The New England Patriots announced they’ll wear silver pants during tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup with the Chicago Bears, which kicks off at 8:15 p.m. ET on ESPN.
This marks the first time since the Patriots unveiled their current uniform set in 2020 that they’ll wear silver pants, which first appeared in the team’s style guide this offseason.
New England has worn navy blue pants in every home and road game for the last two and a half seasons, aside from the “Pat Patriot” throwback uniforms the team wore in the 29-0 win over the Detroit Lions on Oct. 9.
The Patriots wore silver pants at home and on the road from 1993-99, then exclusively at home from 2000-19, though there were a couple of instances (2002 and 2016-19) where they wore navy blue pants at home, as well.
The red stripes are thicker and the navy blue stripe is thinner on the current iteration of silver pants, as you can see in the following training camp photo, with the previous pair on the left and the new pants design on the right.
That said, it’s unclear if the silver pants will become a regular part of the uniform rotation or if they will only be worn on special occasions moving forward.
The Bears, meanwhile, will be in navy blue helmets and white jerseys with navy blue pants, their traditional look on the road dating back to when the navy blue pants were introduced during the 1984 season.
In fact, it’s the only combination Chicago has ever worn when playing in New England, where they are 0-4 all-time.
That includes 0-3 when the Patriots are in silver helmets, royal or navy blue jerseys and silver pants, though the Bears have the most important victory of all between the two teams, a 46-10 win in Super Bowl XX while wearing their road uniforms.
Photo courtesy of @Patriots on Twitter.