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Away colours

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Away colours

Away colours or road colours (also commonly known as away kits in British English, or away uniforms or road uniforms in American English) are a choice of coloured clothing used in team sports. They are required to be worn by one team during a game between teams that would otherwise wear the same colours as each other, or similar colours. This change prevents confusion for officials, players, and spectators. In most sports, it is the visiting or road team that must change.

In many sports leagues and competitions, a team wears its away kit only when its primary kit would clash with the colours of the home team, while other sports leagues and competitions may mandate that away teams must always wear an alternative kit regardless of a potential colour clash. The latter is common in North American sports, where "colour vs. colour" games (e.g., blue uniforms vs. red uniforms) are a rarity, having been discouraged in the era of black-and-white television. Almost all road uniforms are white in gridiron football (including in the Canadian Football League, the National Football League and NCAA football) and the National Hockey League, while in baseball, visitors typically wear grey. In the National Basketball Association and NCAA basketball, home uniforms are white or yellow, and visiting teams wear the darker colour.

Home teams in some leagues and competitions may also have the option to wear away colours at certain home games, and the away team then has to wear the opposite (if applicable). At some clubs, the away kit has become more popular than the home version. Replica home and away kits are usually available for fans to buy. Some teams also have produced third-choice kits, or even old-fashioned throwback uniforms.

In many sports, the colour contrast is only required for the upper body garment, and thus a team's home and away kit may both have the same coloured pants or shorts. It has traditionally been the opposite in Australian rules football where the home team wears dark shorts and the away team wears white shorts.

In the National Football League (NFL), most teams often wear their "official team colour" at home, with the road team being assigned to wear white in most cases. White road uniforms gained prominence with the rise of television in the 1950s. A "white vs. colour" game was easier to follow in the black-and-white television era. According to Phil Hecken of uni-watch.com, "colour vs. colour" games were actually the norm until the mid-1950s. Even long after the advent of colour television, the use of white jerseys has remained in almost every game.

The NFL's current rules require that a team's home uniforms must be "either white or official team colour" throughout the season, "and visiting clubs must wear the opposite". If a team insists on wearing its home uniforms on the road, the NFL Commissioner must judge on whether their uniforms are "of sufficient contrast" with those of their opponents. The road team may instead wear a third jersey, such as the Seattle Seahawks' "Wolf Grey" alternate.

The Cleveland Browns wore white for every home game of the 1955 season. The only times they wore brown were for games at Philadelphia and New York, when the Eagles and Giants chose to wear white.

In 1964, the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams wore white regularly for their home games. The St. Louis Cardinals also wore white for several of their home games. While most teams switched back to their coloured uniforms the next year, the Rams and Browns still regularly wore white until the 1970s, with the Browns even continung it until their temporary deactivation in 1996. Since returning in 1999, the Browns have on occasion worn white at home during the regular season, but for the most part have relegated it to the preseason while wearing brown jerseys for the regular season.

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