LONDON, UK — Understand, the Broncos were locked in with their white jersey tops.
Damani Leech, the Broncos’ president, had gathered the team’s five captains – Russell Wilson and Courtland Sutton on offense; Justin Simmons and Bradley Chubb on defense; and kicker Brandon McManus on special teams – for a meeting to gather marketing and branding ideas.
It was during that branding meeting that the possibility of mixing up the Broncos’ uniform combination for their game in London organically came up.
Leech put it to the captains. There were three options. One was to match the white tops with white pants – which is what they always wear, and for good reason – or go with orange or blue pants. But as the visiting team in the NFL International Series game here Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Broncos had to wear their white tops.
The five Broncos captains looked at mock-ups of white on blue pants and white on orange pants. And they knew that neither matched perfectly.
But they decided that white tops on blue pants was worth a look. Perhaps for future designs, modifications must be done about the stripe sequence – the blue stripe on the white top clashes with the orange stripe on the blue pants.
“We said, ‘Look, we are going to London, they drive on the opposite side of the road, we can flip our pants and see how it goes,’’ Leech said.
“I know a lot of guys love the blue on blue that we get to wear or even the blue jerseys with the white pants,’’ Simmons said after the Broncos’ walkthrough practice Wednesday. “I think just switching it up a little bit—I know a lot of guys liked the combos. … Depending on who's wearing the white jerseys (in practice), guys notice.
“Russ and some of the other guys noticed. They are like, ‘Hey, those look pretty good. Is there any chance we could probably make that happen?’ They asked around, and I guess they made it happen. So going to wear them on Sunday and I'm excited. I’m thinking it will be cool. A look that we haven't had in a while, but I think it looks pretty cool.”
Too bad they can’t alter those mismatched stripes. But for a team on a four-game losing streak, they’d wear plaid on stripes if it was the uniform in victory.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Sports