Were you confused on just about every single penalty call during the NFL games this weekend? If so, you weren't alone. Because the NFL decided to use pink penalty flags in addition to pink uniform accessories, pink hats, and other pink equipment in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, just about everyone was confused all weekend long. The pink flags were incredibly difficult to see during the games, and it was hard to tell when penalties were being called as opposed to when someone had simply dropped their pink towel on the field.
There's some good news, though. While the league won't do away with most of their pink items next week—which is most definitely a good thing, considering the cause—they will do away with the pink penalty flags and go back to using yellow penalty flags from now on. That should make it easy for everyone to easily identify penalties during games.
The pink flags, which were put into use this season after an 11-year-old fan made the suggestion to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell last year, were a good idea in theory. But in practice, they just didn't work out. So kudos to the NFL for recognizing it and addressing it before it became a bigger issue than it needed to be.
[via USA Today]
