Denver Broncos top 4 worst uniform decisions the last 20 years

The last time the Denver Broncos got new uniforms was in the 1997 season, and those uniforms are the ones an entire generation grew up with as fans of the franchise. The Broncos are gearing up for their most significant uniform modification in quite some time ahead of the 2023 season, adding a white helmet for the first time in franchise history.

There has already been a lot of speculation about what the helmets could look like, what uniforms they could go with, and what other modifications could be on the way for the Denver Broncos.

The Broncos have teased a white facemask with the new helmet announcement, but one thing they have not teased at this point is a white color rush uniform to go along with the white helmet. Though, obviously, many are hopeful that will ultimately be the case.

The thought of adding this white helmet with anything but a white uniform got me thinking about some of the worst fashion faux pas in recent Denver Broncos history. Over the last 20 years, the team has made a variety of unthinkable mistakes when it comes to their uniforms, and I'm here to call them out. Let's look at four, in particular.

4 worst uniform mistakes by the Denver Broncos in the last 20 years

4. Low hanging fruit: The brown and yellow eye sores

Back in the 2009 season, the Denver Broncos celebrated their 50th anniversary as a franchise with some throwback uniforms. Instead of wearing their best throwback uniforms, they decided to wear their first and absolute worst.

You can't be too critical. These uniforms were designed back in 1960 and whoever was designing them clearly was going after a Fall palette.

These uniforms were even worse when contrasted side-by-side against the New England Patriots' glorious throwback uniforms, perfect in almost every way. I get what the Broncos were doing here, but these uniforms were terrible. Luckily, they were able to beat the Patriots while wearing them, otherwise the memory of these would be more of a nightmare than anything else.

Unfortunately, it does get worse than this for the Broncos. As I stated, this is the low-hanging fruit. This is not the worst fashion crime made by the Denver Broncos in the last 20 years. There are a few that top it.

3. The Denver Broncos "polo" jerseys

Back in the 2012 offseason, Nike acquired the rights to outfit the NFL. Previously, it had been Reebok outfitting the NFL, and even though we're more than 10 years removed from that, it's kind of insane to think about given how badly Nike dwarfs Reebok as an overall company in the sports fashion market.

Needless to say, Nike's brand combined with the NFL was an exciting time for people who care about the fashion of the NFL, but the unfortunate reality is that Nike seems to have done more harm to the NFL than good. They have had some absolutely horrendous uniform re-designs under Nike, but one of the Big Swoosh's first orders of business upon acquiring the rights to outfit the NFL was apparently to make every team look like they were wearing polo t-shirts up top.

It's still hard to believe they did this. I don't know that any NFL team still has this, but Nike's decision to take half of the collar away and make it look like a polo t-shirt is one of the most egregious mistakes this company has made in the last 10-plus years, and it looks even worse in hindsight.

If you think about it, Nike's decision to cut the collars in half really served as an omen for what was to come from the company as they took over the primary rights to NFL uniforms. Thank goodness they realized this error quickly and just moved to GIANT collars in the 2013 season, although some teams were stuck with the polo-style collars for a few years.

That collar looks like the bottom half of the fancy letter "S" you used to draw when you were bored in class. If you know, you know.

2. When things get so bad, you try this...

The Denver Broncos have been so bad the last seven years...

How bad have the Denver Broncos been over the last seven years?

The Denver Broncos have been so bad the last seven years that the players and team felt like they needed to wear the most ungodly uniform combination maybe in the entire history of the franchise. Not before the 2022 season had this been done, and hopefully never again unless the Broncos play on Halloween and their goal is to scare the opponent.

Pro athletes and coaches will do a lot of things to try and find their mojo. In baseball, guys will use a teammate's bat or batting gloves. Michael Jordan wore his North Carolina practice shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform for every game. Some players need to hear a specific song before a game. Some need to have a certain meal or snack.

Whatever the superstition or ritual, it's only crazy if it doesn't work, right?

That's got to be what the Broncos were thinking last year when they went to London to play the Jaguars. Everybody made fun of Russell Wilson for doing high knees on the airplane, but whoever had anything to do with wearing the blue pants and the orange stripe down the side deserved far more public backlash.

This is easily the worst uniform combination in modern Denver Broncos history because nothing goes together. It wouldn't be terrible if the stripe on the pants was blue with some orange trim, but the giant orange stripe down the side clashes with the stripe on the side of the jersey, making this a mismatch among mismatches.

Hopefully, the Broncos have enough uniform combinations going forward to never have to resort to this kind of thing ever again, or maybe they can get a different pair of pants approved in a "break in case of emergency" situation.

1. The biggest uniform mistake: Not wearing the real throwbacks

The last time the Denver Broncos wore the beloved old-school uniforms which the team wore from 1969-1996 was during the 2001 season.

This was the last time anyone saw this exact uniform on an actual NFL field, and going more than 20 years without seeing that uniform should be a crime.

Just like the 1990s Atlanta Falcons uniforms, the Kelly Green Philadelphia Eagles uniforms, classic Miami Dolphins uniforms, or even creamsicle Buccaneers uniforms, the Denver Broncos' uniforms from the 80s and 90s deserve to be highlighted on an annual basis.

Not everybody loves them, but you can almost guarantee that the players on the roster would absolutely flip a cork if they got to wear these. Part of the reason the Broncos haven't worn these uniforms is not their own fault -- it's the NFL's. The NFL implemented (and has since changed) a rule which stated that you could only use one approved helmet all season. Having a navy blue helmet prevents the Broncos from being able to wear these throwbacks, but as of 2022, that's no longer the case.

Just know that the team could bring these back for up to two games per season if they wanted to.

The closest we've gotten is obviously the team's Color Rush uniform combination, which is all orange and includes the current navy blue. It's a fine compromise, but it's undoubtedly a compromise.

Hopefully, the Denver Broncos' new white helmet doesn't end up on this list in the near future. As of right now, hopes remain high. But when the Broncos unveil the helmet on July 25, everyone is going to want to know what uniform it's getting worn with and what it's going to look like. Again, it's impossible to picture a white helmet with the uniform being worn by Jerry Jeudy here.

We'll see if the Broncos get this next uniform modification right.