What the HELL is the NFL thinking?

Those ref pants on display in Denver tonight (as well as in Buffalo today, although I missed that) are abominable. Breathtakingly bad.

First of all, the black on the pants is darker than the black on the windbreakers. Ever wear a black shirt fairly often, and wash it every now and then, and then you can't wear it with tux pants anymore? Well, I do. And that's what it looked like.

But that white stripe down the side? Holy Lord God. It looked like a velour 1970s era jogging suit. Was Jim Fixx due to show up?

Not only are those pants going to look bad in 20 years on ESPN Classic, they look bad NOW.

I'm no fashion plate, but I hope that somebody in the NFL looks at the film and clues into at least trace elements of fashion sense. I mean, if I know it's bad, why don't they? But barring that, perhaps the wives and girlfriends of the officiating crews could call New York and talk about how much they were forced to laugh at those damn pants. Maybe that'd fix things up.