The Miami Dolphins donned their famous throwback uniforms for their Week 10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, a uniform fans have been glamouring to make a full-time return since the franchise brought them back into the rotation. Miami will wear its throwback aqua jerseys for two games this season, Week 14 against the Kansas City Chiefs and Week 15 against the New England Patriots -- both at Hard Rock Stadium. The throwback whites are retired for the season, but are scheduled to be back in 2021 -- a change Dolphins head coach Brian Flores wouldn't mind seeing permanently.
"I'm not a big fashion guy. It's not really at the top of my priority list. I like the new uniforms, I like the old uniforms, I like the old logo. I just like coaching football," Flores said about the Dolphins throwback uniforms. "So sorry, that's not really at the top of my priority list. It's not really something I think about, and I know there's people who love the old uniforms. But old uniforms, new uniforms; I like to coach. I don't really care what we're wearing.
"If you want me to vote, I'll vote for the old uniforms if you want me to cast a vote. So if I had to choose the old or the new, I'd probably go with the old."
The Dolphins wore their throwback aqua and white uniforms from the franchise's inaugural season in 1966 until 1973, before making a few tweaks to the helmet and the uniform in the late-1970s and 1980s. Miami added the Dolphins logo on the sleeve to the uniform in 1989 and underwent a modern twist to the uniform in 1997. The Dolphins changed their uniforms in 2013 before going to their current version in 2018. The original uniforms from the American Football League days and the Super Bowl championship years -- which included the 1972 perfect season -- have always been popular among fans.
The NFL loosed their alternate uniform policy in 2019, allowing teams to wear an alternate or throwback jersey three times in a season and eliminating the "color rush" jersey as an alternate -- which allowed the Dolphins to add the white throwback to the aqua one last season.
Dolphins fans may have to wait on the team going to the throwback uniforms full time as the league states a team may not change its regular home and away uniforms more than once every five NFL seasons, and may not change its third uniform design more than once every five NFL seasons. However, there have been exceptions to the rule -- such as the Jacksonville Jaguars debuting new uniforms in the 2009 season and changing them in time for the 2013 season (they only wore one uniform design for four seasons despite the current home/away uniform rule being established in 2002).
Perhaps the Dolphins can accelerate the process. The franchise has to notify the NFL by March 1 any written notice and details of any changes in the uniform prior to the year they actually change them. The earliest the Dolphins could potentially make the throwbacks their full time uniforms are in 2022.
