Cowboys’ jerseys have remained uniform through the years

The reactions to the New York Giants’ new alternate jersey for 2024 have been – mostly – brutal. And with good reason.

They might just be one of the ugliest uniforms in NFL history.

And given the way some of the older uniforms looked, that’s saying something.

Judge for yourself.

I’m not sure who put this together and said: “Yes, this is what we’re presenting to our client!”

But they need to be unemployed for this. Possibly even limited to janitorial service work for the rest of their natural lives too.

There’s just nothing appealing there.

And what’s with the tan pants?

Last I checked the Giants were red, white, and blue. But tan?

And nice rip off of the Michigan Wolverines’ helmet design too.

I get that back in the 1930s the Giants’ helmet had a similar look. But there was enough of a difference between it and the Wolverines’ helmet to make it acceptable.

The one thing I’ll give this design: It’s not the absolute ugliest uniform an NFL team has rolled out.

That honor goes to the jailhouse uniform design trotted out by the Pittsburgh Steelers about a dozen years back.

Seriously? That puts the “ugh” in ugly.

But I suppose it could have been worse. Check out what the Chicago White Sox made their players wear in 1976.

Even worse, here in Colorado, they decided to make a major league baseball team look like a Sunday beer league softball team instead with these “City Connect” uniforms.

This was just lazy work. Basically they just took the state’s basic license plate and slapped it on the uniform.

The good news for Dallas Cowboys fans is that we haven’t had to suffer such indignities. Aside from the Color Rush uniform gimmick the NFL foisted on every NFL team of course.

No Huge Swings In Dallas

The Cowboys really haven’t messed with their look over the decades. The team has been blue, white, and silver – in varying shades of the main colors.

The star on the helmet began as a simple blue star on a white helmet before becoming a blue star outlined by a larger white star and another, larger, blue star.

In 1976 the Cowboys played with a red stripe added to the helmet for a nice red, white, and blue crown.

The uniform has been home white and road dark blues with slight variations over the years.

Some years there was a star on top of each shoulder pad with a number below. Some times it was a number on the pad and stripes — two or three — on the sleeves below.

Depending on the season, a patch would appear. Some years the hues would darken or lighten. But it was easy to identify the team that the uniform belonged to.

Unlike other teams that have made bigger swings – namely the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who went from Creamsicle Orange to pewter and red.

Or the Seattle Seahawks who went from a nice looking blue, green, and white to greyish green and neon green. At least they left the bird alone on the helmet.

Tampa Bay jettisoned their swashbuckling buccaneer for a pirate flag.

The 1960s

Here’s some examples of the Cowboys uniforms over the years.

Eddie LeBaron was the Cowboys first starting quarterback to don the home whites and the road blues in the early 1960s.

By the time the decade was drawing to a close, Don Meredith was the starting quarterback and the helmet and uniforms had taken on their iconic looks.

The 1970s

The 1970s saw one significant change. Tex Schram went to a different pant color – one that did not match the silver helmets the Cowboys wore.

Then again, the star on the helmet is a darker blue than the blue numbers on the white jersey so why nitpick, right?

The color eventually became named “Cowboys Star Blue”. It isn’t quite blue, or grey, or silver.

But it was iconic.

The 1980s saw little change.

The numbers were tweaked a little on the road blues. And in 1984, the Cowboys wore a 25th Anniversary star on their uniforms.

This matched the logo at midfield at Texas Stadium that season.

Not the best photo of the logo, but I couldn’t find one online and I was shooting from across the stadium and in the upper stands that night in 1984.

The Jerry Jones Era

There’s been a few variations over the years since Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989.

Teams started offering alternate jerseys – seeing a way to rake in the merchandise cash. Here’s a few examples over the years.

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens (81) scores in the fourth quarter as New York Giants safety Gibril Wilson (28) pursues in the fourth quarter of their NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007, in Irving Texas. The touchdown came on a 47-yard touchdown pass. (AP Photo/L.M. Otero)

But overall the iconic Cowboys look has remained surprisingly uniform. Given the team’s storied history, don’t look for that to change anytime soon.

In other words, we won’t need to worry about unseating the Giants and Steelers for worst uniform variants ever.