In case you missed it amongst your holiday activities, the Kansas City Chiefs wore white jerseys over white pants for yesterday’s Christmas Day game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
This isn’t an especially unusual combination for the Chiefs (in fact, they went white over white earlier this year in a Sunday Night Football game against the Atlanta Falcons, winning 22-17). But it’s also rarer than you might think. For almost all of its road games in the Patrick Mahomes era — he played one game in 2017, and assumed the full-time duties the following season — the team has now worn the white/white combination a total of eight times.
• November 19, 2018: The Chiefs lost to the LA Rams, 54-51, in a Monday Night Football shootout.
• Not worn at all in 2019-2020
• Worn twice in 2021. On Nov. 14th, the Chiefs defeated the Raiders, 41-14 on Sunday Night Football. On Dec. 16, the Chiefs defeated the Chargers, 34-28 in overtime, on Thursday Night Football.
• Worn twice in 2022. On November 20th, the Chiefs again played the Chargers and won, 30-27, on Sunday Night Football. On Jan. 27 (2023), the Chiefs defeated the Raiders 31-13, in a Saturday NFL game.
• Worn twice in 2023. On Oct. 8, the Chiefs defeated the Vikings 27-20 (a “regular” Sunday afternoon game). On Dec. 23, the Chiefs lost to the Packers 27-19 on Sunday Night Football.
So, with the Chiefs 29-10 victory over the Steelers yesterday, the team is 6-2 when wearing white over white in the Mahomes era.
If you’re keeping score at home, not only are the Chiefs are 6-2 overall, and have scored an average of 35.5 points per game since 2018 when wearing this combination. One could argue this is a “lucky” combination for the Chiefs, but they’ve been a very successful team since 2018 (winning three Super Bowls, playing in another, and reaching the AFC Championship game every year), so it’s possible they’d have won those white/white games in any combo. Also note that, with the sole exception of one “regular” Sunday afternoon game, every other game has been in Prime Time or a standalone (Saturday) game.
If you’re new to this uni watching thing, you might wonder why the Chiefs haven’t worn this combination more often, given their success wearing it. But it wasn’t always this way. And in fact, and possibly surprisingly, the Chiefs were at one time very superstitious about the white/white combination.
As you’re likely aware, the Kansas City Chiefs played the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I (which they lost 35-10), wearing white over white.
That team was coached by the legendary Hank Stram. Stram was said to be quite superstitious, and following the team’s loss in Super Bowl I, the team eliminated wearing white pants with white jerseys. The white pants with white jerseys would not be worn again until Marty Schottenheimer brought the combination back in 1989, and eliminated the red pants entirely. The red pants would not make a return until 2000 — when the white road pants would again be shelved until 2006. For 2007-08, the team again exclusively wore red pants with white jerseys. In 2009, the white pants would be worn with the white jerseys at least once a season through 2013. They’d remain a permanent part of the rotation, although in 2014, 2019 and 2020, the team would stick exclusively with red pants on the road.
While I think KC looks good in white over red, I’ve always preferred them in red jerseys/white pants at home, and white/white on the road. It’s interesting that Stram pretty much banned the white pants on the road following their blowout loss to the Packers in the Supe. After appearing in Super Bowl IV (a victory over the Vikings), the Chiefs settled into a period without much on-field success. They’d have some good seasons and runs, but it wasn’t until this new dynasty led by Patrick Mahomes that the team has returned to dominance.
I’d love for the team to return to wearing white/white full-time, but I’m also ok if they want to break out the white/white on special occasions. It’s such a great look.
Not a Chiefs fan…but a huge fan of their white-over-white combo.
It really should be their default road look … retire the red pants already!
Humbug.
White-over-white is the Chiefs best look. If they would just use the old, larger arrowhead and gray facemasks on the helmet…and ditch the red socks/sleeves for white…this look would be perfect.
The only time I like KC wearing gray face masks is when they dust off their Texans throwbacks…a set that should return once and a while.
The red socks and sleeves pulled it together nicely! If it was all white, that would have been terrible, as we see with some of the photos posted
And pre-Mahomes they also wore these on mostly “special” games (SNF, MNF, Saturdays, playoffs, , etc.) all the way back until 2011 or so. I think it’s a cool idea for KC to wear these for those types of games. I much prefer the white over red for road games though. They did wear all-whites at home just once back in 2006 and lost.
White over red pants is far superior, IMHO. White over white is OK, but not great.
Agreed. Personally, I enjoyed it yesterday and would love to see it once a year or so (as a Chiefs fan), but not as their regular road uni set.
Kind of a stretch to call this a “special” combination.
LOL. For almost any other team? Agreed.
For KC? It’s special
It was a great changeup. The red socks pulled everything together perfectly. If it was white socks it would have been an oinker.
Agree. I prefer the red socks with the white jersey and white pants. Red pants on the road is a great look and one of my fav road unis in the nfl.
I probably prefer red pants but yesterday’s game was gorgeous! The colors of both teams uniforms, in an outdoor game, on grass was absolutely beautiful. I am not a fan of either time but watched the entire game for no other reason than it looked so good! Hard to imagine this not being the number one game of the week.
The Marty Schottenheimer note got me thinking…Browns primarily wore white over white (even at home) during the Marty-ball era…how about the Chargers? Did they slant white over white under Marty, too? Washington? Wonder what percentage of games Marty coached in which his teams wore white over white (if available) or elected to go white tops (especially at home)?
That’s a great question! If you’d be interested in doing the research on that, it could probably make for a good UW post (which I’d happily work on with you if you’re interested). Obviously, teams that only have a white pants option (or only had a white pants option when Marty was coach) are going to go white/white. But did the Browns even have orange pants for an option under Schottenheimer? What about the Chargers — did they have a navy (or gold) option? DC — same question…did they have burgundy or gold options? If every team he coached had other options besides white, but they primarily wore white/white even if other options existed, then you’re on to something.
But a great question!
Phil – the only thing wrong with your “white over white was bad luck from SB I” story is that the Chiefs didn’t add the red pants and striped jersey cuffs until the 1968 season. They still wore the bad luck look for the 1967 season. I am 90% the only thing that teams had a deadline about implementing back then was the helmet design, so they should have been able to add the red pants and striped cuffs for the 1967 season if they wanted.
By the way I wasn’t living in KC back then; I didn’t move here until 2012.
Thanks for the context, John!
As far as whether Stram was “superstitious”? I have heard it mentioned a couple times over the years — but never found any quotes directly attributed to him specifically about the red/white pants. It’s possible the team was planning on switching to red pants on the road before they even lost the Super Bowl (although I don’t think uniform changes back then needed 18 months of lead time). Still, it could be just a coincidence — but we do know that after the 1967 season, the Chiefs ditched the white pants on the road, and didn’t return to wearing them for 21 seasons. Was that because Stram felt the white/white combo was unlucky? (They did win Super Bowl IV after the switch to red pants on the road, but they wore their red jerseys/white pants for SB IV).
Could the team have switched to red pants between the end of the Super Bowl and the beginning of the following season? Again, I don’t know the lead times needed back then, but they were undoubtedly less than the 18 months or so required for lead time now.
I’m thinking it had to have been a year to change the helmet and less than a year for the rest of the uniforms. In 1969 the Redskins hired Vince Lombardi either right before or right after SB III and while he couldn’t get the yellow helmet in for the 1969 season they did change the rest of the uniforms.
Normally not a fan of white over white. But this looks good with the red socks, red sleeves, untucked red shirts and red warmers. And quite Christmas-y.
The white pants on the road look best with red socks, not white socks.
I love red, white, white, red. They look fast.
White over white in my opinion is the one the NFLs best looks, not just the Chiefs. I will always look back fondly to late 80s early 90s (Martyball era) and watching Derrick Thomas, Neil Smith, Dan Saleamua, Deron Cherry, Lloyd Burrus, Stephon Paige, Christian Okoye, and many others. This was the revitalization of the team and the city. This is why I believe this to be the Chiefs best uni combo, other than home. I do remember the year they wore white on white for a home game against the Bengals that they lost, I think around 2006? I am probably way off.
Great call! Yes, the Chiefs wore the white/white at home in Arrowhead against the Bengals in Week One of the 2006 season, losing 23-10.
link
The Chiefs ended up wearing white/white three additional times that season, all road games. On 12/17, they wore white/white and lost to the Chargers in Qualcom, on 12/23. they went white/white in Oakland and beat da Raidahs, 20-9. Then, in that year’s Wild Card round, they went white/white in the Hoosierdome, and lost to the Colts 23-8, to close out their season.