Horse Tracks: Broncos uniform reveal kind of a big deal

Please don’t screw this up.

When I was in high school, I remember visiting the newly opened Park Meadows Mall with my parents. My mother looked around the sparkling new monument to American excess and convenience with a frown on her face.

“This is a mall designed by people from the east coast who have never really been to Colorado. This is what they think Colorado looks like?” She was unimpressed.

With the Broncos new owners taking the first stab at uniform redesign in nearly 30-years, there is a legitimate fear that we could end up with some hokey outsider representation of what folks think the Broncos should look like.

This projection of what the new uniforms is achingly-lazy. While the Broncos are clearly proud of their Rocky Mountain heritage, it’s just not necessary to integrate them anywhere on the uniform.

While less than thrilled by the neo-Colorado architecture of the 1990’s, my mom truly hated deer-antler chandeliers and light fixtures that seemed to all pop up all over around that same time.

“I don’t even know where you would order such a thing. That certainly didn’t come from Colorado.” These antler abominations were the product of more outsiders trying to fathom what mountain people would like. Antlers… apparently.

For me, these mountain-scape uniforms are the lazy and cloying deer antler chandeliers of the uniform world. The only thing missing is a cheesy 5280 on the sleeve. It’s just not necessary.

With any luck, the uniform above won’t be anywhere close to the actual uniform released later this month. With the product on the field as awful as it’s been over the last, checks calendar, let’s say decade, this uniform release has all the potential to be the highwater mark for the season.

It’s important for new ownership not to buy into the cheesy perceptions of what Colorado is and get to the root of what it means to be a Broncos fan. In 1997, the Broncos made a real statement when they introduced something the league had never seen before. Here is a great opportunity to reintroduce the Broncos to the NFL.

It’s going to be interesting to see if these uniforms are a genuine reflection of Denver and the storied history of the Broncos. My mother will be monitoring this release very closely. Let’s not disappoint her with hokey nonsense.

HEADLINES

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