Nowadays an NFL team sporting multiple helmets is no big deal; it seems every off-season we get a dozen or so clubs announcing a new alternate or throwback helmet.
Well, this wasn’t the case — at all — way back in 2002. That season was one of big changes for the Seattle Seahawks. The team was shifting back to the National Football Conference to play the NFC West Division following 25 seasons in the AFC, and they were moving into their brand-spankin’ new Seahawks Stadium (now known as Lumen Field). What better time to give the team their first-ever logo and uniform overhaul?
And so they did. On the afternoon of Wednesday, March 27, 2002, the Seahawks announced their logo, colours, and uniforms during an event held at the new stadium. Front office staff, broadcasters, players past and present, and the SeaGals cheerleaders were present to help show off the new look.
At home, the team went with a new blue jersey with green trim around the collar and sleeves, player numbers in white, and a darker shade of blue used for the sleeves. The road top was similar, with white replacing the majority of blue for the base, numbers blue, and lighter blue used on the sleeves. Both jerseys could be worn with either blue or white pants though the blue set was modelled with white pants. Seahawks players Shawn Alexander, Anthony Simmons, and Shawn Springs all said they would prefer to wear blue pants with the blue jerseys every single game — and once the regular season got underway, they did precisely that, at home anyways, quickly ushering the NFL into the age of monotone dark uniforms from which we’ve yet to escape.
“The process of creating new uniforms began over two years ago, matching colours and creating a logo and colour scheme that fit team and fan interests,” said Duane McLean, the club’s Sr. Vice President of Marketing Operations. “Numerous focus groups were conducted to determine a good fit.”
What was unusual about this whole unveiling was that two different helmets were presented — one in the traditional Seahawks silver, the other in the new Seahawks Blue. Both helmets featured the new, more aggressive Seahawk logo on either side, including a neon green eye.
This created a problem. The NFL only permitted one helmet per team.
What had happened was during the design process, the Seahawks had hoped the National Football League would allow the team to wear two different helmets with their new set — blue to go along with their blue jerseys for home games and grey to wear with their whites for road games.
Of course, the NFL rejected that plan.
The team was left with a choice: Do they stick with grey helmets as they had worn since their first season back in 1976? Or maybe it was time to go completely new and switch to blue helmets?
Ultimately the Seahawks felt this decision was one the fans should make.
“Six years ago, we started with a fan vote for the stadium, and today we allow the fans to vote for our helmet — the ultimate symbol of pride for any team,” said Seahawks president Bob Whitsitt.
Fans could vote Toll Free over the phone, in-person at Safeco Field, and – quite novelly – over the Internet on the Seahawks’ official website. Seahawks players on hand at the event favoured the blue buckets, as did former quarterback Warren Moon who was in attendance… but it would be up to the fans.
Well, the results were in just one week and more than 64,000 votes later, and there was no doubt what the fans wanted. With over three times as many votes as its opponent, the blue helmet was chosen as the new look of the Seahawks, garnering 76.6% of all votes cast to the grey lid’s 23.4%. Whitsitt said he was “overwhelmed with the response.”
“We’re excited about the new uniform, the new stadium, and really a new attitude on this football team,” Seahawks quarterback Trent Dilfer said at the announcement of the blue helmet’s victory. “Our goal is to go to San Diego [the host city of that year’s Super Bowl] wearing this helmet.”
Of course, had the Seahawks tried such a move today, the NFL would have approved the two-helmet plan, though they’d probably force them to wear the grey helmet with their all-grey alternate uniform. However, I don’t want to encourage such a plan, so I’ll stop there.
As we all celebrate the return of the uniforms replaced with this announcement as an occasional throwback set in 2023, it’s fun to look at how those involved with the team viewed the original set at the time. Were they really as loved then as they are now? Let’s fly back to 2002 and find out.
“I liked the old uniforms, I didn’t have a problem with them,” Seahawks DT Chad Eaton said, “But I really liked these [new ones] once I saw them. I think they look really good. We’re in a new division, a new stadium, new colours, new unis… this isn’t your parents’ Seahawks,” before later adding of the blue helmets, “[It’s a] bold statement of change.”
“The old Seahawks uniforms were fine,” wrote columnist Dave Boling of The News-Tribune on the morning of March 28, 2002, “attempts to alter the look and tradition of a team by changing the colours and design are merely cheap marketing ploys aimed at further gouging the public who… hey wait… those are the new uniforms? Whoa, those are very, very sharp. Those are way better looking than those crummy old, outdated blue and green things.”
The Seahawks would eventually fulfill Trent Dilfer’s prophecy of wearing the helmet in a Super Bowl, but he was a few years (and a few thousand miles) off — three years later, the Seahawks faced (and lost to) the Pittsburgh Steelers at Super Bowl XL in Detroit. In 2012 the Seahawks altered their uniforms slightly just in time for their first Super Bowl championship — yes, while wearing a blue helmet — on February 2, 2014, at Super Bowl XLVIII in New Jersey.
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