Colors are the part of a uniform that lasts. Logos get redrawn and helmets change, but most NFL teams still wear the colors they picked decades ago. Some came from a college. Some came from a city flag. One came from a laundry business, and one came from a car interior.
So we went back to the start for all 32 teams, using the clubs' own histories, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, NFL.com and newspaper archives. Where the famous story doesn't hold up, we say so. This is the follow-up to How Every NFL Team Got Its Name. We have also covered how every MLB, NBA and NHL team got its name.
Quick Facts: NFL Team Colors
- Borrowed from a college: the Bears (George Halas's University of Illinois) and the Vikings (general manager Bert Rose's University of Washington).
- From a city flag: the Steelers' black and gold, by way of William Pitt's coat of arms. The first Eagles also wore Philadelphia's flag colors, azure blue and yellow.
- From a business: Washington's first colors, blue and gold, matched owner George Preston Marshall's laundry company. The Saints' black and gold were a nod to John Mecom Jr.'s family oil business.
- Picked because of a birthday: the Jets. Owner Sonny Werblin was born on St. Patrick's Day.
- Inherited from a folded team: the Colts' blue and white came from the 1952 Dallas Texans.
- Started in someone else's colors: the Bills wore the Detroit Lions' Honolulu blue, silver and white in 1960 and 1961.
- Once a different color entirely: the Packers wore blue before green, the Giants wore mostly red, and the first Raiders wore black with gold trim instead of silver.
- Biggest color change of 2026: the Titans dropped navy as a main color in their March 12 rebrand.
AFC East
Buffalo Bills
The first Bills wore Detroit Lions colors. In 1960 and 1961, Buffalo played in Honolulu blue, silver and white, the same look as the Lions. Legend says the first jerseys were Lions hand-me-downs. In 1962 the Bills switched to the red, white and blue they are known for, with royal blue jerseys at home. The helmet went from white to red in 1984. In 2002 the team swapped royal blue for a darker navy. In 2011 it went back to royal blue and the white helmet, echoing the look from 1975 to 1983. An all-red Color Rush set followed in 2015. Today's colors are royal blue, red and white, with navy as a thin outline. Buffalo Bills uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Miami Dolphins
The Dolphins' colors have barely moved in 60 years. Aqua and orange have been the team's colors since its first season in 1966, and the team says its look is built on South Florida's sun and water. That came up most clearly in 2013, when Miami redrew its logo and uniforms at a draft party with Dan Marino and Bob Griese modeling the new look. The 2013 update brought "lighter and brighter" colors, a sleeker dolphin without a helmet and more white. The shades and trim have shifted over the years, and a darker blue accent is part of the modern palette. But aqua and orange have never left. The current colors are aqua, orange, blue and white. Miami Dolphins uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Keith Allison / CC BY-SA 2.0
New England Patriots
The Patriots dropped red because of the Redcoats. The Boston Patriots started in 1960 in red, white and blue, with red jerseys. From 1961 the logo was Pat Patriot, a Revolutionary War minuteman drawn by Boston Globe cartoonist Phil Bissell. A replacement logo in 1979 was booed at halftime and shelved. In 1993 new owner James Orthwein switched to royal blue jerseys, silver helmets and the "Flying Elvis" logo. The team says Orthwein reasoned that the colonists' opponents wore red. In 2000 royal blue gave way to a darker blue, and the team named its colors Nautical Blue and New Century Silver, along with red and white. Red Pat Patriot throwbacks came back for select games starting in 2002. New England Patriots uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Jack Newton / CC BY-SA 2.0
New York Jets
The Jets are green because their owner was born on St. Patrick's Day. The team began in 1960 as the Titans of New York. When Sonny Werblin's group bought the club and renamed it the Jets in 1963, the Titans' colors were scrapped for green and white. The official reason, as the New York Times reported on April 16, 1963, was that New York is "a green-conscious town." The personal reason was Werblin. A 1965 Sports Illustrated profile noted green was his favorite color, and his office had a green rug. Werblin once said the colors were picked "because they're my colors." The team named its colors Gotham Green, Spotlight White and Stealth Black in 2019, when black became a primary color for the first time. New York Jets uniform schedule 2026
AFC North
Baltimore Ravens
Maryland's flag was the first idea for the Ravens' colors. When Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore in 1996, the deal required a new name, logo and colors. The brown and orange stayed in Cleveland. Team vice president David Modell and NFL Properties first liked the Maryland flag's black, red and yellow, but those colors were judged "not well-suited to full uniform design." By mid-May 1996 the list was down to black, indigo purple and gold. The team announced purple, black and metallic gold on June 5, 1996. We found no source from 1996 that says why purple won. In April 2026 the Ravens added a "midnight purple" that the team says is meant to copy the sheen of a raven's feathers. Baltimore Ravens uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Maryland GovPics / CC BY 2.0
Cincinnati Bengals
Paul Brown's new team looked a lot like his old one. After Art Modell fired him in Cleveland, Brown founded the Bengals. On Oct. 27, 1967, he announced the name and "the color scheme of orange, black, and white," which he said represented the Bengal tiger. Critics said Brown copied his old team's look. Brown said the colors came from the tiger. The first Bengals helmet was plain orange with "BENGALS" on the side, and by 1981 Brown admitted the problem: "You couldn't read 'Bengals' on our helmet from a distance. When you were far away, it looked like Cleveland's helmet." The fix was the tiger-striped helmet the team still wears. The colors are still orange, black and white. Cincinnati Bengals uniform schedule 2026
Cleveland Browns
The Browns' colors may have come from a college training camp. The team started in the All-America Football Conference in 1946 and was named for coach Paul Brown, who objected to the name. Brown chose orange as the second color. Paul Brown is said to have borrowed the brown and orange from Bowling Green State, where the team held its first camps, from 1946 to 1951. The first helmets were white leather. The orange helmet arrived in 1950, and the Browns have never put a logo on it. Orange jerseys first appeared in 1953. A 2015 redesign brought a brighter orange on a matte helmet, and the matte finish was dropped in 2023. The colors are brown, orange and white. Cleveland Browns uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Erik Drost / CC BY 2.0
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers' colors come from a British statesman's coat of arms. Pittsburgh was named in 1758 for William Pitt, later the Earl of Chatham. His family arms were a black shield with gold coins. When the city designed its official flag in the 1890s, it took black and gold from those arms. The hockey Pirates wore the colors first, in 1925. Art Rooney's NFL team, founded in 1933 as the Pirates and renamed the Steelers in 1940, wore black and gold from the start, with the city crest on its first jerseys. The one exception was 1943, when the wartime merger with Philadelphia, the "Steagles," wore green and white. Baseball's Pirates joined in 1948 and the Penguins in 1980. Pittsburgh Steelers uniform schedule 2026
Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Photo: Erik Drost / CC BY 2.0
AFC South
Houston Texans
The Texans had color names before they had a team. Founding owner Bob McNair revealed the colors on Sept. 6, 2000, at a downtown Houston party two years before the first game. He picked red, white and blue out of patriotism and gave them their own names: Battle Red, Liberty White and Deep Steel Blue. The uniforms came a year later, on Sept. 25, 2001. In April 2024 the team retuned its home blue to match the original Deep Steel Blue and added H-Town Blue, which it called the first new color in team history. That light blue sits close to the old Houston Oilers blue, and the Titans hold the Oilers' history. The Texans have said they had to work out how much of it they could use with the NFL. Houston Texans uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Indianapolis Colts
The Colts' blue and white are older than the Colts. The current franchise began on Jan. 23, 1953, when Carroll Rosenbloom's Baltimore group took over the assets of the NFL's collapsed 1952 Dallas Texans. The group kept the Colts nickname from an earlier, unrelated Baltimore Colts team, which wore green and silver, and it inherited the Texans' blue and white. Those colors made the 1984 move to Indianapolis unchanged. In 2020 the team gave its palette official names: Speed Blue and White. It also added a secondary color, Anvil Black, which the team says was "inspired by the color of an anvil used to make horseshoes." Facemask Gray is the other secondary color. Indianapolis Colts uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Sgt. Jonah Alvarez / Public domain
Jacksonville Jaguars
By their own description, the Jaguars are the only teal team in the NFL. The team took the field in teal, black and gold, a palette no other NFL team used, and teal was the original home jersey. We could not find a team or newspaper source that explains why teal was chosen. What we know is that it set them apart from every other NFL team. In 2009 owner Wayne Weaver simplified the uniforms, saying there would "no longer be mixtures of black and teal or all black." New owner Shad Khan made black the primary home jersey in 2012, and the 2013 logo kept the traditional colors. After a fan retweet campaign, teal returned as the primary home jersey in 2021. The team said: "As the only team in the NFL that wears teal, we know what this color means to our organization." Jacksonville Jaguars uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Tennessee Titans
In 2026 the Titans dropped navy and went back toward Oilers blue. The franchise started in 1960 as Bud Adams' Houston Oilers, named for Houston's oil industry. Adams, a former Kansas Jayhawks player, is said to have borrowed the Kansas colors: Columbia blue and white with red trim. The team moved to Tennessee in 1997 and became the Titans in 1999 with a look built around navy. The light blue came back as a jersey in 2003. In 2018 the helmet switched from white to navy. Fans kept asking for the light blue, and it became the primary home jersey in 2025. On March 12, 2026, the Titans unveiled a full rebrand that drops navy as a main color, brings back white helmets and puts Titans Blue at the center. The colors are now Titans Blue, white and red, with navy as an accent only. Tennessee Titans uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Walker Kinsler / CC BY-SA 4.0
AFC West
Denver Broncos
The Broncos' first uniforms were secondhand, and then they were set on fire. Denver opened in 1960 in mustard yellow and brown because the founders saved money with used uniforms from a defunct college all-star game, the Copper Bowl. The socks had mustard and brown vertical stripes. In 1962 new coach and general manager Jack Faulkner switched to orange and blue. He chose orange from his Ohio roots and the Cleveland Browns. He ordered burnt orange and got a brighter orange. The team burned the old uniforms, famous striped socks and all, in a public bonfire after a scrimmage in Golden. Later, the defense got nicknamed the Orange Crush, after the orange soda. Since April 2024 the colors have been named Sunset Orange, Midnight Navy and Summit White. Denver Broncos uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs went red because light blue was taken. Lamar Hunt founded the team in 1960 as the AFL's Dallas Texans. As the team has told it, Hunt first wanted Columbia blue and orange, but Houston owner Bud Adams claimed Columbia blue for his Oilers first, so Hunt switched to red and gold. When the team moved to Kansas City in 1963 and became the Chiefs, Hunt kept the colors. The team says he "didn't believe in altering the look of his team's uniforms." The red has shifted a little over time. The early Chiefs used a deep blood red that helmet makers did not stock until Riddell started putting color into the plastic itself. The colors today are red, gold and white. Kansas City Chiefs uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Las Vegas Raiders
For three seasons, the Raiders were not silver and black. From 1960 to 1962 the first Raiders wore black with gold trim. Then Al Davis arrived as head coach and general manager in 1963, and one of his first moves was picking new team colors: silver and black. The team has worn them ever since, through moves to Los Angeles in 1982, back to Oakland in 1995 and to Las Vegas in 2020. The Pro Football Hall of Fame describes the Davis-era teams as wearing "the Silver and Black," and that phrase is still the team's nickname. The colors are so tied to the brand that in 2023 the NFL sent a cease-and-desist letter to a Las Vegas law firm over a black and silver ad featuring Raiders star Maxx Crosby. Las Vegas Raiders uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 4.0
Los Angeles Chargers
The Chargers have worn light blue since the AFL's first season, in the shade fans call powder blue. Hotel heir Barron Hilton owned the original 1960 Los Angeles Chargers, and the team says he chose the lightning bolts because he associated "charge" with lightning. The team moved to San Diego in 1961. The light blue jerseys became the club's signature, until a switch in 1974 to a navy helmet and royal blue. The Chargers went fully navy at home in 1985. Their gold facemask, the first colored facemask in the NFL according to ESPN, turned navy in 1988. Powder blue came back as an alternate, then became the primary home jersey in 2019. In 2020 the team stripped navy out of its main bolt, leaving its "iconic Powder Blue and Sunshine Gold." Los Angeles Chargers uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
NFC East
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys' pants color came from a car interior. When Clint Murchison Jr. landed the Dallas expansion team for 1960, picking blue was easy. Lamar Hunt's AFL Dallas Texans had already shown off red uniforms. The first Cowboys wore white helmets with a blue star and royal blue and white jerseys. Silver helmets arrived in the mid-1960s and have stayed. Team president Tex Schramm put Dallas in white at home. As the team tells it, through longtime equipment director Mike McCord, Schramm fell for the blue-gray-silver pants shade after seeing it on a car interior, and it still needs a special dye lot. That is why the Cowboys look mismatched. The home whites carry royal blue stripes with blue-gray pants, while the road set pairs navy jerseys with a different silver. Dallas Cowboys uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Joe Glorioso / All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 4.0
New York Giants
"Big Blue" spent its early years in red. Tim Mara bought the New York franchise for $500 in 1925, and the first Giants wore red socks striped in blue and white. Red jerseys with blue came in 1933, and red was the team's main color through much of the Polo Grounds era. By the late 1950s, blue had become the Giants' home color, and the "Big Blue" identity took hold. We found no source that explains why Mara picked red and blue. For the 100th season, the team brought red back with its "Century Red" uniform, built from the 1925 socks, the 1933 red jerseys and the 1938 winged helmet. Century Red is the name of that uniform, not a team color. The team colors are blue, red and white. New York Giants uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Joe Glorioso / All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Philadelphia Eagles
The first Eagles wore the city flag's blue and yellow. Bert Bell's 1933 team took its name from the New Deal's blue eagle and wore azure blue and yellow, the colors of Philadelphia's flag. Green arrived in 1935, and Kelly green stayed for 62 seasons, through championships in 1948, 1949 and 1960. Jeffrey Lurie bought the team in 1994, and in 1996 he swapped Kelly green for a darker midnight green to mark a new era. The Eagles won their Super Bowls in midnight green, but fans never stopped asking for Kelly. It came back for one game in 2010 and returned as an alternate in 2023. The blue and yellow came back too, as a 75th-season throwback in 2007. Today's colors are midnight green, silver, black and white. Philadelphia Eagles uniform schedule 2026
Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Photo: Joe Glorioso / All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Washington Commanders
Washington's first colors came from the owner's laundry business. George Preston Marshall's Boston Braves debuted in 1932 in blue and gold, the colors of his Palace Laundry company. In 1933 Marshall renamed the team the Redskins and changed the colors to burgundy and gold, and the team has worn burgundy and gold since the 1930s. It moved to Washington in 1937 and kept the colors through three Super Bowl titles. After dropping the old name in 2020 and playing two seasons as the Washington Football Team, the club became the Washington Commanders on Feb. 2, 2022. The team said burgundy and gold would "remain at the center" of the new identity. The colors are so tied to the club that "the Burgundy & Gold" works as a nickname. Washington Commanders uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Joe Glorioso / All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 4.0
NFC North
Chicago Bears
The Bears wear their founder's college colors. George Halas played football, baseball and basketball at the University of Illinois, and the Bears' own site says he "brought the school's navy and orange colors with him." He did it before the team was even the Bears. In 1920 the Staley Starch Company in Decatur sponsored the team, and Halas ran it. A year later the company gave him the club and $5,000 to move to Chicago if he kept the Staleys name for one season. He did, won the 1921 title and renamed the team the Bears in 1922. The colors have barely moved since: navy blue, orange and white. The "GSH" initials on the sleeve honor Halas. Chicago Bears uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Unknown photographer. Public domain.
Detroit Lions
The name "Honolulu Blue" didn't show up in print until 1948. The Lions began as the Portsmouth Spartans of Ohio, who wore purple and gold. George A. Richards, owner of Detroit radio station WJR, bought the team in 1934, named it the Lions that July and announced blue uniforms with silver trim the same day. Who picked the shade is disputed. Tailback Glenn Presnell later said Richards let him and his wife choose from samples, and they liked blue and silver. The team's own media guide later said Richards was inspired by a trip to Hawaii, but the name "Honolulu Blue" doesn't appear in print until years later. The Detroit Historical Society found it first in team stories from 1948. Today's colors are Honolulu Blue, silver and white, with black as an alternate. Detroit Lions uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Green Bay Packers
The Packers wore blue before they wore green. The popular story says Curly Lambeau, who spent one fall at Notre Dame, copied the Irish's blue and gold in 1919. The Notre Dame story is popular, but the team's own historian, Cliff Christl, says the evidence doesn't back it up. The first Packers wore plain blue, and there was almost certainly no gold until their fifth season. Navy with gold came in the 1920s, then gold jerseys in 1929 and 1930. Green first showed up in 1935. The team listed myrtle green and gold as its colors from 1938 to 1940, but navy kept coming back. Coach Gene Ronzani brought Kelly green in 1950, and Vince Lombardi settled it in 1959 with a green and gold uniform close to today's. The colors are dark green, gold and white. Green Bay Packers uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Unknown photographer. Public domain.
Photo: Unknown photographer. Public domain.
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota's purple came from a college in Seattle. The Vikings' first general manager, Bert Rose, picked purple and gold for the 1961 expansion team, and cartoonist Karl Hubenthal drew the logo and uniforms to his instructions. Rose's son Stephen told ESPN there were two reasons. No other NFL team wore purple, and Rose went to the University of Washington, which wears purple and gold. Rose kept that second reason quiet because he figured the league would not like it. A local version says 10 percent owner Ole Haugsrud chose the colors from his high school, but Stephen Rose said picking colors was his father's job. Purple, gold and white have been the Vikings' colors ever since. Minnesota Vikings uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
NFC South
Atlanta Falcons
The first Falcons helmet split the difference between two rival schools. Atlanta started play in 1966, and the team says its first helmet "was designed to represent rival schools Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia." The red shell and black falcon crest echoed Georgia's red and black, and a gold trim line on the center stripe was the nod to Georgia Tech. The Falcons wore that helmet from 1966 to 1969 and dropped the gold for 1970. The team later switched to black helmets. When the NFL allowed a second helmet in 2022, the red 1966 shell came back as a throwback. On April 2, 2026, Atlanta unveiled new uniforms that put red back at the center of the home jersey. The colors are red, black, silver and white. Atlanta Falcons uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Carolina Panthers
The Panthers' blue is named after a printing ink: Process Blue. Carolina was awarded its team in October 1993, and within days a Brunswick County, N.C., newspaper told fans to dress "in some combination of black, blue and silver." The palette was set from day one and has never changed. In 2014 the team said its combinations would not change unless founder Jerry Richardson approved, because "he likes to stay with the classic look." In 2023, SI's Panthers site reported that the team was correcting its jersey blue back to true Process Blue to match its end zones, because Nike had used a different blue. The colors are black, Process Blue and silver. Carolina Panthers uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Joe Glorioso / All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
New Orleans Saints
The Saints' black and gold came from an oil family. The NFL awarded New Orleans a team on Nov. 1, 1966, and majority owner John Mecom Jr., the 27-year-old son of a Texas oilman, picked the colors. New Orleans' St. Charles Avenue magazine says he chose black and gold as "a nod to his family oil business." Call it black gold. Co-founder Dave Dixon reportedly wanted Mardi Gras colors. Gold helmets have been the Saints' look since the late 1960s, and the team has tweaked its gold shade over the years. NFL.com noted that the 2022 black alternate helmet was the first non-gold helmet since the 1969 preseason. The colors are old gold, black and white. New Orleans Saints uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Tammy Anthony Baker / CC BY 2.0
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bucs' orange was for Florida citrus. When Tampa Bay entered the NFL in 1976, a team publication said "Orange, red and white have been selected as the club's official colors," with orange picked for the citrus industry and Florida sunshine. Reports say the team first wanted red, green and orange, but dropped it as too close to Florida A&M and the Miami Dolphins. Tampa Tribune artist Lamar Sparkman drew the winking "Bucco Bruce." The orange "creamsicle" era ran from 1976 to 1996 with mostly losing seasons, so in 1997 the team switched to red and pewter with a skull and swords flag. The Bucs won Super Bowl XXXVII in that look. ESPN describes today's scheme as red, black, white and pewter. Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
NFC West
Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals are named after their faded secondhand jerseys. The team traces back to 1898 in Chicago, which makes it the oldest continuously run pro football franchise in the country. In 1901 owner Chris O'Brien bought used jerseys from the nearby University of Chicago. They had faded from Chicago's maroon, and O'Brien declared, "That's not maroon, it's Cardinal red!" Add the field at 61st and Racine and you get the Racine Cardinals. The red went along to St. Louis in 1960 and to Phoenix in 1988, and the club became the Arizona Cardinals in March 1994. The 2005 redesign added black. In April 2023 the team unveiled all-red, all-white and all-black sets with silver trim. The colors are cardinal red, black and white. Arizona Cardinals uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Los Angeles Rams
A Rams player painted the first helmet logo in pro football. In 1948 halfback Fred Gehrke, a Utah art major, painted yellow ram horns on the Rams' dark blue helmets, 75 of them at a dollar each. Royal blue and yellow became the Rams' classic look in Los Angeles. After their Super Bowl title season in St. Louis, the Rams switched for 2000 to a darker navy and metallic gold called "Millennium Blue" and "New Century Gold." Back in Los Angeles, the team unveiled new colors in March 2020: "Rams Royal," named for the club's royal blue history, and "Sol," a brighter yellow for the Southern California sun. The team said Sol also stands for the team's "soul." The colors are Rams Royal, Sol and white. Los Angeles Rams uniform schedule 2026
Photo: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers' gold helmet was silver as late as 1963. The team is named for the 1849 Gold Rush, and the colors fit the Gold Rush name. But it took almost two decades to settle on gold. The team's helmet history shows a white leather helmet in 1946, gold with red trim from 1947 to 1949, then years of switching among gold, red, white and silver. In 1962 and 1963 the helmet was silver with red and white stripes and the "SF" logo. Gold took over for good after 1963. In 1996 the team darkened the gold by painting it over a gray shell. In 2009 the team announced "the return of the signature color of the franchise, 49ers Red." The colors are 49ers Red, gold and white. San Francisco 49ers uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Joe Glorioso / All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0
Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks' green has a name: Action Green. Seattle debuted in 1976 in royal blue, green and silver, with a silver helmet, and wore that look through 2001. When the team moved to the NFC and a new stadium in 2002, it switched to colors it called "Seahawks blue, Seahawks navy and Seahawks bright green." The big change came with Nike's first NFL uniforms in April 2012, which brought a darker navy, a neon green accent and a new gray. The team now calls those colors College Navy, Action Green and Wolf Grey. The royal blue, green and silver throwbacks from the 1990s returned in 2023. Seattle Seahawks uniform schedule 2026
Photo: Larry Maurer / CC BY 2.0
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are the Lions' colors Honolulu blue?
The team's own media guide later said owner George A. Richards was inspired by a trip to Hawaii, but the name "Honolulu Blue" doesn't appear in print until years later. The Detroit Historical Society first found it in 1948. Tailback Glenn Presnell said he and his wife picked the blue and silver from samples in 1934.
Why are the Steelers black and gold?
The colors come from the family coat of arms of William Pitt, the British statesman Pittsburgh is named after. The city took black and gold from those arms for its flag in the 1890s, and the Steelers have worn them since 1933. The Pirates and Penguins wear them too.
Why are the Packers green and gold?
Not because of Notre Dame. The team's historian says the evidence doesn't back up that story. The first Packers wore blue, green first showed up in 1935, and Vince Lombardi settled on green and gold for good in 1959.
Why are the Raiders silver and black?
Al Davis picked silver and black when he became head coach and general manager in 1963. The first Raiders, from 1960 to 1962, wore black with gold trim.
Why do the Eagles wear midnight green?
Owner Jeffrey Lurie swapped Kelly green for midnight green in 1996 to mark a new era. Kelly green came back as an alternate in 2023.
Why are the Vikings purple?
General manager Bert Rose picked purple and gold in 1961. His son says no other NFL team wore purple, and Rose went to the University of Washington, which wears purple and gold.
What are the Titans' new colors?
Titans Blue, white and red. The rebrand unveiled on March 12, 2026, dropped navy as a main color and brought back white helmets. Navy is now an accent only.
Why are the Cardinals red?
In 1901 owner Chris O'Brien bought used, faded maroon jerseys from the University of Chicago and said, "That's not maroon, it's Cardinal red!" The color gave the team its name.
Why are the Bears navy and orange?
George Halas brought the colors from the University of Illinois, where he played. He used them from the start in 1920, when the team was still the Decatur Staleys.
Why are the Jets green?
Owner Sonny Werblin was born on St. Patrick's Day, and green was his favorite color. The official reason in 1963 was that New York is "a green-conscious town."
Why did the Bills wear Detroit Lions colors?
In 1960 and 1961 the Bills played in Honolulu blue, silver and white, the Lions' look. Legend says the first jerseys were Lions hand-me-downs. Buffalo switched to red, white and blue in 1962.
Why are the Broncos orange and blue?
Coach and general manager Jack Faulkner switched to orange and blue in 1962, inspired by his Ohio roots and the Cleveland Browns. The team then burned its old mustard and brown uniforms in a public bonfire.
Why are the Chiefs red and gold?
Lamar Hunt wanted Columbia blue and orange, but Houston's Bud Adams claimed Columbia blue first. Hunt switched to red and gold and kept them when the team moved from Dallas to Kansas City in 1963.
Why do the Chargers wear powder blue?
Light blue has been the Chargers' color since the AFL's first season in 1960. It left as the main jersey in the 1970s and 1980s, came back as an alternate and became the primary home jersey again in 2019.
Why don't the Cowboys' blues match?
Tex Schramm fell for a blue-gray-silver shade he saw on a car interior, and the pants still need a special dye lot. The home and road sets use different blues and silvers.
Were the Giants ever red?
Yes. The 1925 Giants wore red socks, and red jerseys came in 1933. Red was a main color through much of the Polo Grounds era before blue took over in the late 1950s.
Why did the Patriots stop wearing red?
In 1993 owner James Orthwein switched to royal blue. The team says his reasoning was that the colonists' opponents, the British Redcoats, wore red.
Why are the Commanders burgundy and gold?
George Preston Marshall changed the team's colors to burgundy and gold in 1933. His first colors in 1932, blue and gold, matched his Palace Laundry company.
Why are the Saints black and gold?
Founding owner John Mecom Jr. picked them as a nod to his family's oil business. Call it black gold.
Why were the Buccaneers orange?
The 1976 Bucs picked orange for Florida's citrus industry and sunshine. After two decades of mostly losing in the creamsicle look, the team switched to red and pewter in 1997.
Why are the 49ers red and gold?
The team is named for the 1849 Gold Rush. Even so, its helmet was silver as late as 1963 before gold took over for good.
What is the Seahawks' green called?
Action Green. Since 2012 the team's colors have been College Navy, Action Green and Wolf Grey.
What are the Rams' colors called?
Rams Royal and Sol, introduced in 2020. Sol is a brighter yellow for the Southern California sun, and the team says it also stands for its "soul."
What is the Panthers' blue called?
Process Blue, named after a printing ink color. Black, Process Blue and silver have been Carolina's colors since day one.
Why are the Jaguars teal?
We could not find a team or newspaper source that explains it. What we know is that teal set Jacksonville apart, and the team says it is the only NFL team that wears it.
Where did the Colts' blue and white come from?
The colors are older than the Colts. The franchise took over the collapsed 1952 Dallas Texans in 1953 and inherited their blue and white.
What are the Texans' colors called?
Battle Red, Liberty White and Deep Steel Blue, named by founder Bob McNair in 2000. H-Town Blue was added in 2024.
Why are the Browns brown and orange?
Paul Brown is said to have borrowed them from Bowling Green State, where the team held its first training camps. The helmet has been orange since 1950 and has never had a logo.
Why do the Bengals look like the Browns?
Paul Brown founded both teams. He said the Bengals' orange, black and white stood for the Bengal tiger, but critics said he copied his old club.
Why are the Ravens purple?
The team announced purple, black and metallic gold in June 1996, after Maryland's flag colors were ruled out for uniforms. We found no source from 1996 that says why purple won.
Why are the Dolphins aqua and orange?
The colors date to the team's first season in 1966, and the team ties them to South Florida's sun and water. They have never left.
Where did the Falcons' red and black come from?
The first Falcons helmet in 1966 was designed to represent rival schools Georgia and Georgia Tech, with Georgia's red and black and a gold stripe for Georgia Tech.
Which NFL teams have the oldest colors?
The Cardinals' red goes back to 1901, when the team was still an amateur club in Chicago. The Bears have worn navy and orange since 1920, their first season.
Which NFL team changed its colors in 2026?
The Tennessee Titans. Their March 12, 2026 rebrand dropped navy as a main color and centered the look on Titans Blue, white and red.
Which NFL teams took their colors from a college?
The Bears (Illinois) and the Vikings (Washington). The Browns' colors are said to come from Bowling Green, and the Oilers, now the Titans, are said to have borrowed Kansas' colors.
The Bottom Line
A lot of NFL colors were picked by one person for a personal reason: a college, a birthday, a business or a city. Many of the famous stories, from the Lions' trip to Hawaii to the Packers copying Notre Dame, are shakier than they sound. And once a team picks its colors, it almost never lets them go. When teams do change, like the Titans this year, they often go back to something older.
More NFL Coverage
- NFL uniform schedule 2026: what every team is wearing this week
- How every NFL team got its name
- How every NHL team got its name
- How every NBA team got its name
- How every MLB team got its name
Team color histories via the clubs' official sites and media guides, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, NFL.com, ESPN, newspaper archives and historical societies. Photos credited under each image.
