1973 Cleveland Browns

[JeffreyMiller]

I never noticed it before, but the Browns went the whole season of 1973 wearing only their white jerseys. Has this happened any other time in the modern era, where a team where's the same jersey for an entire season?

[74_75_78_79_]

Interesting factoid, Jeff! I’d guess Dallas would be the first team that someone would think of, but there would always be some team on the schedule that would wear white at home. I believe there’s a site - it was mentioned here a while back - that tells who wore what jersey each and every game. Considering that Redskins, I believe, wore their dark jerseys at home in the early-’70s, maybe the ’72 Cowboys would be a good place to start. Then again, not sure Cards, Eagles, or SD wore dark jerseys at home or not.

As for the ’73 Browns, coming off a win over 8-1 Steelers and at Oakland the week before that, they were in 2nd-Place in the Central with just three games to go at 7-3-1. They then tie to KC and then lose their final two thus falling short of playoffs. ’80, of course, would be the next time they qualify. The ’73 Browns along with that year’s Chiefs, Broncos (both also finishing 7-5-2), and Packers (5-7-2) are still the last teams to tie twice in a season.

EDIT: Browns were coming off a win over 8-2 Steelers.

[Jay Z]

https://uni-watch.com/research-projects ... n-the-nfl/

The following teams wore their white jerseys for a whole season (preseason games not included):
Browns: 1973, 1977, 1986, 1995
Buccaneers: 1976
Chargers: 1978, 1983, 1991
Cowboys: 1972
Dolphins: 1977
Oilers: 1998
Rams: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1993
Saints: 1974

[74_75_78_79_]

https://uni-watch.com/research-projects ... n-the-nfl/

The following teams wore their white jerseys for a whole season (preseason games not included):
Browns: 1973, 1977, 1986, 1995
Buccaneers: 1976
Chargers: 1978, 1983, 1991
Cowboys: 1972
Dolphins: 1977
Oilers: 1998
Rams: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1993
Saints: 1974

Massive knowledge-drop, Jay! I always knew/remembered '86 Browns wearing white vs Jets & Broncos in their playoff games but would have never guessed they playing in white the whole entire campaign! I guess I was right about '72 Cowboys. Yeah, it simply takes a 'perfect storm' of sorts, coincidently avoiding all road-opponents who wear white at home as you yourself wear white every home game. There's almost always a team or two to 'ruin' it. 32 years later and still no white-jerseys-all-year since.

Sure enough there are no teams ever that played in their dark jerseys every game. But begs the question...what team(s) played the most (%-age of) games, reg/post-season, in their darks? A mid/late-'80s Giants team first comes to mind considering Cards, 'Boys, Eagles, Redskins all usually wore white at home during that time. Maybe an early-'80s San Fran team as well (Falcons, Rams, Saints each did their share of white-at-home during that time).

Wow what a great site that is!! Thanks for displaying it, Jay!

EDIT - I see the G-men played 12 regular-season games in their dark jerseys in 1988, '89 (13 total, playoff vs Rams), '91, '93, and '94; and thirteen regular-season games in their darks in both 1997 (14 total, playoff vs Minn) and 1999. The 2000 team that won the NFC played just 11 in their darks during the regular season, but their three post-season games makes it a total of 14. I didn't bother delving further into the 21st century. '97 Giants (14 out of 17/.823) seems to be tops so far.

Amazing the research that it takes to set up such a site like that! After all, when looking up stats of any given game, it's not as if it comes with info on what exact uniform each team wore. Simply took plenty of roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-real-dirty ultra-time-consuming research!

[JeffreyMiller]

https://uni-watch.com/research-projects ... n-the-nfl/

The following teams wore their white jerseys for a whole season (preseason games not included):
Browns: 1973, 1977, 1986, 1995
Buccaneers: 1976
Chargers: 1978, 1983, 1991
Cowboys: 1972
Dolphins: 1977
Oilers: 1998
Rams: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1993
Saints: 1974

Thanks Jayz … guess it's something you don't notice when it's happening ..

[Jay Z]

The Rams were interesting... when they removed yellow in '64, they then went to white at home from 1964-71, so the blues were rarely seen, not at all in 1968-70. Then a season of them in 1972, then switch back to yellow.

They were right to wear the whites at home, the blues were dull. So why the switch for one year?

[74_75_78_79_]

Hmm, here's a factoid...the '81 Oilers wore blue their first two games - at Rams then at Browns - but their remaining 14 games wore white. In '83, they wore blue just once (Week #4).

[JWL]

1976 49ers wore the same uniforms for all 14 games.

[BD Sullivan]

1976 49ers wore the same uniforms for all 14 games.

So that's why Monte Clark was fired after the season.

I've mentioned before that the NLCS might actually have ended up costing the Browns a playoff spot, since there was a three-way tie for first in the AFC Central prior to that December game against the Bengals. That's because the Reds hosting the first weekend of games pushed the Browns at Cincy game to Cleveland, with the Dec. 9 game being played in Cincy. Of course, the Browns still had a road game against the Rams, who were already locked into their playoff spot.

Of course, they had a last-minute win over the Steelers in Week 11 and then somehow pulled out a tie in KC after getting dominated for most of the game. So it's clear that the Browns were running on fumes, with the team's collapse the following year indicative of how they would have gotten quickly bounced by the Dolphins or Raiders in the first round.

Mike Phipps was supposedly on the verge of becoming a top quarterback in '73, but regressed big time by throwing only nine touchdowns compared to 20 interceptions.