PHILADELPHIA — At long last, the Philadelphia Eagles will bring back their old kelly green uniforms and helmets for at least one game in the upcoming 2023 season.
Owner Jeffrie Lurie made the long-awaited announcement -- one many Eagles fans have requested for years -- at the NFL owners meetings this week. Last year at this time, Lurie announced that his team had received permission from the league to wear them. Now, it's official.
It will be the first time since 2010 that the Eagles have worn the kelly green colors.
Why the long delay? Phillyvoice reporter Jimmy Kempski has the answer.
After the 2010 season, Kempski writes, the NFL implemented a rule that teams could only have one helmet color -- a precaution due to the advanced safety helmet measures required by the league's efforts to curb concussions.
Teams that wore throwback uniforms were only allowed to change the decals on the original helmets -- and not the helmets' base colors.
So if the Eagles had decided to wear kelly green jerseys, according to Kempski, they would not have been able to change the color of their helmets to match, due to the league's one-color helmet rule.
In 2021, the league made a rule change that allowed teams to have one alternate-color helmet. But the Eagles had already submitted black as their alternate color for the 2022 season, and were unable to change plans because Nike, the manufacturer of the league's helmets and jerseys, needed a certain amount of lead time to incorporate kelly green into the color scheme, according to Kempski.
At last year's NFL owners meetings, Lurie said the team would bring back kelly green in an upcoming season. This week, he said that move was -- finally -- official.
Here's a look at how Eagles stars Jalen Hurts and Devonta Smith will look in the kelly green throwbacks, courtesy of NFL's Instagram account.
