Writing for the Seattle Times’ Take 2, Seahawks season-ticket holder Nathan Shimizu is displeased with the NFL’s recent advent of “color-rush jerseys”, complaining that said same-color jersey & pants scheme makes it impossible for color-blind persons like himself to follow the game.
Last Thursday, I sat down to watch the game between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. During the pregame show they showed the debut of the new jerseys. Buffalo was wearing solid red with white helmets, and the Jets solid green with white helmets. I thought nothing of it at first, other than it was unusual for Buffalo to be in all red.
As the Jets returned the kick and were chased by the Bills, I couldn’t tell who was on which team. From a distance, all of the jerseys with white helmets looked the same. I could tell the difference if the camera zoomed in and isolated on a single player, but once a play started, it was all just a blur.
Every pass was an exciting surprise to see which way the player would run after catching the ball. Brandon Marshall is on my fantasy football team, making it all the more maddening. And when the quarterback scrambled, I found myself wondering why the big guy near him was not trying to tackle him. Then I realized it was one of his offensive linemen.
On Monday, the NFL issued a statement that it did not account for red-green color blindness when it tested the jerseys this summer. That’s surprising, considering that one in 12 men have a form of red-green color blindness.