Incarnadine - in Sports

In Sports

The first known team sport to feature red uniforms was chariot racing during the late Roman Empire. The earliest races were between two chariots, one driver wearing red, the other white. Later, the number of teams was increased to four, including drivers in light green and sky blue. Twenty-five races were run in a day, with a total of one hundred chariots participating.

Today sports teams throughout the world wear red on their uniforms. Numerous national sports teams wear red, often through association with their national flags. These include teams from Spain (with their association football national team nicknamed La Furia Roja or "The Red Fury"), Belgium (whose football team bears the nickname Rode Duivels or "Red Devils"), other examples being teams from England, Wales, Canada, Denmark, Tonga, Chile, Puerto Rico, Russia and Switzerland.

Major League Baseball is especially well known for red teams. The Cincinnati Red Stockings are the oldest professional baseball team, dating back to 1869. The franchise soon relocated to Boston and is now the Atlanta Braves, but its name survives as the origin for both the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox. During the 1950s when red was strongly associated with communism, the modern Cincinnati team was known as the "Redlegs" and the term was used on baseball cards. After the red scare faded, the team was known as the "Reds" again. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are also known for their color red, as are the St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Philadelphia Phillies.

In the NHL, red jerseys are worn by the Detroit Red Wings, Washington Capitals, Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Phoenix Coyotes, and the New Jersey Devils.

In association football, teams such as Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Arsenal, Toronto FC, and S.L. Benfica primarily wear red jerseys. Other teams that prominently feature red on their kits include AC Milan (nicknamed i rossoneri for their red and black shirts), AFC Ajax, Olympiacos, River Plate, Atletico Madrid, and Flamengo. A red penalty card is issued to a player who commits a serious infraction: the player is immediately disqualified from further play and his team must continue with one less player for the game's duration.

In rugby union, Ireland's Munster rugby, New Zealand's Canterbury provincial team and the Crusaders Super 14 rugby side wear red as a major color in their playing strips.

In the NFL, teams with a shade of the color red as the primary color of either the team's dark "home" jersey (or an alternate thereof) or its "throwback" jersey include the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Washington Redskins.

The Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team uses a deeper shade of red called wine. A fellow National Basketball Association team, the Los Angeles Clippers, wears red uniforms for road games, as do the Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets and the Houston Comets of the WNBA. A similar shade to the Cavaliers' tone (known in this instance as claret) is used by the English association football teams Aston Villa, West Ham United, and Burnley.

In boxing, red is often the color used on a fighter's gloves. George Foreman wore the same red trunks he used during his loss to Muhammad Ali when he defeated Michael Moorer 20 years later to recuperate the title he lost. Boxers named or nicknamed "red" include Red Burman, Ernie "Red" Lopez, and his brother Danny "Little Red" Lopez.

Rosso Corsa is the red international motor racing color of cars entered by teams from Italy. Since the 1920s Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, and later Ferrari and Abarth have been painted with a color known as rosso corsa ("racing red"). National colors were mostly replaced in Formula One by commercial sponsor liveries in 1968, but unlike most other teams, Ferrari always kept the traditional red, although the shade of the color varies.

• Ancient Roman mosaic of the winner of a chariot race, wearing the colors of the red team.

• Both the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox wear red.

• In martial arts, a red belt shows a high degree of proficiency, second only, in some schools, to the black belt.

• An Alfa Romeo Grand Prix car in 1977, painted Rosso Corsa, ("racing red"), the traditional racing color of Italy from the 1920s until the late 1960s.