There is a lot of excitement surrounding the New England Patriots' 2025 season for various reasons, the main one being how the team will perform under the watchful eye of new head coach Mike Vrabel. Besides that, the free agency and draft additions have yielded another layer of anticipation for the upcoming year, a factor lacking amongst the fans for a handful of years.
Luckily, that excitement can continue to grow as the season nears for another reason that the NFL and Nike recently revealed.
On Tuesday morning, it was announced that the NFL and the sports brand were collaborating on a new project to create a "Rivalries" collection of jerseys inspired by the city edition jerseys that teams in other pro leagues wear.
The Patriots are one of the teams that will wear them during the 2026 season, adding another alternate uniform on top of the fan-favorite red throwbacks.
What the jerseys will look like and when they will be debuted is not yet known, but the latter will change when the NFL reveals its 2025 schedule in just a few weeks.
The Patriots will now have another alternate uniform to utilize this upcoming season
Patriots uniforms have been scrutinized over the past five years due to the changes they decided to make after Tom Brady left for the Bucs in 2020. There was a sense of wanting to create a new era in New England by having an all-navy ensemble become the dedicated home attire, similar to that of the color rush uniforms from years ago.
But fans were not impressed, and some demanded the return of the uniforms of old, particularly the silver pants. Even former players, like Julian Edelman, expressed the same desire during the 2023 season.
Jerod Mayo seemed to feel the same, as the Patriots brought back the classic combination throughout the 2024 season. Since Mike Vrabel donned those colors during his Patriots tenure, the assumption is that he will do the same, but nothing has been announced yet.
It would be ideal in the eyes of fans who yearn for classic uniforms, which likely explains their fondness for red throwbacks. Those will not be interfered with now that the Nike "Rivalries" collection will be joining the rotation for the next three seasons, becoming just the latest good news for the fans.