PHOENIX – The Eagles will take the field on Sunday against Kansas City wearing their midnight green jerseys adorned with the commemorative Super Bowl LVII patches. Will Eagles fans actually be able to buy and wear them though? That remains to be seen.
Philadelphia is always glad to gobble up any Eagles merchandise that it can, and that's even more true when the team just won the NFC and is on the cusp of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy again. For the fans who want to get the jerseys the Birds will be wearing in the big game, however, that's proving difficult.
Since the Eagles clinched a berth in the Super Bowl, I've been scouring the internet and keeping tabs on what jerseys are available for purchase. This is worse than trying to find a PS5 in 2020.
Fanatics' website, as of this writing, currently has eight Eagles Super Bowl jerseys for sale. None of them are actually the midnight green jersey. There are six grey "Atmosphere Fashion" jerseys for Jalen Hurts, Jason Kelce, Miles Sanders, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Darius Slay, but those are super generic grey jerseys that barely resemble the established look.
Here's an example of what they look like, in addition to a lone black "Fashion" jersey that's available for Hurts:
None of those are what the Eagles will wear when they play the Chiefs.
Those grey jerseys are terrible. They're perfect for the boring corporate affair the Super Bowl is. Nobody wants them! They want what the players are going to wear!
Additionally, the Eagles' normal black alternate jersey is available with the Super Bowl patch via Fanatics, but, again, the Eagles won't be wearing those in the Super Bowl. Here's a glimpse of it alongside Kelce and Smith "fashion" jerseys (I'm so sick of typing that already):
It doesn't make much sense!
The lone midnight green Super Bowl jerseys I saw were a batch of customizable ones that were briefly available last week on Fanatics. The last I looked, only XXXL options were remaining and, as of now, that item is completely gone from Fanatics' website.
In response to a tweet I made about the situation, some Eagles fans said they did see a green Hurts jersey available at some point recently, but I am unable to confirm that myself. If they were available at all, it must have been a laughably small quantity of them.
Since I'm out in Arizona for Super Bowl festivities, it was the right thing to do for my fellow Philadelphians to see if the NFL Shop down at Phoenix's "Super Bowl Experience" was selling any Eagles Super Bowl jerseys.
They are, but currently only have those grey Hurts jerseys available:
Speaking to an associate at the store, it doesn't appear likely that the green jerseys will be available for purchase at the Super Bowl. There may, however, be more shipments of the Eagles fashion jerseys, potentially with a player (or players) other than Hurts. There were jerseys for a whole host of teams available, even those not playing in the Super Bowl, but there were no midnight green jerseys there, with the Super Bowl patch or without.
Though I'm out West, I called back home to some stores in the greater Philadelphia area about what's going on with the Super Bowl jersey situation:
• The Eagles' Pro Shop at Lincoln Financial Field could not be reached on the phone. Their message said that new Super Bowl merchandise is "slowly rolling in." The shop's Instagram posted on Thursday, Feb. 2 that they had gotten these grey Hurts jerseys in for purchase and that green and black jerseys are "coming soon." I am currently unable to verify whether any Super Bowl-patched jerseys are available down at the Linc.
• The Eagles' Pro Shop in Cherry Hill was not taking calls due to the wild demand during this Super Bowl run. A voice message did say, "We will be getting new merchandise every single day."
• I was able to speak with an associate at the Dick's Sporting Goods in Cherry Hill. They do have those grey Hurts jerseys in stock. They did not know whether they'll get any green jerseys in stock before Sunday. They may be getting more of those grey jerseys, but they are currently unsure of which players there would be in addition to Hurts, if any.
Dick's website has three of those grey jerseys available for purchase: Brown, Smith and Hurts. All are "limited stock" and will ship after Feb. 10, meaning that you wouldn't get them in time for the Super Bowl itself. That's no good.
• I received no answer when calling the Rally House in Willow Grove.
Checking the Rally House website, there were four grey jerseys available: Hurts, Sanders, Brown and Smith. They have an expected ship date of Feb. 9, which, again, would be cutting it pretty close to arrival for Super Bowl Sunday. In looking for some "in-store pickup" options, you can actually order a grey Hurts or grey Smith for pickup in Willow Grove. No Super Bowl jerseys are available for pickup in the Cherry Hill store, but quantities of the grey Hurts jersey can be ordered for pickup in King of Prussia.
If you're thinking this is the world conspiring against Philadelphia and its fans, I love that your head went there, but I don't think that's the case. Only grey Chiefs jerseys are available at the Super Bowl's shop, but there are two players available this time: Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
I don't work in logistics operations management, but this is such a huge oversight with poor planning, right? People are begging to fork their hard-earned dollars over. I'm not faulting the Eagles here, nor the Chiefs. It goes beyond them. Is it Fanatics? Is it Nike?
Let's check out a 2018 New York Times article that was shared by Defector Media's Dan McQuade about Fanatics' partnership with the NFL.
Here's an excerpt from it:
Starting in 2020, Nike, which now has the rights to produce and sell products worn by the players and coaches on the field, will provide that gear only to outfit the teams. Fanatics, the largest online seller of licensed sports merchandise, will produce and sell replicas of that merchandise for consumers, either online or through retail stores. [NYT]
So, they're Nike jerseys, but Fanatics is the one making them. Hm. Okay.
I'm not in a position to put blame on any specific party, but it's ultimately a shame for Eagles fans who just want to rock what their favorite team and favorite players are wearing in the Super Bowl.
Where's Modell's when you need them?
Take me to the days of strolling into a Modell's and being able to buy a $65 Reebok jersey of almost any player of my choosing.
UPDATE [Feb. 7]:
An Eagles fan reached out to me and shared that they bought a midnight green Hurts jersey with the Super Bowl LVII on Friday, Feb. 3 through the NFL Shop site, which is branded a "Fanatics Experience" and includes the same stock of products:
Estimated arrival of Feb. 27? That's great. At least it'll be here in time for Saint Patrick's Day when everyone wears green. If these are surprise drops on the lines of an Air Jordan release or as limited in quantity as a new Supreme jacket, what are we doing here? This shouldn't be about having the latest hot commodity in streetwear.
Again, I know there are logistical and supply issues that ran rampant here, but this is the NFL, a billion-dollar industry that has a complete stronghold on the American public. That has to be figured out and I don't have confidence it will.
In talking with all sorts of football fans on Twitter about this on Monday, I had Rams fans telling me they still haven't been able to buy the correct jersey with the Super Bowl LVI patch that Los Angeles won in their championship win last year. Not great!
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