Flag of a Different Color

Discover the captivating story behind the football penalty flag! Learn how this essential piece of football equipment evolved, changing its color to the familiar yellow for better visibility on the field. Explore its impact on penalty history and its crucial role in ensuring fair play in the game we love.

The "Flag of a Different Color," now a standard piece of football equipment, has an interesting penalty history. Initially white, the penalty flag was changed to yellow to enhance its visibility against the green playing surface. This seemingly minor alteration significantly improved officiating and communication during game play, contributing to a clearer understanding of penalties.

April 15, 1965 - The NFL changed its official penalty flag from white to bright gold. There were a few reasons that this change occurred. The first was that most officials wore white hats back then. These hats were used as a tool to mark spots of fumbles, out of bounds, etc With the advent of television broadcasts of games becoming more and more common, spotters in the stands would have an easier time discerning between a marker of a spot and that of a foul. A recent article on

ProFootballTalk.NBCSports.com tells us that a second reason was that sometimes littered paper from the stands, mostly white, was often confused with penalty flags. I would imagine that games played on a snowy day would also be an impairment using the color white.  The American Football Database shares that the idea for the penalty flag came from Youngstown State coach Dwight Beede and was first used in a game against Oklahoma City University on October 17, 1941. Before using flags, officials used horns and whistles to signal a penalty. Official adoption of the use of the flag occurred at the 1948 American Football Coaches rules session.

The National Football League first used flags on September 17, 1948 when the Green Bay Packers played the Boston Yanks. The college game used red colored flags until the 1970’s and the striped rules enforcers in Canada carry an orange flag.

As for the hat being used for spots… this practice has lessened in the past four decades with the use of bean bags that vary in color from white, to black and most commonly blue.