NFL Uni Review-The NFC North: Minnesota Vikings

I want to do some post 2012 football season uni talk.

The NFC North division is home to the team I used to love with every ounce of my soul growing up; the Minnesota Vikings. Something to remember is that originally, every team in this division played outside, on real grass, and in the northern states. The weather was shitty! Heat and humidity in the early part of the season, then rain and then snow....wonderful! Grass stains, mud, blood and guts. It deserved it's name; the Black and Blue Division. Overall, the Black and Blue Division is now a complete joke in the uni department. Very sad because it was once the pride of the NFL.


Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings came into the NFL with a bold statement and look. Purple was NOT a color you'd think about putting on a grown man back in 1961. BUT, low and behold the design was insanely awesome! The logo of the Vikings head is fantastic (and still is to this day). The horns on the helmet were brilliant. Bold, simple and cool. The purple worked because it was a nice dark purple, not this lavender crap they wear now. It was a rich, dark purple that had a lot of blue in it vs. today that has a lot of red. The numbers were bold. REAL football numbers. The redesign tried to go back to that, but failed miserably because they rounded the corners! WHY?! It looks terrible that way, very soft. The original had stripes on the socks too. WOW! Three simple, yet bold stripes ala the Bears. The original road uni was like the current Giants road uni only in purple. Then came the UCLA shoulder stripes on the road and perfection was made. The grey facemask was a perfect neutral to the purple helmet. The black cleats with white laces and white socks gave it the foundation and contrast it needed to counter the purple. That uni was a thing of beauty. And when the defense took over under Grant and became THE dominant defense in the NFL, The Purple People Eaters were born. I mean, can you beat that for a name? NO! There were great defenses in the 60's and 70's, with great names; The Steel Curtain, Doomsday Defense, The No Name defense, The Fearsome Foursome, Monsters of the Midway, Orange Crush. But, The Purple People Eaters was the best name. Yea, yea, yea, shut up, it's my blog and if I say it's the best ever nickname for a defense, than it's the best. But, then the picking started. They took away the stripes on the socks, and then they went to a white facemask, and then they went to a purple facemask and white cleats, and then they took away the home sleeve stripes and replaced them with some silly double stripe thing at the end of the sleeve, and then they put the Viking head logo on the sleeves, and then they started to change the purple to a more red purple, and then they completely lost their minds and did the current redesign. Blech! From elite to the bottom of the barrel. But, word on the street is that the Vikings may be going back to their old school 70's look in 2013! Grey facemask and the works. That would mean the return of the UCLA stripes on the road! I'm very excited and hope this really happens.