Chiefs President: ‘High Bar’ Needed for Team to Consider Alternate NFL Uniforms

Julia StumbaughJuly 21, 2024

Michael Owens/Getty Images

The Kansas City Chiefs have set a “high bar” for the possibility of introducing alternate uniforms, according to team president Mark Donovan.

“[We’re] pretty focused on the position that we have,” Donovan said, per Pete Sweeney of arrowheadpride.com. “I think we’re one of, if not the only [team] with the traditional, haven’t changed it, don’t have an alternative. We like that. Our players really like our all white-on-white [uniforms], even more so than red-on-red now. So that’s become sort of our go-to. But we’ll always consider it.”

Donovan concluded: “I think is a high bar that’s going to have to be crossed to actually get it done, but it’s definitely [a] conversation.”

The NFL expanded its alternate jersey rules ahead of the 2018 season, and brought alternate helmets back into the league ahead of the 2022 campaign.

The Chiefs have only once worn an alternate option to their main uniform, a nod to the franchise’s origins as the AFL’s Dallas Texans during a game against the Dallas Cowboys in 2009, per NBC Sports’ Mike Florio.

The team has stuck with their red helmets and red or white jerseys since then, although Donovan said following the re-introduction of differing helmets that alternate uniforms were “definitely something we’ll continue to discuss” (h/t USA Today’s Charles Goldman.)

“To honor tradition is one of our core, fundamental values,” Donovan said in July 2022. “But I go back to that balance point of— if you look, more and more, and especially this season— it just seems like with all the black helmets coming out and all the alternative uniforms that are out there.”

CEO Clark Hunt then said one year later he wanted the team to keep the uniform brand consistent in accordance with the wishes of his late father, team founder Lamar Hunt, Michael David Smith reported for NBC Sports.

“It was something that my dad felt very strongly about, going all the way back to the early ’60s. He wanted a lot of continuity in the uniform and we’ve tried to maintain that over the years,” Hunt said in July 2023. “I think we have a very distinct brand with the red and white, and I don’t anticipate steering away from that any time soon.”

The lucrative opportunity presented by the opportunity to sell a new uniform to fans could eventually lead Chiefs leadership to change their minds and add an alternate option. Donovan said he currently receives helmet design ideas “monthly,” per Sweeney.