In this article from the New Orleans Times Picayune, the New Orleans Saints almost had a different color scheme than their familiar gold and black upon their founding in the late 1960's. Apparently an original owner, John W. Mecom Jr., had a fondness for a color other than those we now associate with the Saints. It looks like his companies all used a color of blue that was somewhere between royal and carolina blue. The NFL thought the colors looked too close to other NFL teams, particularly the San Diego Chargers and the Saints ended up adopting their familiar black and gold colors.
What if the NFL had allowed the Saints to adopt the colors of light blue and gold? What would the team's uniforms look like now? The team would certainly have a much different look and feel. The Saints' black and gold color scheme is one of the best and most forceful among all NFL teams. If the Saints had chosen blue instead of black, you can see from the image on the left that their image would be drastically different.
How about the Saints classic helmet? How would the use of blue instead of black impact the team's great helmet design? There could have been two ways the team may have used blue on the helmets. One direction would follow the helmet of today and sub-out blue where the black is now. The team may have also chosen a helmet that was predominantly blue with gold accents.
Ultimately I am very glad that the Saints chose gold and black as their primary colors. The result of blue replacing black would not have created the same classic look, but it is fun to take a look at "What If?".
looks like the Rams as well. The NFL did a good thing, gold & black is much better.
Posted by: russell | December 02, 2009 at 11:58 PM
Not sure you quite get this whole uni thing my friend. You are just taking the current design and assigning a color scheme. Instead of that ugly helmet you showed, think UCLA! Saints in the UCLA script on a gold helmet with a grey facemask. Copy the throwback UCLA jersey like they just wore vs. USC (Nov. 29. 2009) and you have a wonderful Saints uni. Make sure to have the all black cleats (not the NIKE machine 1/2 black, 1/2 white crap that everyone is wearing now) with white laces and you have a damn near perfect uni.
The current Saints uni is fine, but the NIKE machine cleats look stupid, as does the all black disaster they wore early this season. the black and old gold are great, but the Saints can improve: All black cleats with white laces (this should be the LAW in college and pro). Dump the cheesy logo on hip and shoulder crap. Numbers like the UCLA throwbacks.
Posted by: Hoolie67 | December 03, 2009 at 10:14 AM
Hoolie67-you are right, there are many more modifications that could be done if the team had that color scheme, but I just wanted to quickly illustrate how the blue color would have given the team a completely different look.
That's all this was, an exercise in color change.
Posted by: Jim Ransdell | December 03, 2009 at 10:19 AM
That's cool. But, why not take it to the next level? As a uni guy, I enjoy your blog and have strong opinions (obviously) and would like to see you go further.
Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Hoolie67 | December 03, 2009 at 10:45 AM
Thanks for the history info concerning the Saints owner and the NFL. Very interesting to think what might have been.
Posted by: Chris | December 03, 2009 at 12:49 PM
The Saints have always had one of the most perfect color schemes and helmet logos.
I really liked the Fleur de lis inside the state of Louisiana they wore a few years back.
May they never change!
This season we may have the opportunity to view them all the way into February, eh?
Posted by: Daniel J Leonard | December 07, 2009 at 08:44 PM