Top 10 Ugliest Uniforms and Their Nazi Counterparts pt. 5

2. Joseph Goebbels and the Denver Nuggets

Goebbels was officially the Minister for Public Enlightenment, which meant he was charged with selling the Nazi idealism to the German masses.  Which he did, all too well.  He developed the "Big Lie" theory of propaganda, which is based on the "If we say it loud enough, and enough time, it becomes truth" (turn on Fox News if you don't understand).  In addition to being probably the best salesman of all time, he was also probably one of the worst human beings of all time (you gotta believe in what you are selling).  Some of the evils committed include setting off the attack on German Jews that led to the Holocaust, instigating widespread book burnings, rampant womanizing and pedophilia. He was Hitler's successor as leader of the Reich for one day, before killing his wife and 6 young children, then taking his own life.

The Nuggets of the 80's were horrible, and so were their jerseys.  They appear to feature sort of rainbow Tetris motif, that is supposed to represent the Denver skyline on a Rocky Mountain backdrop.  According to this logo Denver is some magical place to live (or at least the Gay Pride capital of Colorado), not the cold, thin aired, overpriced pit of misery that we all know it is.

What's the connection?

They are big liars.  History can see through the veiled secrets they hid during their reign of misinformation.

1. Adolf Hitler and the Denver Broncos

We all know who Hitler was. So how about some stuff you may not have known?  He was a vegetarian, for the most part, only eating meat on occasion.  He was an ardent anti-smoker, advocating smoking bans in his bunker (the first thing officer's did after he committed suicide was light up.)  He had three known girlfriends in his life, all three of which attempted suicide, with two succeeding.  He was Time Magazine's 1938 Man of The Year (wtf?) He was raised Roman Catholic. His middle name was Schicklgruber until he entered politics and removed it due to it's Jewish roots (it was his father's surname until he changed it to Heidler, then Hitler.)  History remembers him as the worst human being ever to walk the face of the earth (take that Art Modell.)

I'm not trying to pick on Denver here, but geez.  Luckily for all the baby boomers out there, there wasn't a lot of color television going on at the beginning of the 60's when the Broncos first treated the world to these beauties.  Unlucky for us in the here and now, you can't turn on ESPN, or read an article on nfl.com without seeing these things.  The uniforms aren't terrible, there's something there with the earth-tones in contrast, but those damn socks give me seizures.  To really understand, you need to see them in action.  They're only temporary, so far being worn twice this season, yet the city of Denver never learns.  In 1962 the fans burned these uniforms in a ceremony when the new "Orange Crush" uniforms were unveiled.

What's the connection?

When it's all said and done, and the big one is coming to an end, they'll be long gone, and hopefully mankind can learn from it's mistakes.

Top 10 Ugliest Uniforms and the Nazis That Inspired them. Pt 4

4. Hermann Goering and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Nazi poster boy Hermann Goering joined the party in 1922, after a very successful aviation career in the first World War.  As the years went by he gained momentum as a political force within the Third Reich.  By the outbreak of the war he was appointed as the commander of the Luftwaffe.  And despite being the most advanced air force on the planet, the Luftwaffe is now remembered as the Washington Generals of the History Channel.  In 1945 he was relieved of command and charged with treason.  He committed suicide while awaiting execution after the Nuremberg Trials.

The Buccaneers debuted in 1976 (and lost their first 26 games), wearing these uniforms as an AFC West team (because Tampa is in the western United States.)  They were sent to the NFC Central the following season (because Tampa is in the center of the United States.), until 2002 when the NFL finally got out a map and sent them to the NFC South (Tampa is in the South, right?) and they won their first Super Bowl.  These uniforms, however were long gone.  They were ceremoniously discarded in 1996, after only making the playoffs 2 times in their 20 year history. They became a perrenial playoff team almost immediately after the change.

What's the connection?

After 20 years of autrocity and ineptitude, they were finally dismissed of their command.

3. Josef Mengele and the WFL's pants

Dr. Mengele was a "physician" at Auschwitz.  The term "physician" here means demented madman with free roam to due horrible experiments on human test subjects in the name of "science."  He had a penchant for experimenting on identical twin children, doing bizarre operations such as changing the eye color of his patients, and unnecessary amputations without the use of anesthetics.  "Uncle" Mengele operated on approximately 3,000 twins, 26 pairs of which survived.  After the war he fled to Argentina where he was hunted, yet not discovered until after his death in 1979.

The World Football League lasted for two glorious seasons, 1974 and 1975.  The league was forward thinking, in that they had an "Action Point" which was a precursor to the two point conversion in the NFL.  However another attempt at changing the sport as we know it, thankfully did not take off.  In 1974 they experimented with position based pant color and design.  Some of the examples include - blue for defensive linemen, purple for offensive linemen, white with three stars down the side for quarterbacks, and so on.  Luckily the league folded soon after.  Interestingly, because of the financial trouble the league was in, after World Bowl 1, the team's uniforms were confiscated by the local sherrif's department as collateral.  This is so far as I know, the only time uniforms have been arrested.

What's the connection?

They were responsible for horrible experiments released upon human kind, only to disappear entirely shortly after.