Rams and 49ers unis were once the magic thread in the fabric of the NFL

At first, the brighter blue and yellow of the Rams 2020 uniforms seemed in step with their recent rise. 

After all, things have looked up for Los Angeles football these modern times, harking back to the glory days of the late 1940s and early 50s. "Time to celebrate the good times!" ... a branding consultant to the club must have advised one fateful winter's day.

To be sure, chrome-tinged images of yesteryear hide whatever brightness might have existed in those earlier Rams unis. Only those who were actually there know how the sun bounced off those crew-cut era outfits inside the majestic L.A. Memorial Coliseum. 

To my eyes now, that old yeller was soft, and the blue more royal than anything else. Not so now, as the hyperactive, hyperintense, hyper-I-want-to-be-seen vibe takes hold across all of sports. Sure, in the Rams guide it's called royal blue ... but it looks more like Cool Blue Gatorade.

I'm just not sure what to make of the current get-up but it smacks of the sort of meddling only a mid-level marketeer with no sense of tradition could conjure up. Couldn't we get that kid on sanitary watch or something?

Why go brighter? Why? We can see the helmet, folks - the colors, the awesome Ram horn lines, even the facemask. I mean where does this end? You might as well move into shades of purple. At this point, ticking boxes for the sake of change seems more important than tradition. 

Now this all came to a head for me when the Rams recently faced the Niners, another team with a wonderful uniform - once upon a time. Today? Well, it's usually fine but sometimes, like against the Rams, the team dons a very bland all white - that's jersey, pants and socks - like a five-year old's pajamas. 

Hey, perhaps a kindergartener was interviewed for these uni designs, I don't know. No wait, sorry. I can't lay the blame for the black stripes and outlines of the numbers at the foot of an innocent kid - they'd be way more savvy with their Crayolas than to add black trim to red. 

The use of black as a primary color on NFL unis simply has to end. Did Roger Goodell sign a deal with Sherwin-Williams? What gives here?

I implore you to Google Roger Craig or Joe Montana - 'in the eighties': you will not see a finer uniform on the gridiron than that rich red jersey with three white stripes, gold pants and gold helmet. Forget the search, let me just paste one for you here ...

Magic. At least the current helmet is close to that older one but still has had the juice turned up on the gold because, you know, in 2020, really, really bright colors are so much more special. 

Maybe they should make the cleats rose gold while they're at it, because there's surely an uninspired graph on a frozen powerpoint slide somewhere that shows 11% of the population will just love it.