Sunday marks the return of everyone’s favorite throwback uniforms, as the Eagles will don their beloved Kelly Green look against the New York Giants. Since bringing back the Kelly Greens for a couple of games per year beginning in the 2023 campaign, the Eagles are 4-0 in those bad boys. They look sharp and play even sharper with a point differential of +56 in those matchups.
Even during games where the Eagles are sporting their normal Midnight Green uniforms, the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field features a sea of Kelly Green jerseys, sweatshirts and hats. I have no scientific backing for it, but from what I’ve seen from the press box and from the stands over the last couple of years, the Kelly Green apparel might even out-number the Midnight Green stuff.
People love the Kelly Green. It’s equal parts nostalgic and refreshing as an alternate to the typical Midnight Green the Eagles have gone with as their primary color for nearly 30 years now. If you asked the average Eagles fan on the street, I bet they’d say they’d love to go back to the Kelly Greens full time. I’d assume that’s likely the case for the fervent fans who read this website, too.
That type of retro overhaul, however, would be a mistake.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the Kelly Green. I have a ton of hats, a crewneck, a Bart Simpsons bootleg tee and my Vince Papale jersey. It feels special. It’s an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence when they suit up in them. Take this week. Things are a little iffy among Eagles fans amidst a start where they don’t look their reigning Super Bowl champion selves, albeit with a 5-2 record. This week, however, likely sees the return of franchise icon Brandon Graham to the field and the Birds will go with their Kelly Green uniforms against a Giants team that embarrassed them two weeks ago. Couple those things together and Eagles fans’ juices are flowing. If this was the same deal week in, week out, I doubt that would be the case!
In a hypothetical scenario where the Eagles went back to Kelly Green as their go-to look, do you know what would happen? In a few years, a certain segment of the fan base, the ones like myself who grew up watching the Eagles make the postseason constantly and win Super Bowls in the Midnight Green jerseys, would be clamoring to bring those back as the alternate uniforms. It’s all cyclical as we dream of a past that seems better in our minds than it might have been in reality. People want what they can’t have.
Take a look across the South Philadelphia Sports Complex to see this all unfolding as well.
This season, the Sixers are bringing back their Allen Iverson-era black uniforms to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their 2001 Eastern Conference champions team. I’m amped about it. I can’t wait to see rookie sensation VJ Edgecombe throw down some dunks in them. The Sixers are attempting to sell everyone on nostalgia while fan interest in the on-court product is the lowest it’s been in a minute and it’s kind of working! The funny thing is that people hated those uniforms at the time because they were such a radical departure from the team’s historic red, white and blue look that the franchise eventually returned to in the years since. People, myself included, like them because they remind them of their childhood and the one great season the team has had in four-plus decades, akin to the way I associated Midnight Green with winning ways. it’s the same deal with fans who grew up watching Randall Cunningham and Jerome Brown and Reggie White when it comes to the Birds. If they made the retro switch, then the young-ish people who grew up on Donovan McNabb and Brian Dawkins, or maybe even the likes of Nick Foles and Malcolm Jenkins, would want “their” uniforms to be the de facto option.
Let’s not ruin a good thing. Kelly Green is a great excuse to take a trip down memory lane a couple weeks per season, but the aura of them would less if it was the new normal. Midnight Green is for winning Super Bowls. Kelly Green is for feeling wistful and breaking out some fire tailgate ‘fits.
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