National Football League - Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta Falcons Notify NFL They Might Redesign Uniforms

By MATT WINKELJOHN
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

If you're into collectibles, you might want to get Falcons gear before it becomes rare. It's a good bet the team will change uniforms next year, most likely bringing back red home jerseys for the first time since 1989.

Team officials will not confirm the pending changes, and not just because they're nowhere near final. Team officials are worried about damaging merchandise sales this year.

But owner Arthur Blank doesn't deny pending changes, either.

"We are talking to players, a few who are kind of the team leaders, and we're hearing from fans, too," Blank said. "It's great to change the uniform, but you don't want to put players in a uniform they don't like to wear."

The Falcons met an NFL deadline for notifying the league a year in advance that they are considering uniform changes for 2003.

When the team was born in '66, the home jerseys were black, as they are now. Many fans, however, have written Blank, telling him want to bring back the red jerseys the team wore from '71-'89.

It's unlikely that the same tone of red will be used, though. Quarterback Mike Vick has modeled several mock jerseys with a variety of the 254 tones of red sanctioned by the NFL.

"It was different colors," Vick said. "We tried out black, red, white. I liked the red, but a lot of guys got different opinions. We'll come to a conclusion by the time the year's over."

Final decisions are yet to come on jerseys, pants that switched from white to silver in '78, and helmets that were red from '66-'89 before switching to black.

Just because the Falcons notified the NFL they're considering changes doesn't mean they have to make them.

"There are a lot of things to talk about," Blank said. "How much color do you want [to change]? Do you want to change a lot, or just a little? How many colors do you want? We hear from quite a few fans who like the black [jerseys and helmets], too."

Left tackle Bob Whitfield has varied opinions, as usual.

"All my little homeys from southwest Atlanta, they love the old-school red jersey," he said. "But what are you going to do with the helmet? We should have, like, five different uniforms. We should have, instead of a white one, a silver one.

"Silver and little red numbers, black outline, silver [jersey] on silver [pants], black shoes. Sweet."

The NFL allows two uniforms per team, with a third -- either a "classic" from the past or a spin-off that features one of the team's current secondary colors as a primary color -- to be worn once after the ninth week of the season.

Denver, for example, will wear its old orange jerseys -- a "classic" -- in a game later this season. The Browns, who have brown home jerseys and white away jerseys, will use a secondary color and wear orange jerseys in one game later this season.

The Falcons, however, declined that option this year.

This article was taken from www.accessatlanta.com.  All rights reserved.