The Cardinals Modernize The Boring
I have long believed the Cardinals had the worst uniforms in the league for years. Not the most aesthetically unpleasing, but the worst combo of boring, outdated, AND bad. The red shoulderpads on the away uniforms felt like the only neat touch on an incredibly bland Reebok era look. It spoke to how cheap the team is that it took so long to update. I was excited to find out they finally were updating.
The modern trend in uniform (and brand design in general) seems to be minimalism and cleanliness. It’s not a movement I have any major beef with, and clean looks tend to work in the NFL. For some teams. For teams that have never had a true classic look or feel, I like it better when they swing. Even if they miss, because the misses are at the very least hilarious, and likely to get switched out pretty fast, a’la the Browns, Jags, and Bucs recent monstrosities. I wanted the Cardinals to swing. Anything would be an upgrade, but I was hoping they’d swing.
They didn’t swing. They just took what was a boring and bland look from the mid-2000s and turned it into a boring and bland look from the early 2020s. I don’t think the new look will age well either once they start doing fun things again. I don’t hate it, but I don’t like it much. It’s fine. I might reserve some judgment for when we see them in action as most of these uniforms tend to work better on the field during games, but from the showcase so far, it’s pretty meh.
Things I like:
-I like stripes on shoulders so any uniform with shoulder stripes in some fashion will always please me. I wish the stripes were a little thicker so the red popped more and I worry they won’t show up as well from far away during games. The stripes pop more on the black uniform and might be the reason I don’t mind it much there. I actually don’t mind the “cardinals” inside the middle gray stripe either.
-I like the stripes down the side of the pants. Basically, I like the away uniforms, but the other two not so much.
Things I hate:
-fucking stop making all-black alternates, they are all the same uniform. Take away the “Cardinals” on the shoulder and the Falcons could wear these and nobody would know. Even the 49ers could wear it and it would fit their look too as an alternate.
-Why is the home jersey the only one that has a big fat ARIZONA over the numbers? Usually, if you have a big unique element like that, it goes on the alternate. If you aren’t going to put it on the away jersey too, take that shit off. It looks dumb anyway. Colleges look good with the name over the numbers. Pro uniforms do not.
-One trend that has been happening recently is the away uniform looking like it doesn’t match the home uniform. Good away uniforms are closer to palette swaps, a reverse color version where the uniform mostly has the same design just mostly white as the primary. This has a case of the home jersey and away jersey not resembling each other at all. The home jersey has the big ARIZONA, the away does not. The away has stripes on the shoulders and pants, the home is totally solid. The away jersey honestly feels like it matches the alternate better than the home.
Things I do not have an answer for but hope is true:
-They need to mix and match the pants. One thing that severely worries me is the announcement conference showed…no alternate getups. No red jersey with white pants. No away white with red pants. I have generally always been a fan of when jersey colors match the pants color but the socks are different. This getup is just color rush. If they are willing to have the home uniforms with the white pants, it will look so much better. I assume the team will do this, but the fact that they didn’t even try to display it at the conference while they had 3 guys per uniform is kinda strange. If you aren’t going to have variations, why have 3 dudes in the same getup? Show the complete range.
Things I still want but will never get:
-I want red helmets. The Cardinals are named for a very red bird. It feels dumb they got a black helmet before getting a red one. Give me a red helmet and add more white to the home jersey with white pants and I might actually be happy for once.
-If you insist on making all-black uniforms for everyone, I want one of the Thursday night games to be a blackout game where both teams wear the all-blacks. Dim the lights. Just see what happens. Max chaos.
Im tired of teams doing bfbs alts. At least it isn’t the blue alt from 2k5? IDK. Not trash, but hella boring. 4/10 needs more Buckeyes
At least the Falcon’s all black functions as a throwback, and when combined with our throwback red helmet *Chef’s Kiss*. When I saw the Cardinals reveal my first thought was color rush, which isn’t good.
The Commanders also have the ugly all-black uniforms. Basically the cardinals just took their uniforms and made them marginally worse across the board.
the ones the cardinals made are honestly better but the gap is so small it may as well not exist.
I think the steelers are the only team with a black uniform that both actually makes sense and isn’t utter eye cancer to look at now that I think about it.
There might be others out there but they’re the only one that comes to mind.
Steelers look good in black. So do the Ravens with purple accents. I’d love to see an all-black Raiders uniform complete with black helmet and logo palette swapping silver and black. Might be an abomination, who knows. Any team that has a fan section called The Black Hole is at least a claimant to an all-black uni.
Yeah, but the Ravens with those Halloween numbers tho
Raiders bro. Even Broncos fans admit they have one of the best uni’s in football.
The Steelers made it work simply because black and gold look great together and they actually put a stripe on the pants. I love the Ravens and Saints black jerseys but I hate when they wear their black pants because they look like pajamas to me. Throw a stripe on there please, I’m begging.
The Panthers could end up making something that looks great too, given their color scheme, but they need to update their uniforms immediately.
The Steelers also work because they have a lot of yellow, which as secondary colors go, is actually somewhat rare across the league.
The Ravens and Saints yoga pants are absolutely a problem, agreed there. My kingdom for stripes on the pants, especially for the Saints. The gold looks so good, they need a bit more of it.
From what I remember the Panthers are also updating this year so we are probably getting that update soon
Oh yeah the saints and ravens have good black uniforms too, good point there.
I don’t not like them but I also don’t like them. They could’ve skipped the announcement and I probably would’ve only noticed the odd ARIZONA on the red unis. Most uniforms recently haven’t been great. They feel conservative mostly. After the Bucs digital pirate get up, I don’t think anyone wants to take a chance anymore.
The Cardinals’ all white uniforms would probably be considered a classic look if the team had ever won anything in them. They have always looked sharp coming out of the locker room and, where applicable these days, they boldly show every grass stain and spot of mud, things which have long served as almost cinematic touches of character for the sport of football.
The Cardinals also had a particularly strong association with their white uniforms in the first several years they played in Arizona, regularly wearing white at home (and thus, rarely wearing red jerseys at all). The generally given explanation was that the white uniforms were supposed to better reflect the Arizona sunshine and keep the home team cooler… though the team probably also enjoyed forcing the Dallas Cowboys to bring out the blue jerseys that they used to abhor wearing.
The unis may change….but Sexy Rexy is eternal.
Their all-black alternates are literally just carbon copies of Ohio State’s all-black alts. Seriously, if you scraped off the Cards’ logo and slapped a few buckeyes on there you would not be able to tell a difference. (
For reference: https://cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coxohio/6I34IULAENNEHCLHZYTSQFZ4R4.jpg
vs
https://arizonasports.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_5837-scaled.jpeg
I may be wrong but the “Cardinals” in “Arizona Cardinals” may be referring to a colour, not a bird.
Or maybe you were just being sarcastic.
More sources needed, however.
They literally have a bird’s head on their helmet.
It’s not like Stanford where they had to get rid of a racist name in a hurry and “Reds” wasn’t much better.
One might question whether they should have changed their name when they moved to something more local, but realistically, Arizona Cardinals is no more of a non-sequitur than Memphis Grizzlies, Calgary Flames, or probably the most infamous of them all, Los Angeles Lakers.
Utah Jazz will forever be the gold standard in why did they not change the name when they moved.
LA lakers is at least alliterative and rolls off the tongue. Plus when they moved from Minneapolis in 1960, the joke that everyone in LA was originally from one of the Plains states might have still been relevant, so it’s possible it could have been played off as an in joke.
But Utah is seen as the polar opposite of New Orleans in nearly every way, culturally, demographically, geologically and climatically.
the northern cardinal is found in Arizona (not all of it but still).
Cardinals (NFL) assumed their current nickname (minus the location part) in 1901. The Cardinals (NFL) originally played in northeastern Illinois.
There is a color titled “Cardinal red”. Or is there?
In fairness to Nike, they did capture the sense of blandness and mediocrity that embodies the Cards.
That “A R I Z O N A” looks so shopped lol
Miami’s current look gets some stick on a regular basis, but I would only change a couple of things about it. Don’t mind the lighter aqua. Even the logo has grown on me. But…
• bring back the darker aqua outline on the numbers
• different number font, puh-lease. One curved corner with the rest bevelled (except on symmetrical numbers like 0 and 8) is stupid. Boils my piss.
Don’t reinstate the throwbacks though – as lit as they are, we haven’t earned the right to keep them permanently. Nowhere near it. We stand nowhere near the early 70s Fins. Haven’t really been close since 1991-2. Maybe we’ll turn a corner, but I’ve been telling myself that since Sparano – and it’s like trying to turn an oil tanker.