UPDATE: 3:27 p.m. Arrowhead Time
Here is a helicopter shot, courtesy of new Chiefs partner, 41 Action News.
In celebration of the franchise's 60th season, here's a sneak peek at the Kansas City @Chiefs' field at Arrowhead Stadium ahead of the home opener Sunday against Baltimore. The Chiefs and Ravens are both 2-0 in 2019. pic.twitter.com/EF2ghsa6pv
— 41 Action News (@41actionnews) September 19, 2019
As the NFL celebrates its 100th season, the Kansas City Chiefs are concurrently celebrating their 60th season — and with that comes an apparent return to the gold end zones this Sunday for their home opener against the Baltimore Ravens.
KCTV5 producer Dante’ Jones tweeted out a photo from Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday afternoon. As you can see in the photo, the Chiefs’ ground crew is currently painting the end zone gold.
Looks like Arrowhead is coming along for Sunday. Those wishing for yellow end zones, your wish has been granted. pic.twitter.com/TrhRAWubYI
— Dante' Jones (@Dantej21) September 19, 2019
AP reader Josh Chavis first noted this could be a possibility on Monday.
It appears the #Chiefs are, indeed, rolling out the old-school Municipal stadium paint scheme for the field on Sunday. Take a look at this (crappy) image of the old field, and compare to the stencil marks on the field today.
— Josh Chavis (@JoshChavis65) September 16, 2019
Love it. pic.twitter.com/NZUXOD2Fqp
The gold end zones were made popular in the 1960s when the Chiefs were still playing at Municipal Stadium—it was the intention of Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt to “dress up the old place with colorful end zones – unique for their time,” according to Chiefs.com.
The Chiefs moved over to Arrowhead Stadium in 1972, and as far as we can see from photos, have never used the gold end zone color scheme at the new place.
In most seasons at Arrowhead, the end zones were left green, with the word “Chiefs” in white-bordered red lettering. We found some Arrowhead photos where the lettering was white over a red background. But it appears that the scheme being applied to the end zones this week — including the font and spacing of the word “Chiefs” — hasn’t been used since the team played at Municipal Stadium.
As can also be seen in the picture, the center of the field will include a small helmet with the Arrowhead logo rather than simply the Arrowhead.