Bills finally get the hint, announce change a-comin’

Buffalo Bills 1980s home uniform — The Buffalo Bills home uniform of the early 1980s, maybe a full-time return to this look in 2011?

Another one of Buffalo’s pro sports teams finally came to their senses and actually listened to their fanbase! The Buffalo Bills announced yesterday that they would be changing their uniforms for the 2011 NFL season.

Assuming there is a 2011 season this would end nine straight seasons of strikingly ugly uniforms worn by the lovable losers of Western New York/Southern Ontario… the new uniforms don’t guarantee an end to the ugly record (4-12 in 2010) of course but at least they’ll look damn good during future losing seasons.

Early speculation seems to see the Bills retaining their charging buffalo logo but returning to a white helmet; perhaps with a lighter blue home jersey and without all that ridiculous piping used in the last few years.

From the story on buffalobills.com, “The new uniforms will incorporate the team’s storied history while keeping the team’s signature charging buffalo logo.”

Something along the lines of what the team wore in the mid-1970’s to early-1980′s is what I’m envisioning.

Buffalo Bills home uniform 1960-1961 — The original Buffalo Bills uniform (1960-1961), blue and silver, look nothing like the Bills we remember

The Bills started out wearing something not-at-all like we picture them looking like, for the first two seasons they donned a uniform that resembled the Detroit Lions – blue and silver, no logo on the helmet. It wasn’t until 1962 that they adopted the familiar blue, red and white colour scheme with the famous standing red buffalo logo on a white helmet. In 1973 they adopted the same charging blue buffalo which has been on their helmet ever since, a switch to a red helmet occurred in 1984 giving the Bills the look they took into four consecutive AFC championship wins in the 1990’s. The change to the current trainwreck took place in 2002.

So do I think this is a good move? It’s a great move! The Bills current identity reeks of a team trying too hard — they took their longtime logo, didn’t change a thing with it, and slapped it on a re-coloured uniform and helmet with 5 stripes and piping all over the place. Why? If you’re re-hashing the logo go back to your roots; otherwise change the identity of team completely — logo and all.

Additional details on the new uniforms will be announced around the NFL Draft, until then, “no comment”, say the Bills.

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Congrats to the Green Bay Packers for winning the Super Bowl in their green uniforms, making my previous blog post look terribly silly. But if you’re a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and wondered what your Super Bowl XLV championship merchandise would have looked like, check out our Facebook Phantom Champions gallery to see yours and other oh-so-close championship merchandise over the last few years!