NFL Live Streaming Online: If Now Was Then

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Tuesday, 6 November 2012

If Now Was Then...(Part 8)

Here we are.

It's been 8 weeks since we began this journey and now we've made it to the last division in our odyssey.

I now present to you...

The AFC South

HOUSTON� I went with opposite versions of the navy and red jerseys. The white helmet with opposing blue and red stripes works equally well with either combination.

INDIANAPOLIS� Why couldn�t Nike have fixed the Colts? I mean how hard can it be to construct the over-the-shoulder loop stripes? Well, we�ve got them here. I almost went with a straight white helmet but sanity took over and I added some blue to it. Going back to a blog I wrote a year ago about my personal feelings towards mono-white uniforms, I said there is no way to mess up a 2 color uniform when one of the two colors is white. I stand by my comment here.

JACKSONVILLE� Again, black? In Florida? It needed to go so I ditched it. This left me with teal (Ick.) and gold from their current logo. I actually think if these were their jerseys, the Jags would eventually switch to the gold as their primary. The teal tends to look like the poor man's Dolphins.

TENNESSEE� Ah. The team that started it all. When I first did a Titans jersey here, it ended up looking like the New York Bulldogs. Nobody wants that. Instead, I opted for the 2-tone blue design with navy as the primary. Those were the original Titans jerseys and I still prefer them to the current primary with the reverse pattern. I kept the reverse pattern, however, as the secondary jersey. I adjusted the futuristic number font to something similar but a better fit for the times.

And so, my friends, we come to the end. Without a doubt, if you�d have turned on your HD plasma screen TV back in the 1940s, you�d have seen these combinations every Sunday from September through January.

I'll be debuting a new series of "what if's" next week so tune in!

Bill Schaefer

Thursday, 1 November 2012

If Now Was Then...(Part 7)

With one more week remaining next week, I bring to you the penultimate division for your consideration. The AFC West began with these same four teams back in the inaugural AFL season in 1960 and the teams have remained together ever since. That is heritage. These are rivalries spurred on by decades of blood, sweat, tears, and maybe even a little bit of hatred mixed in.

How would these teams have looked back in the days of long-sleeved jerseys and leather helmets?

You are about to find out...

The AFC West

DENVER � When Denver began in 1960, they were blah (except for their socks!). Brown and yellow�er�um�no. Swooshes wouldn�t have been around yet so I went with the opposite color cuff-to-cuff stripes and the current number font. To make the helmet a little more aerodynamic/racy, I went with the striped flying wing helmet model.

KANSAS CITY � Several months ago, Tim asked me to indulge him and create current mono-color images for San Diego (navy), Cleveland (brown), and Kansas City (red). I loved the look of mono-red for KC then and I love it here as well. Even with the overdose of red, the yellow numbers pop off the red jersey. But when I went to do the reverse color scheme for the secondary jersey, the yellow jersey didn�t look right with the red pants so I went with the white one instead.

OAKLAND � Literally no change was needed here. I only added some black to the collars and cuffs of the white secondary jersey because, otherwise, it would just be too much white.

SAN DIEGO � Powder blue instead of navy was an easy call. The lightning bolts would not have been there so I basically added the looped shoulder stripes. The team had its roots in Los Angeles and these combinations scream UCLA.

Well, there you go. Next week, our journey 'back in time' comes to a conclusion as we tackle our final division, the AFC South.

Bill Schaefer

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

If Now Was Then...(Part 6)

Last week, we broke ground on the re-imagining of the second half of the NFL through the eyes of...well...myself. If, by chance, right now was the age of long-sleeve jerseys and leather helmets, what would the current crop of NFL teams look like on our HD TVs?

We continue today with the second group of AFC teams.

I present to you the current AFC East.

The AFC East

BUFFALO � The navy outlines are gone off of the stripes and numbers. Royal blue and red are used only. Blue is the primary jersey and I opted for a red alternate of the same design.

MIAMI � I haven�t been a fan of the new Dolphins unis since they began incorporating navy into the mix and all but lost the sleeve stripes. I went with early Marino-era sleeve stripes and removed their separations. An orange secondary didn�t look right so I stuck with white.

NEW ENGLAND � The primary design is based on the Pat Patriot era. The secondary is simply the reverse color scheme. The red, white, and blue helmet works well with either combination.

NY JETS � When the Jets became the Jets ("We Were The Titans"), they had some fairly unusual sleeve striping largely centered around the TV numbers. Well, no TV numbers here. I wanted to stick with something as different as the Jets� sleeves were. I went with a design that reminded me of the Minneapolis Marines and the Staten Island Stapletons with the stripes between elbows and wrists. I applied the same stripes to the socks. A green wing on a white helmet and these are the Jets.

It's unfortunate that we are stuck with two teams in this division with essentially the same color schemes. However, with Buffalo being primarily blue and New England being primarily red, it should not cause an issue. Also, the different models of helmets and sleeve/shoulder stripes would help tell these rivals apart under the soft glow of black-and-white photography.

Next week, we head west for the penultimate division in our concept journey.

Bill Schaefer