It wasn’t just Uni Watchers who are thrilled with the Philadelphia Eagles finally debuting their new kelly green throwbacks this season, they were pretty much universally praised. Of course, no one was more thrilled about this development than Eagles fans. So excited were they, in fact, that the NFL/Nike totally misread how popular retail sales of the throwbacks would be, leaving many fans disappointed and unable to have their order for a throwback jersey fulfilled — some fans will have to wait until the end of October to get their gear.
But it wasn’t just fans, uniform aficionadoes and well, people with eyes, who love the unis. The players do as well.
One Eagle, Defensive End Josh Sweat, was particularly impressed with the new unforms, and he’d like to make them their full-time home unis. Clearly he GetsIt™. But in almost the same breath, Sweat pivots to wanting to keep the BFBS uniform as their alternate.
I’ll be honest — I wasn’t a fan of the darker “midnight” green unforms when they were introduced in 1996. But for a mid-90s design, they retained an air of tradition (nothing too crazy) and a bit of modernity (custom font, for example) that has aged pretty well. But the Eagles belong in kelly green. I know there are more than a few (not necessarily Uni Watch readers) who like the midnight green jerseys because the team has seen the most post-season success in them, and while they may love kelly green as an alternate, they attach winning to the midnight green era.
Today’s NFLers are all around 30 years (or more) younger than I and clearly grew up in a time when different fashion trends were popular (and I’ve given up screaming at clouds before yelling “GET OFF MY LAWN”), so I can understand why the BFBS uni may appeal to Sweat (and undoubtedly many of his teammates and those born in the 1990s). But c’mon — BFBS (which I would assume would be paired with a black helmet in Sweat’s suggestion — since the kelly green jersey would probably be paired with a retro-white from the same era, hence needing only a kelly green helmet)?
Given the popularity of the midnight green amongst a good number in the fan base, and the obvious overwhelmingly positive reaction to the new kelly green throwbacks, I’d like to second Sweat’s motion of making the kelly’s the home (and one would assume road), but rather than keep the BFBS, designate the midnight green the alternate, so fans can see it a couple times a season — it’s a win/win: we all get the gorgeous kelly jerseys back full-time (and again, hopefully a white jersey from the same era), and fans of the “successful” midnight can still see them on the gridiron.
I know the NFL is never going to go for as many jerseys as the NBA does (and doesn’t really need to, given the difference in schedule), but I’d love to see a four-jersey set-up for the Eagles: a two-tone Kelly/Midnight as the primary (blending the eras into a coherent whole), white, full Kelly as the alt, and full Midnight as the Color Rush jersey. Sorry, Josh, BFBS can GTFO.
No, no, a thousand times no. Mixing and matching kelly and midnight green would be bad. One look was made to replace the other, not coexist. Same goes for the Phillies trying to meld the maroon/swirly P look and what came before and after it. Different colors, different designs. Kelly and midnight don’t pair well together, and neither do red and maroon.
I do agree with the rest of your premise – make kelly green home and road jerseys with silver pants and kelly helmets. You want to make the midnights a one-off throwback? Sure. And it eliminates BFBS or the potential for GFGS; if the Lions can do it, so could the Birds.
One way you can tell BFBS from legitimate black-as-team-color: Imagine a team Sweat could play for where he definitely would never say he thought a black alternate uniform would be cool. His statement makes me believe he just thinks black is a cool color, so he’d love to wear a black uniform. Which is fine! But it’s the very definition of black-for-black’s-sake. If the dude played for Minnesota or Tampa Bay or Dallas, and someone showed him a black uniform mock-up, he’d probably say “cool!” and express earnest enthusiasm to play in that uniform.
I think midnight green would be a better alternate uniform for the Eagles than black, especially if it saw some design tweaks. Maybe even introduce some kelly details and highlights, at about the level that black highlights exist alongside the primary kelly and white of the new alternate.
I really want to see a modern fauxback. Kelly green, current helmet wings, Kelly green jersey but current eagle logo patch. Basically take what they currently wear now but replace the Midnight with Kelly. I think this could be a great way to tie in both generations and (marketing terms) forge forward into the future.
This is the way. Swap out the midnight green for kelly green. And have silver pants instead of white pants.
I could see them having both as options since they’d likely have white with the white jersey. They’ll likely also have kelly green for the white which could also meet all kelly but much better than all midnight or midnight jersey and black pants as they have done recently
I personally couldn’t care less if any of my teams (or any team for that matter) had more post season success in an inferior uniform. To me, an inferior uniform is an inferior uniform.
My preference is to start back just with a uniform set of two – kelly green one and a white one to start. Midnight and BFBS should be tossed into the dustbin of history. If you’re going to introduce an alternate put some real thought into – either for something potentially solid and long lasting, or if going to take a chance on something new go all in for something WAY out there.
Phil, has it ever occurred to you that some people might just prefer the midnight green look (or any uniform in the history of sports) simply because… they like it better? Nothing to do with age, familiarity, success, or anything like that.
Same applies to BFBS.
Obviously some people across all demographics and ages will like a uniform because it’s midnight green or BFBS or whatever. I was speaking in generalities of course, but overall I’d wager my generation is not nearly as enamored with more modern looks and colors than those younger than I. And of course, simply because I’m not a fan of the midnight green shade doesn’t mean no one likes it. My point was that there are definitely going to be some fans who like a jersey simply because they equate it with on-field success. Some fans just like bad (IMO) unis because their team achieved success in them (and conversely, others dislike some uniforms because they were not successful on the field in them).
I’ve covered this before:
link
By the way, we get that your opinion is that black as a base color (what you call ‘bfbs’) is unacceptable. Maybe you don’t need to elucidate this view literally every time the color black is mentioned. Like, perhaps a decade or so of beating that horse is nearly enough?
And there you have it, my single biggest issue with the idea of BFBS.
I’m told it’s not BFBS if black is a team colour.
But then BFBS is constantly cited when a team who has black as a team colour releases a black uniform.
I think the rule is really if a team didn’t have black as a team colour before 1990, it’s automatically BFBS.
@Charlie Steele: black wasn’t an Eagles team color. Green, white, silver. Black was used for details on the shoulder logo and an outline for the numbers. That’s no justification for black helmets and jerseys and pants. At most, it was a trim color, like gray for the Angels.
@MJ
Two things:
1) Please go look at at the Eagles’ official colours, then get back to me.
2) Neither myself nor The Dude were talking about the Eagles specifically. We were referring to the general obsession with BFBS.
I’ve been an Eagles fan since the Jaworski days and I prefer midnight green. It came at a time when most of the green you saw was a shade of kelly green and I think it made the team stand out more. I think it also just so happened to coincide with the team’s more successful era and, while I understand that relative to a century’s worth of football it’s an appreciable small amount of time, we’re talking about almost 30 years of team history in midnight green. There’s been some very, very disappointing football in that time and they’ve choked away glory in wearing midnight far more than they’ve obtained it (I don’t mean to sound spoiled, but it’s also not as if we’re a privileged fanbase). I like that the Eagles have a more unique look and while I agree that the NFL’s trend in the last twenty years towards a darker and more drab identity is disappointing, I don’t think the team’s commitment to the shade is a huge contributor to this.
I agree with the idea that the BFBS is a poorer choice than a white complimentary throwback. I’m also of the belief that the Eagles could stand to refresh their identity with a new number font, new wings on the helmet, keeping black relegated to a tertiary color, etc. However, while those aren’t original ideas, I don’t agree that the Eagles “belong” in kelly green. There was a point in time in which it was a team tradition, but traditions change and I’m glad that they have a new one. If anything, I’d rather see the Jets go back to a lighter shade of green such as in the Namath years. That uniform, to me, had a richer tradition in that shade because it was the only color they used. The Eagles have used a lot of different shades of green, a lot of different looks, but I like midnight green.
But the Eagles belong in kelly green. This!
What strikes me right away thinking about the BFBS as an alternate to the kelly green is the contrast between the two. If the Iggles went kelly for home and road and broke out the BFBS twice a year, it would pop more in my opinion. And there’d be no confusion with how similar the black helmet looks to the current midnight green helmet.
Once again, it’s great to see that “kelly green” once again. Not sure why teams in the mid to late 90’s/early 2000’s felt the need to switch to a “darker” shade of their beautiful colors. Never been a fan of the “midnight green” uni-set. Granted, they have been to three Super Bowls and won one championship. But, to me “this” will always be the Eagles.
You refer to him as Keith Sweat on the homepage hahaha. So many puns I could do with his songs, but I’ll keep them to myself.
I have said it many times before: this generation of players and a lot of fans of the same age or younger REALLY think mono black uniforms are cool and to them it does not matter what the actual team colors are. In this case black is an Eagles team color, so it is not that alien as a concept. Sure, it does not look pleasing to some of us (me included, I hate mono black in football) but I am not the merch target for out of the blue black uniforms. So give them what they want and let them have their fun, We can sit back in our throwbacks, shake our heads in disbelief and move on.
Re: keeping the midnight green in their uniforms rotation in some capacity or another, the issue that I’ll always come back to is that the shade of the green has changed so much from when it first debuted in the 90s. Especially post-Nike, the color is more teal than green and just looks bad. If they adjusted the color of the jersey a little bit back to the Dawkins-McNabb era shade, staying midnight green over the far superior Kelly would at least be acceptable.