Jeff Lurie ‘would love' to bring back kelly green uniforms for Eagles

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It might be only a matter of time now until the Eagles bring back kelly green uniforms.

Eagles owner Jeff Lurie revealed at the NFL owners meetings in March he would like to see kelly green reintroduced as an alternate colorway. The roadblock, Lurie revealed, is league rules currently forbid players from using multiple helmets, which means while the Eagles could go to kelly green pants and jerseys, they would be stuck with midnight green helmets.

Lurie reiterated on Thursday he wants to see the retro kelly green to make a return, and is actively trying to get the rule changed.

"I would love it, love it, love it to be able to bring it back," Lurie said.

"We're working with the league to try to get a second helmet. We don't really think the midnight green helmet with the kelly green uniform is what we want and what the fans really want. I don't think it matches very well."

The Eagles wore kelly green throughout most of the franchise's history. However, the team rebranded to midnight green in 1997, three years after Luire purchased the team — a move that never sat well with a portion of the fan base.

Now Lurie would like to right a wrong and at least restore the old-school look on a part-time basis. In doing so, he exposed a potential flaw in the one-helmet rule that's preventing kelly green from making a comeback.

"We're trying to get it where they will let us use a kelly green helmet," Lurie said. "We go through so many helmets in a given game. Some players go through, I don't know, seven or eight helmets at times in a season for a player, maybe more? So can't we just paint it that way and move it around?"

Ultimately, it's up to both the NFL and its players to allow the change to be made.

"You can't without the league approval, and they've got some issues there — the players have to approve it, the players association has to approve it," Lurie said.

"That's the hold-up. I don't know that they've had those discussions, but my hope is by next offseason, I'm going to try to push those discussions forward. And we're not the only team. There's other teams that want to see two helmets.

"That's what's holding us back, otherwise we would've had it this year."

Based on Lurie's comments, it sounds as though an agreement could be near, especially with multiple teams pushing for it. Then again, with the league and players association headed for contentious negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement in 2021, one wonders whether getting the union to make even a minor concession will be a simple endeavor.

But if Lurie and owners have their way, the Eagles could be wearing a kelly green alternate as early as 2018.

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