Nike, NFL Unveil New Uniforms; Bucs See Minor Changes

It was kind of like Christmas in April, only the surprise turned out not not be a surprise at all.

When it was announced the Nike had taken over as the exclusive licenser of NFL merchandise there was a panic that was had by the NFL fan masses. It was probably started by Reebok who now don’t have a major sport that they have uniforms for. We al saw them, the ‘leaked’ photos of the horrendous jerseys that Nike would be rolling out.

Well the roll out occurred and only one fan base is in utter dismay at the upheaval their uniforms received at Nike’s hand. The Buccaneers were not that team. However if you now any Seahawk fans, you might want to check them into the psychiatric ward ASAP.

But the Buccaneers saw no major changes to their uniforms, just the universal minor changes all teams saw. Any changes that were had by anyone not playing in Seattle were confined to the materials. Just like adidas came out with the Swingman Revolution jerseys for the NBA, the NFL has changed the materials to enhance performance and cut down on fatigue brought on by sweat dampening a jersey and making it heavy.

The biggest change to all 32 uniforms was the new collar design from Nike. The Buccaneers now have a black collar the transforms into a tight red v-neck collar. It’s a frywire design which should cut down on the ability to grab collars and of course the Reebok NFL logo is gone, replaced by simply the NFL logo and no other text.

There is the Nike swoosh on the pants now, and the new gloves that were debuted during the Super Bowl are here and are probably the coolest addition to the catalog.

Today’s unveiling was more of a sigh of relief for fans then anything else. The horror stories and fears we were spoon fed about how much Nike would alter the uniforms were unfounded. The changes come to the Seahawks (who’s jersey’s truly look absolutely awful) and the Panthers new logo. Other then that it’s minor changes to the location of logos (we’re talking centimeters here folks) and the materials.

If you have a Reebok jersey, or just bought one don’t think you have to throw it away for a Nike jersey. They aren’t that different at all; sew on a swoosh if you want to save $300.

Now that the jersey bonanza is out of the way we can actually focus on the football that the jerseys will be playing in rather then the other way around.