About those throwback jerseys (this thread is a bit weird)

This is going to sound a little dumb on the surface, but hear me out...


The first thing I thought when I saw the Pats in their red throwback jerseys was "THAT's got to be at least a little confusing for Brady". After all, all of his experience has been with blue/white jerseys.

Surely subconsciously his brain has wired itself to react quickly to seeing blue/white jerseys moving around and to AVOID other colors. It's got to be SOMEWHAT disruptive to have to remind yourself what color you're throwing to every snap, even if it's at a very subconscious level.

It seems reasonable to me therefore that it's possible that the split second decisions that a quarterback has to make could be slowed down by a sudden change of jersey color. These decisions and pattern recognition processes are being made in thousandths of a second.

I'd love to take a look back at the stats of teams using different colored jerseys for "throwback" games and see if there is any correlation to below average gameplay. Clearly in the case of this game there were MANY potential reasons for a slow start to the game.

No need to flame. This is just a thought. It just seems to me to be risky to change something that Brady is familiar with pointlessly that can only have a potentially negative effect on game play.

I agree with everything you said. It's hard to think there's not any effect on the team, whether it be Brady or a running back focusing on following blocks. In general, I just wasn't feeling it. Give me the flying Elvii!

I've only been a fan for about seven seasons however, so I can fully understand if older members like it for nostalgic reasons.

The red jerseys have bad mojo. When the team was stumbling around Monday night it was creepy, like deja vu. I'll be glad when this "throwback" hoopla has run its course and things are back to normal.

Tunescribe said:

The red jerseys have bad mojo. When the team was stumbling around Monday night it was creepy, like deja vu. I'll be glad when this "throwback" hoopla has run its course and things are back to normal.

Click to expand...

I thought we had 3 more games with those god awful things on? They remind me of the red hoodie, really, great stuff to reminisce.

Great thought. I am watching the replay now on NFL network and it is a bit disorienting to watch. The colors are so radically different. It’s like that exercise where they ask you to fold your hands together. See which thumb is on top and then switch your hands so the other thumb is on top. For such a simple change, it just feels very wrong. Try it sometime.

If it truly is a problem, then all they have to do is practice each day the week before in red and white uniforms, right? And if it does cause problems with recognition, wouldn't the same be true ever time they play against a team wearing either blue or white?

jmt57 said:

If it truly is a problem, then all they have to do is practice each day the week before in red and white uniforms, right? And if it does cause problems with recognition, wouldn't the same be true ever time they play against a team wearing either blue or white?

Click to expand...

That is what they have been doing.. they have been practicing in those throwback jerseys for quite a while now... so in that regard the subconscious idea, while something worthy of contemplation, does not have any weight.

I'm just glad they're not wearing the all blue uni's or the hideous silver jersey's. And don't ever wear the white jersey's at a home game again!

Have you played sports? I know I have played pickup backyard ball where everyone is wearing whatever they are wearing....its not a factor because you are throwing it to YOUR GUY. TB is in the huddle surrounded by red, wearing red, do you think he is looking for BLUE?? He is throwing it to the spot where HIS GUY should be, no matter what color jersey he is wearing. Sounds like a question from someone who hasnt played the game, no offense.

as i recall, BB wore a red hoodie throughout "that game" in Arizona, so, on principle, I would rather they left the red jerseys in the Pro Shop.

jeffbiologist said:

Have you played sports? I know I have played pickup backyard ball where everyone is wearing whatever they are wearing....its not a factor because you are throwing it to YOUR GUY. TB is in the huddle surrounded by red, wearing red, do you think he is looking for BLUE?? He is throwing it to the spot where HIS GUY should be, no matter what color jersey he is wearing. Sounds like a question from someone who hasnt played the game, no offense.

Click to expand...

way too rational.

jeffbiologist said:

Have you played sports? I know I have played pickup backyard ball where everyone is wearing whatever they are wearing....its not a factor because you are throwing it to YOUR GUY. TB is in the huddle surrounded by red, wearing red, do you think he is looking for BLUE?? He is throwing it to the spot where HIS GUY should be, no matter what color jersey he is wearing. Sounds like a question from someone who hasnt played the game, no offense.

Click to expand...

Yeah, this is just like pickup backyard ball...

jeffbiologist said:

Have you played sports? I know I have played pickup backyard ball where everyone is wearing whatever they are wearing....its not a factor because you are throwing it to YOUR GUY. TB is in the huddle surrounded by red, wearing red, do you think he is looking for BLUE?? He is throwing it to the spot where HIS GUY should be, no matter what color jersey he is wearing. Sounds like a question from someone who hasnt played the game, no offense.

Click to expand...

You clearly don't understand what this thread is about. I'm talking about SUBCONSCIOUS effect. Not "Brady is such a moron that he can't tell who Moss is in red".

Of course he's going to throw it to HIS guy. However, he needs to be able to scan the field and make decisions almost subconsciously and in thousandths of a second. The brain probably has a far easier time of making snap decisions when what it sees is consistent game after game after year after year. This isnt a question of backyard football, it's a question of cognitive psychology.

A QBs brain is keeping track of an immense amount of information, and the more that stays the same the better. Adding in more complexity is a bad idea. This isn't some random football observation. It's a very basic principal of pattern recognition -- keeping as many variables as possible that you can control the same so as to allow for the fastest snap judgments.

Although I clearly can't prove it, I suspect that all else being the same, the probability of Brady making some of those early passes would have been higher in familiar uniforms.

It would be an interesting study for a psychology major.

Tunescribe said:

The red jerseys have bad mojo. When the team was stumbling around Monday night it was creepy, like deja vu. I'll be glad when this "throwback" hoopla has run its course and things are back to normal.

Click to expand...

Those red jerseys are cursed.

The Pats never won anything but heartache with that uniform on and the MNF game brought back nightmares.

We just won an absolute thriller in the real Patriots uniforms. It felt like 1985 all over again, to me.

Along with the other guy who mentioned this, I have played football (by which I mean 'soccer') my entire life in countless different uniforms and never, ever felt the slightest confusion from being in a different colour to what I was used to. Not even slightly.

Now, if two teams have colours that are not quite different enough, and you're passing to someone you just see out of the corner of your eye, that's a different matter. But I have not the slightest, tiniest suspicion that playing in red had the remotest effect on the Patriots on Monday night.

(There is some psychological research suggesting that bold red sports uniforms are more threatening and make the players look bigger to the opposition, sub-consciously, but that's only about fourth on the list of reasons we should go back to the proper uniforms, heh heh)

Besides the fact that the old logo looks great compared to Corporate Elvis?

Our current uniform is my favorite in sports.

Leave the old ones in the past.

flame on you crazy

Disco Volante said:

Our current uniform is my favorite in sports.

Leave the old ones in the past.

Click to expand...

which version? Blue right? Definitely not silver.

Tom Brady could be wearing Green with yellow polka dots throwing to a guy wearing black and white stripes standing next to the referee and it shouldn't/wouldn't effect him.

In hoops, guys go shirts and skins all the time.

In "pickup" football, or scrimmages... guys are sometimes wearing the SAME jerseys and the local shipping/receiving guy can make the play to his guy...

I see where you are coming from... but, I'm thinking that you prob. didn't play sports coming up... like the other fellow said, no offense... good thought and all of that... but I doubt, very much, that jersey color even enters into TB's mind when he's back there.