With the 2019 NFL Draft set to take place in just a few weeks in Nashville, Tenn., New Era has unveiled its annual “draft cap” collection. These will be the caps that each player selected in the first round will nestle onto his head before strolling across the stage to shake Roger Goodell’s hand. This year’s installment of the draft caps are very bad.
There doesn’t appear to be any connecting thread from one team’s design to the next. Some are literally just the team’s logo and nothing else. Others attempt to take cues from each team’s city flag, but instead end up looking like what would happen if you let your five year old child draw all over a blank hat. Let’s take a look at some of the worst, and break down why they are so very bad.
Arizona Cardinals
Attempting to take inspiration from the Arizona state flag, this hat looks like someone said “hey, the sun rises in Arizona each morning, correct? Let’s put that on a hat, but as poorly as possible.”
Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City’s nickname is the “city of fountains,” and let me tell you, that place has like, a billion fountains, but this is a teenager’s attempt at graffiti and you can’t tell me otherwise. Like, their very first attempt at graffiti after seeing some underneath a bridge on a road trip and thinking it would be a cool thing to get into.
Carolina Panthers
The Panthers draft cap looks like the type of hat you’d give out to your sorority sisters during rush week. Kappa Pi Netwon!
Pittsburgh Steelers
This is what happens when you lose two of your best offensive weapons in one offseason. You go through an existential crisis and come up with a hat designed for a NASCAR race. This design looks like it was lifted from the skin of the type of guy who would get a “Steelers 4 Life” tattoo across his forearm. This would be the artwork that would show up right underneath.
New Orleans Saints
Ed Hardy designed this hat. He had to design this hat. How else do you explain putting the fluer de lis on a hat not once, not twice…..but three times? Why would you do that? This is madness. The people of New Orleans deserve answers.
You can check out the entire collection of bad draft caps here, or you can just go on continuing to live your life. It’s up to you.
