Report: Rumored Lions red Color Rush jerseys ‘not in the works’

Last Friday, the twitter account @NFL_Leaks released a photo of what they suggested was the "final color sheet" for NFL’s Color Rush promotion. The photo showed the Detroit Lions were preparing to wear red for their Thanksgiving game against the Minnesota Vikings.

The same twitter account "leaked" a picture in April showing the Lions would be wearing black Color Rush jerseys. That leak was quickly confirmed as fake, yet for whatever reason the most recent leak managed to gain traction again, and Lions fans were worried they would be donning red jerseys on Thanksgiving. (As noted by our own Mike Payton, the red color comes from a one-time use by the 1948 Lions).

Well, worry not. According to the Detroit Free Press’ Dave Birkett, the Lions don’t plan on wearing red anytime this season:

In a poll we conducted over the weekend, only 2 percent of Lions fans wanted a red jersey, so this comes as good news to most of Detroit.

So what color should we expect for the Lions? Well, Birkett gives a little more insight into that decision. According to Birkett, the NFL wanted to debut Color Rush jerseys during all of last year’s Thanksgiving Day games, and the Lions had their choice already picked out:

Had the league gone through with its original plan, the Lions would have worn all-black uniforms for their Thanksgiving game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

An all-black jersey would be quite polarizing among the Lions fanbase. Although 19 percent of Lions fans chose black out of six other options, others believe the black color represents a horrible era of Lions football when they briefly wore black jerseys during the Matt Millen era.

Although black jerseys do appear to be the most likely option at this point, there’s an important reason the Lions may have to choose a different color this year:

Along with the all-black uniforms, the Lions considered an all-silver Color Rush uniform. That came at the behest of the NFL and jersey maker Nike because so many NFL teams wanted all-black uniforms, the person said.

Silver does really seem to make the most sense. There aren’t many other teams that have that color as one of their primary colors and black is, indeed, covered by plenty of other teams in the NFL. Since each team will be sporting their own Color Rush jersey, silver gives the team the best option to have a unique look in 2016.