NFL to Allow Teams to Use Alternate-Color Helmets Again Starting in 2022

It's a good day for fans of throwback NFL uniforms. 

The NFL released a memo Thursday saying it would allow teams to wear alternate helmets starting in the 2022 season:

Per the memo, teams will be allowed to incorporate their second helmet when wearing "classic, alternate or Color Rush uniforms," provided that those helmets are the same "make, model and size" as the primary helmet, players are provided the alternative helmet and sized at the same time they receive the primary option and they must be worn during the week of practice leading up to the game they'll be worn during.

Player safety restrictions had previously limited teams to just one helmet. But now some truly classic designs will be back on the table for teams:

It isn't the only helmet news of the week. The NFL also announced Monday that it was instituting the NFL Helmet Challenge, a "multi-year innovation challenge aimed at stimulating the development of a new helmet that outperforms any model currently available to NFL players." 

The NFL put together a panel of professors, doctors, engineers, former players and league equipment managers to judge the incoming designs, with an award of $1 million to the winner of the challenge.

"The NFL Helmet Challenge represents the next frontier in helmet innovation that the league has been working toward for some time," the head of the NFL's engineering committee, Dr. Jeff Crandall, said in the press release. "A 15 percent improvement in helmet performance would be approximately five times greater than the average improvement we see year over year and would be a notable improvement for the industry and for players."