The Detroit Lions have hyped their new uniform release for a few weeks this offseason. But a leak hours prior to the team’s official planned release ruined the surprise.

However, the Lions were prepared for someone to steal their thunder. The team posted a video with defensive tackle Alim McNeill telling off the leak on the team’s official X (formerly Twitter) account.

“Whoever leaked the uniform video, we appreciate it,” McNeill said. “We appreciate you ruining all the hard work we put in.

“Video coming soon.”

You have disappointed @AlimMcneill. pic.twitter.com/bHF1YDC1NM

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) April 18, 2024

The Detroit Free Press’ Dave Birkett reported the video was pre-recorded in case of a leak and went live just minutes after the leak.

In the video, McNeill was wearing one of the three new uniforms the Lions were set to reveal this offseason.

Over the first hour and a half, McNeill’s video was viewed more than 650,000 times on X.

Many Detroit fans loved the pre-prepared video message to the leaker. Detroit sports YouTube personality Tony Dombrowski was one of the first to comment, calling the video “hilarious.”

“The fact you were prepared for them to leak is hilarious lol,” wrote Dombrowski on X.

Birkett also wrote the Lions were originally scheduled to release their new uniforms on the evening of April 18. The leak occurred roughly 8 hours prior to that scheduled release.

Lions Set to Release New Uniforms
As McNeill indicated, the Lions will release a video unveiling the new uniforms officially at their originally scheduled time. But Detroit fans can already find the new jersey designs thanks to the leak.

The first of the three jerseys was Honolulu Blue. The new uniform also includes white lettering for the numbers with silver trim along with thick silver and slim white stripes on the sleeves. This is the jersey McNeill donned in the video.

The new road uniform will be white with blue lettering. Like the Honolulu Blue jersey, silver will outline the numbers. On the sleeves, this jersey will feature thick blue and thin silver stripes.

Finally, the Lions will also have a black third alternate uniform. This black jersey will be accompanied by blue numbering with silver outlining. Like the white jersey, this alternate will have the same sized blue and silver stripes.

This isn’t the first time the Lions have introduced a black alternate jersey. Birkett wrote they first started wearing a black alternate uniform in 2005 but haven’t worn it since 2007.

The leak didn’t include what color pants the Lions will wear with each jersey.

Detroit is updating its uniforms this offseason for the first time since 2017. Birkett wrote that at that time, the Lions introduced their “color rush” steel gray uniforms.

With the color rush uniforms, the Lions wore a new blue helmet with a retro-styled Lions logo on Monday Night Football on October 30 last season.

Lions QB Jared Goff Jokes About Leaking New Jerseys
The Lions social team continued to joke about the uniform release on April 18.

Roughly 20 minutes after posting McNeill’s video, the team posted a video of quarterback Jared Goff looking at the team’s new uniforms. In the video Goff says, “I need to take my pictures and then leak them to Twitter.”

In the caption of the video, the Lions X account joked that Goff was the one who leaked the uniforms.

“Inside job?” the Lions account asked while tagging Goff.

Inside job? @JaredGoff16 pic.twitter.com/vC2J8n58mO

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) April 18, 2024

It’s hard to imagine the Lions social team being better prepared for a uniform leak than it was.