2011_week4
Follow me on twitter for uniform-related updates during this week's games (@dancfuller)

0-3. This is not rarefied air. Another ugly loss by the Eagles, but at least they looked pretty good while losing. 

Let me point out that October brings the ridiculous pink accessories for breast cancer awareness. This creates a situation where disliking the medium is confused with disliking the message, but this guy hits the nail on the head. Interestingly, a random check of five of the 60-odd "Breast Cancer Awareness" items at NFLshop.com, shows that the usual "portion of the sale will be donated…" copy is not there [editor's note: there is an auction on pink gear, but no confirmation that sales go to charity]. As much as not attaching a cash value to what "portion" actually entails reeks of superficially concerned corporation (think MLB's 'support the troops… with $1 from the profit of each VERY profitable Stars and Stripes hat we sell ), not offering anything is even worse. Do not buy this stuff. If you really feel the need to tie you breast cancer concern to your love of football, try the auction site instead. It's wording is intentionally vague, but it does specifically mention how (some portion) of your money will find its way to the cancer fight. 

"Funds raised through Making Strides and this NFL auction enable the Society to save lives be helping people stay well and get well, by finding cures, and by fighting back." 

Much more on last week's NFL uniforms and this week's UniDiction after the jump.

Week 3 of the 2011 NFL season (compiled by the always excellent Gridiron Uniform Database) actually had a few notable items. The Vikings and Saints trotted out throwbacks, with the Vikings' throwback being more of an alternate uniform, if only because they've worn it every year since 2007. The Saints' throwback was a first-time appearance, and…. holy color matching issues, Batman. Speaking from professional experience (really), color matching across different substrates (paint over plastic vs. dyed synthetic fiber vs. dyed natural fibers vs. dyed embroidery thread) is phenomenally difficult, but here's the kicker. It's not impossible (the Eagles helmets match their jerseys quite well, for example). Of course, the Cowboys have poor color matching down to an art, and, oddly, their lack of color uniformity (navy vs. royal blue, Silver vs. Greenish-SIlver) is actually part of their uniform. It looks like the Saints took their current (Gold) helmets and changed the decal, while they used a new shade of Gold for the pants, sock stripes, jersey stripes, and number fill, though none are exactly the same color. The Vikings throwbacks are huge improvements over their normal uniforms, which I mentioned in last year's Eagles-Vikings UniDiction

We also saw the Bears' Orange alternate (my opinion varies per day, but Navy over White is doubtlessly better than Orange over White for the Bears), the Bengals in their dreaded Black over Black combination (the dread is coming from visual sickness, not the "we're tough because we wear black" concept), and finally the Dolphins in their rare (but underrated, unique, and fantastic) Aqua over White combination (rare because they're a White at Home team). The best uniform match-up was Redskins in Maroon over Yellow against the Cowboys in White over Silver

On to this week's game: the Eagles are in Green over White, and the 49ers are in White over Gold. The Eagles played the 49ers in San Francisco last year, so we've got a rematch, but we're in the opposite uniforms this year. It's one of the best modern uniforms against one of the best "classic" uniforms. 

The UniDiction 

Either 2, 3, 6, or 7 points awarded for each category (safety, field goal, touchdown, touchdown+point after) 

Helmet 

Eagles: 7 — Same as always.  Definitely one of the best helmet designs in the league. The wings add a lot more character to the helmet than if they simply dumped a logo on the sides. 

49ers: 6 — Sure, the interlocked "SF" is an example of "dumping the logo" on the sides of helmet, but the colors, proportions, and distinctiveness won me over. 

Jersey 

Eagles: 6 — One of the best modern jerseys. No stupid piping or paneling like on the Seahawks or Cardinals, just restrained use of contrast on the sleeves and collar, with a tasteful application of the logo on each shoulder. Swap the drop-shadow on the numbers for a traditional stroke, and they' d get the full 7. 

49ers: 6 — "Classic" is a tough design goal because many "classic" designs could also easily be called "boring." On its own, sure, it's just double-striped sleeves, red numbers, TV numbers, and a "49ers" wordmark below the collar, effectively not all that much different than the Giants White jerseys which I don’t particularly like, but when paired with the Gold pants, the jersey makes sense.  

Pants + Socks 

Eagles: 6 — The White pants aren't perfect. I'd prefer a normal double-stripe or, better, a sandwich stripe. (green-black-green? silver-green-silver? an inversion of those? options!), but they look crisp on the field. I still think the socks should be Green instead of Black, but, again, it works. 

49ers: 6 — The sandwich stripe is perfect (white meat, red bread), and using Gold as a light, contrast-color is more interesting than white (though their late 90s uniforms included white pants). The socks could stand to have some stripes, like they did until 1990

Intangibles including SPECIAL OCTOBER ADJUSTMENT – each team will lose points corresponding with just how poorly pink goes with their color scheme 

Eagles: 4 — Come on, this looks good, especially during day games. A point gets deducted because other shots show how Midnight Green can end up looking more blandly "dark" than actually "green." If only there were a lighter shade of green which didn't have this issue… Minus 2 points because Pink and Midnight Green are like oil and water

49ers: 5 — The Red over Gold combination is better, but the White over Gold combo showed that good, classic uniforms never go out of style, especially when they're put next to the Bengals Black over Black clownsuits. Minus 1 point because Pink is a shade of Red. Kind of. 

Final Score 

Eagles 23 

49ers 23 

Wow, talk about likely football scores!