New England Patriots will wear Super Bowl LI patch for 2017 season opener

Another NFL season officially kicks off on this upcoming Thursday, when the New England Patriots will host the Kansas City Chiefs in the league’s season opener. As is tradition, the game will serve as a coronation of sorts for the five-time Super Bowl champions, who got their latest Lombardi Trophy following their dramatic win in Super Bowl LI.

As such, the team will mark the occasion by wearing a special patch on their uniforms for the game. The patch itself is nearly identical to what the team wore on their jerseys during the Super Bowl, with the exception being that they’ve added “CHAMPIONS” and five stars (representing the five Super Bowl titles that the team has won) underneath the logo.

The Patriots wore a patch for their season opener in 2015, which is when they were coming off of another dramatic victory in the Super Bowl. This also appears to be a thing that only the Patriots do, since none of the other recent Super Bowl champions wore a special patch for the following season opener.

Then again, when you win five Super Bowls in a span of 16 years while also going to seven in that same time span, that gives you plenty of opportunity to think about how you’re going to commemorate such an occasion.