Eagles Today

Philadelphia Eagles Closing In on Long-Awaited Kelly Green Return

The Philadelphia Eagles Kelly Green uniforms are set to be worn in Week 7.

Tim Kelly

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Philadelphia Eagles fans have waited since Week 1 of the 2010 season for the team's Kelly Green uniforms to be worn again. The wait is almost over. 

While the Eagles have yet to announce what uniforms they will wear in Week 6, it's fair to assume that Philadelphia will don their white jerseys as the road team against the New York Jets. 

What we do know is what the Eagles will wear in Week 7 -- the long-awaited Kelly Green throwbacks. A Sunday Night Football matchup with the Miami Dolphins -- perhaps a Super Bowl LVIII preview -- will be the first of two times this season that the Kelly Green threads. The popular throwback uniforms will also be worn in Week 12 as the Eagles host quarterback Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. 

The Eagles wore Kelly Green as one of their primary colors from 1935 through 1995. Since 1996, Midnight Green has been the team's primary color, during what's largely been an extremely successful period in franchise history. Still, the nostalgia for Kelly Green has persisted. 

Michael Vick models the Kelly Green throwback uniforms that the Philadelphia Eagles wore in Week 1 of the 2010 NFL season.  / USA Today

In Week 1 of the 2010 season, the Eagles wore Kelly Green throwback uniforms as they honored the 50th anniversary of their 1960 NFL Championship Game win over the Green Bay Packers. The Eagles lost that Week 1 contest to the Packers, 27-20, but quarterback Michael Vick re-emerged as a superstar and the Eagles looked clean in the game, which is what most remember from the contest. 

From 2013-2021, the NFL had a controversial one-helmet rule, which required players to wear the same lid for every game. That meant that unless the Eagles went back to Kelly Green on a full-time basis, they couldn't wear the uniforms. 

The rule was repealed in advance of the 2022 season, which has opened the door for some classic NFL uniforms to return on a full-time basis. The New England Patriots brought back their "Pat Patriot" uniforms as an alternate in 2022, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers creamsicle "Bucco Bruce" uniforms will come back in Week 6. That will be an appetizer for the modern Kelly Green alternates, which the Eagles unveiled in July. 

This specific shade of Kelly Green is what the Eagles wore from 1985-1995. It will no doubt re-assert itself as one of the NFL's most popular uniforms when it returns to the national stage next week. 

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Tim Kelly
TIM KELLY

Tim Kelly is a contributor to SI's NFL team sites. Additionally, Kelly covers the Philadelphia Phillies as the Editorial Director for PhilliesNation.com. Previously, Kelly has been a producer at SportsRadio 94 WIP and a content producer for Audacy Sports, with written content syndicated to WIP, WFAN, WEEI and some of the biggest sports radio stations in the country. Kelly also has contributed to Bleacher Report, Just Baseball, Sports Talk Philly and Section 215, FanSided's Philadelphia affiliate. Kelly is a 2018 graduate of Bloomsburg University, with a major in Mass Communications and a minor in political science. 

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