CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – What was old is new again for the Cleveland Browns.
As we have previously reported, the team is returning to their traditional glossy orange finish on the helmet shell with a white face mask and their primary logo has been updated to reflect the change.
The Browns revealed the modified helmet and logo Wednesday morning.
“We're obviously really excited to bring it back and going back to the days of the Kardiac Kids and when we obviously saw the team had a lot of great success with Bernie [Kosar] in the 80’s and unfortunately we made changes back in 2015 that were probably unnecessary and kind of wanted to get back to who we are and what we believe in,” Browns executive vice president and partner JW Johnson told 92.3 The Fan in an interview with Andy Baskin and Jeff Phelps Wednesday morning. “I think the white face mask really symbolizes a lot of the greats and a lot of the good times here with the Browns and we feel like we're heading in, we have been heading in that right direction. We want to continue to head in that direction of good times and winning football for this team and for this city and our fan base across the globe.”
An up close view of the Browns new helmet featuring a glossy orange finis and white facemaskCleveland Browns/NFL
This marks the fourth significant helmet change for the franchise since 2015 under the Haslam Sports Group ownership.
In 2015, the Browns unveiled a new matte helmet with a deeper shade of orange and a carbon fiber pattern and even Oreo stripe with their overhauled uniforms.
Five years later, the Oreo stripe was returned to a glossy finish to coincide with another set of new uniforms.
Last season the Browns debuted a white alternate helmet with brown-orange-brown center striping and a brown face mask to go with their 1946 throwback jerseys.
“Obviously having the league being able to loosen up the rules and have an alternate helmet, we were thrilled to do it,” Johnson said. “I think we were a year late to do it, but we wanted to make sure we got our ducks in a row to see how the program went. Our throwbacks from our 75th anniversary, we love those jerseys. The players love them. The white helmet really accentuated the uniform. I mean it looked great last year and I think we will bring them back again this year as well, so we're excited to have that as an option for our uniform closet.”
The change from brown to white for the face mask was prompted by fan response to the team wearing white face masks in a December 2022 game against the Ravens.
“We've obviously wanted to really integrate our fan feedback as much as we can here over the last few years,” Johnson said. “I mean as we've done the field polling with Brownie, hearing about some of the alternate helmets with white et cetera, which is why with the white face mask when we introduced those a couple years ago in the Baltimore game, they look great. They look clean. We heard from our fan base. I was a big fan of them as well.
“I just think it just gets us back to our roots and it's a big process and working with the NFL and they've been very helpful with us, but it just took a little longer than we would've expected.”
Cleveland Browns/NFL
This is the third era with white face masks for the franchise. The Browns previously wore them from 1975-1995 and from 1999-2004.
The NFL will allow teams a third helmet starting in 2025 and the Browns are exploring design ideas for it.
“We're looking at some options now,” Johnson said. “We've even seen some things with a potential something on the side of the helmet. Why not? I don't know if we'll go that route or not, but we'll see. We're going to test out a couple things and who knows, maybe we'll open up some fan voting as well to see what could be a winner, but we're definitely going to explore the option. We'll see what we can come up with.”
