The League Policy Holding Up Kelly Green Throwbacks

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As Bleeding Green Nation  and Brandon Lee Gowton reported yesterday, the Eagles are still petitioning the league for permission to add a second, Kelly Green, helmet to their uniforms so they could do an appropriate Kelly Green throwback.

If the Eagles cannot use a second helmet, the Kelly Green uniforms with a Midnight Green helmet would look ridiculous.

Jeffrey Lurie updated the press at his media availability meeting during this week’s NFL League Meetings.

Q: Have you made any progress on being able to use Kelly Green helmets?

LURIE: I was just dealing with this yesterday. What we’re hoping to have happen is, and I don’t know if I mentioned this last year, the whole key was we want a Kelly Green helmet to go with the Kelly Green jerseys. OK? We’re trying to get the league to allow a second helmet. That’s where it’s at. So they very much know we want this and we want it badly. And we’re waiting.

Q: What’s the objection to two different helmets?

LURIE: You’d really have to kind of research with [the league] a little bit. There’s a lot of teams that don’t want that to happen, maybe. Some teams really want it to happen. There’s some complications to it. So I just need them to work it out. (via Bleeding Green Nation)

I took Jeffrey Lurie’s advice. I did some research to learn more about the league policy holding up the Kelly Green throwbacks? I googled “NFL one helmet rule” and found that back in 2013, the NFL created a policy that players can only wear one helmet per year. Why? They did it for player safety.

FOX Sports did a piece on the One Helmet Policy back in 2016.

In 2013, we communicated to the clubs a recommendation from the Head, Neck and Spine Committee and the Player Safety Advisory Panel that players no longer wear different helmets during the season to accompany a different jersey design beyond the home and away uniforms,” a league official said in a statement when reached by email. (via FOX Sports)

The league also believes that helmets take time to break in and that using an additional helmet as a one-off could make the players more susceptible to injuries.

The league believes that new helmets need time to break in. By switching out helmets during the season, the NFL is afraid there’s a chance players can get hurt if their new lids aren’t broken in well enough. (via FOX Sports)

But what about the Bills’ throwbacks? What about the Rams who throwback their horns from gold to white? In those cases, they are not different helmets. Those teams simply change the decals, which is acceptable to the league. Same with the Packers, who just remove all the decals on their current helmets when they throwback.

“The outside of the helmet can be modified by removing or replacing decals, as long as it does not affect the integrity of the helmet.” (via FOX Sports)

There you have it. The Eagles are going to need to get an exemption to the policy, the policy will have to change, or someone needs to figure out a way to paint the helmets Kelly Green for one week and then back to Midnight Green the next week. The latter of which seems impossible.