Fashion faux pas? Players agree Super Bowl 60 could look so much better

• The New England Patriots will wear their white jerseys for Super Bowl 60 against the Seattle Seahawks.
• New England is undefeated in their white jerseys this season, while Seattle’s only Super Bowl win was in white.
• Players from both teams expressed a desire to wear their popular throwback uniforms, which is not permitted by the NFL.

SANTA CLARA, CA – “Look good, feel good. Feel good, play good. Play good, they pay good.”

It’s a pithy pearl of wisdom issued from Deion Sanders years ago, when he was a dual-sport star in professional football and baseball. Now? It might be time for the NFL to heed the advice of “Prime Time.”

Super Bowl 60 will be staged Sunday between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. And while it will doubtless be a slick, high-definition, good-looking product from nearly every angle, could it look … better than good?

Despite being the designated home team, the Patriots opted to wear their white jerseys – maybe not a surprise given New England is the first team in league history to go 9-0 on the road in a single season (playoffs included). The Pats are also 6-0 in the white jerseys during the 2025 season, including their win at Denver for the AFC championship game.

“We had to pick blue or white, and we went with white. I guess the blue would have been a good idea. As long as we’ve got a uniform on. … I try not to get too involved with it. We’re the home team. We get to choose. Guys like the white uniforms,” said Vrabel, who said the team’s leadership group settled on white.

Told the team was undefeated in that look this season, Vrabel cracked: “There we go. I hope the tooth fairy comes tonight, too. We’ll be real excited.”

Seahawks fans might be less excited to see their team in the blue jerseys they’ve worn since 2012. Seattle is 1-2 to date in the Super Bowl, its only win coming in white during its Super Bowl 48 blowout of Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos. The following year, the ‘Hawks were in blue and the Tom Brady-led Patriots in white – though a different style of jersey than the more understated one New England wears now – during Seattle’s infamous Super Bowl 49 loss.

(Fun fact: This will be the first Super Bowl in which both teams wear monochromatic uniforms.)

Sadly, the teams didn’t have the option of wearing their highly popular throwback jerseys, though players almost universally agreed they would have leaped at the alternative.

“I mean, if that was an option, I would love to wear the throwbacks. I love throwbacks. I’m a vintage dude when it comes to clothing. I like old, vintage things. The all white is clean – that’s like a step out, going to the club and everything,” Patriots receiver DeMario ‘Pop’ Douglas told USA TODAY Sports.

“The throwback is just clean and classy.”

He’s referring to the team’s red jersey and white helmet with the “Pat Patriot” logo, the cartoonish-looking minuteman poised to snap the ball, whom the franchise first adopted in 1961, its second year of existence. New England did feature that look in Super Bowl 20 … when the Patriots got whacked 46-10 by the ’85 Bears.

“I definitely love the throwbacks,” Pats outside linebacker Harold Landry III said. “You should be able to pick whatever jersey you want.”

Similarly, Seattle players would have loved to wear their retro blue jerseys and silver helmets, which the team brought back in 2023 after the league relaxed its rules and allowed clubs to utilize multiple helmet shells.

“Throwbacks, all day long – they’re unbeatable,” Seahawks Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon told USA TODAY Sports.

Seattle has never worn the jerseys it sported for most of the 1980s and ‘90s in the Super Bowl. The Seahawks made their Super Sunday debut 20 years ago, when they wore (ugly) precursors to their current threads in a 21-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl 40.

Said Seattle linebacker Patrick O’Connell: “I think it’d be really cool – either the throwbacks or the ‘Rivalries’ since we (the Seahawks and Patriots) were both part of that this year. … I think it would be good for the NFL. Fans love it, they would buy all the jerseys.”

And you’d think an organization that prints money like the NFL does would be happy to mint more. Yet the league has been reluctant to permit throwbacks in its showcase event. The Los Angeles Rams received an exception to use their classic alternates seven years ago when they were in the midst of a wonky transition from their St. Louis-era uniforms but before they unveiled the current ones in conjunction with their move into SoFi Stadium in 2020.

Maybe it’s just as well that the teams’ glorious duds won’t be sullied. The Seahawks and Patriots will already resemble European football clubs, obligated to wear the Super Bowl LX logo and a patch commemorating America’s 250th year of existence. Seattle will also continue wearing a shoulder emblem celebrating the franchise’s 50th season.

It should also be noted that quite a few Patriots are happy in the slimming whites. Other players are completely unmoved by football fashion.

“I don’t really care what we’re wearing – we could wear leather helmets out there,” Seahawks Pro Bowl D-lineman Leonard Williams told USA TODAY Sports.

But they were generally in the minority of those I polled.

“I would like to wear the throwbacks,” Patriots guard Michael Onwenu told USA TODAY Sports.

“I think when we get an opportunity to wear new threads, new jerseys – or a different set of jerseys – it allows us to feel ourselves. You look good, you play good.”

Sanders couldn’t have said it better.