The Lions will reveal their new look for the upcoming season on Thursday night at a festive event at Ford Field. But an ad touting the jerseys was published prematurely earlier in the day.
The accidental reveal occurred Thursday morning. Fanatics ran a promotional post of the uniforms on the USA Today Lions Wire. However, the post since has been erased.
Justin Rogers, who covers the Lions, shared a screenshot of the ad before it was deleted. He wrote: “The tough thing about holding your new uniforms for an unveiling is keeping all the third-party corporate partners in line with the launch, when there’s so little oversight with those. Fanatics ad leaked through USA Today Network, appearing to show Lions’ new look jerseys.”
Lions need new look for their new NFL status
Keep in mind that the Lions have teased the new look for several weeks. Detroit team president Rod Wood even talked about the new uniforms last month at the NFL Owners spring meetings in Orlando.
“(The new uniforms are) honoring our traditional color with a little updating and twist,” Wood said. “And it gives us a lot more options, too. We’re going to introduce a couple different pant options that can go with jerseys, so it will give us different options to wear during the season.”
And why not change the look? There are so many more eyeballs on the Lions, now that the team has pushed its way into contender status in the NFL. The Lions won the NFC North title and reached the NFC title game before falling to the 49ers.
The Lions basically confirmed that the deleted promo was the real thing. The social media team shared a video clip of defensive tackle Alim McNeill chastising the leaker.
In the video, McNeill says, “We appreciate you ruining all the hard work we’ve put in. Video coming soon.”
The new look includes a Lions blue jersey. There’s a white jersey for the road. And the promo also showed a black jersey with blue numbers. It’s similar to a jersey the Lions last used in 2017.
Earlier in the week, the team teased a glimpse of the new uniforms. However, there still are key details that aren’t known to the public. The unauthorized leak didn’t show any of the pants.
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