On Sunday night, the New England Patriots travel to take on the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game – a ‘Super Bowl semi-final’, for the uninitiated.
It’s a landmark occurrence, given that it’s the first time since the departure of both head coach Bill Belichick and legendary quarterback Tom Brady that they have reached such a stage. Perhaps fittingly, the aesthetic is quite different, too.
The six wins that that duo helped the Patriots to achieve – the 2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016 and 2018 seasons – were all during the lifespan of the uniform set introduced in 2000, when royal blue was replaced by a darker shade.
It was a time when teams were less likely to mix elements and so, by and large, the first three wins saw them wear navy jerseys and silver pants at home, white jerseys and navy pants away.
By the time of their second coming, those involved in the NFL had come to realise the commercial potential of having more uniforms and greater options – the Thursday Night Football ‘Color Rush’ programme resulted in special outfits, generally with teams wearing jerseys and pants of the same colour.
In 2017, the Patriots had a new navy uniform for those games, as well as special new white pants to be worn with the regular white away jersey – the first time since 1994 for them to use white pants outside of throwback duds.
A major change came in 2020, after Brady’s departure though with Belichick still in situ, with the Colour Rush design providing the basis for the new primary uniform. As outlined in this article, at the time navy pants were the only option for home and away, but things have changed since.
In 2022, silver pants returned and have slowly regained prominence; in 2024, they were used with the white jerseys on occasion. Then, in the current season, the Week 6 game at the New Orleans Saints saw them break out white pants – they won that game 25-19 and have used them in three of the four games since then where white jerseys have been required (the home team chooses dark or white – most opt for dark but there are exceptions).
And so, after beating the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans at home in their navy jerseys and silver pants, the Patriots are on the road against the higher-ranked Broncos and will be in all-white.
Victory will be a tall order – the Broncos have an interesting uniform tale too and we’re holding back on that in the expectation of them making the Super Bowl – but a new era of success under head coach Mike Vrabel (a star player in the first three titles) could be coming to Boston.
