Friday, November 22, 2024
Sports

Threads of the UFL: Unveiling the uniforms for all 10 teams

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  • Anthony Gharib, ESPNMar 25, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

The United Football League, which is the result of a merger between the USFL and XFL that was announced in September 2023, debuts Saturday with a matchup between the Birmingham Stallions and Arlington Renegades (1 p.m. ET, Fox). The Stallions (USFL) and Renegades (XFL) were each league’s respective champion from the 2023 season.

ESPN will be broadcasting Sunday’s games, beginning with the D.C. Defenders playing at the San Antonio Brahmas at noon ET, followed by the Memphis Showboats at Houston Roughnecks at 3 p.m. ET.

The sleek and eye-catching uniforms that were selling points of the USFL and XFL have carried over with the combination of the two leagues. The UFL and Under Armour announced an exclusive partnership for the upcoming season, meaning some threads will include the Under Armour logo.

Here’s a look at what each team will be wearing this season, plus their records wearing each combination last season.

Arlington Renegades

The UFL Renegades will look a lot like the XFL Renegades did.

Their home jerseys include baby blue uniforms and pants matched with a slightly darker blue helmet that has a black stripe from back to front. On the road, the uniforms and pants turn white while the helmet color remains.

Arlington went 2-3 in its home threads and 4-3 in its road unis last season, including two playoff wins to become the XFL champions.

Birmingham Stallions

The defending USFL champions appeared in all five seasons of the USFL, from the original version in 1983-85 to the reboot in 2022 and 2023. Birmingham’s uniforms have stayed relatively constant throughout, so it makes sense that there are no changes heading into the UFL.

The Stallions return their familiar red, gold and white color scheme. They wore red jerseys with gold pants and helmets at home last season. On the road, Birmingham always wore white jerseys, but sometimes matched them with white or gold pants depending on the matchup. Regardless, it seems those combinations will be the same this season.

The difference between their uniforms in 1983 and now is the helmet decal — Birmingham originally had a red stallion, but switched to a stallion head when the league returned in 2022. The Stallions went 5-2 wearing red last season, 5-0 in white.

D.C. Defenders

Since making their XFL debut in the 2020 version of the league that was shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defenders have worn the same colors on the road and at home. However, in last year’s version of the XFL, D.C. stopped wearing its all-white combination from 2020, instead going with red pants home and away. The helmet logo also changed from two lightning bolts intersecting to a capital “D” with a star inside it.

The Defenders will bring those uniforms to the UFL, featuring all-red jerseys and pants with white helmets at home and white threads with red pants and white helmets on the road. They went 4-1 while wearing white jerseys and 6-1 in red.

Houston Roughnecks

Houston’s uniforms are among the league’s sleekest.

The chest and shoulders feature a navy and white look, respectively. A red shadow looms over the numbers to pair with white pants, offering a nice aesthetic at home. On the road, the colors alternate: White on the chest, navy along the shoulders with navy pants.

The helmet is the real star, with colors that resemble the Texas flag. One side has the logo and the other has the player’s number, giving an Oregon Ducks-esque creativity. The Roughnecks were 3-3 in navy uniforms, 3-2 in white.

Memphis Showboats

Memphis has a similar jersey set up to Houston, with a primary color on the chest and another on the shoulders. Last year, the Showboats always wore white pants. It seems that they’ll alternate from white and navy this season depending on the location.

As the home team, Memphis wears navy uniforms and pants with yellow across the shoulder. On the road, it flips to white uniforms and pants with navy across the shoulder.

The Showboats’ look is different from the silver and red during their first USFL season in 1984. Memphis had a 2-3 last season when it wore primarily navy and 3-2 in primarily white.

Michigan Panthers

Michigan and Birmingham are the only two teams from the first season of the original USFL in 1983 to play in the UFL. Just like the Stallions, the Panthers’ uniforms are similar to what they wore decades ago.

Michigan has kept its plum, gold and white color palette largely untouched. It will wear plum with gold pants at home and white with plum pants on the road — different from last season, when the Panthers always wore gold pants.

The white jerseys brought the most success last season. Michigan had a 3-3 record in white, 1-4 in plum.

San Antonio Brahmas

San Antonio was the lone team with yellow as a primary color in its first XFL season. The Brahmas will continue with that color scheme in the UFL, wearing the same combinations from last year. San Antonio rocks yellow jerseys with dark gray pants and helmets on the road, and all gray at home. The Brahmas have one of the best helmet decals in the league — a brahma bullhorn in popping yellow.

When the uniforms were revealed in December 2022, the colorways were influenced by then-head coach Hines Ward, who spent his entire NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The “Blood, Sweat, Respect,” slogan on the collar of the jerseys is a message from the ownership to the players.

Yellow might be the most successful color for San Antonio, which went 3-2 on the road and 0-5 at home.

St. Louis Battlehawks

St. Louis has arguably the cleanest home uniforms in the UFL — all blue jerseys and pants matched with silver helmets. It’s slightly similar to the Indianapolis Colts‘ “Indiana Nights” uniforms that debuted last season. However, the Battlehawks opt for silver rather than the Colts’ black.

Their uniforms are all blue at home, all silver on the road. St. Louis did match silver uniforms with blue pants in one game last season, so that could be a combination to watch.

The Battlehawks were 3-2 in blue uniforms, 4-1 in silver.


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