Three weeks may be a small sample size — but so far this season, teams that have worn their white jerseys at home are a dazzling 9-2 (all other home teams are a mediocre 19-17 — and the two losers therein are both 0-3: the Dolphins and the Texans, both of whom lost while wearing white at home in Week 2).
And teams are noticing this trend: In Week 2, the Colts, who had not worn their white jerseys at home since 1981 (against Dallas, as if you didn't know), upset the Broncos 29-28 due to a "leverage foul" on the game's final play; and yesterday, the Eagles and the 49ers, who have not worn white at home in quite some time, both did so — and both won; the Packers also wore white at home against the Commanders in Week 2 — and won 28-19 (in recent years, Green Bay has worn white at home in the first one home game, and sometimes the first two).
In both the NBA and the NHL, white at home was de rigeur from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s, when both leagues had their teams switch to dark jerseys for their home teams.
But if this trend holds, will we see more NFL teams opting to wear their white jerseys at home?
There are multiple advantages to wearing white at home: first, it is cooler, especially for teams that play in hot climates (which is why Miami and Tampa Bay do it frequently, especially early in the season); and second, it creates a visual contrast between the jersey color and the color of the natural grass or artificial turf, which can lead to higher completion percentages.
In some of the most important games in NFL history, the home team has chosen to wear their white jerseys.
For example, in the 1978 NFC championship game, the Rams went out of their way to wear their white jerseys at home, forcing the Cowboys to wear their blue jerseys. But that didn't work out at all as Dallas won 28-0 — leaving Los Angeles head coach Ray Malavasi in anything but a gracious mood, saying after the game that "I hope Pittsburgh beats them" (and he got his wish, as Dallas lost 35-31 to the Steelers in Super Bowl XIII).
Two years later, however, the Eagles made the Cowboys wear their blue jerseys in the NFC title game — and the result was a 20-7 Philadelphia victory in which the kickoff-time temperature was 12 degrees, with a wind chill of 3 below zero.
And in Super Bowl LII, the Patriots chose to wear their white jerseys because teams doing so had been 12-2 in the last 14 Super Bowls. But that backfired on them as New England lost to the Eagles, 41-33.
In the early 1970s, most NFL teams wore their white jerseys at home — and no one complained about it (the Cowboys had to wear their blue jerseys in Super Bowl V, where they lost to the then-Baltimore Colts in what is widely regarded as the worst Super Bowl ever played; in those days, in odd-numbered Super Bowls, the NFL/NFC champions wore their dark uniforms while the AFL/AFC champions wore their white uniforms; in even-numbered Super Bowls, the situation was the reverse).
Maybe the NFL should require all teams to wear white at home — as the NBA and NHL once did.
If it means that home teams will win more often, it will foster the "competitive balance" that the league claims to crave.
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