The Patriots have been in their most ugly era of uniforms the last thirty years, with the silly blue primary and the hideous, sad flying elvis introduced in 1993 resembling that of a cheaply made high school sports movie.
I will never get changing the uniforms, except insofar as sports team owners can be dullards. A uniform is part of the brand and that uniform was synonymous with New England, the community and a lot of winning despite local media's jihad to emphasize losses and lack of championships which the vast majority of cities and franchises experience in all sports, to a far greater degree than the Patriots. There is a reason why the Cowboys, Steelers, Colts, Raiders, Packers and Chiefs (outside of some minor alterations) never overhauled their uniforms since the 70's. They are part of their brand and us changing ours was a suicidal thing to do. Marketing people are paid a tremendous amount of money to come up with ways to fix things that aren't broken, that is to ruin them.
Orthwein possessed zero personal connection or concern about New England or the Patriots. Kraft kept it less than a year later partly because he thinks it's financially more profitable (it isn't), but mostly to distance himself from Sullivan.
The 49ers had not one, but two consecutive 2-14 seasons including Walsh and Montana's first, yet they kept their iconic, unique logo and uniform in which, although they hadn't won titles, they had had very successful seasons and great players. Having their dynasty in them acknowledged their long time real fans and rich history and allowed them to experience the titles genuinely. And they looked fantastic and classy. None of this can be said about the Patriots.
There is a simple reason it's so easy today for people to dismiss the most impressive two decade run of success and greatness ever and agree with media's depiction of the Patriots as a silly, irrelevant franchise.
media0.giphy.com 
