ESPN’s Panthers beat reporter, David Newton, is reporting that the Panthers will wear their black alternate helmets — presumably as part of a mono-black combo — for this Sunday’s home game against the Falcons.
There had already been some hints and clues about the black lids being worn this week, like this tweet early today from Panthers.com writer Darin Gantt:
Eyeball emoji. pic.twitter.com/hiF0yUbu56
— Darin Gantt (@daringantt) December 13, 2023
In addition, the Panthers’ promotional theme for Sunday’s game is a celebration of Black culture, so a black uniform, including the helmet, fits in with that.
This will be the first time this season that Carolina has worn the black alternate helmet. The design was introduced last year and was worn once, for a 25-15 win over the Falcons (the same team that will be facing the Panthers this Sunday). You can see photos from that game here.
(My thanks to Gabe Cornwall, who saw this news coming and told me in advance to be ready for it.)
Black chonies, too.
Choosing to wear a black helmet against another black helmet wearing team two years in a row is dumb!!!
That was my thought, too. Why pick a game to wear an alternate helmet that’s the same color as the opposing teams primary helmet?
On the one hand, I can see the argument against Carolina making the choice to wear their alternate helmet against a team with the same color primary helmet. On the other hand, this will mark the 3rd time this year that Carolina’s had fundamentally the same shell as their opponent (week 5 against Detroit and week 11 against Dallas). I really don’t mind, since it sounds like the choice to wear this helmet is part of a larger promotion scheduled for this week.
This helmet would only look good with white over white. At least then they would have a combo that has no silver. I can’t stand it when the uni has colors that the helmet doesn’t. A football helmet should have every team color represented. A hill worth dying on.
KC must kill you
For many reasons. But yeah… gets some dang yellow on the helmet.
Do not change the facemask color!
If they ‘have’ to add yellow (I say that’s unnecessary), outline the arrowhead with it – or better still, drop that logo altogether and go with a white decal in the shape of Missouri with a yellow star where KC oughta be…something I’ve long advocated for.
Or just a giant “KC” in lieu of the arrowhead.
Still need to fix the decal on the helmet. Making it all blue/black adds nothing to the look, it just makes it look wrong compared to the logo on their shoulders. Make the teeth and eyes white like they’re supposed to be.
Lifting the single-helmet rule was good because it allowed the return of Bucco Bruce and Pat Patriot, but this is downside of allowing alternate helmets. The only positive I can come up with is the Panthers, along with the Ravens and the Raiders, are one of few teams who legitimately should be wearing black.
These helmets are 1000x more on brand than the Patriots and Buccaneers throwbacks. They have literally 0 cohesion with their current identity. In a perfect world though, all of them would be in the garbage.
How are they more “on brand” than throwbacks?
As we’ve been pointing out since the single shell prohibition was lifted, the alt helmet is a “be careful what you wish for” and Judy is 100% correct.
I don’t mind mono-black for the Panthers, because this uniform has some decent striping. Some blue on the socks would make it better though.
I agree on this. The striping throughout this combo gives it an identity that’s pretty easy on the eyes.
I like the panthers in all black. As mentioned above, the bold 2-color stripes and big block white numbers make it look like more of an intentional uniform than a gimmick. I would love to see this look paired with the matte electric blue helmet that has been has been mocked up for them by a few people.
Lame. The only place this entire uniform set belongs is an incinerator.
Ehh, the set is ok (not nearly as good as the Ravens & Jaguars all-black) – but if CAR should have ditched the silly helmet stripes…or have ones that match the shoulder and pants pattern.
I’m not usually a fan of the mono look, but this looks very good.
Drop the silver and make this the full time home uni
No no no to single color mono. The helmet should have some silver. Another step in the direction of mono white versus mono black for all teams in the future. Human Chess Games.
Clown costumes would be more appropriate.
So this would be Carolinas 4th alternate uniform game this season. They wore blue 3 times already.