On Friday, September 6, in São Paulo, Brazil, the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers will make history by playing the first-ever NFL game in South America. Perhaps they’re worried about playing in a stadium where green is banned?
(Weekend Editor’s note: the informal ban is only for Corinthians soccer matches. It didn’t apply in the World Cup and it doesn’t apply here.)
Even though that’s not actually the case, the Eagles will break out a heretofore never-worn uniform combination featuring as little green as possible.
The team has announced it will wear black helmets, white jerseys and black pants (a combo the team has never worn) when they face the Packers as part of a big Opening Week.
It would also appear the team is playing a bit fast and loose with the alternate shell rules.
As you’re probably all well aware, the NFL lifted its “one shell rule” a couple years ago, and further modified it for this season. Whereas previously, teams could wear their second shells with alternates (Color Rush, Throwback, Third Jersey), they were technically not allowed to pair the alternate shell with a primary home or road jersey. Exceptions to this have been made (the Bengals’ “White Tiger” uniform, for example, pairs Cincy’s white shell with their away white jerseys), so this isn’t a big surprise.
But they also seem to be flouting another new rule put in place for the 2024 season: teams have been allowed to wear a third color helmet this season if they’ve redesigned their uniforms for this season. So, teams like the Lions, Jets, Texans and Lions would all be permitted to wear three different helmets — but all other teams are restricted to just two helmets until 2025 (when all teams can wear up to three). The Eagles haven’t added a new uniform nor redesigned, so this would seem to violate this new helmet rule.
The Eagles have two shells currently (the midnight green they’ve worn since 1996, and the kelly green throwback helmet they added last year). They previously had the midnight green and a black shell, which they added when the one-shell rule was lifted for the 2022 season. But they ditched the black shell in 2023, when they added the kelly green for the throwback.
So — technically — the Eagles are violating the rule restricting third shells to teams who redesigned for the 2024 season. However, perhaps an exception is being made for the black shell, since the team did previously have it as a second helmet. Or maybe the NFL just doesn’t care to enforce it since it’s a special game played on foreign soil?
Anyway, the team will be going black/white/black with white socks (not an entirely terrible combo) for the Brazil game.
The team has paired white jerseys with black pants before: debuting the combo in 2021 against the Broncos. In that game they paired the white jersey with midnight green helmets and black socks. They’ve since worn that combination an additional four times (always going green/white/black/black).
In fact, since debuting their black pants in 2014, the team has always worn black socks with it. So this new combo for the Packers game will have not one (going black/white/black) but two (white socks with black pants) uni-firsts.
This game will be the only time the Eagles wear the black shells in 2024. The team already announced earlier this summer that the kelly green throwbacks will be worn for the Week 9 (November 3) Sunday Night Football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and again in Week 17 (December 29) against the Dallas Cowboys. Since alternates are limited to three games, the Packers game plus the two kelly throwback games will meet their quota. It also means the Eagles won’t be wearing their black jerseys at all this season.
I’ll actually be interested to see how this game looks. Black isn’t really BFBS for the Eagles (although their midnight green and black are fairly close on the color spectrum, and IMO don’t pair well together), and I’m very pleased they’ll be wearing contrasting color socks — which will make a big difference in the uniform’s appearance.
Of course, I’d rather they not wear black at all, but if this is their only game with black hats, and we don’t see the black jerseys at all, I can certainly live with it for one game on foreign soil.
Wow. BFBS meets WFWS. I have to say, I think it’ll look kinda cool…
Nope, the Pack is going with the home greens
“On Friday, September 6, in São Paulo, Brazil, the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers will make history by playing the first ever NFL game in South America. Perhaps they’re worried about playing in a stadium where green is banned?”
Makes sense that Philadelphia would minimize the green in their uniforms to abide by the anti-green rule, but what about Green Bay? A lack of info would suggest no GB uni changes, but it strange if the team with green prominently in their color scheme (and literally in their name) doesn’t adjust their unis also.
The so-called ban on green only applies for Corinthians soccer matches. It didn’t apply for World Cup games played there, and it doesn’t apply to this game.
Saw this comment on the r/nfl reddit post for this news & thought you all would appreciate it. Credit to reddit user J-Fid: “Every day is another day closer to the inevitable monochrome universe. All uniforms will be a combination of black and white. The Brooklyn Nets will be revered for being the OG trendsetters that all other teams strive to emulate. One word will unite us all: ‘clean.'”
What’s that old saying? If it’s in a different country the rules don’t apply? I’m sure this is what that’s referring to.
Maybe they are getting away with it because the black helmet and their regular helmet are almost indistinguishable from any distance! The NFL just doesn’t know it’s two different helmets!
Maybe they will get a 15 yard penalty on the opening kick off which Green Bay will decline…
Well, acktually… the new wordmark on the jersey is a redesign
This was my thought at the beginning of the season. Plus it’s not a new design and they already have the helmets so easy to let them use it this year.
If that counts as a “redesign,” would that then mean the Eagles can’t change their primary uniforms for another five years? This seems unlikely — and I doubt the NFL would enforce that. But I’ve given up trying to under$tand why the NFL $eemingly flout$ it$ own rule$ when it$ convenient.
I think it does- Remember, they released the word mark but it took another season to actually get the word mark on the jersey, mirroring the typical timeline of a redesign. I also would highly doubt that the Eagles change their uniforms in the next five years anyways. If they didn’t do it with the word mark, there’s no point now. And based on Paul’s piece with that Nike guy, which contained some info from Jeffrey Lurie, Lurie seems unlikely to make changes. He’s been pretty consistent from 2003 till now. I think by the letter of the rule, the Eagles DID redesign their jerseys this year, and therefore are not breaking the rule about a 3rd helmet.
I’d love a cite for that but I’ll take your word for it. Seems very odd that simply changing a wordmark disallows a (real) redesign for five years. But if you get rid of the black helmet, jersey and pants, it’s otherwise a solid set (and they do also have the fantastic throwbacks). So I’d actually be fine if they kept these another five years.
“I also would highly doubt that the Eagles change their uniforms in the next five years anyways.”
I’m actually with you there. Really, just minor changes (and the slow addition of three black elements at different times) since 1996. It’s definitely a distinctive look, and no one comes close to wearing that shade of green, so they pretty much own the color too.
Good post. Great info here Phil.
I read that the NFL is considering the Eagles 2024 uniforms to be “redesigned”, due to the team name wordmark on the chest being updated. This is likely how they’re able to wear the black helmets as a third option.
Easy solution to the “no green at this stadium”…PHI wears all black unis, GB wears new “white out” unis. These combos give you the least amount of green on both unis for two teams with green as their primary color.
Agreed
One word yukk I hate black pants n black tops N helmets My Favorite 2 uniform combo for Eagles are All white uniforms green helmets loveall white uniforms I love all the NFL teams wearing All white uniforms it’s so professional clean and it stands out big-time on TV the best I hate dark uniforms if a team wears dark tops must wear white pants I totally hate all dark uniforms so ugly depressing you name it It was a Pleasure to see Eagles wear All white uniforms every preseason game I just wish once in awhile they would wear All white uniforms for home games like Alot of other teams do white out awesome fans waving white towels My other favorite is the Kelly Green uniform with white pants Kelly Green helmet But this Brazil game wish they wearing White pants instead of black they could still wear the black helmet
Better Solution #1: don’t send 2 teams whose primary color is green if it is going to be a problem.
Better Solution #2: tell Corinthians to pound sand and play the game at another stadium.
Better Solution #3: have an epiphany and realize that American football is very unlikely to catch on in a country where soccer football is a religion and a passion and a way of life, and can be played with just a ball with fairly simple and intuitive rules, whereas American football requires expensive equipment, has bizarre rules and requires people with vastly different skills sets (running, throwing, strength, size, catching, blocking, kicking), and don’t play a game 10 hours from home.
So Green Bay will still have to wear green…should’ve gone solid black for Philly and the All-whites for the Pack.
I love that they’re wearing white, it’s like when they force the Cowboys to wear blue.
Worst possible combo. While we can argue Kelly vs Midnight, the Eagles are a green team. This fixation with the black pants and helmet is annoying.
Yes, for this I’m firmly in ‘get off my lawn’ mode.
I agree with you, Mike. In my opinion it’s fine if they use it as an accent color (outline of the wings on the helmet, facemask, socks, gloves, etc.), but there’s no need for them to have a black jersey, pants or helmet.
There’s any number of teams that look ok/great/‘right’ in a black helmet, be it an alt or their standard headgear…the Eagles are not among them.
Philadelphia’s mono-white combo would have been perfectly acceptable to use – and much easier on the eyes.
This is the worst of the available combinations unless you want to ultra-ridiculous, like kelly green and black. The Eagles have been a green team for 90 years, this is bad.
And also, i don’t care about the whole anti green stadium situation if that’s the driver.
The pants in the promo pic look different than what they’ve worn in the past. They have a single silver/gray stripe. Is that legit or will they wear the ones with the green and white stripe? If legit they’ve managed to make this set look even worse. I’d prefer the Eagles didn’t wear this combo at all, but it is not my decision. I just feel like it’s the worst possible uniform combination chosen to showcase the Eagles to a new audience.
That sure looks like a midnight green helmet in the featured image, Phil.
It does, although I have to say the Eagles’ black helmets have always looked green to me. I don’t know if it’s because the “midnight green” is so dark, or because I’m just so used to it that my brain tells me it’s green even though it’s black (kind of like how I was a kid, the Wicked Witch always looked green and the yellow brick road always looked yellow even on a black-and-white TV).
If I am seeing the Iggles’ promo correctly, and this is the second time I have seen it today, I am seeing the numbers in midnight green outlined in black. So, Corinthians’ rule or no rule, it just looks awkward.
If the green ban is indeed lifted, and with Brazil’s consent, the teams or NFL (or both) could have gotten creative (heaven forbid!) and turned their helmets (with Philly’s Kelly green lids) into designs of the Brazilian flag. The Pack would need to turn the gold diamond into green, creating an inverted color design that my mind recalls seeing sometime over the course of my life. Just a thought.
As an Eagles fan I’m not a huge fan of black being emphasized as their secondary color more than silver, but I will say that this is the best possible way that they can use their black uniform elements together. I do have to wonder, though… why wouldn’t they just wear their full mono-black unis? That would seem to do have the same effect of minimizing the use of green. Did they come up with this new combo just so that they could be wearing a white jersey and force the Packers to wear green, making them appear like the enemy?
Heads up – home page states “The team has never worn black/whtie/black/white before.”
Thank you!
Now fixed.
I guess I don’t hate it; it makes sense on this occasion and their late-90s green is dark enough that it would take a second to notice the difference.
The green numbers look a little strange in this context, though.
Kinda sad when you compare these drab duds to their beautiful and vibrant kellys. They sorta look like the Jaguars here, which is probably not what anyone really wants, but at least the helmet wings mitigate that somewhat.
It’s a tribute to the local soccer teams whose colors are black and white… so they’ll have the local fans on their side. link
Exactly! In a country where most people don’t have a “favorite team” that they root for, they’re going to cheer for the teams whose uniforms they like better. We just talked about this yesterday! lol
Rule number one of any public performance, get the crowd on your side
Great tip of the hat to the Brazilian hosts. Corinthians wear black and white. Their rivals wear green. Eagles vying to be the home favorite.
link
This makes a case for breaking most of my own personal uni rules YET I think it will actually look great on the field against the Pack’s traditional home look.
Eagles, the bird, are famously white on top, black in the middle, and white on bottom. So naturally the Eagles, the team, will wear black on top, white in the middle, and black on bottom. Smart choice, Eagles management!
The Eagles silver is a dull anthracite with the same value as the midnight green. To a colorblind individual such as myself, they are nearly indistinguishable.
I like it. Bit of change is always good. Should be able to wear any helmet with any jersey and any pant.
BFBS has gone overboard (or was that like 5 years ago?). At this point, maybe every team should just be all black or all white with a few accents thrown in – would make things much easier…
The white on black combo isn’t new for the Eagles, they’ve worn this combo before starting in 2021, but what is new is the black helmet being worn outside of the black jerseys. White on black looks great on the Eagles, but I still wish they went back to Kelly Green full-time.
Is there some green flake or something in that helmet? I’m definitely seeing it as slightly green, thought that may just be my brain forcing it to be green because it’s an Eagles helmet.
What is the NFL doing in Brazil? Trying to make an extra buck, I get it, but there are only three sports that matter in that country: pro futebol on grass, amateur futebol on the beach and making love. Corinthians hating the color of Palmeiras so much that they ban it from their stadium is quite funny.