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These days an NFL staff sporting a number of helmets is not any massive deal; it appears each low season we get a dozen or so clubs announcing a new alternate or throwback helmet.
Nicely, this wasn’t the case — in any respect — means again in 2002. That season was one in all massive adjustments for the Seattle Seahawks. The staff was shifting again to the Nationwide Soccer Convention to play the NFC West Division following 25 seasons within the AFC, and so they had been shifting into their brand-spankin’ new Seahawks Stadium (now referred to as Lumen Area). What higher time to provide the staff their first-ever emblem and uniform overhaul?
And they also did. On the afternoon of Wednesday, March 27, 2002, the Seahawks introduced their emblem, colors, and uniforms throughout an occasion held on the new stadium. Entrance workplace employees, broadcasters, gamers previous and current, and the SeaGals cheerleaders had been current to assist exhibit the brand new look.
At house, the staff went with a brand new blue jersey with inexperienced trim across the collar and sleeves, participant numbers in white, and a darker shade of blue used for the sleeves. The street prime was comparable, with white changing the vast majority of blue for the bottom, numbers blue, and lighter blue used on the sleeves. Each jerseys may very well be worn with both blue or white pants although the blue set was modelled with white pants. Seahawks gamers Shawn Alexander, Anthony Simmons, and Shawn Springs all stated they would favor to put on blue pants with the blue jerseys each single recreation — and as soon as the common season obtained underway, they did exactly that, at house anyhow, shortly ushering the NFL into the age of monotone darkish uniforms from which we’ve but to flee.
“The method of making new uniforms started over two years in the past, matching colors and making a emblem and color scheme that match staff and fan pursuits,” stated Duane McLean, the membership’s Sr. Vice President of Advertising Operations. “Quite a few focus teams had been performed to find out a great match.”
What was uncommon about this complete unveiling was that two totally different helmets had been offered — one within the conventional Seahawks silver, the opposite within the new Seahawks Blue. Each helmets featured the new, more aggressive Seahawk logo on both facet, together with a neon inexperienced eye.
This created an issue. The NFL solely permitted one helmet per staff.
What had occurred was throughout the design course of, the Seahawks had hoped the Nationwide Soccer League would enable the staff to put on two totally different helmets with their new set — blue to associate with their blue jerseys for house video games and gray to put on with their whites for street video games.
In fact, the NFL rejected that plan.
The staff was left with a selection: Do they keep on with gray helmets as they’d worn since their first season again in 1976? Or perhaps it was time to go fully new and swap to blue helmets?
In the end the Seahawks felt this choice was one the followers ought to make.
“Six years in the past, we began with a fan vote for the stadium, and at present we enable the followers to vote for our helmet — the last word image of pleasure for any staff,” stated Seahawks president Bob Whitsitt.
Followers may vote Toll Free over the telephone, in-person at Safeco Area, and – fairly novelly – over the Web on the Seahawks’ official web site. Seahawks gamers readily available on the occasion favoured the blue buckets, as did former quarterback Warren Moon who was in attendance… however it might be as much as the followers.
Nicely, the outcomes had been in only one week and greater than 64,000 votes later, and there was little question what the followers needed. With over thrice as many votes as its opponent, the blue helmet was chosen as the brand new look of the Seahawks, garnering 76.6% of all votes solid to the gray lid’s 23.4%. Whitsitt stated he was “overwhelmed with the response.”
“We’re excited concerning the new uniform, the brand new stadium, and actually a brand new angle on this soccer staff,” Seahawks quarterback Trent Dilfer stated on the announcement of the blue helmet’s victory. “Our objective is to go to San Diego [the host city of that year’s Super Bowl] sporting this helmet.”
In fact, had the Seahawks tried such a transfer at present, the NFL would have permitted the two-helmet plan, although they’d in all probability pressure them to put on the gray helmet with their all-grey alternate uniform. Nevertheless, I don’t need to encourage such a plan, so I’ll cease there.
As all of us have fun the return of the uniforms changed with this announcement as an occasional throwback set in 2023, it’s enjoyable to take a look at how these concerned with the staff considered the unique set on the time. Had been they actually as liked then as they’re now? Let’s fly again to 2002 and discover out.
“I appreciated the previous uniforms, I didn’t have an issue with them,” Seahawks DT Chad Eaton stated, “However I actually appreciated these [new ones] as soon as I noticed them. I believe they give the impression of being actually good. We’re in a brand new division, a brand new stadium, new colors, new unis… this isn’t your dad and mom’ Seahawks,” earlier than later including of the blue helmets, “[It’s a] daring assertion of change.”
“The previous Seahawks uniforms had been wonderful,” wrote columnist Dave Boling of The Information-Tribune on the morning of March 28, 2002, “makes an attempt to change the look and custom of a staff by altering the colors and design are merely low-cost advertising and marketing ploys geared toward additional gouging the general public who… hey wait… these are the brand new uniforms? Whoa, these are very, very sharp. These are means higher trying than these crummy previous, outdated blue and inexperienced issues.”
The Seahawks would finally fulfill Trent Dilfer’s prophecy of sporting the helmet in a Tremendous Bowl, however he was just a few years (and some thousand miles) off — three years later, the Seahawks confronted (and misplaced to) the Pittsburgh Steelers at Tremendous Bowl XL in Detroit. In 2012 the Seahawks altered their uniforms barely simply in time for his or her first Tremendous Bowl championship — sure, whereas sporting a blue helmet — on February 2, 2014, at Tremendous Bowl XLVIII in New Jersey.
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