A Look at Modern NFL Helmets in Classic Colour Schemes

With the avalanche of throwback-themed helmets and jerseys from the NFL currently barreling down upon us, I briefly wondered to myself… “Is it really the old uniforms we miss, or do we just miss those old colours?” And so I started to mess around in Photoshop.

Colour schemes back in the day were certainly a lot more vivid than they are now, with bright blues, greens, and yellows a common sight across not just the NFL but the entire sports landscape. As the turn of the century approached as did an appetite for darker palettes – in many instances, royal blue became navy blue, yellow became gold, and green became “Midnight Teal”.

Boring.

Anywho, all that to say, today I picked five NFL teams which I commonly hear fans pine for uniform days of yore, and simply applied their old colour scheme (using data from TruColor.net) to their current helmet and logo to see if it was the brighter colours that we missed more than the logos.

DENVER BRONCOS

The Denver Broncos didn’t start out royal blue and orange (they were originally brown and yellow!) but it’s what they wore for the bulk of their franchise’s history before making the switch to navy blue in 1997. Above we see the modern horse helmet in their 1980s blue and orange with a white facemask on the left above the recoloured logo (the current colours of both are shown to the right to compare). It looks pretty good in the older colours, pair it with an orange jersey, and you get yourself a decent look that ties together the history of the franchise in one neat-and-tidy package while also maintaining a multiple Super Bowl Championship logo.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS

The New England Patriots started off wearing a white helmet with a blue hat on the side; this obviously didn’t last long, having been quickly replaced by the classic “Patriot Pat” logo, a football player dressed in red, white, and blue Minutemen regalia. In 1993 the Patriots did as teams did in the ’90s and underwent a complete re-branding, replacing Patriot Pat with “Flying Elvis” and a silver helmet; the colours were darkened in 2000 to complete the transformation we see them still wearing today. I had higher hopes for this mashup, my original paired the helmet with a white facemask as the club wore in the 80s, but it was simply far too plain with it. I think the “Flying Elvis” logo looks great with a white face instead of silver on its own, but on the helmet with a white shell? Not as much.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES

Ah the Kelly Green, once again being warmly embraced by a new generation of uniform fans. First, the Oakland A’s brought it back and now, the Philadelphia Eagles are re-incorporating it. If we can get the California Golden Seals and Memphis Tams back out there, we’ll really have things working for us. Here we have a pretty obvious case of fans simply missing the old colours; the Philadelphia Eagles dropped Kelly Green in favour of Midnight Teal in 1996 along with the adoption of a new logo and uniform set. Just check out the mockup above; the modern helmet looks great in Kelly Green, Super Bowl be darned the Eagles need to look like the Eagles again.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

Here’s another winner. The Seattle Seahawks (who just earlier today introduced a throwback uniform) darkened their colours and changed their helmet from silver to blue in 2002 (and then navy blue in 2012). Here I’ve taken the current Seahawks logo, lightened the navy blue back to its original shade of royal blue, darkened their “Action Green” to the original, um, stationary green, and placed it on a silver shell. *Chef’s Kiss* A perfect combination of eras.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS

Well, I just had to try this one. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers original “Creamsicle” uniforms are back as a throwback set in 2023 — they were originally worn from the team’s inception in 1976 through 1996 before they switched to red, black, and pewter which the club has now worn for 25 years. This one was a little trickier to pull off as the modern logo has many more colours than the original; I opted to keep black but swap out silver for “Florida Orange”; the pirate flag has been brightened to the Bucs’ original shade of red, placed now on a white helmet with an orange facemask. Do I like it? Not really. But I think it could work if alterations were made to the logo… of course, this concept series didn’t allow for logo edits.

So, what do you think? Would you like to see any of the above five as that team’s full-time look? Would you prefer any of the five over a simple throwback? Let me know in the comments!