It's helmet reveal season, and the Arizona Cardinals have decided to get in on it.
Arizona unveiled its alternate helmet for the 2022 season on Sunday, describing it on the team’s social media as a “galactic black, firescotch shell.”
The Cardinals join the Panthers, Jets, Eagles and Saints as the newest club to dawn a black helmet, but their design also features red flecks as an added wrinkle to match the team’s color scheme.
“The look of this helmet is so incredibly sharp and something I know that both our players and fans will absolutely love,” Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill said, per the team's website. “We are excited to showcase them this season, especially on a national stage.”
The helmet will be showcased three times this year, with every appearance coming at home.
Arizona players will debut the helmet against the Baltimore Ravens during the team’s second preseason game on August 21, a nationally-televised contest.
The club will wear the helmet twice more during the regular season -- once on Oct. 9 as host to the Philadelphia Eagles, and again against the visiting New Orleans Saints during a Thursday Night Football showdown on Oct. 20.
The alternate helmet will be paired with Arizona’s alternate black jersey uniform combination against the Eagles. For the game against New Orleans, the club will pair its new helmet with its color rush uniform.
"I like that it's new and different," defensive end J.J. Watt said. "It's cool. It's going to look good under the lights with the black uniforms. I assume it hits people just as hard as with the other helmets, so looking forward to that."
The Cardinals joining this recent wave of alternate helmet designs comes on the heels of the league’s uniform policy change in June 2021, which allowed one alternate color helmet to be added to each club’s uniform for the first time since 2013.