Back in Black: Panthers QBs Ditch Red ‘No Contact’ Jerseys

The Panthers have used a variety of different colors for the "no contact" jerseys that their quarterbacks wear during team practices. As recently as a few weeks ago, they were using red; in 2020, they used green; and on Monday, as you can see above, they were going with black. I’m not 100% sure, but I think it's the first time I’ve ever seen black used for the "no contact" garb.

Going with black was the idea of veteran quarterback Andy Dalton, who signed with the Panthers back in March and felt that going with a team color would help the QBs feel more integrated with the rest of the team. "Nothing behind it, just staying with the color scheme," he said. "But you do feel like you’re more of a part of it."

Since the Panthers have three team colors — black, blue, and white — the idea is that the quarterbacks will always be able to dress in a color that contrasts with both the offense and the defense. At Monday's OTA session, for example, Carolina's offense wore blue and the defense wore white, so that's why the signal-callers wore black.

Update: Reader/commenter Frank from BMore reports that the Ravens are also using black for their "no contact" jerseys:

We’ve known since last fall that the Seahawks would revive their silver/blue uniform as a throwback this season, and now we finally know when that throwback game will take place, because the team announced yesterday that the retro threads will be worn on Oct. 29 against the Browns.

By handy coincidence, my Uni Watch Premium article over on Substack this week is a deep dive on Seattle's silver/blue set, full of fun facts and obscure nuances. You can read the first part of it here; in order to read the entire thing, you’ll need to become a paying subscriber to my Substack (which will also give you access to my full Substack/Bulletin archives). My thanks, as always, for your consideration.

I don't think of Ohio as a big maple syrup-producing state (it wasn't even in the top seven last year), but I do like this can quite a bit. The cardinal is a nice touch, even if he's not perched on a bat.

• • • • •

Belated birthday best wishes to Ticker assistant and tireless women's sports advocate Jamie Rathjen, who celebrated another trip around the sun on Monday. Thanks for all you do, Jamie! — Paul

The Ravens swapped from red to black for non-contact jerseys a few years ago.link

Thanks for that! I’ve added it to the text (and credited you, natch).

Not needed, but thanks. I remember when the team swapped and thought black was the exact opposite of a high vis color but I guess defensive players have become so accustomed to not hitting the QB in practice that the color may be irrelevant.

I see Andy Dalton's point, but they had usually stuck with white and blue with the QBs wearing no-contact red jerseys – especially during camps and early in the season – to keep from wearing black jerseys. Later in the season, players felt more comfortable wearing black jerseys and practice photos later in the season reflected such.

(Cue up the BFBS jokes, even though the Panthers have black in their color scheme … )

Team colors aside, I wouldn't want to have to wear black at a football practice in the summer heat of the Carolinas. Seems impractical.

It's part of why the Panthers rarely, if ever, wear black at home during daytime kickoffs before mid-October.

The QBs wearing black practice jerseys also puts any other players wearing black in jeopardy.

The Seahawks added the Seahawk to the sleeve in 1983.

In the early 80s I ordered an "authentic" Jim Zorn Seahawks jersey from the NFL store. When it arrived, I was disappointed to find 10″ numbers on the front. When I called, I was told that the NFL rule required 10″ on the front so it was "authentic".

In 1983 I ordered the new jersey (Jim Zorn). It arrived on the day they named Dave Krieg the new starter (and my grandma died). 10″ numbers on the front again.

Also, interesting that the Mitchell & Ness "authentic" has 10″ numbers that are sewn on.

I think the 49ers also used (or use?) a black no-contact jersey

link

I don't know how long it takes to apply helmet logos, but it would be really cool if the Seahawks would at least warm up for one game with the plain silver helmets they had in 1976 and then put the stickers on before kickoff.

That's a myth that keeps getting perpetuated. The Seahawks only had logoless helmets during the first training camp. They might have scrimmaged with another team but they had the logos by the time they played their first preseason game.

I deliberately didn't even mention that myth in today's Substack piece because I don't want to go there.

You can always count on some variation of the "Seahawks wore plain silver helmets in 1976" comment appearing whenever their uniforms are mentioned.It's a predictable running gag…that's it.

But the Seahawks really did wear blank helmets in their inaugural 1976 season. I’ve read that here in the comments section, so it definitely must be true.

I think this is more common in college. Ohio State has worn black jerseys for QBs for as long as I can remember. (They can't wear red.) I think Texas has been using black recently too. Quinn Ewers is the first one I can remember seeing a black practice jersey, but it might have been going on longer.

University of Wisconsin

Always thought this should be the case. Red non-contact only if there aren't existing options in the team colors.Only the Jets, Colts, Raiders, Eagles, Cowboys, and Lions would need to wear red due to a lack of non contrasting secondary team color.

For decades, the Cowboys QB's wore the same practice color as the rest of the offense.linkOnly ‘recently’ (2020) did they adopt red…when Andy Dalton was on the team.link

I’ve been struggling to identify the teams/players/date of this photo. It's labeled as an August 1, 1969 game for the AAA Padres but the AAA Padres didn't exist on that date and the NL Padres were in Chicago on that date. Can anyone help?

link

P.S. Does anyone know of a better place to ask these kinds of questions than in the Uni-Watch comment section?

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment *

Name *

Email *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Δ