Some of my favorite sports uniforms are red. This has always been true, and my choices of teams to support have only reinforced that. (A chicken-egg situation?) Other than the Miami Marlins (who did have the snazzy Sugar Kings red jerseys a few years back), the Miami Heat, the New England Patriots (god, I love those red throwbacks), Liverpool, Barcelona, and MY Florida Panthers all have red(-ish) uniforms.
I therefore feel uniquely qualified to contribute a ranking of red jerseys across the major U.S. sports to our Reds Week mania. I scoured the major leagues for a hint of red, drew up a list, then rated each uniform 1-10. Within each block of the same rating, I ranked them based purely on my reaction to their shades of red and design work, and after spending more time on this than I’d planned to, I came up with a ranking of 35 red jerseys, from best to worst. This is subjective, of course, but also correct, objectively. My blog, my rules. I do feel the need to explain some choices, though, so here are a few notes before I begin:
- Initially, I included alternates for every sport, but that made the number balloon to almost 50. The NBA was the prime culprit here, as a lot of teams have red alternates or City Edition jerseys. So, I decided to just scrap alternates as a whole. The only exception is for Major League Baseball, because otherwise every away jersey is just gray.
- With that in mind, the leagues included below are MLB, NBA, WNBA, NFL, NHL, NWSL, and MLS.
- Since this is mostly a vibes-based list, I made judgement calls on jerseys that are two colors. For example, Atlanta United’s jersey felt red to me, while the New York Red Bulls black-and-red jersey was definitely more black than red, so it is not here.
- I also made a judgement call on maroon; while I have always thought of it more as purple than red, Billy raised a good point by saying that the jerseys’ colors have names like “burgundy” and “bordeaux,” which are types of red wine. Count ’em!
- Finally, this wasn’t a rule, but more of an explanation: I tended to lean towards more classic-looking jerseys than modern monstrosities. This is personal taste, but it might help explain some placements on the list, including my number one.
Without further ado, I present to you the definitive ranking of red uniforms:
1. Cincinnati Reds
2. Chicago Bulls
3. San Francisco 49ers
4. Detroit Red Wings
5. Indiana Fever
6. Atlanta Hawks
7. Calgary Flames
8. Las Vegas Aces
9. Washington Commanders
10. Carolina Hurricanes
11. Cleveland Cavaliers
12. Ottawa Senators
13. New Jersey Devils
14. Chicago Fire
15. Florida Panthers
16. Kansas City Current
17. Toronto Raptors
18. Kansas City Chiefs
19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
20. Atlanta United
21. Colorado Avalanche
22. Portland Fire
23. Washington Capitals
24. Washington Wizards
25. Houston Rockets
26. Arizona Diamondbacks
27. FC Dallas
28. Atlanta Falcons
29. Washington Nationals
30. Real Salt Lake
31. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
32. Cleveland Guardians
33. Atlanta Braves
34. Chicago Blackhawks
35. Having to wear a blue uniform [shudder]
36. Arizona Cardinals
Correction (12:45 p.m. ET): A reader points out that I forgot to include the Montreal Canadiens, even though their jerseys are incredible. I would’ve slotted them in at third, above the Niners.