The Pittsburgh Steelers faced the all-white uniformed Cincinnati Bengals a week ago on Thursday Night Football, and they will do the same this week against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football. The Packers announced their white out on X this afternoon.
Away teams very rarely wear alternate uniforms unless it’s color-rush week. They likely did so in order to avoid overlap with the Steelers’ 1933 throwback uniforms that will debut on Sunday. The Packers typically wear yellow helmets, but that would have conflicted with the Steelers’ yellow throwback helmets.
This would have been the first time since 1954 that two teams wore yellow helmets against each other. That was also a Packers-Steelers game. (h/t Daire Carragher).
Quarterbacks can rarely see much more than helmets over the offensive line in the middle of the field, so matching helmets would have created a challenge for both sides. The Packers opted to avoid that problem by switching to their white-out uniform.
When Rodgers plays his old team for the first time on Sunday, we won’t have to worry about him having flashbacks to the first 18 years of his career and throwing the ball to the other team. He will barely recognize their getup.
The Steelers’ 1933 uniforms are certain to draw mixed reviews when they debut on national television this Sunday. Steelers fans first saw them just before training camp began, but the majority of NFL viewers will be seeing them for the first time on Sunday Night Football. Even the Steelers’ own players aren’t fully sold on the new look.
The Steelers have had solid success in throwback uniforms over the years. The bumble-bee jerseys always seem to bring good fortunes. Hopefully the 1933 debut goes as well. If not, the Steelers will have lost to the white out in back-to-back weeks.
Perhaps the only way for the new throwbacks to win over the fan base is for the team to deliver a big win on Sunday.
