The Eagles are going to be wearing something they've never worn before as they take the field on Sunday Night Football.
The Philadelphia Eagles will begin wearing their alternate black helmets along with the rest of their all black uniform this Sunday in their game against the Green Bay Packers. (You can watch the game on NBC10.)
The team released photos of their new look on social media Tuesday saying "Dark Mode activated":
Get Philly local news, weather forecasts, sports and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters.
The NFL previously had a rule against having more than one helmet per player, citing safety concerns. The NFL contended that it was safer to have every player fitted correctly for one helmet. The Eagles had been pushing for this rule to be changed for years.
And in June of 2021, the NFL announced that teams would be allowed to use two different helmets starting in 2022. That had been the hurdle in the way of the Eagles using Kelly green as an alternate. They wanted a Kelly green helmet to match their Kelly green jerseys and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie wasn’t willing to settle for a full-helmet decal.
But Lurie explained in March that the Eagles are working with Nike to recreate the Kelly green shade, which doesn’t exist in their current color palette. This is apparently a long process, because they don’t expect those jerseys to be ready until the 2023 season. In the meantime, the Eagles are taking advantage of the rule change with the black helmets.
Lurie hopes the rule continues to evolve, allowing the Eagles to have two alternate helmets in 2023 and beyond. That would allow the Eagles to keep their midnight green helmets as their standard, but to then have a Kelly green and a black helmet as alternates.
No matter what color they wear it's still, GO BIRDS!
