Here’s your dress code for the New Orleans Saints preseason opener: white jerseys and gold pants, with black socks. The Saints shared their fashion plans in an email to season ticketholders — plan to dress accordingly. They haven’t made a public announcement, though, so maybe pack a second jersey just in case.
It’s good to see the mismatched white socks have been shelved — they were a bit of an eyesore with the black trousers, and didn’t work with the black stripe running down the outside leg of these gold pants. Hopefully they only get used when the Saints wear white pants from now on.
The white road jerseys have been worn often enough the last few years, but appearances have been few and far between for the gold pants. New Orleans didn’t use gold pants at all after Drew Brees’ surprise Week 2 hand injury in 2019, introducing white pants instead to alternate with their black trousers for the next 29 games. That streak ended in the 2020 regular season finale. Team captains vote on each week’s uniform, so they must have felt any bad luck associated with this combo is behind them.
For the curious: here is how each uniform combo ranks by winning percentage, dating back to Sean Payton’s first game coaching the Saints in 2006 (including the playoffs, but not preseason games):
- White jerseys, white pants: 6-2 (.750)
- “Color Rush” alternates: 8-3 (.727)
- “Black and Gold” throwbacks: 2-1 (.667)
- Black jerseys, gold pants: 23-13 (.639)
- White jerseys, black pants: 41-25 (.621)
- Black jerseys, black pants: 46-30 (.605)
- White jerseys, gold pants: 32-24 (.571)
