![Screen Shot 2015-11-12 at 11.01.32 PM](https://uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/screen-shot-2015-11-12-at-11-01-32-pm.jpg?quality=80)
For Thursday night’s Bills-Jets game, the NFL decided to use special, monochrome uniforms for each team, decking them out like a pair of enemy laser tag teams. The Jets were in solid green tops and bottoms with white trim, and the Bills wore all red.
Initial reviews were, shall we say…not great?
@TheCauldron @cjzero pic.twitter.com/4ND9g36bgR
— nick (@nick_pants) November 13, 2015
Don't go to your next rave without your NFL Glowsticks pic.twitter.com/EeZyIGEw1F
— Dave Rappoccio (@DrawPlayDave) November 13, 2015
I would just be happier if the Bills uniforms has a snowflake or a tree on them. Something to celebrate the holiday.
— Jane McManus (@janesports) November 13, 2015
But some people liked them! Some people also realized they were probably wrong to like them, too.
These unis are sick. #Swaggy
— Odell Beckham Jr (@obj) November 13, 2015
https://twitter.com/RBWTrent/status/664997798316630016
But the biggest issue that the league ran into shockingly wasn’t a lack of Christmas symbolism or accusations of outright greed for selling yet another jersey. It was the fact that a large segment of the population can’t easily tell which teams are which.
If you are colorblind like me this @NFL game is going to be hard to follow. @buffalobills vs @nyjets
— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) November 13, 2015
Yes, that’s right, red-green color blindness is the most common type of vision deficiency, affecting just under 10% of all males and a much smaller segment of females. That means there’s a sizable amount of the population that couldn’t easily tell the difference between the Bills and the Jets while they watched the game. That is not good.
https://twitter.com/iamjoonlee/status/664994441078378496
If you’re curious about other examples of color blindness, you can test yourself and see how big a deal simply telling the difference between two colors can be.
Of course, another complication making things more difficult for color-blind viewers is the fact that both teams played like garbage, making it even harder to tell who was who.
https://twitter.com/BobbyBigWheel/status/664991844145700866
Here’s hoping the next attempt goes a bit better, NFL.