Sandy Wood
Lunchtime Quiz: Pro Pigskin Pigments
by Sandy Wood - August 18, 2010 - 11:30 AM

click to take the quiz!

I know the NFL, and my wife Kara knows colors, so she rarely watches ESPN, and I don’t dig HGTV. But we put our heads together for today’s quiz by researching the official names of the colors used by NFL teams. Here’s some of what we discovered:

  • Some shade of “white” is a color of each of the league’s 32 teams. So Oakland’s “Silver & Black” is actually “Silver, Black, and White.”
  • The yellow shades used by Green Bay and Pittsburgh aren’t officially yellow, but “Gold.”
  • Only two teams have a two-color scheme; the Colts (“Speed Blue” & “White”) and the Jets (“Hunter Green” & “White”). Every other team uses a three-, four-, or five-color combination.
  • Only two teams include “Purple” in their colors; the Vikings and the Ravens.
  • No current NFL team uses a plain “Blue” color – every one has a name, like the Detroit Lions’ “Honolulu Blue.”
  • The orange shade used by the Miami Dolphins is officially “Coral.”
  • The league’s newest team, the Houston Texans, is the only franchise to have special names each of their colors; “Liberty White,” “Battle Red,” and “Deep Steel Blue.”

For the quiz, we’ve taken 10 colors that are unique to their teams and given you the opportunity to match them up. Some are secondary colors (which will make the quiz tricky) so we’ll consider any score better than 50% to be a “win.” Good luck!

Take the Quiz: Pro Pigskin Pigments

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Comments (9)

  1. The Carolina Panthers also wear teal

    posted by steve on 8-18-2010 at 11:43 am

  2. Steve, I’d agree with you, but they call it “Panther Blue.”

    posted by Sandy Wood on 8-18-2010 at 12:35 pm

  3. W00T! 100%! Fun little quiz, but I will say that the Colts in the last few years changed from Royal Blue to Speed Blue, which is a darker shade.

    To Steve, Carolina’s blue in their uniforms is officially “Panther Blue”, instead of teal. A little more bluish than true teal.

    I am such a nerd for knowing this.

    SANDY’S NOTE: You’re right, Jason, and while it didn’t affect the quiz, I’ve updated the intro text to reflect that Colts color change. Thanks for the heads-up!

    posted by Jason on 8-18-2010 at 12:39 pm

  4. 100%. Knew most but had to guess on couple

    posted by Chris on 8-18-2010 at 12:43 pm

  5. What about a score of exactly 50%? Was that a near-win? :-)

    posted by JD on 8-18-2010 at 1:04 pm

  6. Unfortunately, Honolulu Blue of the Detroit Lions did not make the list.

    posted by Curry on 8-18-2010 at 3:09 pm

  7. I got 6/10. The 4 I missed were all literally shades of gray.

    posted by Zach on 8-18-2010 at 11:22 pm

  8. The Panthers do not wear teal. Teal is more greenish than blue. The Jaguars color is closer to teal.

    posted by bdmoss on 8-19-2010 at 8:27 am

  9. You’re right about the blue. It seems that no one ever wants to call their team’s blue a simple “blue”. My high school’s colors were “Navy” and “Carolina Blue”. Carolina blue is really pretty much a light blue or teal blue similar to the Carolina Panthers.

    posted by Red Bunny on 8-19-2010 at 10:42 am

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