The Bills unveiled their new alternate uniforms last month. Whatever else you may think of them, I’m genuinely puzzled by the decision to go with grey1 jerseys and pants. To me, grey just looks so, you know, grey. It’s drab, it’s blah, it’s dingy, it’s dreary. Why would you want to look like that?
I know, I know — the Bills play in Buffalo, which is a pretty drab, dreary place, at least in the popular imagination. But even if that were true (it’s not), why would you want to highlight that? It’s one thing for them to go with a whiteout uniform, because (a) Buffalo is famously snowy and (b) white is a legit football uniform color. But grey? Ugh. (For what it’s worth, Bills fans apparently agree with me.)
And that leads me to a simple question: Has there ever been a good grey football uniform? Is such a thing even possible?
It’s worth noting that lots of NFL teams over the years have worn grey pants. I’m not talking here about ostensibly silver pants that just look grey in today’s modern fabrics (like what the Raiders currently wear, for example); I’m talking about true grey pants, which have been worn at various points by the Colts, Eagles, Giants, and others. I’m not a big fan of any of those pants (in each case, I think white would be better), but they weren’t bad enough to ruin a uniform all by themselves. So the real problem here is the use of grey jerseys — which are even worse when paired with grey pants. Let’s review some recent NFL examples:
Detroit Lions (2017-2023)
