, Chandler still hates them, and that’s that. Moving on.

SAN DIEGO CHARGERS
A charter member of the AFL, the San Diego Chargers were formed in 1960 – originally as the Los Angeles Chargers, they moved to San Diego a year later – and are a rare example of an expansion team having instant success. HOF coach Sid Gillman was head coach, the recently-deceased Jack Kemp was the quarterback, and the Chargers finished 10-4 in their inaugural season. They followed that up in 1961 with a 12-2 record, and then make three straight playoff appearances from 1963-1965. With only six seasons under their belt, the Chargers were 54-26-4, 64.3%. Then, the Super Bowl era hit, and the Chargers fortunes would change.

1966-1973: In 1966, the Chargers switched back to white pants from gold pants. Their helmets were white with the golden bolt and the players’ numbers on them. They also wore the famous powder-blue uniforms that were so popular as throwbacks that the present-day Chargers have included them in their repertoire. Despite a 7-6-1 record, the Chargers couldn’t make the playoffs, a theme that would be repeated throughout the remainder of Gillman’s tenure, which ended in 1969, then he coached again for a brief time in 1971. The Chargers sustained losing seasons from 1970-1973. Their overall record was 49-51-7, 45.8%, no playoff trips.

1974-1984: The Chargers would change their logo in 1974 when they changed the color from powder-blue to royal-blue. The helmets were also changed to blue, the numbers were removed, yet the Chargers kept those awful gold pants. 1974 was also the start of new era as Dan Fouts became the starting QB, and when he was paired with Don Coryell in 1978, the Chargers went 9-7, and followed that in 1979 with a 12-4 season, starting a string of consecutive playoff appearances from 1979-1982. This was a high-point for the Chargers, and it happened when they changed their color scheme.

1985-1987: 1985 was Coryell’s last full season as coach, and they switched from royal blue to navy blue and back to white pants. Plus, they changed their logo to a golden bolt of lightning with the new blue trim. Coryell was fired halfway through the 1986 season, replaced with Al Saunders. Fouts remained at quarterback, growing older and having less success. As ugly as those gold pants were, they were a good-luck charm, and having tossed them aside the Chargers ruined their luck. Their record over this time was 20-27, 42.6%.

1988-1991: They revamped in 1988, switching to an even darker navy blue, changed the bolts to white with blue and gold trim, and had stripes on the pants instead of bolts. It wasn’t a change back to the gold pants, actually removing the gold from their most recognizable feature – the bolt – and the Chargers continued to suffer. Saunders lost his job after going 6-10 in 1988; Dan Henning took over at head coach the next year, then went 6-10, 6-10, and 4-12 from 1989-1991. This was another period of instability at quarterback, with four different leading passers in four years: Mark Malone, Jim McMahon, Billy Joe Tolliver, and John Friesz, in that order. The combined record, as you might expect, wasn’t good: 22-42, 34.3%, all losing seasons.

1992-2006: Bobby Ross became the new head coach in 1992, and the Chargers marked the start of another era by switching back to the bolts on the pants instead of the stripes. The bolts had been better to the Chargers than the stripes, and the return was an instant success: the Chargers went 11-5, the most wins since 1980 and their first playoff appearance since 1982. Stan Humphries started at QB, which he would do over the next 6 seasons, which would include another 11-5 season in 1994 and a trip to Super Bowl XXIX against the 49ers. The Chargers lost 49-26. Ross was replaced with Gilbride in 1997, who lost his job partway through 1998, and there wasn’t another bright spot until Marty Schottenheimer was hired in 2002. Drew Brees started the same year, and Ladainian Tomlinson had a great year in his second season, totaling 1,683 yards. This would lead to playoff appearances in 2004 (12-4) and 2006 (14-2). Overall, it was another mixed-review era for the Chargers, with both the highs and lows, and the biggest highs directly after the uniform switch and attitude change. Their combined record was 117-123, 48.8%, 5 playoff trips and 5 losing seasons in 15 years. One of those losing seasons was 2000’s 1-15 campaign, which was the only year that Ryan Leaf started. That aberration skews the statistics as it was the first and only time the Chargers only won 1 game, but oh well, that’s the power of Ryan Leaf.

2007-Present: Schottenheimer was fired after the 2006 season despite having such a great record in the regular-season. His playoff record wasn’t as stellar, and the fans in San Diego were fed up with it. The Chargers hired Norv Turner to replace him in 2007. To shed the Schottenheimer years, the Chargers changed the font of their script, changed the bolt back to gold with powder-blue and navy trim, returned to the white helmet, and added powder-blue trim to the navy stripe on the white pants. They also moved the bolts from the shoulders to the sleeves. Besides switching back to gold pants, this was a return to the golden era of the Chargers with Dan Fouts, and the Chargers welcomed this era with Phillip Rivers’ second season, an 11-5 record, and an appearance in the AFC Championship Game after defeating Manning’s Colts in their title defense. Turner had a little trouble last year but still won a bunch straight and took the AFC West. Their record is 19-13, 59.4%, and they’re prepared to strike again next season.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
The San Francisco 49ers were a charter member of the AAFC, and was the only other team from that league to join up with the NFL in 1950. Only once did they appear in the playoffs with the AAFC (1949 after a 9-3 season) despite the fact that they went 12-2 in 1948. They struggled at first in the NFL, but by 1957 they would make the playoffs with Y.A. Tittle at quarterback. Of course, their dominant years would come decades later.

1966-1993: The 49ers entered the Super Bowl era with Jack Christiansen coaching, John Brodie passing, and Ken Willard running. They went 6-6-2 in 1966, and they followed that with a 7-7 season in 1967. However, the 49ers didn’t take off until Dick Nolan replaced Christiansen in 1968, leading the 49ers to 3 straight playoff appearances from 1970-1972. 1972 was memorable as the “Ol’ Ball Coach” Steve Spurrier was the starting quarterback. The 49ers uniforms never really changed: they paired gold pants with gold helmets, red and white jerseys, and red-white-red tri-stripes on the sides of the pants and helmets. This classic look lasted through the good times and the bad, which was the rest of the 1970s for the 49ers. Bill Walsh arrived in 1979 with Joe Montana, and the team still finished 2-14, mostly because the West Coast offense was brand-new and it took awhile to master. Plus, Steve DeBerg was the starter, and that’s about as good a proposition as having Ty Detmer start the game. Joe Montana wouldn’t become the full-time starter until 1981, a season in which the 49ers went 13-3 and beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XVI. The 1980s belonged to the 49ers, a time in which they made 8 playoff appearance in 10 years, including 7 straight from 1983-1989, and won 3 more Super Bowls: XIX against the Dolphins, XXIII against the Bengals, and XXIV against the Broncos. Jerry Rice, arguably the greatest player in the history of the NFL, started his record-setting career in 1985, and would start a string of 11 straight 1,000-yard seasons in 1986. Walsh retired after the 1988 season. George Siefert took over in 1989, and went on to win 14 games and beat Elway for the Lombardi trophy. Steve Young became the starter in 1990, which was a bitter-sweet season: the 49ers went 10-6 without Montana, but it was the first time they’d missed the playoffs in 8 years. The monkey had firmly attached itself onto Young’s back, and it would take a miracle to finally throw it off.

1994: The 49ers decided to wear their 1955 throwbacks in 1994 as the NFL asked all teams to wear throwbacks to commemorate the league’s 75^th anniversary. The 49ers blasted off to a fast start with Young, Rice, Ricky Watters, and Deion Sanders, and they petitioned the NFL to wear these throwbacks for the entire season. They finished 13-3, advanced to Super Bowl XXIX against the San Diego Chargers, and defeated them 49-26, becoming the first NFL team to win 5 Super Bowls. Young was the Super Bowl MVP, and he kicked that monkey to the curb.

1995: Then, for whatever reason, the 49ers decided to return to their 1966-1993 uniforms for the 1995 season, and all the luck that had created with the throwbacks in 1994 vanished. The 49ers still managed an 11-5 record and a trip to the playoffs, but at a place that had won 5 Super Bowls in 16 years, that’s just not good enough.

1996-1997: The 49ers realized the error of their ways, and they decided to recapture the glory of the 1994 season by switching their uniforms back to ones like that. They changed from scarlet to a deeper cardinal red, used a more metallic-gold than a beige-gold, added black drop-shadows with gold trim around the numerals, black trim on the sleeves, and added gold trim to the “SF” logo. They wore white pants and the facemasks went from grey to cardinal-red. They went 12-4 in 1996, which also proved to be Seifert’s final season in Frisco. The next year, Steve Mariucci took over, but he had to deal with Jerry Rice’s season-ending injury in Game 1 and the reliance on a young Terrell Owens in the passing game. The 49ers upped their wins to 13, but they were ousted in the playoffs by Brett Favre and the Packers for the second straight year. Their record was 25-7, 78.1%.

1998-2008: The team switched to metallic gold pants instead of white in 1998, and it proved the difference-maker: they went 12-4 and finally beat the Packers in the playoffs on Terrell Owens’ game-winning grab. Just as a reminder, T.O. cried after that game. Not such a hard-ass, are we? Those uniforms lasted until now, and the feeble, and inadequate, attempt to recapture the glory days of the 1980s backfired horribly. Their combined record over this time was 76-100, 43.2%, 3 playoff trips in 11 seasons, with the remaining 8 being losing seasons. They went through four different head coaches and endured the Jeff Garcia-T.O. controversy, which resulted in both players leaving town.

2009: In a further attempt to recapture the glory days, the 49ers are ditching the cardinal-red from the 1990s and returning to a much lighter scarlet-red in 2009. The stripes on the helmet are going back to red-white-red, and the facemasks are going grey again. That’s always the ticket to success, so we’ll see how it plays out. Hopefully Michael Crabtree can channel his inner-Rice, and they’ll be set.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS
Unlike the Chargers, the Seattle Seahawks did what expansion franchises are supposed to do in their first year: lose. And lose they did. In 1976, the Seahawks finished 2-12 with Jack Patera as head coach, Jim Zorn as the quarterback, Sherman Smith at running back, and HOFer Steve Largent at wide-receiver. From there, the Seahawks would piddle away in the Pacific Northwest, until they made a major change.

1976-1982: Like I said, the Seahawks were awful. They managed 9-7 seasons in 1978 and 1979, but no playoff appearances. Patera even managed to get himself fired during a strike-shortened season in 1982, which has to a feat in and of itself. Zorn, Smith, and Largent were the key offensive contributors, and they compiled a 39-62 record, 38.6%, 5 losing seasons in 7 years.

1983-2001: Chuck Knox took control of the team in 1983, Dave Krieg was the new guy under center, Curt Warner – no relation to Kurt Warner – carried the rock, and Largent continued to man the outside. The Seahawks moved the numbers from the sleeves to the shoulders, slapped the Hawk head onto the stripes of the sleeves, and the team went 9-7 and made the playoffs for the first time in the franchise’s history. The next year, 1984, the Seahawks set a franchise-record for wins going 12-4, and wouldn’t have another losing season until 1989. This uniform change brought about a spike in the success of the franchise, but that good feeling would run out by 1992, when Tom Flores took control and went 2-14, starting a string of pitiful seasons in the Emerald City. Dennis Erickson tried his hardest after Flores, then gave way to Holmgren in 1999, who started Jon Kitna and Ricky Watters, went 9-7, and crashed the postseason for the first time in 11 years. That high fizzled out in 2000 as the Seahawks went 6-10. The next year, Holmgren decided to start Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander, and they went 9-7 in 2001. It was clear that the Seahawks would be entering a new chapter in their history after such terrible performances in the past decade, so they thought they needed a little update.

2002-Present: The Seahawks made the jump to elite in 2002 when they switched from the AFC to the NFC and marked the switch with totally new uniforms. They went from royal blue to a “Seahawk blue” – the lighter blue – and “Seahawk navy” – naturally, the darker blue – plus neon green piping. The helmets changed from silver to “Seahawk blue,” and the logo was changed to be more forward-looking, aggressive, and with a new pupil. The change took a year to fully-seep in, as the Seahawks went 7-9 in 2002 and then 10-6 in 2003, starting a string of 5 straight playoff appearances and NFC West division championships from 2004-2007. After a 13-3 season in 2005, the Seahawks appeared opposite the Steelers in Super Bowl XL, which they would sadly lose. Still, a radical change in the team’s uniforms, logo, and attitude resulted in access to the upper-echelon of the NFL, and besides that 4-12 abomination in 2008, the Seahawks have been great in their new uniforms.

ST. LOUIS RAMS
The Rams were founded as the Cleveland Rams in 1936, moving to Los Angeles in 1946, and finally settling in St. Louis in 1995. They were the first professional franchise to paint logos on their helmets, as halfback Fred Gerhke, a commercial artist in the offseason, decided to paint ram’s horns on his helmet for the 1948 season, back in the leatherhead era. The horns have stayed ever since, and every team in the NFL, besides the Cleveland Browns – kind of ironic, huh? – have also added logos to their helmets. The Rams moved to the City of Angels because they were tired of having to compete in the same city with AAFC-dominant Browns, so they took off. In 1964, the Rams switched to a very simple royal blue and white combination, ditching the gold theme that they’d had since their inception, but for the purposes of this analysis, we’ll start with the blue and white.

1966-1972: The Rams entered the Super Bowl era with George Allen as head coach and Roman Gabriel as quarterback, both taking over in 1966. Their first season was a success (8-6), and so were all the seasons after it. They were 11-1-2 in 1967, 10-3-1 in 1968, 11-3 in 1969, and 9-4-1 in 1970. They went to the playoffs in 1967 and 1969. Allen moved on to the Redskins in 1971, with Tommy Prothro taking over for the final two seasons of this time period. The Rams went 8-5-1 and 6-7-1, missing the playoffs both times, which also turned out to be the final two years of Gabriel’s career in LA. Their combined record was 63-29-5, 64.9%, and only one losing season.

1973-1980: Owner Carroll Rosenbloom hated the blue-and-white jerseys, so in 1973 he returned to the old blue and gold of yesteryear. The pants changed from white to yellow-gold, the horns on the helmet became yellow-gold, and stripes were added to the sleeves. Also, the facemasks became grey. The move also occurred in the same season that Chuck Knox took over as head coach, and the Rams magically went 12-2 and returned to the playoffs. This was a special time for the Rams, as every year of this span they made it to the playoffs and never won less than 9 games. Ray Malavasi took over for Knox in 1978, but nothing changed. They won the NFC West 7 straight years, and they lost in Super Bowl XIV to the Steelers after the 1979 season. Their overall record was 86-31-1, 72.9%.

1981-1994: Then, the Rams committed a mistake that almost every team has been guilty of, switching from grey facemasks to blue facemasks in 1981. The move was supposed to coincide with the Rams’ move to Anaheim, though they kept “Los Angeles” as their official name, but it only resulted in a 6-10 season and the first time they’d missed the playoffs since 1972. They ruined Malavasi’s luck, and he would be fired after a 2-7 year during 1982. John Robinson was hired as coach in 1983, and he didn’t seem to mind the blue facemasks as he rode Eric Dickerson to a 9-7 record that year. Dickerson set the single-season rushing record in 1984 at 2,105 yards, and the Rams won 10 games. Jim Everett took over at quarterback in 1986 and finished out their time in Los Angeles, which even featured the return of old coach Chuck Knox from 1992-1994, which was extremely lackluster (a combined 15-33). The blue facemasks produced a few good years, but wore out its welcome by 1989, and the Rams couldn’t recover. Their record over this period was 98-118, 45.4%, 6 playoff appearances in 14 years, 1 division championship (1985), and 8 losing seasons (including 5 straight from 1990-1994). The Rams time in Los Angeles was up.

1995-1999: The Rams moved to St. Louis for the 1995 season, filling the void that the Cardinals created by moving to Arizona in 1988. The Rams changed their logo to reflect the move, adding the infamous Arch. Rich Brooks was welcomed to the team as coach, and the team went 7-9, the most wins they’d had in 6 seasons. Dick Vermeil arrived in 1997, and then Kurt Warner became a star in 1999 after starter Trent Green went down with an injury early in the season, and he led the Rams to a 13-3 record and a victory over the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV. Their record was 35-35 over this stretch, but they finished on a high-note after suffering from the after-effects of the move.

2000-Present: Then, the Rams did something that hadn’t been done in the history of the NFL: after winning a Super Bowl, they decided to change their uniforms and logo entirely. They claimed that they had closed the book on the losing-1990s and wanted to enter the new millennium with a new look, so they ditched the yellow-gold for “New Century gold” (metallic gold) and the royal blue for “Millenium blue” (navy-blue). The numbers were moved from the sleeves to the shoulders, the new ram’s head logo was added to the sleeves, and the ugly yellow-gold pants were retired. Vermeil left the Rams, Mike Martz took over, and the uniform change doomed the Rams: they went 10-6 in 2000, reached Super Bowl XXXV, then lost to the New England Patriots. If they would’ve just kept their old uniforms, I contend that they would’ve won, and think about that would’ve changed the course of this decade if Brady hadn’t won that first Super Bowl. This move’s effects were felt for years, as their combined record was 70-74, 48.6%, 4 playoff trips in 9 years (including after the 8-8 2004 season) and 4 losing seasons, which included the pathetic 3-13 2007 and 2-14 2008. They changed, and they squandered away all their luck. Hope you’re happy, Rams.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers came into the league the same year that the Seahawks did, 1976, and they actually performed worse than the Seahawks. That’s right, the Buccaneers finished their inaugural season 0-14, which, until these 2008 Lions, was the worst performance by any team in the NFL. It was a perfect storm of failure for the Bucs, as Steve Spurrier was the starting quarterback for that season, John McKay – who had been a very successful coach at USC after compiling a record of 120-40-8 with 4 national championships from 1960-1975 – began the conversation of how successful college coaches shouldn’t go to the NFL (his career NFL record was 44-88), and their uniforms made you want to puke. Their “Florida orange” uniforms were nicknamed the “Creamsicles,” and they had a serial rapist named “Bucco Bruce” as their logo. Cartoonist Lamar Sparkman created the logo, and should have been murdered after he did. However, the Bucs stand as one of my best examples, so let’s look.

1976-1996: The Buccaneers were a perpetually laughing-stock for the first 21 years of their existence. Their uniforms were awful, their logo wanted to sexually-assault you, and they couldn’t win any damn games. They had three playoff appearances in this span, all under McKay, in 1979, 1981, and 1982, all with Doug Williams as the starting quarterback. Of course, even when the Buccaneers had a good thing going, they got into a contract dispute with Williams, and he bolted for the USFL. That’s right, the USFL. The future Super Bowl MVP would rather play in the USFL than in Tampa Bay. That’s saying something. The Buccaneers had losing seasons from 1983-1996, an unbelievable anti-achievement. During that time, they never won more than 7 games in one season, and that only happened once (1995). Steve DeBerg, Steve Young, Vinny Testaverde, Craig Erickson, and Trent Dilfer all had shots at QB, and none of them could do anything to make the Buccaneers any better. Their combined record over these 21 seasons was 100-223-1, 30.9%, and a total of 18 losing seasons. Help arrived in 1996 with the hire of Tony Dungy, but the attitude-change needed to be made official.

1997-Present: The Buccaneers decided to shed their god-awful past in 1997 by changed their entire color scheme and switched their logo away from Bucco Bruce the Ripper. They wanted to make their uniforms look more intimidating, so they changed their colors to red, pewter, black, and a dark orange, and started to use a modified “Jolly Roger” flag with a skull and crossed sabers as their logo. The effect was immediately, as the Buccaneers went 10-6 in 1997 and went to the playoffs. Just for a little perspective, this was the first winning season since the 5-4 campaign in 1982, and tied for the most wins in a season in the franchise’s history. All of this the EXACT same season they decide to switch things up. They would average 9 wins per season under Dungy, who would leave for the Colts in 2002. Jon Gruden took over, and picked up right where Dungy left off, going 12-4 that season and winning Super Bowl XXXVII over the Oakland Raiders, spurning Al Davis and sending him into a tail-spin he’s never recovered from. They won 4 division championships during this time, 3 more than they did in the last period. Their combined record over this period is 105-87, 54.7%, with twice as many playoff appearances in half the time and only three losing seasons in 11 years. This has been a great time in Tampa, so much so that Buccaneers fans are angry when their team finishes 9-7 and still makes the playoffs. How quickly they do forget…

TENNESSEE TITANS
The Tennessee Titans are another special case, as they switched cities from Houston to Nashville in 1997 and changed their entire mascot in 1999. The Houston Oilers were an original AFL team, founded in 1960, but for the purposes of this discussion I’m treating them like the Baltimore Ravens and only looking at their history while they’ve been in Memphis and Nashville. I only wanted to look at this team from when they became the Titans in 1999, as this represented an entire new incarnation of the franchise, but I feel that looking at the 1997 and 1998 seasons will provide some perspective for the team.

1997-1998: Jeff Fisher, Steve McNair, Eddie George, and Frank Wycheck made the move from Houston to Tennessee, and they managed two straight 8-8 seasons in their new city. The Oilers peak was from 1987-1993 with Warren Moon as the quarterback and Jerry Glanville/Jack Pardee as head coaches, but all of that success washed up by the time the Oilers moved.

1999-Present: Then, something amazing happened. In 1999, they changed their mascot from the Oilers to the Titans, changed their logo from an oil derrick to the infamous “flaming thumbtack,” and changed their colors from light blue, red, and white to “Titans blue” (the lighter blue), navy blue, scarlet, and white. That year, the Titans improved miraculously to 13-3 and appeared in Super Bowl XXXIV opposite the St. Louis Rams, which they lost 23-16 after Kevin Dyson’s diving stretch for the end-zone in the final seconds came up short. The transformation was miraculous, resulting in the franchise’s only Super Bowl appearance and several prosperous years under Jeff Fisher, despite the rotating cast around him. Their combined record over this period is 96-64, 58.8%, 6 playoff trips in 10 years and only three losing seasons. Not too shabby. And if Vince Young could realize even half the potential he had coming out of Texas, then the Titans should be contenders for years to come.

WASHINGTON REDSKINS
The Redskins broke into the NFL in 1932 as the Boston Braves, switching to the Boston Redskins in 1933, and moving to Washington in 1937. The Redskins are only one of two teams to have an official team marching band – the Ravens being the other one – and were one of the first teams to have their own fight song, called “Hail to the Redskins.” Their uniforms have changed only minutely over the decades. Their colors have not, but the combination of colors with pants and jerseys, as well as frequent logo changes, prompts discussion of the franchise.

1966-1969: The Redskins started their time in the Super Bowl era wearing gold pants and burgundy and white jerseys. 1966 was the first year that Otto Graham, the legendary Browns quarterback, was the head coach of the Redskins, going 7-7 followed by two losing seasons. He was replaced in 1969 by Vince Lombardi, who would raise the Redskins’ record up to 7-5-2, but he didn’t return and passed away early on in the 1970 season. Their record over this span was 24-27-5, 42.9%, no playoff appearances.

1970-1971: Bill Austin filled in at head coach for 1970, going 6-8. This was also the last year that HOFer Sonny Jurgenson started at QB. Plus, it just so happened to be the year that the Redskins changed their primary logo from a spear to a burgundy “R” with feathers. George Allen, the HOF coach, took over in 1981 and brought the Redskins up to 9-4-1, and went to the playoffs, with Billy Kilmer starting at QB for the first time. Their record was 15-12-1, 53.6%.

1972-1977: The Redskins ditched the “R” logo and replaced it with a chief’s head inside the same circle with feathers coming off of it. George Allen continued dominating the NFL: all of these seasons were winning seasons, they went to the playoffs 4 times in 6 years, and appeared in Super Bowl VII against the undefeated Miami Dolphins after the 1972 season. Logo change = Super Bowl appearance in the same season. Not bad. Their record was 58-26, 69.0%.

1978-1981: In 1978, the Redskins decided to tweak the facemasks, switching them from grey to gold. This has proved to altogether be a terrible decision, but nobody told the Redskins. Jack Pardee took over for Allen in the same season, Joe Theismann became the starter, and John Riggins became the team’s leading rusher all in 1978, too. Their record fell to 8-8, and the curse of the non-grey facemasks continued. Despite having two winning seasons and averaging 8 wins a season, the Redskins didn’t go back to the playoffs. Their record was 32-32, 50%. Joe Gibbs sauntered into town in 1981 and took the reins.

1982: Gibbs decided it was time to start changing things, so in 1982, a year after he took over, he switched the logo to face left instead of right, and made the feathers curve around the circle. He also decided that the Redskins should wear white jerseys over burgundy pants for home games, which defied the typical NFL convention of colored jerseys at home. The season went swimmingly, as the Redskins raced out to an 8-1 record in the strike-shortened season and won Super Bowl XVII against the Miami Dolphins. Still, the logo wasn’t a fan favorite, and the strike must’ve been bad news, because the logo didn’t stay too long.

1983-2000: Gibbs switched the logo back to the 1972-1982 logo, and they shouldn’t have done that. In 1983, the Redskins finished 14-2, but instead of winning the Super Bowl like they did the year before, they lost in XVIII to the Oakland Raiders. Spoiled the luck from the last logo. The Redskins wouldn’t return and win another Super Bowl until 1987, a full 5 years to adjust to the old logo. They beat the Broncos in Super Bowl XXII and then the Bills in Super Bowl XXVI. Then Gibbs retired after the 1992 season, replaced by Richie Petitbon and Norv Turner, neither of which had much success. This logo had run its course, and it was time for the Redskins to try something else. Their record here was 162-124-1, 56.4%, 8 playoff trips in 18 years, and 5 losing seasons, 4 of which occurred from 1993-1998.

2001-2003: Marty Schottenheimer replaced Turner in2001, and he decided that he wanted to wear burgundy jerseys and white pants at home, defying Gibbs’ tradition, and the Redskins would suffer. They stalled at 8-8 in 2001. Steve Spurrier took over in 2002, continued to adhere to Schottenheimer’s rule, and went 7-9 and 5-11 over the next two seasons. What made it worse was that he thought he had a legitimate starter in Patrick Ramsey, which proved to be one hell of a sham. The combined record was 20-28, 41.7%.

2004-Present: Joe Gibbs was rehired by owner Dan Snyder in 2004, and he reasserted his authority by reinstating the white-shirts/burgundy-pants for home games strategy, and they became a better team than before but not quite as great as they first were under Gibbs. They returned to the playoffs in 2005 (10-6) and 2007 (9-7), and then Jim Zorn replaced Gibbs as he decided he’d rather stick to owning a NASCAR team than run an NFL team anymore. Zorn started hot in Washington, but finished a weak 8-8. There’s still time for the Redskins if Jason Campbell can keep developing at QB, and if they can keep the magic of Gibbs’ uniforms.

And lastly, let’s inspect the history of Detroit Lions uniform and logo changes:

DETROIT LIONS
The Lions started off as the Portsmouth Spartans, joining the NFL in 1930. They moved to Detroit and became the Lions in 1934. In 1948, new head coach Bo McMillin, who was previously the coach of Indiana University, added maroon as an official team color, but the team went 2-10 and the maroon never came back. Before and since, the official Lions’ colors have been “Honolulu blue” and silver. Most important to remember, though, is that Bobby Layne, the quarterback for the Lions that led them to three NFL championships throughout the 1950s, was traded in 1958 and cursed the Lions, saying that they would not win for 50 years. He’s been right so far, and that curse is supposed to be lifted this season. But could it also have to do with the logo change?

1966-1969: The Lions started the Super Bowl era with Harry Gilmer as head coach, Karl Sweetan as the leading-passer, and some guy named Tom Nowatzke as the leading rusher. In 1966, they finished 4-9-1, and the rest of the 1960s was similarly unkind to the Lions. Joe Schmidt took over the team in 1967 and managed a 9-4-1 record in 1969, but the team still couldn’t make the playoffs, and someplace Bobby Layne was laughing. Their record over this stretch was 22-28-6, 34.4%.

1970-1998: The Lions then changed their primary logo away from the medieval Lion and replaced it with the more recognizable blue lion outline. They also added white as an official color for the team and used it for trim on the logo and jerseys. The change was enough to spark a 10-4 season coupled with a playoff appearance with Greg Landry as the starting QB, but that effect faded quickly and the Lions returned to obscurity. They wouldn’t go to the playoffs for the rest of the 1970s, made it twice in the 1980s (1982 and 1983), and then paired Barry Sanders with Wayne Fontes in 1989 for their first full season together, and the fortunes of the Lions shifted, but not by much. Sanders carried the team quite literally: he went to the playoffs five times in the 1990s with four different quarterbacks (Erik Kramer in 1991, Rodney Peete in 1993, Dave Krieg in 1994, Scott Mitchell in 1995 and 1997). Then, just shy of Walter Payton’s all-time rushing yardage record, Sanders retired after the 5-11 1998 season. Bobby Ross replaced Fontes in 1997, going to the playoffs in his first year and then causing the best player in the history of the Lions to retire the very next season. Their combined record was 198-238-4, 45.0%, 8 playoff trips and 16 losing seasons in 29 years.

1999-2002: The Lions altered their uniforms slightly in 1999, trying desperately to make their fans forget about Sanders and think more about the Lions that were left. They moved the numbers from the sleeves to the shoulders, and, somehow, the Lions managed to return to the playoffs in 1999 – at 8-8 – with Gus Frerotte as the leading passer and Greg Hill as the leading rusher (topping out at 542 yards). The millennium turn didn’t work well for the Lions: 22-42, 34.4%, including Marty Mornhinweg’s atrocious seasons of 2-14 in 2001 and 3-13 in 2002. 2002 was also the first year that Joey Harrington was tapped as the full-time starter, which didn’t prove to work too much.

2003-2008: Matt Millen, the now notorious Lions executive who was hired in 2000, decided to make the team tougher by adding black trim to the logo and introducing black as an official color. He created black jerseys that became the Lions’ alternates, and the feeble move proved fruitless: Steve Mariucci sucked in three seasons, Dick Jauron did poorly as his replacement halfway through 2005, and Rod Marinelli oversaw the worst single season in the history of the NFL, going 0-16 in 2008. Millen blew multiple drafts by taking wide receivers in the top-10 that didn’t pan out – Charles Rogers in 2003, Roy Williams in 2004, Mike Williams in 2005, and Calvin Johnson in 2007, who’s arguably the only one that was a success for the Lions – and ran the team into the ground. Their record during this period proves it: 26-70, 27.1%, all losing seasons.

2009: The team has altered their logo and script, they’ve drafted a new franchise quarterback in Matthew Stafford, Jim Schwartz was hired on as the new head coach, and the supposed “Curse of Bobby Layne” has run its course. While little logo changes have been known to push a team over the hump, this logo change doesn’t come at an opportune time for the Lions. Obviously the only direction they could go from here is up, and the abandonment of the black to return to the better times is a good sign, I still don’t think that the Lions will achieve anything substantial this season. This is clearly a new era for the team, and we’ll see how it plays out.

CONCLUSIONS: Sports in general are very superstitious, and teams will do whatever they can to manufacture their own luck, shedding old, failing looks in favor of exciting new ones in order to present a more hopeful outlook for the team. These uniform and logo changes typically lead to at least short-term success, but the major shifts in color schemes (Tampa Bay as the prime example) could lead to sustained success. Teams that try to change their looks after having been high-achievers (St. Louis Rams in 2000) ruin the luck they were having with their past get-ups, and cannot repeat the winning ways that they had previously. The changes that yield the best results also coincide with the arrival of new head coaches and a star quarterback, seemingly rounding out a complete shift into another period in a team’s history. The Lions have done exactly that, but it isn’t drastic enough to predict long-term success. The best examples for uniform and logo changes altering the history of franchises is when you can detect a clean break with the past, like the Seahawks changing their color-scheme and logo, or the Titans changing everything about them, or the Denver Broncos updating their look, no matter how much their fans hated it at first. I think the Lions would be best served by letting Stafford sit for a year, but I think you’re too keen on an instant turnaround to wait, and it’ll hurt. Expect the Lions to improve, but don’t expect a trip to the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl in 2009.

Within 5 years of the change, though, it’s anybody’s game.

- Beck

The Dawg Staph

Monday, July 27, 2009

Cleveland Brown's Top 10 Prospects, or another article in futility (Chandler)

Monday, July 20, 2009

Winslow Opens his Big Freakin' Mouth (Chandler)

Friday, May 15, 2009

Detroit's New Look - Beck

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