The Dallas Cowboys' white home jersey has royal blue (PMS 280 C) solid socks, numbers, lettering, and two stripes on the sleeves outlined in black. The home pants, according to the Dallas Cowboys official media guide, are a common metallic silver-blue color (PMS 8280 C) that help bring out the blue in the uniform. The navy (PMS 289 C) road jerseys (nicknamed the "Stars and Stripes" jersey) have white lettering and numbers with navy pinstripes. A white/gray/white stripe are on each sleeve as well as the collared V-neck, and a Cowboys star logo is placed upon the stripes. A "Cowboys" chest crest is directly under the NFL shield. The away pants are a pearlish metallic-silver color (PMS 8001 C) and like the home pants, enhance the navy in the uniforms. The team uses a serifed font for the lettered player surnames on the jersey nameplates.
The team's helmets are also a unique silver with a tint of blue known as "Metallic Silver Blue" (PMS 8240 C) and have a blue/white/blue vertical stripe placed upon the center of the crown. The Cowboys also include a unique, if subtle, feature on the back of the helmet: a blue strip of Dymo tape with the player's name embossed, placed on the white portion of the stripe at the back of the helmet.
Uniform history
When the Dallas Cowboys franchise debuted in 1960, the team's uniform included a white helmet adorned with a simple blue star and a blue-white-blue stripe down the center crown. The team donned blue jerseys with white sleeves and a small blue star on each shoulder for home games and the negative opposite for away games. Their socks also had two horizontal white stripes overlapping the blue.
In 1964 the Cowboys opted for a simpler look (adopting essentially the team's current uniform) by changing their jersey/socks to one solid color with three horizontal stripes on the sleeves; the white jersey featured royal blue stripes with a narrow black border, the royal blue jersey white stripes with the same black outline. The star-shouldered jerseys were eliminated; "TV" numbers appeared just above the jersey stripes. The new helmet was silverblue, with a blue-white-blue tri-stripe down the center (the middle white stripe was thicker). The blue "lone star" logo was retained, but with a white border setting it off from the silverblue. The new pants were silverblue, with a blue-white-blue tri-stripe. In 1964 the NFL allowed teams to wear white jerseys at home; several teams did so, and the Cowboys have worn white at home ever since, except on certain "throwback" days.
In 1966, the team modified the jerseys, which now featured only two sleeve stripes, slightly wider; the socks followed the same pattern. In 1967 the "lone star" helmet decal added a blue outline to the white-bordered star, giving the logo a bigger, bolder look. The logo and this version of the uniform has seen little change to the present day.
The only notable changes in the last 40 years were:
- from 1970–1973 when the "TV" numbers were moved from the shoulders to the sleeves above the stripes
- from 1982–1988 the pants featured a white uniform number in an elliptical blue circle worn near the hip.
- the removal of the indented serifs on the front and back jersey numbers in the early 1980s (seen currently on the throwback jersey)
- In 1980 the blue jersey was rendered in a slightly darker shade than the 1964–79 version; from 1981–1994 the dark jerseys sported numbers that were gray with white borders and a blue pinstripe. The stripes on the sleeves and socks also used the same gray with white border scheme (sans navy pinstripe).
- Player names on jersey backs, which appeared in 1970, were originally in block-letter style; from 1982 onward the names were slightly smaller and in footed, "serif" style.
- the 1996 addition of the word "Cowboys" in the center of the neckline which lasted until 1998 on the white jersey but currently remains on the blue jersey.
During the 1976 season, the blue-white-blue stripe on the crown of the helmets were temporarily changed to red-white-blue to commemorate the United States' bicentennial anniversary.
In 1994, the NFL celebrated their 75th Anniversary, and the Dallas Cowboys celebrated their back-to-back Super Bowl titles by unveiling a white "Double-Star" jersey on Thanksgiving Day. This jersey was used for special occasions and was worn throughout the 1994–1995 playoffs. During the same season, the Cowboys also wore their 1960–63 road jersey with a silver helmet for one game as part of a league-wide "throwback" policy.
During the 1995 season, the team wore the navy "Double-Star" jersey for games at Washington and Philadelphia and permanently switched to solid color socks (royal blue for the white uniform, and navy blue for the dark uniform). The navy "Double-Star" jersey was not seen again until the NFL's Classic Throwback Weekend on Thanksgiving Day 2001–2003.
In 2004, the Cowboys resurrected their original 1960–1963 uniform on Thanksgiving Day. This uniform now serves as the team's alternate or "third jersey" and is usually worn at least once a year. The throwback uniform is usually worn on Thanksgiving Day. Two exceptions were when the Cowboys wore their normal white uniforms on Thanksgiving in 2007 and 2008. While the team didn't wear the throwback uniform exactly on Thanksgiving Day in those two years, Dallas wore them on a date around Thanksgiving for those two years. In 2007 Dallas wore the throwback uniform on November 29, 2007 against the Green Bay Packers. In 2008 Dallas wore the throwback uniform on November 23, 2008 against the San Francisco 49ers. The team went back to wearing this uniform at home on Thanksgiving Day in 2009 while their opponent was the Oakland Raiders who wore their AFL Legacy Weekend throwbacks. Dallas wore this alternate uniform on October 11, 2009 as part of one of the NFL's AFL Legacy Weekends when they traveled to Kansas City to play the Chiefs who were sporting their AFL Dallas Texans' uniforms. This created a rare game in which neither team wore a white jersey and the first time the Cowboys wore the alternative uniform as a visiting team. The 1960–1963 uniform may also be used on other special occasion. Other instances include the 2005 Monday Night game against the Washington Redskins when the team inducted Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irving into the Cowboys Ring of Honor, and the 2006 Christmas Day game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Home/road jersey history
In 1964, Tex Schramm started the tradition of the Cowboys wearing their white jersey at home, contrary to an unofficial rule that teams should wear colored jerseys at home. Schramm did this because he wanted fans to see a variety of opponents' colors at home games.[11] Since then, a number of other teams have worn their white uniforms at home, including the Washington Redskins and Miami Dolphins.
Throughout the years, the Cowboys' blue jersey has been popularly viewed to be "jinxed" because the team often seemed to lose when they wore them. This curse purportedly became popular after the team lost Super Bowl V, when they were forced to wear their colored jersey because they were the designated home team.[12] However, the roots of the curse likely date back earlier to the end of the 1968 season when the blue-shirted Cowboys were upset badly by the Cleveland Browns in the divisional playoffs. That turned out to be Don Meredith's final game as a Cowboy. Dallas's lone victory in a conference championship or Super Bowl wearing the blue jerseys was in the 1978 NFC Championship game against the Los Angeles Rams.
Since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, league rules were changed to allow the Super Bowl home team to pick their choice of jersey. Most of the time, Dallas will wear their blue jerseys when they visit Washington, Philadelphia (sometimes), Miami, or one of the handful of other teams that traditionally wear their white jerseys at home during the first half of the season due to the hot climates in their respective cities or other means. Occasionally opposing teams will wear their white jerseys at home to try to invoke the curse.[13] As when the Philadelphia Eagles hosted the Cowboys in the 1980 NFC Championship Game,[14] and their November 4, 2007 meeting. The Washington Redskins, after wearing white exclusively in the '80s and '90s, including the 1982 NFC Championship Game (having gone 3–0 in them during the regular season, during CBS' pregame show, Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder actually invoked the blue jerseys in picking Dallas to win the game[15]), have since in the 2000s occasionally reverted to using their burgundy jerseys for second-half home games, but would still wear white against the Cowboys; in 2005 (on Monday Night Football) and 2012 (on Thanksgiving), the Cowboys wore their blue blue throwbacks at home against the Redskins, and lost both of those games as well. Various other teams, be it an NFC East rival or teams not from the same division as the Dallas Cowboys, followed suit in the 1980s. A couple other division rivals such as the New York Giants and the Cardinals (formerly in their time as their existence in St. Louis) have purposely worn white at home against the Cowboys in the past. The New York Giants for portions of the 1980s, carried from head coach Ray Perkins to Bill Parcells, wore white at home against the Cowboys but after a period of time stopped. The now Arizona Cardinals, back when they were in St. Louis, were one of the first teams to try doing this trick when the Cowboys visited the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The Carolina Panthers, who came into existence in 1995, used to attempt the gimmick (regardless of whether the purpose of beating the early season heat was to be had) until 2006. One of the more recent examples of the "curse" happened in 2008 when the 1–4 St. Louis Rams chose to wear their white uniforms at home, forcing the Cowboys to wear road blue uniforms. The Rams would upset the Cowboys 34–14. It was the first time the Rams wore white at home since (moving to St. Louis) their existence in Los Angeles where they also used to do the same on some occasion against Dallas. On October 16, 2011, the Cowboys wore their road blue jerseys against the New England Patriots for the first time since December 27, 2009, against the Redskins; the Patriots defeated the Cowboys 20–16. The Cowboys wore the road blue jerseys in both the 2003 and 2011 visits to New England atGillette Stadium. The Patriots wore silver (which is a light color and treated as a white jersey) in 2003 and white in the 2011 meeting against Dallas. Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, made the decision to wear white against the Cowboys. He was on the New York Giants coaching staff for some of those years in the 1980s when the Giants bought into the curse.[16][17]
Although Dallas has made several tweaks to their blue jerseys over the years, Schramm said he did not believe in the curse.[18] Since the league began allowing teams to use an alternate jersey, the Cowboys' alternates have been primarily blue versions of past jerseys and the Cowboys have generally had success when wearing these blue alternates.
Current roster
