NFL Helmets - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
 

The Good

Saints - Many teams represent well in name - Steelers, Packers, 49ers, Dolphins, Cowboys and such. But no other NFL team represents the heart of their city and fans like the Saints. The fleur is New Orleans.

Texans - Cool skull.

Ravens - One the more creative names and logos. Baltimore honors a home boy - Edgar Allan Poe.

Cardinals - Besides the family ties I spoke of earlier, its a cool helmet. Rock steady through the years. It'd look better back in St. Louis.

Bucs - If you lived in Florida and survived the gay orange helmet guy, you'd love the new helmet, too.




The Bad

Panthers - Lookin' at the panther head up close, it looks kinda like a panther head. Ten steps back and it looks kinda like a black something-or-another. Add one of those split stripe things and it screams arena league. They could've done better.

Titans - I have no idea why Tennessee are the Titans. I'm sure the helmet logo designer person said, "What the hell?".

Bengals - Nope. Move it up to my good ones. Ballsy move back in the day. You shoulda seen the old Cincy helmets.




The Ugly

Steelers - History and tradition would probably put this helmet on many good lists. But just lookin' at it - its butt-ugly. My guess is the Rooneys made enough to afford a sticker for the other side. :wink:

Redskins - Not always as drab as it is today. Need to get back to the spear.





8)

I feel pretty safe in saying that whodi has never said any of that. :D

Haha I was living in Tampa Bay when they were orange, and when they finally switched, everybody could have sworn their new unis were the cooles things in the world.

Anybody else think they should actually have a Titan on their helmets/field/apparel somewhere. I mean those guys were extreme badasses, more powerful than the Roman gods. Honestly, those guys need to study up.

Tally saint...this is the kind of discussion that could keep me busy all day.

I must respectfully disagree with the Steeler thing. I totally agree on the Saints being the embodiment of a city. If you're gonna use that for one, you gotta recognize that the Steelers are the closest to that of any other team.

I am not a steeler fan, but I've always liked theor uniforms.


A couple of thoughts:

The Jags (though I'm not big on their logo) look great when they wear their white jerseys, black helmets, and black pants. I've always wished we would bring the black pants back out.


The Chiefs have sweet unis. I will be rooting for them in the AFC this year.

Chargers in powder blue is NICE.

Seahawks unis look like USFL unis.

Cards unis don't do much for me.

Bengals are ugly but unique.


And regarding the Bucs....if you can wear ugly unis and whip people, they look alot better. The change to the pewter certainly at least changeed the perception of the team.


I think the saints should bust out the black helmets from 69. I've got a mini at the house and it's as good as it gets.

New Orleans throwback with the Old Gold is by far the best looking uni ever!

...couple of comments:

The Ravens' name and logo aren't that original, nor good.
It's a bad drawing of a raven's head. A raven's beak is black, not yellow, and the bird is black with purlple tinges, not purple.
They changed the logo to that badly drawn raven's head because they were sued over the original logo, a shield that looked like the Mryland logo with wings. The Ravens had established a public contest with a $100,000 prize. After they received hundreds of designs, they called the contest off and plain plagiarized one of the entries.
And while Edgar Allan Poe is buried in Baltimore, he was born in Boston, so he isn't really a Baltimore "homeboy".

The Texans - that doesn't look like a skull at all, more line an stylized head of cattle.

The Steelers - They are the Pittsburgh Steelers, not the Sausalito Interior Designers. That's a man's helmet right there.

Kinda figured this topic would bring Tobias out of his hole for a few kind words. Yes, there is a dark cloud with every silver lining, my friend. :D



8)

The Saints helmet let alone uniform is the best in the league however, I am with yasoon. I think the Saints should invert the helmet to black with gold fleur. THAT would definitely make it the coolest helmet OF ALL TIME....(insert echo here).

Haha thanks for the comments Tobias.

Anybody think that the new Vikings uniforms are hideous? I do.

I think if the Raiders were any good, they would be said to have the coolest unis in football. A bunch of badasses in all black with a hint of silver. Yikes.

There was a time when the Raiders were bad to the bone. And yes, the silver and black was quite popular.




8)

agreed on both.

the raiders are almost like the silver version of the saints. they've kept it simple and it is still a great uni.

they've also got those alternate white jerseys with silver numbers outlined in black that look nice. anyone go out and get a brooks raider's jersey :) i know...why did i have to bring that up.

also....i hate the falcons new unis because their old ones looked better. it's clinically proven that they are the gayest team in the league. and by gay i mean gay.

let's see for a quick scan, helmets only not uniforms. In no particular order-

DISLIKED
Dolphins- goofy cartoon looking fin
Ravens- goofy looking bird
Browns- tradition but bland. why orange if they are browns anyway?
Packers- I always thought the green/yellow combo was ugly.
Bengals- I like the boldness but not the particular choice. Looks minor league flashy
Vikings- I don't especially dislike it. It is just that it looks like a Nike swoosh and not horns to me
Texans- too corporately professionally designed, doesn't resonate anythng authentic to me
Cardinals- So plain and they have been so bad for so long you think they would have done something fresh and bold to go with a new stadium/era.

LIKED
Cowboys- never have liked the team but you cannot argue with the design and recognition
Lions- Good colors and design
Titans- I like it cuz it is so corny retro looking. Like a 1940's comic book
Falcons- nice slick mean looking bird, black on black badassness
Saints- Instant city identification.
Colts- nice tradition that looks especially good with their unis
Bucs- unique color almost seems good just knowing how bad the old ones were
Broncos- ditto having terrible old ones. Great with unis too
Raiders- silver and black a identity in itself
49ers- I like the SF logo design and red/gold combo
Chiefs- Good tradition, I like the arrowhead logo
Chargers- an alltime classic IMO. Lightning bolts on your head is pretty godlike
Rams- I like the design covering the whole thing concept. Alltime top also.

MIXED
Tradition but hohum- Jets, Giants, Redskins, Bears
What's the difference bland- Jags, Panthers, Bills, Seahawks
Eagles- like the design but never related Eagles to green
Steelers- nice funky tradition but always looked like an ad for US Steel to me

The Steelers reminded me- It seems the money hungry NFL would allow corporate sponsorship of teams. FedEX wanted to do this with the Memphis b-ball team, call them The Express but was turned down. What about the Detroit Wheels with a big Ford logo on the side? Or the Minnesota Norsegods with the exact Nike swoosh on it?

Minus their Super Bowl runner-up team a few years ago, I don't think I've been alive since they were any good.

:lolup:

The Saints have the coolest helmets in the NFL, hands down..

Oh, that hurts, especially coming from you... that hurts......

:monkey: :broccoli:

..oh, and a raven's eyes are black too, not red :)

The Saints can always depend on their fans good or bad, mostly good

Regardless of how they arrived at the final design, the Ravens name and logo remains one of the more original and creative in the NFL.




To me it looks like a skull. To you it looks like a living cow. No big deal. Ever seen a steer skull?




I was born and raised in Panama City. Lived the past twenty years in Tallahassee. Both have claim to homeboy. You hair splitter, you.






Haven't seen a blue buffalo or horseshoe. A red, white and blue cow skull head, white bronco with a red mane and blue lions are rare. Yet to see a green, white and silver eagle. Crayola may have a shade of brown called orange. Let me know. :wink:




Hope you didn't bruise, sunshine. 8)





All in fun, Tobias. Hope you're havin' a good weekend.


I'm ready for some football!



8)

I'm gonna add Chicago to my cool helmet list.



8)

Hands down, the ugliest is the Browns. Hello, its orange, thats it, just orange. It should be brown but I guess their uniform designer was blind.

Ok guys.,...what do you think? We need to invert the helmet. Black helmet, gold fleur. Next lets make the home jersey gold...and the away white with a alternate black jersey for whenever. And lets make the home pants gold....white away.....gold alternative. What do u guys think?

Black pants, Gold Jersey
Black Helmet, Gold Fleur-De-Lis

B-N-G All the way!

I meant to say make the home pants black...oops! White away with gold alt.

Oh well at least we aren't talking about power rankings...

Saints uniform.....#1 in the power rankings!! LOL.

I'm all for the inverted helmets as well. With inverted helmet colors, we could have uni's that look like Wake Forest. IMHO, Wake has one of the best uni's in college football and basketball.

As far as other teams
Top 5 fave helmets
1) Saints
2) Giants (love the metallic blue)
3) Lions
4) Dolphins
5) Raiders

Top 5 disliked helmets
1) Browns
2) Oilers
3) classic Bucs
4) Patriots
5) Bills

With all due respect, the Fleur-De-Lis is based on a flower. There should be a man law against that. Now for the recognition standpoint... I will give you that.

:lolup:

hmmm do not think the the flower is the issue it is the meaning that counts.
If there is a man law against that then there should be one about a team uniform to look like fat people wearing black spandex and a baggy shirt to look skinny. Skip the 90's all black look please. Who died anyways? next we will make Johnny Cash our mascot and bring in Jerry to coach. Well Elvis and Johnny did get along. Jerry could leave tickets for the two of them.
God stike me down please if we ever go to all black.
The Gold dome is unique to the NFL and must stay.
as for the rest
I miss the old Buc myself. He was so cute. The Bucs look like they worked at an orange juice stand at the state line.
Bolts in baby blue traditional AFC color stays. oh yeah not in fashion dump it
Crayon brown stays also tradition, NFC. Screw it change the name too
Purple and white tradition. Nah drop the horn and go with a true viking. Purple? dump that too. have you ever met a purple people eater anyways?
Dallas star tradition. Nah they should be all Yellow with silver trim. Nah true orange that burns hotter.
Tradition means something in sports. Keep it as is forget about getting all artsie fartsie with it. Sound like a bunch of marketing agents for niki.

The Saints do have the most classiest and most distinctive uni's and helmets. I say make the fleur-de-lis bigger on the helmet, though

The Best-
Raiders - forget the record. Still one of the top signature uniforms through the years.
New York Jets - Lean Green Football Machine
Dallas Cowboys - The coventional face of the NFL

Teams that apparel companies should not have screwed with
Seattle Seahawks - Good freaking lord.
Buffalo Bills - Is this football or lacrosse?
New England Pariots - It don't matter how many Super Bowls. Atrocious.
Minnesota Vikings - Terrible new jerseys that destroys the whole image onfield.

Zzzzzzzz....
Kansas City Chiefs
Cleveland Browns

Looks that killed...
Houston Oilers - That's right. Earl Campbell can make a man shake in fear of powder blue
Buffalo Bills - Joe Ferguson, Joe Cribbs era.(1979-83)
Philadelphia Eagles - the Jaworski, Carmichael era.