Tampa Bay Buccaneers to bring back creamsicle jerseys this season. Best jerseys in sports history

For many fans, the jersey and the colors are just as important as the players who are on the field, diamond or rink. Often times fans are more loyal to the jersey than the players because the players can move on, but the jerseys are a part of history forever.

They may weaver in design, or even in color from time to time, but a specific jersey represents a specific time in the history of a franchise in good times and bad times. A true fan will be with their team through thick and thin, beautiful jerseys and ugly ones. They will wear it with pride through the ups and the downs.

Sports are supposed to be fun, and the jerseys are too. As beautiful as the pin stripes of the Yankees are or the Green and Yellow of the Packers sometimes you have to switch it up. Sometimes it works out and sometimes is doesn’t, but even the ones that are a swing and a miss can be iconic, like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers creamsicle jerseys they will be bringing back for this year.

Here are the best alternate jerseys in sports history

Tampa Bay Buccaneers creamsicles

Let’s face it, the creamsicle jerseys bring back memories of a period of futility for the Tampa Bay Bucs. That may be what’s waiting for them on the other side of Tom Brady’s retirement. If they don’t win many games, at least they will look good. That always seemed to ease the pain of stinking for two decades.

LA Lakers, M.P.L.S

Trivia question? Why are the Lakers called the Lakers if there are no lakes in LA? The throwback/alternate jerseys from yesteryear will give you a hint if you don’t already know. The jersey will take you back to the days of George Mikan and the dynasty they had in the 50′s before moving to LaLa Land in 1960. They had to abbreviate the name on the front because there aren’t basketball players wide enough to spell Minneapolis across the chest.

LA Chargers powered blues

In the famous words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Go Chargers, go! This one brings back core memories. The days of LaDanian Tomlinson and Phllip Rivers doing everything in their power to make it as far as they could before a surprisingly usurprising choke in the playoffs. The powder blues are still around today, and are just as icy as they were back in the day.

Chicago Blackhawks throwbacks

If you ask me, hockey jerseys will always reign supreme and no throwback jersey is better than the Chicago Blackhawks jerseys from the 1940′s don’t get anymore iconic. I would love to see the Blackhawks bring these back now that they have the No. 1 draft pick from this year Conor Bedard.

Denver Nuggets powder blues

If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a big fan of the powder blues. The Denver Nuggets of the Carmelo Anthony era might have been the freshest jerseys out there. Personally, it was the only jersey I have ever bought. They may not have won anything with these jerseys, but I can tell you if Nikola Jokic won the NBA title in those powder blues, it would be all the kids are wearing these days.

Orlando Magic pin stripes

There haven’t been many glory days in Orlando Magic history, but that franchise was never been more relevant or iconic than in the Shaq and Penny Hardaway era. Just so happens they had one of the most memorable NBA jerseys of all time. The pin stripes could have been an homage to the New York Yankees for all we know. As Frank Abignale says in Catch Me If You Can, “No one can keep their eyes off the pin stripes.” Unfortunately the Magic couldn’t replicate the majesty of their jerseys, and once Shaq left and Penny’s game faded, Orlando went back to the NBA irrelevancy for a long while.

ND all Greens

There may be no sport that sticks with what works more than College Football. Think of Michgan’s Wolverine helmets, or Ohio State’s Silver and White jerseys with the plain helmets covered in Buckeyes. Notre Dame may be the most traditional school of them all, so when they switch the flow like 50 Cent in “Just A Lil Bit” it’s something even Lou Holtz has to appreciate. They may not be the best or the prettiest, but there is something about the shockingly awful Green jerseys that make you double take and make sure you’re watching the Fighting Irish and not Dartmouth College.

Nigeria’s World Cup kit

The World Cup is sports biggest stage. Forget the Super Bowl, forget the Olympics. For one month, the entire world is enraptured in fútbol fever and Nigeria used this to their advantage to produce one of the most memorable “kits” in World Cup history. The zig zagged black, green and white stripes brought a new wave of fandom that Nigeria had never seen before in the 2018 edition of the World Cup from Russia.

Lithuania’s Greatful Dead

How in the world did the Lithuanian National team get linked up with drug infused, tie died hippies of the Grateful Dead? Lithuania, and it’s National basketball team was strapped for cash in the years following the fall of the Soviet Union, but an article in the San Fransico Chronical caught the eye of lead singer Jerry Garcia and the rest of his bandmates. The band helped raise funds for the team so they could compete in the Olympics in Barcelona. The jerseys they played in may have been pretty ordinary, but their warm ups were real and they were spectacular. The tie died green, yellow and red shirts are almost as iconic as the gold medal winning Dream Team that featured Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson

Related stories

NFL

Holdouts looming all around

NFL

Jets & Aaron Rodgers heading to HBO's "Hard Knocks"

Buffalo Sabres throwbacks

For our final jersey on the list were are bringing it back to hockey and were are finishing with another classic. There is something so simple, so old school yet so beautiful about the white sweater with the two swords and the bison on the chest plate of the throwback jerseys. Sabres are actually the swords, but the Bison is just as much of a symbol for the Buffalo franchise as Dominq Hasek or Dave Anderychuck in their day. I could only imagine what the sweater would have looked like if they were names the Buffalo Mugwumps which was actually an option in the founding days of the franchise.