Philadelphia Freedom

We've been (well, me at least) a little lazy here at the Gridiron Uniform Database blog, and we've got many updates that have been piling up on us, so we'll jump right in and start with one we started discussing last week. ~ ~ ~

1999 Eagles new

      Last week we told you about a change in the Philadelphia Eagles' wordmark for the 1996 through 2002 seasons.  When they first changed their uniforms, they had a slanted "Eagles" wordmark on the front of their jerseys.  We were using the current one, the "crowned" one for the entire 1996 to present period.  Now we have added the slanted one to the database.  It is hard to discern, naturally, in the thumbnails to the left, however when you really blow it up (right) you can tell a slight difference.  

1999 Eagles Old

     The Eagles ' introduced the new "crowned" wordmark on their uniforms when they opened the new stadium, Lincoln Financial Field in 2003.  Chris Creamer's sportslogos.net site has the crowned logo as the Eagles only logo since 1996, however.

Jan. 19, 2003 - NFC Championship

     It was my theory that they developed the new logo for the opening of the new stadium, as the old slanted logo wouldn't not have looked good in the end zone.  I seemed to remember the Vet rarely had anything painted in the end zones, but when they were planning the new stadium, perhaps they did some mock-ups with the wordmark in the endzone and realized it didn't look good with the slanted "Eagles" in the symmetrical environment of the endzone.   However, after looking at the 2002 NFC Championship game - Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, the last game at the Vet, I see they did have the new logo in the end zone there.

As late as November 2000, the Eagles were exclusively using
the 'slanted' wordmark on clothing and jerseys, but as early
as Sept. '99, they were using the "crowned" wordmark logo
in the end zone at Veterans Stadium

     Looking back during the 2000 season, you can see they used the old logo on clothing on the sidelines.  But as early as the September 19, 1999 Bucs at Eagles game, the Eagles had the "crowned" wordmark in the end zone.  So was the new logo the only official logo all along, and the wordmark a secondary logo that they only used on clothing from 1996 through 2002, and then they consolidated and only used the "crowned" logo from 2003 on?  Or did they just gradually start using the "crowned" logo sometime between 2000 and 2002, and finally retired the "slanted" logo for good in 2003?

     This isn't the only discrepancy that this research has come across -- a while back someone in the forum asked about the Eagles 1969-73 white helmet and whether or not it had a black outline around the green eagle wing.  After much discussion, our Tim Brulia stated that:

 "I've been hearing about this one for years. I can say with 100% certainty that there was NO black outline on the wings."

      But while looking around the Creamer site, I saw the following:












     Could it be possible that Tim's statement about there absolutely being no black outline is accurate with regards to the 1969-72 helmet, yet the 1973 helmet did, in fact, have the black outline?  What say you all?  Is the Creamer site right and the 1973 helmet different, or do we stand by Tim's statement that there was never any black outline at all?

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     Well there you have it, more database updates tomorrow...as the debate rages on!