By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/21/2008
You’ve seen them all around the National Football League, but not at Rams homes games. But in 2009, throwback uniforms are finally coming to St. Louis.
The NFL has approved the use of throwback uniforms for the club next season.
"We’ve signed off on it," Rams equipment manager Todd Hewitt said. "It’s a done deal. We’ve been talking about doing it for a couple years. We never could decide really in time to do it."
That’s because the league requires lots of lead time before allowing a team to wear throwbacks. In this instance, the Rams had to have their initial request in by March 1, 2008 for use in the 2009 season.
"So almost like a year and a half in advance," Hewitt said.
Rams owners Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez looked at sample throwback uniforms three weeks ago when the Rams played host to Arizona -- one of the last steps in the process.
The Rams sought league approval to wear throwbacks this season in honor of late owner Georgia Frontiere, but the league denied the request because of a lack of lead time. By wearing them in 2009, the Rams will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the team’s Super Bowl XXXIV victory over Tennessee.
"I think that the right throwback uniforms connect the players to part of the history of the team -- and that tradition is really important," Rosenbloom said. "In this case, we’re going to use the uniforms that we won the Super Bowl with."
That would be the royal blue, gold, and white uniforms worn by the team during their first five seasons in St. Louis. The "gold" part of those uniforms actually was more like a yellow. But after the 1999 championship season, the team changed uniform styles, going to more of a true gold color and a darker blue -- officially called "new century gold" and "millennium blue."
The Rams are allowed to wear the throwbacks for up to three home games next season. They are not allowed to change throwback uniforms -- say to an earlier style -- for five years.
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