Judging a Football Team by Its Cover

Clothes may make the man, at least in terms of public perception. When it comes to football, however, uniforms rarely shape the team. Sometimes, the best they can do is disguise it.

In a world of changing fashion, the majority of NFL teams are content to wear last year’s threads. Consider that only four of the 28 clubs reported additions to their basic wardrobe for the 1990 season. Note that the San Francisco 49ers, the current dynasty in progress, were not among them.

Truth is, teams that are successful are reluctant to make even minor alterations. For those at or near the bottom of the standings, a new look is symbolic of an impending change in fortune. At the very least, it offers evidence that management is willing to do something in order to reverse the decaying process. “It’s a lot easier to change a helmet, a jersey and a logo,” noted one team official, “than the won-loss record.”

Add one more disposable item: the coach. It so happens that all four NFL clubs that have varied their outward appearances this year also introduced new coaches last Sunday. Among them, the New York Jets, Atlanta Falcons, Phoenix Cardinals and New England Patriots were 17-47 in 1989, which indicates that the former coaches and uniforms just weren’t doing the job. Three of the four clubs suffered defeats in their first games of the new season.

The team that made the most dramatic cosmetic change, the Falcons, also demonstrated the greatest improvement last Sunday in a crunching victory over the Houston Oilers. Was it the new black-on-black hats and black jerseys? Was it the presence of Jerry Glanville on the sideline? Was it the pair of tickets the new head man left for Elvis? Perhaps it was a combination of all three and the emotion of opening at home against the coach’s former employers. Now comes the tough part: a road encounter at Detroit.

New England informed NFL Properties, the marketing arm of the league, that it was planning to wear red pants with its white road jerseys, as it did earlier in the decade. Phoenix is introducing a similar concept. And the Jets began the Bruce Coslet era in Cincinnati last week with a new item of attire, pants of a bright green hue usually confined to country clubs, matched with their white jerseys. Alas, they did not sport the usual collection of whales, lobsters or sailboats favored by the golfing set.