NFL Color Rush
The NFL Color Rush was a promotion done in conjunction with the National Football League and Nike that promotes so-called "color vs. color" matchups with teams in matchup-specific uniforms that are primarily one solid color with alternating colored accents, primarily airing on Thursday Night Football. Despite being promoted as color vs. color, some games had one team wearing traditional white uniforms, either by choice or out of necessity. The uniforms did not count against each team with regard to their allowed alternate uniform allotment. The games received mixed responses from fans, with some praising the NFL for changing up their games in terms of uniforms, while others criticized the promotion for some of its garish uniforms. The promotion was officially discontinued for the 2018 season, but many teams continue to wear the Color Rush uniforms and promote them heavily, notably the Cleveland Browns, Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers.
History of color vs. color matchups
Early years
In the early days of the NFL through World War II, it was common to see teams wearing their team colored uniforms against each other. Many teams would almost always wear a primary colored jersey, only switching to a second jersey as a visitor when the home team's uniform color is similar. Following the arrival of the rival All-America Football Conference where each team had both a team colored jersey and a white jersey, NFL teams began adding a white jersey as a neutral color to avoid color clashes. Again, this was only used if teams such as the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers played each other and had similar jersey colors. NFL teams were not required to add a white jersey.It would not be the AAFC that would change the status quo, but the mainstream adoption of television. Due to the technical limitations of TV, programming could only be broadcast in black and white, making it hard for fans to tell their teams apart. Out of necessity, starting with the 1957 NFL season, all teams were required to have both a team colored jersey and a white jersey, with the team colored jerseys being worn at home and white jerseys being worn at away games. This caused teams such as the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Los Angeles Rams to add a contrasting white jersey. In the Rams' case, it also forced the team to drop their gold jersey, as it was considered "too light" to wear against teams wearing white jerseys, replaced by blue jerseys. Other teams, such as the Cleveland Browns, that had worn white as their primary home uniform were also no longer allowed to wear those jerseys at home.
In, the league allowed the home team to decide which jersey could be worn at home, which prompted many teams to wear their white jerseys at home so that fans could see the colors of the visiting team. With blackout policies not allowing the home games to be aired in home markets until 1973, this also meant that fans not attending games in person at times only saw the team's darker colored uniform on TV, which depending on the television they were watching may still be in black and white. Despite this rule change and the widespread adoption of color television by the end of the 1960s, the color/white rule generally remains in effect for the NFL even as college football relaxed its jersey rules in 2009.
Leaguewide promotions
The NFL began to allow exceptions as part of leaguewide promotions, beginning with the league's 75th Anniversary season in 1994. For the first time, the NFL allowed teams to wear throwback uniforms and in some cases allowed color vs. color as long as the colors did not clash with each other.Color vs. color matchups would continue for a time in the early 2000s, mostly on Thanksgiving games. In 2002, the league allowed alternate uniforms with some jerseys being allowed to be worn against a colored jersey if it was light enough. Examples included gray jerseys worn by the New England Patriots in the 2000s and the Seattle Seahawks in the 2010s and early 2020s, as well as a one-off gold alternate by the New Orleans Saints that was worn against the Minnesota Vikings in 2002.
In, the NFL celebrated what would have been the 50th season of the American Football League by allowing each of the original eight AFL teams to wear AFL-era throwback uniforms. One of those teams, the Kansas City Chiefs, was granted special permission by the NFL to allow the visiting Dallas Cowboys to wear their early 1960s throwbacks against the Chiefs in "The Game that Never Was".
Launching the Color Rush
Initial rollout
For, Nike replaced Reebok as the league's uniform supplier. As Nike had been the longtime supplier of the Oregon Ducks football team and used the Ducks as the team to start the trend of college football teams radically changing their uniforms on a regular basis, some had speculated that the NFL was about to follow college football's path, or at the very least one team becoming the "Oregon of the NFL". The Seattle Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Detroit Lions, Tennessee Titans, New York Jets, Atlanta Falcons, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals, Washington Commanders, Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos, and Houston Texans are the teams that have completely redesigned their uniform since Nike took over. The Browns, Jaguars, Buccaneers, Lions, Jets, and Commanders have gone through multiple iterations of redesigned uniforms during this period, but none of them became the "Oregon of the NFL", with the Browns, Dolphins, Vikings, and Patriots opting for more traditional styles. This was further subdued in 2013 when the NFL banned alternate helmets out of fears of concussions. In June 2021, the NFL repealed that ruling, allowing teams to wear alternate helmets starting in 2022.During the Packers' annual shareholder meeting in 2015, the team nonchalantly mentioned that color vs. color matchups would be allowed as an option during Thursday Night Football contests in, while becoming mandatory in 2016. Initially, this belief thought teams would be allowed to wear their normal uniforms against each other or even their alternates. However, on October 30, 2015, the NFL announced the initial "Color Rush," a series of four Thursday contests in which all eight teams will wear specially designed alternate uniforms.
Trial run
The initial rollout featured the Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans wearing their regular alternate uniforms, while the Dallas Cowboys revived their white "Double Star" uniforms from the mid-1990s and the then-St. Louis Rams wore a yellow version of their 1973–99 throwbacks for the games. The other four teams involved wore all-new uniforms for the games:- The Buffalo Bills debuted all-red uniforms for the first time in team history, with red, white and blue shoulder stripes and blue-white-blue pants stripes.
- The Jacksonville Jaguars wore all-gold uniforms, after an accent color on their uniforms.
- The New York Jets, who wore Kelly green from 1963 to 1997, wore their current uniforms in the Kelly green color scheme, with their normally white sleeves also green and the middle shoulder stripe being the team's current shade of hunter green.
- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers wore an all-red ensemble.
Full rollout
On September 13, 2016, the NFL and Nike unveiled the Color Rush uniforms for all 32 teams. The eight teams that participated in the Color Rush the year before continued their uniforms while the Steelers had already announced theirs. For 2016, the Jets, Browns, and Rams donned their regular white uniforms, while the Cardinals, Falcons, and Texans will also wore their regular white uniforms as they were the away team and their opponents wore similar colored uniforms. The Lions, Colts, and Redskins did not wear their Color Rush uniforms for 2016 due to Thanksgiving games being exempt and none of the three teams having other Thursday night games. The 2017 season also featured at least one team, the Buffalo Bills, wearing their Color Rush uniform on a Sunday afternoon game. The 2017 Pro Bowl also features the two conference all-star teams in solid red and blue colors respectively.
Discontinuation
On April 10, 2018, the league announced that Color Rush promotion would be discontinued under the terms of the new Thursday Night Football broadcast contract. Teams were allowed to continue to use their existing Color Rush uniforms as alternate jerseys. Some teams continued to wear their Color Rush uniforms during Thursday nights, and the Browns, who were the last team to have worn their Color Rush uniform debuted theirs on September 20, 2018. The Browns also debuted end zones painted with the stripe pattern found on their Color Rush jersey. Positive fan reception for the new uniforms was so strong that the Browns later switched the Color Rush design to be their primary home jersey, which it remained through 2019.Although the program has discontinued, the Color Rush term is still used by some teams as a name for alternate uniform designs.