Matt LaFleur on Packers white helmets: 'I think it's awesome'

In the late summer heat of August, the Packers are thinking about different-colored uniforms and blizzard warnings. Coach Matt LaFleur is here for it all.

“I think it’s cool, I think it’s awesome,” the Packers coach said this week.

If you missed the game wardrobe memo, the Packers are ditching their traditional attire for a game against the Texans in October. Rather than a variation of dark green and gold, Green Bay will don a white on white ‘fit for a home game at Lambeau Field. The special new item is a glistening white helmet. The Packers helmet logo is white, but outlined in green.

The Packers introduced new alternative look, Thursday.

Introducing our white helmet.

In real life. @amfam pic.twitter.com/TcHEtDMOf4

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) August 1, 2024

Now, the Packers didn’t lose all touch with tradition. The uniforms do feature green and gold, but in stripes on the shoulder and down the pants. The numbers also are green. But players in both the NFL and college football love what they call the storm trooper look. Or, they’re sometimes described as icy whites.

Ice comes into play with Green Bay’s decision. The new alternative look is a part of its “Winter Warning Collection.” The Packers game against the Texans is Oct. 20. Maybe there will be snow. Who knows? But team officials want fans to wear white, maybe buy items from the collection, and give the Houston players a taste of what white-out conditions would look like in Green Bay once winter makes an appearance.

And uniform change ups are good for morale. Cause if you look good, you play good.

“It’s something I think that will bring some juice to the locker room,” LaFleur told reporters from training camp. “I think the guys are excited about it. We got a little sneak peek of it when they were doing the shoot for it in the spring, and I think they really like them.”

Now, the Packers have worn mostly white before. But only the old-timers will remember. According to the Green Bay Gazette, the team donned white uniforms in 1938. They’d wear them for some games through the 1940s and 50s. Players wore white helmets at Lambeau Field for the first time in the home opener of 1956. They then kept the helmets, worn with green jerseys, white pants and green socks for all of the 1958 season. But horrors, the Packers were 1-10-1. Throughout the 1960s, the team also wore white unis on the road.

Legendary Vince Lombardi made green and gold the standard combo in 1961. That’s also about when the helmets got the classic G logo. The designer is in the Packers Hall of Fame.

So it’s OK to tweak tradition, every now and then.