Some Thoughts on the Denver Broncos Alternate Uniform

Good Thursday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a good Wednesday.

Before we get into the Broncos, ICYMI, I ran a short article yesterday afternoon that I’d love to make into a new feature, if you guys will indulge me — a reader shared his thoughts on on how Uni Watch has influenced him over the past decades. I’m sure some of you have similar thoughts or experiences over the years, and I’d love to hear from you. Perhaps you read a piece Paul (or I) wrote that you used in a “non-uni” interaction or setting, or you bought something recommended by Brinke in “Collector’s Corner,” or maybe you attended a UW gathering and became fast friends with another UW reader. It could be anything. Maybe you made one of the recipes featured in “Culinary Corner” (Hmmm…we have a few “corners” here…) or you began designing uniforms or you started tracking the uniform tendencies of your favorite team(s). If you’d like to share any of the ways UW has been an influence on your life, please shoot me an e-mail ([email protected])!

Now then.

I had hoped to write about the Broncos new alternate uniform which was worn on Monday Night Football against the Browns, but there was a bunch of other uni news on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday was quite a “slow uni news day,” so I wanted to make a few observations about the Bronco MNF unis today.

When the Broncos first unveiled their new uniform set, I was initially unimpressed, thinking they weren’t “traditional” enough, and worried that they’d added a few too many doo-dads and “bumper stickers,” and really missed out on an opportunity to make their new throwbacks their primary uniforms. I was especially worred that they’d have a tendency to want to go with same color pants/hosiery with their several uniform options.

But I also wanted to see them on the field of play and in action. There were definitely a few combos I was excited to see. And while the team stuck to their orange and white primaries for the first 12 weeks, they did break out a few different pants/socks combos. They wore same color pants/hosiery in their first seven games (with the exception of their throwbacks in Week 5), but then went four consecutive weeks where they went with contrasting socks and pants, which looked much better. I began warming up to the new uniforms, even starting to like the sleeve cap with its unique design, and the asymmetrical pants stripes didn’t seem so radical. Denver had a new look, and they were owning it. The final piece of the uni-puzzle was to see their alternate helmet and blue jersey, which they wore Monday night.

Even though the sleeve cap design isn’t especially visible in long shots, I wanted to see it on the blue jerseys, because it is the one sleeve cap that gets the colors “right.” As I noted on Monday afternoon, according to the Broncos, their new colors are “Sunset Orange,” “Summit White,” and “Midnight Navy,” and the sleeve design “represents the sun rising and setting behind the mountain peak, and the dawn of a new day.” With the blue jersey, we can envision a snow capped mountaintop (white), with an orange sun setting behind it, while the blue serves as a dark shadow from the setting sun…

I get what they’re going for, but in many closeups I saw during the game, the location of the maker’s mark absolutely ruined any image of a setting/rising sun. Not only that, but it seemed that the majority of the players quickly had their jersey sleeves shift or ride up, thereby kinda ruining the storytelling.

The white helmet is new this year.

The team did have an alternate white helmet the past couple years, which they paired with their all-orange color rush uniform. That helmet featured the old “D” logo and a blue/orange/blue stripe. The new helmet takes its design cues from the team’s primary blue helmet, including its odd mini-triangle striping pattern. Since the decal on both the new primary blue and white helmets are the same, I was worried it wouldn’t be particularly visible.

Up close it’s fine, as the blue outline on the white horse is easily visible. But as one got further away from the action, the decal became less and less visible.

Watching on TV on the long shots, the helmet appeared almost solid white. I’m not sure if inverting the colors on the decal might have helped.

Likewise, the “stripe” formed by the mini-triangles was barely visible. The fact that it begins halfway up the back and stops at the crown of the helmet doesn’t help.

While I’m not averse to white helmets, per se, I’m not feeling this for the Broncos. And since fully one half of the NFL has a white helmet option, this just makes them look like a lot of other teams with an alternate white helmet. The fact that the Broncos went mono-blue below the neck, topped with a white helmet, reminded me a lot of what the Chargers wore the previous Monday night.

Speaking of mono — my own opinion is that if you’re going to go dark mono, the helmet needs to either match the color you’re wearing, or be darker. White or light colored helmets paired with a dark mono uniform just looks off to my eye.

With all that being said, I definitely liked the jerseys for the most part. I am a BIG fan of orange, but I am an even bigger fan of the blue jerseys. The NOB are big and easy to read, and likewise, the white numbers with orange outline are easy to read, even at distance. If one can ignore the maker’s mark and the sleeve caps aren’t askew, the cap design looks best on the blue jersey.

Unfortunately, this will be the only time this season the Broncos will wear the white helmet and blue jersey (as both are “alternates” and the Broncos will wear throwbacks one more time this year for their three alt max). I was really hoping they’d have paired the blue jersey with white pants and blue socks — a look they teased a day before they announced they’d go white/blue/blue/blue. And while I’d never not want them to wear their throwbacks, I do hope next year they wear the white/blue/white/blue combo they teased. I’d also love to see them pair their blue helmets with the blue jerseys, but I’m not sure that’s in the plans.

All in all, I wasn’t a huge fan of the Monday Night Football look, but I think the blue jersey has great potential. Check out this photo of a player sporting a white untucked undershirt — imagine the shirt is a pair of white pants. How good would this look?

What did you guys think of the Broncos new alternates? How about the helmet? Did you like the combo?

Love to have your thoughts.

Guess the Game from the Scoreboard

Guess The Game…

…From The Scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from Jack Forrest.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date and location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

Guess the Game from the Uniform

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

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

Today’s GTGFTU comes from Perry Tailor.

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

And finally…

…that’s it for the early lede. I should have at least a couple more articles today, so please do check back again!

Everyone have a great Thursday and I’ll catch you back here in the morning.

Peace,

PH