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 jersey at home. Schramm did this because he wanted fans to see a variety of opponents' colors at home games. 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. 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. As when the Philadelphia Eagles hosted the Cowboys in the 1980 NFC Championship Game, 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 ), have since 2002 occasionally reverted to using their burgundy jerseys for second-half home games, but will still wear white against the Cowboys. 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 at Gillette 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.
Although Dallas has made several tweaks to their blue jerseys over the years, Schramm said he did not believe in the curse. 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.
Read more about this topic: Dallas Cowboys, Logos and Uniforms, Uniforms
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