A Brief History of the American Football Jersey

Football, while baseball may have been considered the Great American Pastime, has far surpassed it as America's favorite sport to watch. Each NFL regular season game attracts nearly seventy thousand spectators, generating an annual revenue of nearly ten million dollars. At every game, millions of fans show up donning their favorite player's jersey to cheer on their beloved team. Football jerseys have been an enduring symbol of the sport, as iconic as the ball itself, for decades - but how did they come into existence?

Football, like any business, revolves around its consumers - the fans. The reason football players wear jerseys in the first place is to enable fans to identify which team each player belongs to. While the fundamental purpose of football jerseys remains the same, their style has certainly evolved over the years.

The history of football uniforms dates back to wool or cotton sweaters without padding. Wool was the warmest material available for football players who played outside in the cold. This is also where the term "jersey" comes from, as a jersey is traditionally an item of knitted clothing, usually made of wool or cotton.

As players realized the need for padding, leather patches were sewn onto the outside of the old-school football uniforms. The first in-the-jersey padding, produced in 1901, was made of thick leather held in place on the shoulders and other high-impact areas of the body with elastic straps.

In the 1960s, leather pads were replaced with sleek plastic and fiberglass pads.

In 1948, a Los Angeles Rams running back painted horns on his helmet, sparking a wave of logos being added to uniforms. In the age of black-and-white television, logos helped fans at home identify their team more easily than varying shades of gray. When color television was developed in the 1960s, teams started using brighter colors in their uniforms along with logos to stand out and catch the eye of viewers.

Players had chosen their own numbers for decades, but in 1973, the NFL began regulating uniforms and implemented a numbering system for players based on their positions. For example, quarterbacks and kickers can only wear numbers from 1 to 19. When this rule went into effect, players were allowed to wear their old football jerseys if they had played prior to 1973. The last player under this "grandfather clause" was New England defensive end Julius Adams, who wore his number until 1985.

After the days of wool sweaters, football jerseys started to be made of polyester. As players realized the need to wear tight-fitting jerseys so that opponents couldn't grab onto them, they added laces to the sides that could be used to tighten the uniform.

To make it even easier to escape from opponents' grips, players turned to tear-away jerseys made of mesh with large holes. However, as one might expect, at the end of many games, players were barely wearing any of their jerseys! Because of this, the NFL banned tear-away jerseys.

In 1997, the Denver Broncos introduced spandex jerseys, which are still part of NFL uniforms today.

Today's football uniforms are all about sleekness, color, and breathability. Short sleeves were replaced with even shorter sleeves, and tight elastic hugs the shoulder padding of every player. In the late 1990s, Nike redesigned the football uniform and reduced the number of seams from twenty-two to five, making the jersey more durable.

In addition to the construction of football jerseys, NFL and college team uniforms now come in multiple colors for various games. Each jersey is carefully designed and may be a combination of past and present football uniforms or a "Color Rush," in which the uniform is entirely one color. Professional teams may have up to four uniforms, with a color and white uniform required for away games, and many college teams are following suit.

There are also superstitions surrounding certain jersey colors. When Seattle lost to Chicago in 2009, the Seahawks didn't wear the neon-green jerseys again. When the Cleveland Browns beat the New York Jets 21-17 in 2018, the Color Rush uniform they wore became very popular with the team.

The future of football uniforms will almost certainly see an increase in sleek, tight fabrics that are hard to grab onto, and of course, bright colors. Fans can't always expect to love a new jersey design at first, but every superfan knows that wearing their favorite player's jersey is the best sign of support.

Design Your Own Football Jersey
If you're looking to design a custom jersey, check out our dye sublimated football jerseys! These can be customized for any team and made regulation for uniform use. Whether you're looking for youth football uniforms or just want to rep your college team, send us a message to get started today!