Good morning! In the Seahawks section of my 2023 NFL Season Preview, I wrote:
[H]ere’s something to keep an eye on: For their Sept. 24 home game against Carolina, the Seahawks will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their 2013 championship season, which culminated in their Super Bowl XLVIII victory. They wore white over navy for that Super Bowl — will they wear that combo again for the Sept. 24 game? That appears to be the plan, because the Panthers’ jersey schedule calls for them to wear black on that date, which means Seattle will presumably wear white. If so, that will be a historic occasion, because the Seahawks are the only NFL team that has never worn white at home!
That has now been confirmed, as the Seahawks have announced that they’ll wear white over navy for this Sunday’s game against Carolina. That will be a uni-historic occasion, because it will be the first time in the team’s 48-year history that they’ve worn white at home. They are currently the only NFL team never to have done so.
This will be the second consecutive week that a team has worn white at home as a way of celebrating the anniversary of a past Super Bowl title. Last Sunday the Broncos wore white at home to mark the 25th anniversary of their 1998 season, which culminated with their victory over the Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII. (In this week’s Monday Morning Uni Watch post, I initially said that it was the first time the Broncos had ever worn white at home, which was incorrect. I had mixed them up in my head with the Seahawks.)
According to the Gridiron Uniform Database, four other home teams are wearing white this week: the Bengals, Dolphins, Jags, and Jets.
The Seahawks have been around longer than 43 years. They started play in 1976, which makes this their 48th season (by my count, anyway).
Right. WHat’s wrong with me? Fixed.
“The Seahawks…started play in 1976…”
Uh oh ; )
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I always felt it was a crime to airbrush the logos off the helmets. For a 12-year-old kid, really confusing.
As a kid, I thought it was strange. I liked it though.
Almost as big a surprise – albeit not at all the point of Paul’s story – is that the Carolina Panthers are wearing black so early in the season. They wear white at home early in the season as a concession to the still-usually-hot-to-warm early-season weather. Usually, they’ll hang on to a blue date – in Tampa as much as anywhere else because the other two NFC South rivals play indoors – but they rarely wear black before mid-October, sometimes not until November.
The Panthers are wearing black because the Seahawks chose to wear white at home. They’re not playing in Carolina. The blue jersey is their alternate; why would they “waste” it playing on the road? Makes total sense they’d wear black on the road in Seattle, where on Sunday it’s supposed to be in the low 60°s and chance of showers.
Phil,
They don’t “waste” a date with the blue jerseys on the road. It has been worn a few times in Tampa because it’s a bit warm – and other assorted stops for the same reason. The Bucs wear white at home a lot, particularly during day games and earlier in the season, and since the Panthers do the same, they understand how hot and uncomfortable it is to be forced into the black jerseys. That’s anything but a “waste.”
And about Seattle, wearing black there isn’t nearly a big an issue, given the PNW’s penchant for overcast and rainy days, not to mention near the heat and humidity prevalent in the South.
Sure they do. If they wear their blue tops (an alternate) on the road, they can’t wear them at home. They *also* have their black alternate hat which they pair with the mono-black uni, so any time they wear blue, that’s one less time they can wear the CR uniform (all black). You’d think they’d want to save the blue for a) home games, or b) outdoor road games in hot locales (like Tampa, as you mention). They can’t just wear blue any time they want. They are restricted to wearing that AND the black top with black hat THREE TIMES in total. So anytime they wear the blue (home OR road) it counts against their 3x alt usage. Why would they waste one of those blue top uses IN SEATTLE where it won’t be hot? It makes total sense for them to wear their dark primary (black) on the road in cooler climes, thereby saving the blue and CR black for home (or in the case of blue, hot road games).
I was waiting for this post as soon as I saw the official announcement. End of an era but it’s honestly the best reason I can think of to break tradition. Go Hawks!
Seeing the shot of SB XLVIII with the Broncos in orange got me thinking… if the Broncos have never won the Super Bowl in orange, could it be because they’ve never worn their best orange jersey link in the Supe?
Made me think that this was the worst-looking SB, or close to it.
YMMV.
It’s definitely way up there (barf).
What gets me is that the SB uni ranking from yesterday’s Ticker has SB XLVIII ranked 34th! Over some other Supes that most people would say looked much better than that one. (The writer also circled back to XL and positing what could’ve been white-over-white Denver vs. mono-steel Seattle, but the Broncos would most likely have worn their then-primary blue jerseys, which is what they wore when they beat Green Bay for their first SB win in XXXII.)
They had a chance to win in orange against the Panthers, but they took the cowardly superstitious route and chose to wear their worst ever look.
And I would be thrilled if they went back to that old orange jersey with the orange helmet!
I suppose the Jets could have opted for black pants…so glad it seems they are not!
The winner here is not a white Seahawk but a red Falcon: dependable and tenacious. From Hollis, Queens, I mean Oklahoma.
Being a longtime Seattle resident, I think I remember the Seahawks wearing their white jerseys at home for an exhibition game in the first year or two of their existence. This would have been 1976 or 1977. If I remember correctly, the Hawks wore white because the other team was from the east coast and the first first game of their west coast trip the home team was wearing white at home. The opponent stayed on the west coast between games so they only brought one set of uniforms which were their dark jerseys so the Seahawks wore white at home.
Great call! In 1981 — in a preseason game against the Cardinals — the Seahawks wore white in the Kingdome.
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Don’t know if this is the game you’re thinking of, but it does in fact line up.
Still (until today) never wore white at home in the regular or post-season (which is the record with which we’re concerned), but there was at least that one instance of wearing white at home.
Damn GUD coding.
Here…I made a screengrab:
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