Getty The Buccaneers will wear their white jerseys and pewter pants against the Saints.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will wear white jerseys with pewter pants against the New Orleans Saints in their primetime Divisional Round playoff matchup. It is a uniform combination we have not seen much this season, but a reminder of the deep playoff runs when the Bucs were having historic seasons in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As for the Saints, the Bucs’ NFC South foes will wear all-black uniforms with their signature gold helmets.
This is the same uniform combination that Bucs legends such as Derek Brooks, Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Mike Alstott and Ronde Barber wore in the 2002 NFC Championship against the Eagles. The Buccaneers were finally able to win in Philadelphia on their way to capturing the franchise’s lone Super Bowl. The Buccaneers were originally not planning to wear this white and pewter combination during the regular season but made an audible in a few games including their blowout win against the Packers.
Over the offseason, the Bucs opted to bring back the same uniforms that the team wore from 1997 through 2013, which include the most iconic seasons in franchise history. Tampa made a few minor changes including adding a grey alternate jersey which we have not seen so far in the postseason.
“This new but familiar look is a direct result of the valuable feedback we received from our fans,” owner Ed Glazer said, per Buccaneers.com. “We are excited to return to our classic Super Bowl era uniforms while also introducing a sleek Color Rush uniform that showcases our signature pewter in a new and dramatic way. The refreshed classic design of our home and away combinations bridges our past with our exciting new future, and we are confident it will resonate with our fans.”
The Pewter in the Bucs’ Current Uniforms Is Slightly Different Than in 2013
The Buccaneers did face one challenge when bringing back their old uniforms. The team tried replicating the old pewter color from the previous uniforms but were unable to find the right combination, so the current grey is slightly different from previous years.
“While the Buccaneers are going back to the darker red of their previous uniforms, they are retaining the shade of pewter used in the most recent version,” Buccaneers.com’s Scott Smith detailed. The team explored going back to the original pewter pants but the fabrics used by Nike today are completely different than in the 1990s and therefore it was impossible to re-create the historic pewter color in today’s textiles.”
The Buccaneers Hope to Bring Back the Creamsicle Throwback Uniforms & Bucco Bruce Helmets
It is not just Bucs fans that want to see the team bring back their creamsicle uniforms with the Bucco Bruce helmets. The franchise revealed when they unveiled the current Buccaneers jerseys that they have plans to use their throwback uniforms once the NFL relaxes their helmet rules.
“The Buccaneers are eager to return to annual throwback games but are still blocked by NFL rules that only allow a team to have one set of helmets for its players for an entire season,” Smith noted. “The Buccaneers orange-era helmets were white, not pewter. Many NFL teams, including the Buccaneers, are hopeful that NFL rules regarding this matter will be altered to allow a second helmet color in the near future, but there will not be a throwback game in 2020.”
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