Nike and the NFL yesterday unveiled Color Rush uniforms for all 32 clubs, with designs featuring a monochromatic look meant to highlight each club's distinctive identity. The uniforms will be worn for Thursday night games, and 100% of the NFL's proceeds from the sale of Color Rush jerseys will go directly to the NFL Foundation to fund youth health, safety and wellness programs. The first $500,000 raised from this initiative will be earmarked to replace youth and high school football equipment and fields lost in last month's floods in Louisiana (NFL). In Newark, Darryl Slater noted the NFL "consulted a color-blindness expert at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital" who then "enlisted the help of two colleagues" in response to last year's Bills-Jets Color Rush game. In that game, color-blind viewers "couldn't tell the Jets and Bills apart." So the NFL "sent the experts the color combinations for all 15 of its Color Rush games this season," who then "found three problematic games." In addition to Jets-Bills tomorrow, the Rams (all yellow) and Seahawks (all green) "was an issue." So was the Browns (all brown) and Ravens (all purple). In those games, as with Jets-Bills, the "visiting teams (Rams and Browns) will wear all white." NFL Media Group VP/Communications Alex Riethmiller said, "We wanted to take every precaution, heading into this season, to make sure that didn't happen again." Slater noted Bills-Jets was the league's "first Color Rush uniform game" last season. To prevent issues for color-blind viewers, Riethmiller said that the Jets will "wear all-white uniforms, while the Bills will wear those same all-red outfits from last year" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 9/13).
ON THE SIDELINES: ESPN.com's Darren Rovell noted the Bengals, Cowboys, Packers, Saints, Giants and Raiders "chose all white for their Color Rush uniforms." Meanwhile, the Colts, Redskins and Lions "won't wear the Color Rush jerseys on the field because Thanksgiving games aren't part of the Color Rush program this season." But Nike "will still sell the full color jerseys for all teams at retail" (ESPN.com, 9/13). USA TODAY's A.J. Perez noted the "most gaudy of the designs won’t be seen by a national television audience" since the Redskins "aren’t scheduled to play a Thursday night game this season." The Redskins’ Color Rush design "features yellow from the shoulder pads on down" (USATODAY.com, 9/13).
LOCAL FLAVORS: In West Palm Beach, Ryan DiPentima wrote the Dolphins’ bright orange uniforms are "far from the flashiest or brightest of the bunch." Several teams "like the Seahawks (fluorescent green), Vikings (purple), Rams (yellow) and Titans (blue) take the cake in those categories" (PALMBEACHPOST.com, 9/13). In Seattle, Bob Condotta wrote the Seahawks' uniforms are "interesting, and sure to cause lots of people to try to adjust their TV sets" (SEATTLETIMES.com, 9/13). Titans TE Delanie Walker said, "We look like the smurfs" (ESPN.com, 9/13). The Colorado Springs Gazette's Woody Paige said, "Nothing says Christmas like the Pittsburgh Steelers in all black" ("Around The Horn," ESPN, 9/13). On Long Island, Tom Rock writes while the rest of the league "looks like futuristic monochromatic aliens, the Giants somehow managed to go with a classic throwback look." Their "all-white getups with red and blue numbers and trim are decidedly reminiscent of the 1980s teams that won a pair of Super Bowls" (NEWSDAY, 9/14). In Oakland, Jimmy Durkin wrote the Raiders' look "has a bit of a throwback feel to it with the uniforms resembling their former AFL uniforms that they wore for a game back" in '09 to "celebrate the 50th anniversary of the AFL" (EASTBAYTIMES.com, 9/13).
CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF OF YOU: USA TODAY's Nancy Armour notes the Color Rush uniform campaign is "just more marketing savvy from the NFL." Thursday night games already are the "NFL equivalent of a Petri dish," as the games "typically aren’t very good." However, America has "proven time and again that it will watch anything having to do with the NFL ... so the league can afford to take some risks with Thursday night games and see if any pay off." While older fans "might not see the appeal of the Jaguars looking like human highlighters or [Titans QB] Marcus Mariota doing his best imitation of a Smurf, younger fans do." Armour: "It’s those younger fans who are out in droves watching Thursday Night Football" (USA TODAY, 9/14). SNY’s Jon Hein said, “They should just wear their regular uniforms. I’m not watching the game to see what color the uniforms are.” SNY's Chris Carlin replied, “I don’t love the possibility of your future in marketing if this doesn’t work out, because that’s what this is about -- to get us all to buy more jerseys” (“Loud Mouths,” SNY, 9/13).
IT'S IN THE GAME: EA Sports released images showing that there "will be an update going out to add all" the Color Rush uniforms to "Madden NFL 17." No date "has been announced for when the uniforms will make it into the game" (SPORTSINGNEWS.com, 9/14).
