On Thursday, October 15, the Broncos wore orange and the Seahawks wore royal blue, and nobody on the field was in white. It was the best-looking game of Week 6. So here's the question: what if every NFL game looked like that?
No white jerseys. The home team wears its color, the visitors wear theirs, every week. The NFL's own rulebook already allows it, so this isn't as crazy as it sounds. It's just almost never used, and when the league tried it on a big scale, it went badly.
This is a what-if. The NFL hasn't proposed it, and no team has asked for it. We went through every division to see what would happen. Our answer is at the bottom, and it isn't a simple yes or no.
Quick Answers
- Does one NFL team have to wear white? Almost always. The home team picks white or its color, and the visitors must wear the opposite. Both teams can wear color only if the Commissioner decides the colors contrast enough.
- How rare is color vs. color? Very rare. A December 2025 Falcons-Buccaneers game was only the third one since the start of the 2021 season that didn't involve a Color Rush uniform, CBS Sports reported.
- What was Color Rush? NFL and Nike alternate uniforms for Thursday Night Football from 2015 to 2017. The first game, Bills in all red against Jets in all green, was a disaster for colorblind fans.
- Would it work every week? No. By our count, all eight divisions have at least one rivalry that would be unwatchable in color vs. color.
- Our verdict: don't make it the rule. Make it a lot more common.
How It Works Today
The rule is in the 2026 NFL Rulebook, Rule 5, Section 4, Article 2. Home clubs choose their jersey color, white or their official team color, "and visiting clubs must wear the opposite." Then comes the line that makes this story possible: the teams can both wear non-white jerseys "provided the Commissioner determines that such colors are of sufficient contrast." The rulebook is on the NFL Football Operations site.
It wasn't always this way. Before 1957, NFL teams could wear whatever they liked, even clashing colors. That year the league put home teams in dark jerseys and visitors in white, according to the 1957 season record. In 1964, home teams got the option to wear white, and the Cowboys, Browns, Rams and others took it, per the 1964 season record.
Most teams still pick color at home. We counted every home game on the 2026 schedule: only 36 of 272 are scheduled in a white jersey, and the Cowboys have eight of them. That's all in which NFL teams wear white at home. So the white jersey is really a road jersey. What we're asking is what happens if the road team stops wearing it.
The Color Rush Experiment
The NFL has tried this before. On October 30, 2015, the league announced "Color Rush": four Thursday night games where all eight teams wore specially designed alternate uniforms. The first was the Jets at the Bills on November 12, 2015, Wikipedia's Color Rush history notes.
Buffalo wore all red. New York wore all green. Buffalo won 22-17, but the bigger story was the TV broadcast. For red-green colorblind viewers, the two teams looked almost identical. The next day the NFL said "the standard television test did not account for color blindness," and promised to add a colorblindness check, CBS Sports reported. About 8 percent of men have red-green colorblindness, per the National Eye Institute figure CBS cited.
Bills red alternate
Jets green
Today's Bills red and Jets green. Both teams have changed their uniforms since 2015, and the problem hasn't gone anywhere.
When Nike and the NFL rolled out Color Rush sets for all 32 teams in 2016, the league changed course. It avoided red-green, brown-purple and yellow-bright green matchups and put one team in white for those games. Several teams wore white Color Rush sets anyway, including the Cowboys, Packers and Giants. In April 2018, the league ended Color Rush as a Thursday night promotion under the new TV deal with Fox, Sports Illustrated reported. Teams kept the uniforms as alternates, and some still wear them.
This one should look familiar: the Bills have scheduled their red alternate for the Week 18 home game against the Jets. Under today's rule, New York will be in white. Under our what-if, it's November 2015 all over again. Bills 2026 uniform schedule · Jets
Where Color vs. Color Already Works
College football has a stricter rule than the NFL. NCAA Rule 1-4-5(b) says the visiting team wears white. Both teams can wear color only if the home team agrees in writing before the game and the home team's conference certifies that the visitor's jersey contrasts, per the NCAA rule as posted by the San Diego County Football Officials Association. That's why it feels like an event when it happens. Alabama and Tennessee agreed to wear their home crimson and orange for the Third Saturday in October in 2026 and 2027, the first color vs. color meeting in the rivalry since 1970. We covered it in Alabama vs. Tennessee in crimson and orange.
The NBA does it every week. The league dropped home and road uniforms when Nike took over in 2017-18, CBS Sports reported, and the home team picks first. We went through the problems that creates in what if the NBA banned white jerseys at home.
The NHL went the other way. Home teams have worn dark sweaters and visitors white since 2003-04, a change tied to the rise of third jerseys. Hockey never seriously considered color vs. color. White on the road is the whole system.
The Matchups That Would Look Great
Here's the thing Color Rush got wrong. What makes two jerseys easy to tell apart isn't how different the colors are. It's how different they are in lightness. A light jersey against a dark jersey reads on any TV, in any light and for colorblind viewers. Two dark jerseys look alike, even in completely different colors. That's our design take, and it decides every matchup below.
Broncos orange vs. Seahawks royal blue. This one already happened. On October 15 in Denver, the Broncos wore their orange throwback under the royal blue "D" helmet and Seattle wore its royal blue throwback with silver pants. Bright orange against a strong royal blue: you could tell who was who from the cheap seats. Denver won 17-14 in overtime, and it's in our NFL uniform tracker. Broncos · Seahawks
Broncos orange throwback
Seahawks royal throwback
Chargers powder blue vs. Chiefs red. The best color vs. color matchup the NFL could schedule, and it's a division game, so it would happen twice a year. Powder blue is the lightest home jersey in the league, and Kansas City's red is a strong, dark color. Light against dark, two different colors, no confusion. Chargers · Chiefs
Chargers powder blue
Chiefs red
Titans light blue vs. Texans navy. Tennessee went back to a lighter blue this season, and it fixes the AFC South. Light blue against Houston's navy is the same color family but far apart in lightness, which is exactly why it works. Titans · Texans
Titans light blue
Texans navy
The pattern: every great color vs. color game has one team in a light jersey. Only a handful of teams wear one as their main home jersey: the Chargers' powder blue, the Titans' light blue, the Broncos' orange and the Dolphins' aqua. Most of the league is dark.
The Matchups That Would Be Impossible
We looked at every team's main home jersey, division by division. All eight divisions have at least one rivalry that can't be played color vs. color. These are division games, so each one happens twice a season.
Navy vs. navy. This Monday night, November 2, the Bears play at Seattle, and the Seahawks have confirmed their college navy jersey. Chicago's home jersey is also navy. Under today's rule, the Bears wear white. Under ours, it's two navy jerseys under the lights. The Patriots are a third navy team, and the Seahawks opened the season at home against them. Bears · Seahawks · Patriots
Bears navy
Seahawks navy
Patriots navy
Blue vs. blue. Two more division pairs have the same problem in a different shade: the Bills' royal against the Patriots' navy in the AFC East, and the Rams' royal against the Seahawks' navy in the NFC West. Bills · Rams
Red vs. red. The NFC South and NFC West each have one. Atlanta made red its home jersey again this year, and Tampa Bay's home jersey is red. In the West, the 49ers' scarlet and the Cardinals' cardinal red are close enough to blur on a phone screen. Falcons · Buccaneers · 49ers · Cardinals
Falcons red
Buccaneers red
49ers scarlet
Cardinals red
Four red home jerseys, two division rivalries.
Black vs. black. The Steelers and Bengals both wear black at home, and they play twice a year. So do the Panthers and Saints. The NFC South is the worst division for this idea: red vs. red and black vs. black, four rivalry games a season. Steelers · Bengals · Panthers · Saints
Steelers black
Bengals black
Panthers black
Saints black
Four black home jerseys, two more division rivalries.
The pairs the NFL already ruled out. In 2016 the league kept red-green and brown-purple matchups out of Color Rush. Two division rivalries fall right into those: the Eagles' midnight green against the Commanders' burgundy in the NFC East, and the Browns' brown against the Ravens' purple in the AFC North. Both are dark against dark, too. Eagles · Commanders · Browns · Ravens
Eagles green
Commanders burgundy
Browns brown
Ravens purple
The Cowboys lose the most. Dallas is the only team that wears white at home as a rule: eight white home games this year. Ban white and the Cowboys wear navy at AT&T Stadium every week, and their NFC East games against the Giants' royal blue turn into blue vs. blue. Of all 32 teams, Dallas would change the most. Cowboys · Giants
Cowboys white: gone
Cowboys navy: every week
Our Verdict
Color vs. color every week would be a mistake. Too many teams wear dark jerseys. Fourteen teams wear a navy, black or red jersey at home, all of them dark, and too many of them share a division. This idea doesn't fail in a few odd games. It fails in rivalry games, twice a year, in all eight divisions. And Color Rush already showed what happens when the league ignores colorblind viewers.
But the NFL is way too scared of it. The rule already says both teams can wear color if the contrast is good enough. The league almost never uses it. When it does, you get Broncos-Seahawks: the best-looking game of the season.
So here's the rule we'd write. Every team gets two color vs. color games a season, picked from a list the league approves before the schedule comes out. One team has to be in a light jersey. No red against green, no brown against purple, no two dark jerseys. Chargers-Chiefs is on the list. So is Titans-Texans. Bears-Seahawks is not, and it never will be.
We'd keep white for most games. It's what lets the Steelers play the Bengals. But a white jersey on the field every single Sunday is a waste of the best color schemes in sports.
Which color vs. color game would you want to see first?
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does one NFL team wear white?
Because the rulebook says so. Rule 5, Section 4, Article 2 lets the home team choose white or its official color, and the visiting team must wear the opposite. Most home teams choose color, so the visitors usually end up in white.
Can both NFL teams wear colored jerseys?
Yes, but only with the league's approval. The same rule allows both teams to wear non-white jerseys if the Commissioner decides the colors contrast enough. It's rare: a December 2025 Falcons-Buccaneers game was only the third color vs. color game since the start of the 2021 season that didn't involve a Color Rush uniform.
Who decides which jersey the home team wears in the NFL?
The home team. It picks white or color for each home game, and the visiting team wears the opposite. We explained the whole process in who decides which uniforms teams wear each game.
What was Color Rush in the NFL?
A Nike and NFL alternate uniform program for Thursday Night Football. It started with four games in 2015, expanded to all 32 teams in 2016 and ended as a Thursday night promotion in 2018. Teams were allowed to keep the uniforms as alternates.
What happened in the Bills vs. Jets Color Rush game?
On November 12, 2015, the Bills wore all red and the Jets wore all green. Buffalo won 22-17, but red-green colorblind viewers struggled to tell the teams apart. The NFL said its TV test hadn't accounted for colorblindness and that it would add one.
Why did the NFL stop Color Rush?
The league announced in April 2018 that Color Rush would end as a Thursday night promotion under the new broadcast deal with Fox. Fox's Bill Wanger said the uniforms were going away, Sports Illustrated reported. Many teams still wear their Color Rush sets as alternates.
When did NFL home teams start wearing color?
In 1957, the NFL required home teams to wear dark jerseys and road teams white. In 1964 the league let home teams choose white, which is why the Cowboys can still wear white at home.
Which NFL team wears white at home the most?
The Dallas Cowboys, with eight white home games in 2026. Miami has six and Tampa Bay five. Sixteen teams have no white home game in 2026. Full list: which NFL teams wear white at home.
Do college football teams wear color vs. color?
Sometimes. NCAA rules put the visiting team in white. Both teams can wear color only if the home team agrees in writing and its conference certifies the jerseys contrast. Alabama and Tennessee agreed to do it for the Third Saturday in October in 2026 and 2027.
Has the NFL proposed banning white jerseys?
No. This story is a hypothetical. The NFL has not proposed color vs. color games every week, and no team has asked for it.
Rule text from the 2026 NFL Rulebook. Color Rush history via CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated and Wikipedia. College rule via the NCAA rule book. 2026 jerseys and dates are from our team uniform schedules and NFL uniform tracker; "main home jersey" means the jersey each team wears at home most often in 2026. Jersey images are from our NFL uniform tracker.
