Panthers announce jersey colors

The Carolina Panthers open the preseason Friday night with their traditional white jerseys-white pants look versus the Buffalo Bills at Bank of America Stadium.

Carolina will open the regular season in its alternate blue jerseys at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on September 7.

The Panthers will break out their black jerseys for the final five home games of the year, but when or if they'll be paired with black pants as opposed to the traditional black-and-silver look is to be determined.

"For our main uniform, we'll always go blue jerseys and black jerseys with silver pants and black socks, or white jerseys with white pants and blue socks," equipment manager Jackie Miles said. "That combination will never change unless Mr. (Jerry) Richardson approves it, and he likes to stay with the classic look."

On occasion, however, Miles might run the idea of pairing black pants and blue socks with the black jerseys. The Panthers wore black pants for the first time in 2012 and did so three times last year - once each in the preseason, regular season and postseason.

"Every once in a while when we're wearing black, I'll go to (team president) Danny Morrison and discuss it with him and Coach (Ron Rivera), and then Danny will ask Mr. Richardson," Miles said of the possibility of wearing black pants. "Me and Danny have discussed that we don't want them to be 'big-game' pants – we just want them to be something random for the players and the fans."

One thing that every jersey color will feature this season is the Panthers' commemorative 20th season patch.

"The patches look good," Miles said. "I just got the jerseys in, and they look really nice. I've been here for all 20 of them, so it has sentimental value."

In regular season games, the Panthers are 84-95 all-time in white jerseys, 49-53 in black jerseys and 11-12 in blue jerseys.