Would that actually look good on the field? Maybe, maybe not, but it's an interesting idea and a clever way to update the team's look while drawing upon its past. (Others who used the vertical stripes to varying degrees -- sometimes as a logo element, sometimes as part of the uniform -- included DenverGregg, Patrick Blankenship, Josh Frederick and Joe Troyer.)

What the heck is going on here? "I tried thinking of the last time the Lions were favored for a season, and it was probably before the Roman emperor Honorius outlawed gladiator games in 404 A.D., so that was my inspiration," Gerard Milewski says. "The lion-skin helmet and cloak were inspired by ancient statues of Hercules wearing the skin of the Nemean lion, the faux-leather armor shoulders, tasset belt and arm sleeve reflect Roman gladiator garb, and the socks are sheer with faux-leather stripes to appear as Roman sandals." OK, but what about those Roman numerals? "I checked," Milewski says, "and the NFL rulebook requires the numbers on front and back to be of a certain height and width, but it says nothing about them being Arabic. And besides, the NFL already uses Roman numerals for Super Bowls." Milewski even included a road uniform and -- get this -- a Color Rush version for Thursday night games (although, he acknowledges, "for the Thursday design I had to use yellow socks instead of sheer, creating the horrible impression of socks with sandals"). Now that, people, is a great design concept, even if it has zero chance of making it onto the field.

Honorable mention: Another good lion's head helmet logo came from Brett Jayroe. And Shaun Davies came up with a good lion's head but for some reason put it on only one side of the helmet, with a mini-check pattern on the other side. Thanks, but no thanks. ... Jack Potterack did something we've seen in other sports but not so far in football: He incorporated a city skyline into his jersey designs. ... Good attention to detail: Now that the Lions have worn the William Clay Ford memorial patch for two consecutive seasons, Cody Fullerton took the next logical step and made it a perma-memorial on the sleeve, similar to the Bears' "GSH" sleeve lettering for George S. Halas. ... As usual, the most intriguing things about Tom Bierbaum's renderings were the designs he came up with for the opposing teams, including a solid-pewter look for the Buccaneers and a new Chargers helmet with the lightning bolts spelling out "L.A.," in anticipation of the team's potential move to Los Angeles. And in case you can't make out the details of Bierbaum's helmet logo for the Lions, it's another one of his endearingly goofy mascot characters. ... Lots of interesting elements in Tessa Sainz's entry, including the wraparound helmet logo and the clavicle stripes that look like a lion's tail. Also, Bubbles looks surprisingly good as a chest patch. ... The Lions franchise was known as the Portsmouth Spartans for the first four years of its existence. Will Jones gave a shout-out to that chapter in the team's history by including a Spartans throwback in his design proposal. ... Presentation counts: Bonus points to Matthew Rose and Samuel Wilson, both of whom annotated their designs with helpful explainers. ... Several readers tried to reach across the Motown sports aisle by incorporating the Detroit Tigers' Old English "D" logo into their designs. The most interesting examples of this approach came from Steve Spurgeon and Dan Kennedy.

Want to see more? You can see all of the entries we received here.

Paul Lukas will be announcing more design contests soon. If you liked this column, you'll probably like his Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so you'll always know when a new column has been posted or just ask him a question? Contact him here.