Eagles

It Sounds Like The Eagles Want to Wear Kelly Green Alternates

By Kyle Scott

Published: Mar 24th, 2017 · 9:58 AM EDT

---

We may get our wish. Sort of.

Zach Berman writes about one of the Eagles’ proposed rule changes:

The Eagles are proposing a new resolution at next week’s NFL meetings that could excite fans who want to see the team in alternate helmets – perhaps even the popular Kelly green helmets that are now throwbacks.

The Eagles want to take out the language in the league’s third uniform policy that requires “only current, primary” helmets be used as part of a third uniform. The effect of the proposal is it would permit teams to have an “alternate helmet” to be worn with a third uniform.

Currently, if the Eagles were to wear, say, Kelly Green uniforms as alternates, they would have to wear their Midnight Green helmets. The rule that states teams can wear only one helmet was put in place so players wouldn’t be forced to switch to new or different helmets mid-season. The thinking is that the new helmets wouldn’t undergo the same level of fine-tuning to each player’s respective noggin throughout the course of training camp, practice and games. We wrote about this a few years ago, but the gist is that the rule was all part of an effort by the league during the concussion lawsuit hysteria to cover their asses if a player got hurt wearing a helmet he wasn’t used to wearing. If it seems a bit extreme and ridiculous… yeah, I think so too. And it appears the Eagles feel the same way.

The current helmets consist of a solid-color base – MIDNIGHT GREEN – which isn’t practical to repaint, and decal logos and piping. This is why some teams are able to wear “different” helmets for Thursday night games…

Photo credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

… while the Eagles have to wear Midnight Green helmets with their black uniforms and in effect can’t wear Kelly Green uniforms (because the clashing greens would be truly horrific). The Broncos were able to swap out their logo and insert the D… even if the original look worn by John Elway called for something closer to a powder blue helmet. The Eagles would have a harder time just swapping out the logo and calling it a day. That’s not Kelly Green, dammit!

Though this rule change request obviously hints at a Kelly Green alternate, should it pass the Eagles would have further flexibility to wear black helmets with black uniforms, or even very loud yellow and blue helmets, like they did for one game during the McNabb era. The possibilities, as they say, are endless. But before we see Kelly Green again, the league will have to back off its kind of ridiculous helmet rule.