The NFL is set to leave its monochromatic days behind next season. Could the New York Jets resurrect some of their throwback helmets?
The NFL is about to embark on a whole new color rush.
Per a memo obtained by Pro Football Talk, the league is set to lift or adjust the rule that limits players to a single helmet per season. Such a rule change would take effect prior to the 2022 season.
Thus, alternate and throwback uniforms made incomplete or discontinued by the limitations put upon by the rule can make a return long-awaited by fans across the league.
The single helmet rule was established in 2013 in the name of player safety, as the league wanted players to partake in the season with one unadjusted headgear.
Some of the more popular throwback options that required a helmet change, including the Creamsicle-like “Bucco Bruce” look in Tampa Bay and New England’s “Pat Patriot” appearance, were put into storage. Others (including Denver and the Los Angeles Rams) kept the old or alternate uniform and placed the accompanying decal on their modern helmet.
This new policy reportedly requires any alternate helmets to have the same measuring stats and info as the regular one, through numbers taken at training camp.
Things could be aesthetically interesting from a New York Jets standpoint. The team last wore an alternately colored helmet in 2011, the last of four seasons in which they wore navy blue and gold uniforms inspired by their original identity as the New York Titans (1960-62). Their white and later green full-time helmets prevented them from breaking the Titans uniforms out in recent seasons.
The Jets also wore quasi-throwback uniforms in 1994 during the NFL’s 75th-anniversary celebration. They wore jerseys based on their threads from their Super Bowl season in 1968, keeping their regular green helmets while donning an updated version of their oval logo. The latter became part of the full-time branding in 1998, which also saw the return of a full-time white helmet.
With the release of a full-time green helmet prior to the 2019 season, part of a total re-brand, some fans felt the Jets would bring back the stylized script helmets introduced in 1978 but this has yet to pass.
Notably absent from Gang Green’s throwback proceedings has been their original helmet under the Jets moniker, literally featuring a green jet with the team name printed in all capital leaders.
The return of the white helmet in 2022 could allow such a look to be reintroduced.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
