It’s that time of the year again where the Philadelphia Eagles join the rest of the NFL in Palm Beach, Florida for the annual NFL owners meeting and followers of The Iggles once again have fun discussing the annual update on the Kelly green jerseys.
Although the moment is edging ever nearer and already set in the calendar, we are not quite there yet as the Eagles are scheduled to wear black alternative helmets for the remainder of 2022, but in 2023 the switch will be made to the Kelly green ensemble according to Jeffrey Lurie as reported in the Philly Voice.
The passionate Philadelphia fanbase have been waiting for the return of Kelly green jerseys and helmets since the 2010 season where they were last worn as part of the celebration of players from the 1960 NFL Championship team and PA sportsbook promos would’ve been one of many to offer good odds on when it would return, but after the league implemented the rule that teams could only have one helmet color on the presumption players would use the same helmet for safety and concussion reasons – the understandable decision was taken by the franchise that using Kelly green jerseys with the owners introduced midnight green helmet maybe wasn’t the greatest of fashion choices.
With the June 2021 rule change that allowed clubs to now select an alternative color helmet moving forward, the Birds’ plans were further delayed as they’d already submitted black as their alternative color as relayed by The Inquirer’s Rob Tornoe at the time.
“Sources with the team said the NFL deadline for uniform selection for the 2022 season has already passed, and the Eagles submitted their black alternate jersey. Any new helmet the team could wear would have to work with those uniforms. So barring a change from the league, fans won’t get to see the Birds in Kelly green until 2023 at the soonest.”
Part of the delay was also owing to Nike needing a better lead time to incorporate the change within their own color schemes for production reasons, but you can more than understand the frustration within the fan base and the feeling that it’s always a case of one thing after another that scuppers the switch.
Eagles owner Lurie has long been on record since way back in 2017 where he stated that he had been lobbying the NFL to make a change to its rules so that Kelly green could return again, despite it actually being Lurie, and his ex-wife Christina’s, decision to make the original change to midnight green as their primary color back in 1996, but he now appreciates that variety is the spice to life and he feels that being able to choose between both midnight and Kelly green would be more ‘fun’.
“I would love to see it. I love the midnight green; I think it’s great. But I also want the kelly green. I’d love for us to have both, and some games have one and some games have the other. I think that would be more fun.”
For now, fans will have to continue to show some patience here as 2023 will be with us quicker than we all think.
Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire
