Browns helmet: Third design is possible so here is all you need to know

The league is allowing a third-option and Cleveland might go for it

The Cleveland Browns have iconic helmets being one of two NFL clubs that do not have a logo or emblem on both sides. AFC North Division foe Pittsburgh Steelers are the other with a logo on just the right side while the other side is blank. The Browns do not have an emblem on either side.

The franchise likes it this way. Come to think about it, so does the fanbase.

Two years ago, the NFL allowed teams to have a second helmet, and now they are announcing that clubs will be able to have a third version. Cleveland unveiled their updated helmets just last week:

There was also a report that the team could be looking at a third helmet option:

(Editor’s Note: I reached out to a source within the team who would have knowledge on the subject. I was told that if a third helmet is designed the plan, at this time, is that “it won’t have a logo.”)

The current Browns solid orange helmet design with the Oreo stripes has been a mainstay since 1961. The only changes have been the pigment, sheen, and hue of the orange, plus the color of the facemasks which has been either gray, white, or brown, and now back to white again.

RELATED: BROWNS UNVEIL 75TH ANNIVERSARY THROWBACK UNIFORM

The NFL has very stringent rules regarding their member uniforms. Every game, there is a uniform cop on each sideline holding a clipboard and making notes that can either become fines or considered infractions.

Everything from headbands, wrist bands, cleats, and medical tape is under the thumb of the shield. In 2013 WR Brandon Marshall of the Chicago Bears was fined $15,000 for wearing orange cleats. This was one week after wearing green cleats and being fined $10,500. In both instances, the shoe color was not approved, yet Marshall wore them anyway. Stepping on a player’s hand purposely only generates a $7,875 fine, so being obstinate regarding the entirety of the uniform is not tolerated.

For Browns fans, remember when Webster Slaughter and Reggie Langhorne wore cleats that were painted orange for the 1990 playoff game? They were both fined and it made the paper because they were considered out of uniform. The whole city went ballistic. In support of the two players, John Big Dawg Thompson painted his white high tops orange and the Cleveland Ballet dyed their pointe shoes the same color.

Part of the reason is player protection while at the same time maintaining competitive equity on game days. Plus, there is the visual aspect to ensure players remain to look good.

A player’s appearance on the field conveys a message regarding the image of the league and directly affects the league’s reputation and success. No more tear-away jerseys, messages in Sharpie printed on cleats or taped ankles, or hidden messages found on sweatbands that are only revealed once the helmet is removed. Plus, the league has to protect their corporate sponsors which may conflict with individual deals players have.

Teams have to submit uniform designs to the league and are locked in for five years. This is how the league has operated for ions. After that period, changes can be submitted and even complete re-designs are allowed to be submitted and reviewed.

Part of the uniform process is every club can have a “throwback” unie. This of course involves not only the jersey and pants, but socks, belts, and helmets as well. Then there is the “color rush” uniforms which take one color and dominate the uniform with it.

Alternate helmets

Although teams can change their uniform every five years, or at least submit designs every five years, the NFL had only allowed one helmet color. With its design process, the logo could be altered or re-designed, but the helmet shell color had to be the same for every game. If the Steelers wore black helmets and decided to go back to their roots and don yellow helmets, they could for the five-year duration.

The Los Angeles Rams are a perfect example of this. This franchise wore yellow leather helmets until 1947 when they switched to blue. They invented the football helmet logo in 1948 with yellow ram horns hand-painted on each side. They changed the horns from yellow to white for a spell, and have tinkered with several shades of blue, but the overall logo has been the same. Until 2020. A new ram design with a split horn was now their new look. But throughout the decades they had only one shell color: blue.

Two years ago, the NFL decided that each of its member clubs could have a second helmet whose shell color was dissimilar. These could be worn at any time without getting league approval for their throwback uniform combinations which almost always offered a separate helmet shell color.

The Browns’ throwback helmet is the 1957 Jim Brown rookie helmet which was solid orange with a single brown stripe, and brown jersey numbers on each side.

Beginning in 2022, various clubs debuted their secondary helmet with NFL approval. Staying in the division, the Cincinnati Bengals offered the same black stripes but now on a solid white helmet.

For the 2022 season, 13 NFL teams wore an alternate helmet. Last year two-thirds of the league had a substitute version.

In 2023, the Browns debuted their white helmet as their second helmet. The origins of the Browns their players wore solid white leather helmets. This means Cleveland painted their brown leather helmets white during those first years.

In 1950, when Cleveland merged into the NFL, that league had a rule that teams could not wear white or light-colored helmets for night games because they used a white football.

Head coach Paul Brown then chose orange for their alternate helmet color for these evening contests. Wearing solid white helmets for day games and solid orange for the night competitions went on for two years. Neither helmet design had any striping. For the 1952 season, plastic helmets had evolved into a safer alternative and Coach Brown ordered the entire squad solid orange plastic hats and the workload of painting helmets ceased.

For one, why did Paul Brown choose orange over brown for the nighttime helmet color when they merged into the NFL in 1950? Secondly, if the NFL did not have that white or light-colored helmet rule, isn’t it likely the Browns would still be wearing white helmets to this day?

The Browns’ white helmet was certainly a tribute to their origins; however, this 2023 version is a new helmet design because two brown stripes encase a single orange center stripe whereas the original hats were solid white.

Straight away, the new white helmets look good. They aren’t spectacular with any novel radical designs or concepts, but they appear clean and fit the Browns’ tradition.

Now, the league is allowing teams to experiment with a third version.

On Wednesday, April 10, 2024, the league announced via a memo to their clubs the approval of an adjustment to the uniform policy by allowing them to pursue another helmet design.

The second and now third helmets, labeled by the league as “alternate color helmets,” can only be worn with one of the club’s authorized optional uniforms which is classic, alternate and/or the color rush.

In addition, the league also mandates that if either alternate color helmet is paired with a classic uniform, the helmet colors and designs must be historically compatible.

Which must not apply to the Browns. In all three games last year that Cleveland wore the new white helmets, they wore the 1946 socks, pants, and white jerseys (that were only worn one season), coupled with the new white helmet with the reverse Oreo stripes which had never been in a game before. If “historically compatible” helmets are being sought, it would have been solid white hats instead.

RELATED: BROWNS WHITE HELMET HISTORY

The entire uniform was an exceptionally good look despite not being historically accurate.

Helmet Number 3?

The NFL has decided to allow its member teams a third helmet design to begin in the 2025 season. Any team going through a redesign process for the upcoming season will have a third helmet option. The league’s other teams will have the option for the 2025 season as long as they inform the league of their plans by May 1 of this year.

Will Cleveland decide to come up with a new hat design? If so, will it be a different color or one that is already used?

The big question: Will there be a logo on the sides?

The league has a list of restrictions and parameters that each club must use before a new alternate helmet will be approved:

• Clubs must obtain an entire new set of alternate color helmets for all players
• Alternate color helmets must be the same make, model, and size as the applicable player’s primary helmet
• Alternate color helmets must be made available to all players at the start of training camp and should be fit at the same time as the primary helmet
• Alternate color helmets must be worn in practice at a minimum during the week leading up to the game in which they will be used.

These conditions were put in place to maintain player health and safety, ensuring that the alternate color helmets fit properly and players have had enough time to practice with them on before wearing them during game action.

Let’s dive into what just might become an option for the Browns.

The most obvious is to invent a brown helmet. This could be adorned with either two white stripes and a single orange middle stripe, or two orange stripes with a center white stripe.

Again, with the history of the franchise and their mindset, that is the most obvious. Then they could play with the facemask colors.

History of Browns helmet logos

The Browns are famous for their obscure vacated helmet space. And except for those two brown stripes that bookend the center white stripe, it seems that Cleveland has always sported the atmosphere of helmet nothingness forever.

Which, isn’t entirely true.

In fact, that empty space has been filled several times with several different designs.

In 1955, Coach Brown invented a facemask for his injured QB Otto Graham who had broken his jaw and was now healed. However, Brown’s design was made of Lucite, which would crack sometimes and even broke in several games which sent shards of the material onto the playing field. Using Brown’s initial design and trademark, the Riddell Sports Equipment Company produced a facemask labeled the BT-5. This was a single-bar device made of a composite of rubber and plastic whose original intention was to protect the player’s jaw area by deflecting blows to the lower face.

From 1952-1956, the Browns wore a solid orange helmet with a single white stripe and a gray facemask for the 1955 and 1956 seasons.

For the 1954 season, only two NFL clubs had any emblem or logo on their helmets: the Rams with their horns, and the Baltimore Colts which featured two horseshoes on the lower back of their hats on each side of a single white stripe-centered on a blue shell. The following season the Philadelphia Eagles featured silver wings on a solid green lid.

In 1957, Jim Brown was drafted. Coincidently, Cleveland changed their helmet design and placed emblems on the side of their helmets.

What were these emblems? A big “C”? The words “Browns” scribbled in cursive? Our favorite Brownie? Nope. It was as simple as brown jersey number decals applied to each side of the helmet. Yep, typical Paul Brown vanilla with vanilla sprinkles please.

There were two other attempts to place a logo on the helmet sides, but in the history of the franchise, these jersey numbers have been the only emblems ever attached. The Jim Brown rookie helmet remained the same from 1957-1959. Then in 1960, two brown stripes were added and encompassed the center white stripe. For 1961, the solid orange shell with the Oreo stripes remained, but the jersey numbers on each side disappeared and have been a mainstay ever since.

Other emblems on a Browns helmet, and maybe more

Art Modell along with several other minority owners, bought the Browns in 1961. The first thing he did was fire Brownie the Elf. In 1965, he wanted the helmets to more represent “Cleveland” and sport some sort of logo on the helmet sides.

There were now 16 NFL clubs who were at war with the American Football League (AFL) who had eight teams of their own and would eventually have 10 before merging into one entity in 1970.

Every NFL and AFL team had a logo or design on their helmets. Well, except Cleveland. As owner of the Browns, Modell wanted to conform and be like the remainder of the pro football universe. He then commissioned an artist to come up with a logo for the helmet sides, and something that could represent the team like the San Francisco 49ers “SF” design or the lowercase “ny” logo of the New York Football Giants.

The artist came up with an upper case “C” that morphs into an upper case “B.” It has since been referred to as the “CB” helmet. It was placed on all sorts of toys, ashtrays, plaques, electric football games, and child uniforms. However, the “CB” helmet never saw the practice field, any preseason game, or any regular season game.

It is a mystery why Modell put so much attention and expense into developing this, but never followed through and made the helmet design a reality.

The “CB” helmet was the closest opportunity for Cleveland to have a design on their helmets.

There was another, however.

From 1948 to 1953, the Rams were the only NFL team to sport a helmet logo. The Colts sported their trademark horseshoes on their helmet back beginning in 1954, but the Browns would have been the second team if Coach Brown had changed his decision.

In the spring of 1953, Coach Brown called his athletic trainer Leo Murphy into his office. Coach Brown had speculated on what a logo on the side of their one-year-old plastic orange hats would look like and wanted to see an example before he went all out.

Murphy was hired by Coach Brown in 1950. He would see the Browns capture three NFL titles in 1950, 1955, and 1964. In an athletic world of rapid turnover, Leo remained Browns Head Athletic Trainer for 40 years, ending his career as Athletic Trainer Emeritus through the 1989 season.

At the time, every sports team had a logo which was usually a cartoon, a single letter, or a combination of intertwining letters. The only emblem the Browns had was Brownie the Elf.

Coach Brown assigned Murphy a task and commissioned him to devise a Brownie the Elf logo for helmets so that he could see what it looked like. Coach Brown referred to Brownie as “the little fella.”

It took Murphy several days to stencil and paint the logo on the helmet. He did not have time for this with his normal workload with the players but worked on it tirelessly every spare minute he had.

When finished, Murphy placed the Elf helmet on Coach Brown’s desk who took one quick look at it and said, “I don’t like it. Get it out of here.”

And that was that. If Coach Brown had liked the look of the logo of Brownie on the helmet side, that would have been the first emblem placed on Cleveland’s helmets and the second logo to represent a team in the NFL.

When Murphy passed away in 2018 at the age of 94, his children found the hand-painted Brownie helmet in his Medina basement.

Some alternate-colored Cleveland helmet proposals

All of these are accessible via the internet, but we at Dawgs By Nature feel are very cool and could become the Browns’ newest alternate helmet.

Since the franchise already has an orange and a white helmet, the next step would understandably be a brown variety. This could be solid brown and follow tradition with some sort of duo stripes and a single center stripe.

The most obvious would be a combination of orange and white, but it doesn’t have to. Perhaps a single outer white stripe coupled with a single orange stripe as the center stripe is the actual brown helmet poking through providing a trio of coloration.

Maybe brown isn’t the answer.

NFL clubs that have never had black as a main color include the Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Las Vegas Raiders, Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, and Chicago Bears.

However, along the way, other teams added black as a minor accent color such as the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets, Baltimore Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Commanders, and Green Bay Packers.

Clubs such as the Packers, Commanders and Chiefs so far have only used black as a divider color or a soft accent, the others have gone full-blown black with their uniforms and even alternate helmets.

Why can’t Cleveland? All it takes is a thin black line between those helmet stripes and along the pant legs. Of course, the cross-state Bengals would object.

That is how it began with the Niners and Cardinals. Thin black outlines in their logos then a black line here and a black stripe there and before long, they announce it as one of the official colors with full-blown black-out color rush unis.

Could the team decide on either black or gray? Perhaps the league’s very first camo helmet? Well, why the hell not a camo helmet? There are numerous dates on the calendar the Cleveland could honor our military, and guess what? They would already have approval for this.

Consider bronze or even just a darker shade of orange.

Regardless, maybe this new version will have a logo, lettering, numbers, or an emblem on it. Will it? There is a new dawg logo, and of course who doesn’t love Brownie the Elf?

Or perhaps the alternate helmet is a combination of colors instead of a single color being the dominant spectacle.

The fact that this new third helmet would only become an occasional adornment just might pass the throngs of Browns fans who will cry trepidation and might burn down half of downtown Cleveland.