One of the things Eagles fans seem to get fired up about is the old Kelly Green jerseys and helmets, which preceded the Midnight Green the Eagles have worn for something like 25 years now.

Good news for those of you who like the throwback jawns, because the NFL went and did this today:

The “one-helmet” rule was always kind of goofy and never really served any kind of practical purpose. So what you can do now is pair the second helmet with a throwback or alternate jersey, allowing the Birds to match the Kelly Green look of the 80s and early 90s.

We knew this was coming, because Bucs coach Bruce Arians more or less revealed the news back in 2020:

Appearing on The Dan Patrick Show, Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said that the creamsicle throwbacks could be returning in 2021, because the league will be ditching the rule that limits players to one helmet per year. This would allow teams that would like to use an alternate uniform with an alternate helmet to do it.

“There will be no change for the 2020 season,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT via email. “There are ongoing discussions for a potential change for the 2021 season, but no decisions have been made.”

And now that change has been made.

The Eagles haven’t worn Kelly Green since the 2010 home opener, which was a special 50 year celebration of the Birds’ 1960 championship. That was a one-off thing, though, which is why it hasn’t happened since.

I wrote this about Kelly Green back in 2019:

Not sure why, but something about the Kelly Green just screams “loser” to me, like it harkens back to a time when the Eagles were mediocre, that chunk of 15 years when Ray Rhodes, Marion Campbell, Buddy Ryan, and Richie Kotite combined to bring the city of Philadelphia a whopping two playoff wins.

But when I think about it further, you did have some franchise studs who wore the color. Reggie White wore it. Harold Carmichael and Jaws wore it en route to the Super Bowl. Maybe it would cool to do some Kelly in 2020 as a way to honor those guys, similar to the way the Eagles rolled out the throwbacks for the 2010 opener against the Packers as a way to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1960 World Championship. I personally think it would be kind of cool to see Fletcher Cox wearing the same uniform that Reggie once wore.

I’ve softened my stance on Kelly Green. It would be cool to see it occasionally. Don’t need to go back to it full time, but variety is the spice of life, and the players like wearing different uniforms. The one-helmet rule was dumb and we should all be glad its gone. It opens the door to some cool things.