So, it turns out that White is not really in either team's official color scheme...
Another week, another win. When will the Pro Bowl of unlikely prediction systems be held?
Simply, the Vikings have one of the least loved uniforms in all of sports. The reason is they've got two big things working against them. 1) The color scheme. Purple just doesn't scream "sports!" to most people [especially this guy], and 2) The hideous, high school-looking uniform template.
Case in point, if you're someone who can get past the Purple and Yellow, their current throwbacks are quite nice, with lots of classic football details (Northwestern stripes on the sleeves [I'm a sucker for the subtle Yellow stroke on the White stripes — details people!], sandwich stripes on the pants, and even if you hate Purple out of Principle [hey, that could be the name for an awful band], it's not like Purple and Yellow don't go together.
So when they wear their throwbacks for two games each season, the world breathes a sigh of "good enough" (the socks could use some stripes — I'm just saying), but every other week... wow, that's bad. In the interest of providing somewhat useful commentary beyond, "it's bad, trust me!" I think the designers were going for a shape on the sleeves, torso, and pants which evokes the "Viking horn," which is already features prominently on the helmet. Or worse, do the panels evoke the shape of the mustache of the Viking head logo [or maybe the mustache is supposed to look like the helmet horns? weird]? If those aren't it, I can't really wrap my mind around what is is beyond "random panels strewn about." The Viking head logo inexplicably shows up on the hip, and with its White background, all it does is "break" the continous nature of the panels connecting the jersey and pants. The Yellow Stroke around the various panels doesn't terminate with the panels themselves. Why, oh uniform designers, why? (this is kind of like an inverted take on the Falcons' equally ridiculous non-terminating pants details.) It works a little better with the Purple pants, but, they've worn them something like three times in the last four seasons (though twice this year), so it's almost like it doesn't count.
The Eagles are wearing Midnight Green over White this week, so that puts the Vikings in White jerseys. Overwhelmingly, the Vikings wear the White jerseys with White pants, but for completeness' sake, I'll mention that they wore Purple pants with White jerseys against the Bears in November. And that was a... special look. Speaking of special looks, they also paired the Purple jersey with Purple pants against the Cardinals this year in what I'll call a Purple Out. I wish I could say, "no one was harmed in the wearing of those uniforms," but I honestly just don't know. I just don't know! The Purple pants are exceedingly rare, so it's safe to assume we'll see the White over White combination.
Among a variety of ugly combinations, I will mention that Purple over White is the best one, and the high contrast between jersey and pants works to somewhat lessen the jarring nature of those inexplicable/horn(?) panels.
UniDiction after the jump.
The UniDiction
Either 2, 3, 6, or 7 points awarded for each category (safety, field goal, touchdown, touchdown+point after, of course)
Helmet
Eagles: 7 — Same as always. Definitely one of the best helmet designs in the league. I'm a sucker for "functional" helmet designs.
Vikings: 7 — I've included the above blurb about liking "functional" helmet designs for almost all of this season, so in the interest of putting my money where my mouth is, here's the full seven points for the Vikings and their equally "functional" helmet. I don't love (or even like) the Purple, but it's much better than when teams simply dump their logo on the sides of a helmet.
Jersey
Eagles: 7 — When fans think of the "post-Cunningham" Eagles, they're picturing the Midnight Green jerseys. A unique, bold color, detailed strokes and drop shadows on the numbers, and nice use of logos on the sleeves and collar.
Vikings: 1 — See the detailed review of the inexplicable panels, above. They're getting a single point because I like the Yellow Stroke around the numbers and name.
Pants + Socks
Eagles: 6 — The White pants provide nice contrast with the solid green of the jersey, and instead of plain white, the thick Black ad Green stripes (with the pencil thin grey stripe) on the side of the pants gives them a slightly modern touch. Black over White socks also break up the White from the pants. Minus one because I'd be interested in seeing Midnight Green socks.
Vikings: 2 — The panel on the pants isn't any more explicable than on the jerseys. Two points because of just how crazy and unexpected the Viking head logo on hip panel "sub-panel" is. Also, they're not the Purple pants, so that's worth something.
Intangibles
Eagles: 7 — Without meaning to get ahead of ourselves, this may be the last regular season appearance of this uniform set (more on this during the week), and at the minimum, it will be the last appearance of 2010 (the year, not the football season), so let's hope they go out with a bang.
Vikings: 3 — They wore their nice throwbacks last week, so there may some residual effect this week, unfortunately.
Final Score
Eagles 27
Vikings 13
Random related uniform trivia: The Vikings wear different helmets with the throwbacks than with the normal uniforms. Notice the face mask (grey vs. purple) and the horn detail (the new helmet has shaded relief to give a hint of depth).
Random unrelated uniform trivia: The Bengals brought out their solid Black combination last week. Many people hate the Bengals uniforms, especially the combinations which don't involve any White components, but for whatever reason, I have a bit of a soft spot for their uniforms, and at the minimum, the extreme contrast between the solid Black of the Bengals and the solid White of the Browns was an interesting look.
EO EO EO EO ..... NICE STYLE OF LIFE....
Posted by: LV Monogram Canvas | February 16, 2011 at 01:09 AM