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Back in April, Detroit Lions president Tom Lewand mentioned that the team's throwback uniforms may be returning this year. Nothing has been announced yet about the throwbacks coming back, perhaps because the Lions have their sights set on a new alternate jersey in the future.
WXYZ spoke with Lewand about the possibility of new alternates, and he said that fans should "stay tuned." What's more, Lewand made it sound like the Lions are intrigued by what Nike has done with other teams both on the college and pro level. As a result, the Lions seem open to the idea of someday going with a new alternate uniform instead of their usual throwback look.
"We're certainly interested, if it's something the players want and the fans want, we want to be responsive to it," Lewand said.
The topic of uniforms recently came up because the Lions started wearing black pants in practice this year. It turns out that the change simply involved black pants being easier to clean than silver, according to WXYZ, but it got people thinking about the idea of the Lions returning to an alternate black uniform. The old ones are still quite polarizing considering they were really a Matt Millen thing, but Calvin Johnson is on board with the idea of the Lions having a black jersey.
.@PrideOfDetroit @davebirkett Calvin told me last year he's been pushing for an all-black Lions uniform, including the helmet.
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) July 29, 2013
Something working in favor of a possible new alternate for the Lions, according to WXYZ, is that the NFL's jersey rules may change in the future to allow for third uniforms to have a completely different design. Instead of simply having a black version of the home jerseys or a throwback, for example, changing this rule would allow the Lions to have a completely different look for their alternate jersey.
Just from reading my Twitter mentions this weekend, it seems clear that a lot of people want the Lions to essentially go the Oregon or Seattle Seahawks route and come up with something way different than what we're used to seeing. At the same time, though, there are others who would prefer the Lions keep things more traditional, especially when it comes to the possibility of a black jersey returning to the rotation.
What do you think? Should the Lions keep it simple or go crazy with a new alternate look?