Plus, a plan to fix the Saints uniforms going forward
When the New Orleans Saints take on the Kansas City Chiefs this evening for Monday Night Football, they’ll be wearing their “Color Rush” uniforms, with their alternate black helmet, which was introduced in 2022.
The uniform was introduced all the way back in 2016, when the NFL was under Nike’s grand plan to give every team a solid color uniform to be worn for Thursday Night Football games.
While never intended as a throwback, the old gold striping and numbers was meant to evoke the original Saints’ white jersey look from their inaugural season in the NFL.
It was generally very well received, and folks at the time thought this might signal a return to the old gold the team had once worn, but had over the years morphed into more of a metallic or Vegas gold. Of course, the CR uniform was paired with the Saints regular helmet, which was decidedly not old gold, but still the fact that Nike could produce the more appealing shade of gold gave uni lovers hope that maybe changes to the Saints uniforms were afoot.
Such was not the case.
The Saints would continue to wear the CR fauxbacks at least once a season every year since.
In 2022, to the joy of many, the NFL ended the “single shell rule,” allowing teams to wear alternate helmets for the first time in a decade. The Saints were one of the first teams to jump on the alt-helmet train, introducing an alternate black shell which they would pair with their CR alternates. And while the specs didn’t change, it appeared that their uniform numbers and stripes took on an even more old gold tint.
While the CR uniform was originally designed to be one color (in the Saints’ case, all white), over the years the NFL became more and more lax when it came to hosiery (it’s now basically a free-for-all — not just for CR uniforms, but for all uniforms). That led the Saints to giving players the option to pair the CR uniform with black socks.
This produced a much better looking uniform. Of course, not all the players would wear the black socks, but for those who did, it made for a beautiful sight.
The Saints are one of those NFL teams who are long overdue for a redesign, and they already have two uniforms that they should either wear permanently, or use as the basis of a redesign.
Two you say? Yes, because, off and on since 1994(!), the Saints have also occasionally worn actual throwbacks, which are similar to, but distinct from, their normal uniforms.
When it comes to the black throwbacks, the Saints have been one of the most inconsistent teams in terms of usage. They’ve worn them exactly eight times since 1994. Here are those wearings.
- 1994 (twice), against the Bucs and Giants
- 2002, against the Bucs
- 2011 (twice), against the Bucs and Texans
- 2016, against the Lions
- 2022, against the Rams
- 2023, against the Panthers
Now, most people with eyes would agree that the throwback is a much superior uniform compared to the Saints’ regular home uniform. The one obvious flaw, of course, is the shade of gold on the helmet isn’t even close to that on the jerseys and pants. So, the first thing the Saints would need to do is to fix that (easier said than done, I know).
So my proposal for the Saints redesign, going forward is pretty simple: fix it so that the gold helmet match the gold used on the jerseys and pants. And it is entirely possible to make the helmet in an old gold shade, as Vanderbilt has shown.
If the Saints make that one change, they would already have the makings of a very solid uniform set. They would be then be able to pair the black jerseys with white pants, and the white jerseys with gold pants. Since the team seems to love going all-black at home, the could add a pair of striped black pants, like those worn back between 1976 and 1985.
The team could then create an alternate uniform using the throwback black jerseys and pants, and pair that with the black alternate helmet (much the way the Panthers have done).
The Saints not only love going all-black at home, they seem to love going all-white on the road. In fact, after wearing gold pants for all three pre-season games this year, they’ve worn their all-black ensemble three time, and the all-white once. We’ve yet to see their gold pants in a regular season game in 2024.
If they were to make the current CR their primary road, they could continue the all-white without any adjustments.
And because this is the NFL, where it seems every team must have at least one alternate, the team could reintroduce a gold jersey, which was worn for exactly one game in 2002, against the Vikings.
That would provide the team with several different uniform options, all of which would be better than their current offerings. In fact, back when I was doing my “2+3+2+3” Project, I had created new throw/fauxbacks for the Saints based exactly on these ideas:
I think most of us would agree that the Saints, especially when they go all-black or all-white, have one of the worst uniforms in the NFL, but they also have at their disposal all the tools to do a redesign using the throw/fauxbacks as a good starting point.
I’m looking forward to the Saints in their CR uniforms tonight (and hoping a majority of the players go with black socks). Let’s hope it’s a taste of what’s to come!
Your thoughts?