Good morning Uni Watch. I hadn’t planned on a weekend post, but the story of an Eagles fan poking around on the Eagles’ website and inadvertently finding photos of the new kelly green throwbacks — and then having the wherewithall to post them on social media — was just too good not to share.
In case you missed it, Axios Philadelphia had the scoop.
Basically what happened is this: a 31-year-old Eagles fan from West Virginia, Brandon Winston, logged onto the Eagles phone app looking to buy tickets for the team’s Week 2 home opener against the Minnesota Vikings, which will be played on September 14th.
While poking around on the app, Winston saw a tab for “Go Green”. Instead of taking him to the team’s site with recycling information (as it does now), he instead stumbled upon photos of Eagles players decked out in the new Kelly green throwbacks.
Per Axios, Winston then thought, “In my head, I’m like there’s no way I’m the first person to see these pictures.” Still, he decided to save the photos to his phone and then proceeded to post them to Facebook and the site-formerly-known-as-Twitter. The rest, as they say, is history.
The Eagles had been teasing (and even trolling) fans for a while about the release of the throwbacks, finally setting a date of July 31 for their unveiling. But Winston posted his images a couple days before that, rendering the unveiling a fait accompli.
The funny thing is, that wasn’t even the first leak. That would actually come from a Twitter account known as “Eagles Nation,” which showed photos of jerseys available in the official NFL Shop. But that was just the jersey (and we pretty much knew this was the design the Eagles would eventually unveil).
Then came Winston’s leak — which Paul noted here. Thus, the Eagles unveiling party was crashed.
Once their cover was blown, the Eagles social media was actually pretty good-natured about the leak (which was probably their best course of action given their dragging out the unveiling date)…
Yes, we know the internet is undefeated…
But don’t worry, we have lots more to come 😈#KellyGreenIsBack pic.twitter.com/nN7M3ZdVlM
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) July 30, 2023
… and even poked a bit of fun at themselves for being careless with the unveiling photos:
Ya’ll better not leak the playbook next
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) July 30, 2023
Interestingly, Winston was truly surprised he’d been the one to leak the photos, assuming someone had to have also seen and posted them. And in the end, he was actually kind of upset at himself.
“I bleed green,” Winston told Axios. “I would hate for them to be pissed at me.”
Most leakers, of course, aren’t like Winston — they’re usually insiders or disgruntled ex-employees or even current employees, or someone in a similar position. (Paul had a wonderful piece back in 2015 on The Psychology of Leaking, which I highly recommend reading, if you haven’t or want to brush up). But Winston was a fan — a lucky fan who literally stumbled upon a tab on a phone app that hadn’t been properly configured. And who then made sure to download the photos and share them on social media. He had no ax to grind, no desire to hurt the team, he didn’t even think he could possibly be the first (and only?) one to see the throwback photos. That’s what makes this leak all the more bizarre…and juicy.
At least the Eagles (perhaps as much from embarrassment as anything) were pretty good-natured about it.
We could use a few more leaks of this type. But I have a feeling this was probably just a lucky fan in the right tab at the right time.
The Psychology of Leaking is something I’ve discussed with my doctor on several occasions.
Hahahahahaha They sell undergarments for that!!!! :)
That depends.
That joke never gets old. I remember (might have been an SNL skit?) back in 1996, in a “fake” debate between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, one of the moderators asked “boxers or briefs?” I forget Clinton’s “answer” but when they got to Dole, the moderator reiterated, “boxers of briefs” and Dole’s character replies, “Depends!”
YMMV
It’s honestly hard to believe this was an accident on the Eagles’ part. It was the plan all along. Viral marketing is free!
Exactly what I thought.
I agree. The way they dragged the unveiling date, their playful “ahh you got us” tone in their posting afterwards… I 100% think it was intentional and I’m here for it. Plus, the “Go Green” button… that was just waiting to be clicked and Winston was the lucky winner. Philly’s throwbacks were arguably the most anticipated other than the Bucs’ creamsicles, so they probably wanted a different approach to dropping them other than the usual rollout done by other teams; who doesn’t love a good leak? If intentional, good on the Eagles for having some fun with their fans.
The Birds practically told everyone that they were going to pay homage to the Braman era … and weren’t clever enough to even go the ‘Nice Try’ route like the Titans did when they teased the destruc, err…redesign of their look.
Speaking of the Titans, I’d say while the Vikings were still able to shock the uni-verse, those Oilers throwbacks were much much more anticipated than any other team. Heck they had 2 markets on pins and needles – well, maybe 1 or 2 Houstonians had torches and pitchforks : )
Actually, GO GREEN has been a team initiative for years involving recycling and other environmentally-based causes. The GO GREEN logo has been on the field wall at the Linc for a few seasons and 100% predates the throwback uniforms. That wasn’t a special tab for the uniforms. More likely, someone misplaced photos in the wrong place on their web site. But you are reading too much into it.
How does someone leak a uniform in 2023 that already debuted in 1985. I mean I love this site and uniform news as much as the next person. But the excessive reporting on reveals and hype videoes for throwbacks which already existed and have been seen in game action is just feeding into the Nike marketing nonsense which I thought this site hates.
This instance is especially absurd because the Eagles announced months (possibly a year) ago that they were wearing this throwback design. At least with teams like Tennessee or Tampa Bay there remained a degree of uncertainly about which specific uniform they were throwback back to prior to press releases.
It is nice this fan feels like he uncovered something when he found the PR photos of the current players in the throwbacks, but anyone paying attention and who is an Eagles fan knew exactly what these were going to look like already.
That’s not 100% accurate, Greg.
Yes, we all knew they’d be returning to kelly green…but there were several different variations of past kelly green unis to which they could throwback (I was personally holding out hope for the 1960s Chuck Bednarik unis — the ones they threwback to for one game in 2010). Others were hoping for the Jaworski era which had much different sleeve striping; still others wanted the look when they wore like 10 stripes on each (semi-full) sleeve.
While we were able to ascertain with some degree of certainty (punctuated by Paul’s reporting of the retail leak a couple days before this leak) they’d be the Cunningham-era unis, it wasn’t until then we knew for sure.
You’re 100% correct about one thing: whatever they were going to unveil as a throwback had been worn before (hence the very definition of “throwback”), but that doesn’t mean there was certainty as to which era of kelly green to which they’d be throwing back.
In March 2022, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie announced the team would be wear the Cunningham-era kelly green uniforms during the 2023 season. He said, “It’s going to be — if you all remember, which I know you do — the ’90s and the ’80s with Randall and Reggie and Jerome and Seth and Clyde and everybody, it’s going to be that uniform, and it’s going to be as identical to what that existed as possible.”
Source: link
“I don’t need a weatherman to tell me it’s going to rain.”
-Alton Benes
So few fans care about the recycling program that it incorrectly linked to hidden information and only one person found it.
Maybe the team is wasting time creating content around recycling.
Like a lot of entertainment in the USA this was a scripted plot: the team was waiting for a fan eager to discover and share. Part of the marketing strategy: engage with fans who are sharing everything they see, do and feel instead of fearing or punishing them. Mission accomplished, well planned by the Eagles.