The Jets' New Uniforms Are...Fine

It's OK to be indifferent about things, and the Jets' new uniforms fall under that category.

Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty

Watching the Jets’ uniform reveal launch live on Youtube with the sound off was one of the stranger trips I’ve been on. Remind me not to do that again.

There’s a pageantry to all of this now, which is understandable because there are more people involved, and people need things to do. The more people that need something to do, the more complicated that eventual something gets. The more complicated something gets, the more grandiose it’s perceived. The more grandiose it’s perceived, the greater the chances that most people will dislike it, simply because it’s fun or enjoyable to dislike something that other people have spent a lot of time working on. I’ve thought this since I saw our high school senior class float right before the homecoming parade. It was so much better to perforate it with old produce than to actually help put it together.

So after we saw the Jets’ three new uniforms, which are sort of a hybrid of their darker green ‘80s uniform, their previous uniform and the home green of Eastern Michigan University (go Eagles), everyone naturally lost their minds. It was either a historic abomination or some new-school design vomit.

I’m here to provide the only legitimate take that matters: They were fine.

It’s still possible to be indifferent about something, and maybe this is a good chance to approach that idea with a dose of perspective. Follow my train of thought:

• They’re fine because the Jets made an actual alteration. We’ve been promised new uniforms in the past, only to get something like the Detroit Lions or Minnesota Vikings just changing a few vertical stripes to horizontal ones.
• They’re fine because they found a happy medium. Too much of a change, or departure from tradition is bad. I can think of at least two teams that have done this in recent years, regrettably forcing their players to look like a generic NCAA 2013 create-a-team you gave up on halfway through.
• They’re fine because in three or four years they’re probably going to change again anyway. Remember before, when I said all that stuff about too many people needing something to do? The NFL wants your money!

If I had to put together a list of major uniform alterations over the past 10 years, I would go:

1. Bills
2. Jets
3. Jaguars
4. Browns
5. Wearing heavy resume paper pieced together with duct tape
6. Buccaneers

But really, it’s all fine. We're still going to watch all of these teams anyway.

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